Notebook Maker Partners With Neo Smartpen to Release Digital Writing Set | Life Spot Zone

Released Wednesday, the Smart Writing Set includes a smartpen, a special "Paper Tablet" notebook and free app that digitizes handwritten notes and sketches. The set retails for $199.

Moleskine launches its Smart Writing Set to digitize your brainstorm

Moleskine, makers of some of the most popular paper notebooks in the world, have teamed up with the creators of the Neo Smartpen to make it a lot easier to digitize your hand-written notes and sketches, to move them onto your mobile device, and to share them.

The Smart Writing Set, available starting today, isn’t the first time Moleskine has created a connected product. It has previously worked with companies like Evernote and Adobe to create app-compatible notebooks, but both of those required you to photograph completed pages using a smartphone or tablet’s camera, which often leads to mixed results.

The Moleskine Pen+, a custom-branded version of the Neo Smartpen, uses a built-in camera to track the movements of the pen’s tip on the notebook’s pages. If you lean in and look closely at the above image, you’ll see a subtle but defined pattern on the page—the company calls this nCode technology—that the Pen+ uses to ensure it’s accurately tracking writing movements, position, and what page is currently being used.

It’s a similar approach to what smartpens from other companies like Livescribe use, but the Neo Smartpen has a relatively slim form factor because there are no additional electronics inside for recording audio while you write. That’s still an option but handled differently.

Accompanying the Pen+ is a new Moleskine notebook which the company refers to as the Paper Tablet. There’s no touchscreen or electronics of any kind inside it, but Moleskine has cleverly made its pages bulge outward with a rounded contour, giving it the appearance of a digital tablet. The design doesn’t add any unique functionality, but it will make it easier to discern the Paper Tablet notebook from other Moleskines you might be actively using—especially if they all have the same black cover.

There’s a third component to Smart Writing Set (not including your smartphone or tablet) in the form of the new Moleskine Notes app. Using a Bluetooth connection to the Pen+ it digitizes everything you write or draw in the Paper Tablet in near real-time, and even has a shortcut in the upper right corner of each page for automatically emailing a digital version of the page’s contents.

The app provides additional functionality like the ability convert your hand-written notes into editable text, multiple options for sharing using email or services like Evernote, and even the ability to record audio via your smartphone or tablet while you’re writing in the Paper Tablet. And if your connected device is buried in a bag and you need to jot down a quick note, the Pen+ also has enough storage onboard to capture 1,000 pages of notes before they need to be transferred to the app.

The Smart Writing Set, which includes the pen, notebook, and free accompanying app, will set you back $199 with no monthly subscription fees since everything is stored locally on your devices. Replacement Paper Tablet notebooks, which come with 176 blank pages, are $30 each. But since the Moleskine pen uses the same nCode Technology as the Neo Smartpen does, you can also use it with other compatible notebooks, or even just print your own special paper at home on the cheap.

Comprising three components, the Smart WritingSet seems well suited for the wistful millennial, allowing you to maintain your attachment to pen and paper while recognizing the benefits of technology. Thanks to the special Paper Tablet notebook, the smart Pen+, and the companion app, you’ll be able to digitally edit and share what you create on paper in real time, all without ever having to take a photo, upload, or scan anything at all.

The Paper Tablet is certainly reminiscent of a traditional Moleskine, but is “specially marked” with a grid of little dots so that the pen knows exactly what you’re marking down. It’s still paper, but makes use of invisible NCode technology by NeoLAB Convergence embedded within each page. The pen itself is quite the technological achievement — a small, embedded camera is responsible for a lot of the magic, keeping track of your scribbles and converting them to a digital format. And of course, the app allows you to access all your work in various, non-paper media, and share everything with just about everyone.

Sure, there’s nothing particularly novel about this new product offering, but when it comes from Moleskine, it certainly lends a sense of gravitas to the project. That said, you’ll pay for the name — the set doesn’t come cheap, launching at $199 for the Pen+ and the Paper Tablet. But considering what you’re paying for their normal, non-advanced notebooks, maybe this isn’t such a splurge after all.