Forums

I enjoyed the demo and discussion around Onenote at the Chicago conference last week.

I mentioned Evernote ([url]www.evernote.com[/url]) to a few folks including Mark and Mike. This is a similar product that works on Mac OS as well. While Apple tablets aren't common, you could use a Wacom tablet or similar with this.

Evernote (previously was a Windows-only "capture" tool to collect web pages, typed notes, images, etc. Their latest beta release is cross-platform (Windows, Mac, web, and iPhone) Your data is stored on the Evernote service, and is automatically synced between clients automatically.

It has basic handwriting recognition as well as text recognition within images, which works amazingly well!

I'm not yet using this for O3's, but thought there may be some more interest in this. I have a few beta invites, PM me if interested.

On a similar topic, I thought I'd mention Highrise ([url]http://www.highrisehq.com/[/url]) from 37signals as a great one on one tool. Highrise is intended as a CRM-like tool, but I've found it great if I enter directs as contacts. There are spaces for keeping personal information handy (great for recording kids, wives, husbands, pets, etc names and the like) as well as on ongoing diary for each contact. Finally, there is a reasonably good task list function that allows tasks to be associated with each contact. I can also keep annual goals and development plans linked within each contact.

During one-on-one's, I take paper notes in a notebook, and then transcribe the key points and action items into Highrise. Highrise has a great search function, so if I ever need a future reference, I can search there, find the date of the conversation, and then refer to my paper notes for that day.

Matt

tlhausmann's picture
Licensee BadgeTraining Badge

[quote="mattfusf"]

It has basic handwriting recognition as well as text recognition within images, which works amazingly well!
Matt[/quote]

Does Evernote also scan/index existing PDFs of handwritten documents? I have thousands of pages of scanned handwritten documents.

mattfusf's picture

[quote="tlhausmann"]

Does Evernote also scan/index existing PDFs of handwritten documents? I have thousands of pages of scanned handwritten documents.[/quote]

Hi Tom,
The current beta doesn't seem to support PDF's, but I was able to get this to work with a JPG.

Actually, one of their sample use cases (I haven't tried this yet) is to take a cameraphone picture of a whiteboard, email it into Evernote, and then have Evernote OCR the image for later reference.

Matt

tlhausmann's picture
Licensee BadgeTraining Badge

[quote="mattfusf"]

Actually, one of their sample use cases (I haven't tried this yet) is to take a cameraphone picture of a whiteboard, email it into Evernote, and then have Evernote OCR the image for later reference.

Matt[/quote]

Thanks Matt. I saw that in their video. I *have* heard rumblings about Google's efforts in OCR--I suspect targeting the book scanning effort.

Nevertheless, an OCR tool for handwritten PDF scans would be incredibly useful to me.

dbobke's picture

To be clear - there is no such animal as an Apple Tablet notebook or anything else like it. It is not that they are not common - they don't exist.

While it is true that you could purchase an external digitizing tablet pad, these are not cheap and are certainly not portable. Of course, this is not limited to Apple users - if you have a Windows notebook that does not have Tablet PC functionality, then you could buy an external tablet as well.

The demo in Chicago was done on a Tablet PC (I believe they used a Lenovo model). HP is the leader in the Tablet PC market - they have two models available now. I have been using one for more than three years now - I would never go back.

Now - a little soapboxing on Apple...While they certainly design pretty devices that are for most easy to use, they are mistakenly discussed as more secure. This is hogwash. A recent InfoWorld sponsored contest offered a laptop to anyone who could hack and Apple notebook, a Windows notebook, or a Linux notebook. The Apple was hacked in 2 minutes, exploiting a vulnerability in Safari. The Windows Vista notebook took 2 days to break into and they used a vulnerability in Adobe Reader (not even a Microsoft product). As far as I know, the Linux notebook never was compromised, but that is because there is no software for it... :P

mattfusf's picture

[quote="dbobke"]To be clear - there is no such animal as an Apple Tablet notebook or anything else like it. It is not that they are not common - they don't exist.
[/quote]

A friend just showed me the Modbook, which is in fact a "real" Mac tablet PC. Pretty cool.

http://www.axiotron.com/
--Matt

dbobke's picture

Well, I am wiping the egg off my face...

As they say on their site - "the one and only Tablet Mac". Because Apple makes it very difficult to license their OS, etc. there just aren't that many manufacturers out there willing to try to sell third-party Mac hardware. However, this might be the one area where they have a fighting chance because Apple doesn't make a competing product. I wonder what the support issues are with this?

I did notice that this is not a convertible - it is only a tablet unit. The Windows-based units that have ultimately dominated this market are convertible - meaning they look like a normal notebook and the screen pivots to convert to the tablet form.

I would be interested in hearing from people that have used one. Microsoft does not make OneNote for the Mac, so I am guessing that Axiotron has developed some sort of note-taking application. It seems more marketed at graphic designers and artists.

I stand corrected!

mattfusf's picture

I am pretty sure the company buys Macbooks, strips them apart, and turns them into tablets. So the insides are a Mac, but the outside is customized.

I hadn't heard of it until he showed me, it is certainly not mainstream (yet?)

The only special software on it was a screen-based keyboard, as you mentioned, this is a "slate" device, unlike the Lenovo and HP tablets, which have a foldaway keyboard.

Matt