eInk notepad for taking notes

November 26, 2024 3:54 AM

I am looking for recommendations for a tablet note taking device which I can use with a stylus or associated pen. Difficulty Level: I'd really like some level of Todoist integration

Reason for this ridiculous soon to be purchase is I have a relatively new boss who is convinced that note-taking on a telephone makes it look as though we are texting boyfriends. I've been keeping all my notes in Todoist for years. I have offered to show him my phone but he insists this is not the point.

He's trying to force me to move to paper, which will honestly cost me a huge amount of time to constantly switch my notes back and forth from paper to my to do list organizer.

My hope is that with a larger device which clearly looks like I am "writing" he will drop it.

I have been looking at the Boox Air C but it appears from the European site they are sold out of the "pen pro" that sells as an extra. It comes with stylus tips, but I cannot work out from the documentation if I need the pen pro. I am afraid to end up with a very expensive paperweight. So if you have any Boox experience, this is helpful too.

(Yes, my boss is a butthead. No, there is no reasoning with him and it will take me a bit to find a way out of this. I offer the backstory so nobody suggests something that works with my phone. )

Thanks!

posted by frumiousb to Computers & Internet (14 answers total)

Best answer: You do not need the pen pro! Mine came with a perfectly useable stylus, it just didn't have an "eraser" at the other end.
posted by bridgebury at 4:02 AM on November 26 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: oh, that is good to know. Thanks!
posted by frumiousb at 4:48 AM on November 26

I love my Remarkable 2 but it doesn’t speak to Todoist.

I personally have not found it too difficult to adopt a workflow where I import everything into Todoist on a cadence that makes sense. I can do so pretty easily from the remarkable browser, phone, or desktop app.

I suspect that your parameters are going to compete a bit because I think a big component of the classic e-ink features is “limit distraction and bloat” and they therefore really only offer functionality for their own proprietary environment.

Maybe check out the Kindle Scribe? I have a vague gut feeling that Amazon might be the most lenient with 3rd party plugins.
posted by seemoorglass at 4:51 AM on November 26 [1 favorite]

I have the boox note 3c for this and I love it. One thing of note is the stylus is compatible with the Samsung stylus - this is possibly true of the air as well
posted by jaymzjulian at 5:03 AM on November 26 [1 favorite]

I am a big fan of my Boox Nova Air, still holding up after 2.5 years, and I use a samsung stylus as mentioned.

Works just fine with Android apps



An idea for your boss that you didn't ask for:
"As a professional, I know what works for me.
I'm open to using a note-taking tablet instead of a phone, under the condition that I can expense it and its accessories to the business. Here's what a tablet looks like, and what it costs.
Which would you prefer I continue with?"
posted by jander03 at 5:57 AM on November 26 [8 favorites]

Just a gentle thing here. I too use onenote on my phone as an extensive note taker and after a client or 2 raised an eyebrow and I looked around the room I realized that I personally get infuriated when everyone is on their phones when I'm studiously taking note.... Oh. I see.

So I switched to using laptop for notetaking and am similarly considering an eink tablet after a few work friends switched and are enjoying it.

I liked the supernote but they have yet to release the 10" once in v2 (their smaller one v2 is released and has great reviews. I loved the feeling of writing on that one. Felt like a nice gel pen on normal paper not the ever so slightly pencil on cardboard that the others provide)

I also like the remarkable but am irritated at the small subscription to make it fully useful after it already being expensive.

I looked at the Kindle scribe but it's just not what I want, and I viewed a couple others all with serious short comings (usually latency of pen on paper or lack of connected sync features)

I would probably go with the 10" supernote if it was available so I'll either grab a used one or go with the remarkable which again, really nice and well executed, I just hate subscriptions.
posted by chasles at 6:05 AM on November 26 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Note Air or Tab/Tab Ultra, and just go to the Todoist web app? I haven't tried it personally, but the whole point of web apps for everything is in theory device agnosticism, as long as your browser is sufficiently modern, and all the modern Boox stuff runs Android and can get the Play store.

I'd personally go with a Tab Ultra C Pro with all the bells and whistles (including the keyboard case), but really any of them + Firefox should work fine. Including like a used Note off of eBay, if you're on a budget.
posted by The Master and Margarita Mix at 6:42 AM on November 26 [1 favorite]

I have the Supernote as well. I REALLY like writing on it, and generally think it's a good organizational tool for managing notes that are handwritten on the device.

I don't use Todoist myself, but it seems like it can accept emails and turn those into Todoist items? If so, then Supernote does have an email inbox, so you can set it up to say your Gmail. You can then handwrite out a note and it'll send as a picture (probably less helpful), or you can switch to the live handwriting -> text conversion input where you'll handwrite out a sentence or two, let it convert, and write out more, and let it convert. It's a bit cludgy, but it'll get you the text of your handwriting in the body of the email.

The other path is that you can use a "regular note" with handwriting to text recognition, which you can then export as txt files either through Google drive or Dropbox or email. And perhaps this is another path to get the text of what you've written on the Supernote into a format that you can more easily integrate into Todoist w/o having to type the whole thing over.

It looks like there is some ways people have "side loaded" apps to their Supernote, but it seems a bit complicated, but if you're willing to play around w/ that, you might be able to "install" Todoist directly on the Supernote and possibly [?] write directly into it maybe with the handwriting->text functionality.
posted by ellerhodes at 6:45 AM on November 26 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Yes, I too would solve this with the ToDoist Web app on either a) a laptop, which shows you typing not texting; or b) on a tablet with a stylus. I cannot praise highly enough the Blackview tablet at whatever pricepoint you want. I use one that was like $100 and I use it for everything. One of those can definitely deal with ToDoist on the cheap!
posted by DarlingBri at 6:57 AM on November 26 [1 favorite]

I have a vague gut feeling that Amazon might be the most lenient with 3rd party plugins.

Based on their tablet strategy, I'd assume the opposite.
posted by trig at 7:01 AM on November 26

Response by poster: Chasles, take your point. These are internal meetings, no clients. And laptops are in my view worse since we have blended on site meetings where we need to all be signed in to the meeting. The clicking noise of the keyboard/ perception that one is emailing seems to annoy people far worse than a phone note which was why I started using todoist on my phone in the first place. Device use for note taking is broadly accepted in my company and I have not received negative feedback so far since I am clearly listening, but it is always personal.

The web app is a good thought for Todoist on a tablet, and I should have thought of that myself. Thanks everyone!
posted by frumiousb at 8:29 AM on November 26 [3 favorites]

I got a Boox Tab Ultra C with all the accessories and I absolutely hated the workflow for getting from my handwriting to plaint text notes outside their ecosystem. Had a Remarkable 2 before, and now have an iPad, and the boox is on the shelf until I can get arsed to get rid of it.
posted by Runes at 6:12 PM on November 26

Runes, if you get a chance could you talk a bit about that? I was under the impression that boox runs Android so it's not a closed ecosystem and you can use any Android apps. Was the problem that notetaking apps with good handwriting recognition weren't well supported for eink?
posted by trig at 8:38 PM on November 26

a) it's running an older version of Android, so not everything is compatible
b) the handwriting isn't available everywhere. They have a note-taking app that you handwrite in, and then you have to convert it to text, and then you have to get that text into your target application (Todoist?).

Oh, and regarding the stylus, you're not locked into their stylus, you can use any passive EMR stylus. T
posted by Runes at 12:29 PM on November 27