Rocketbook Notebook Vs iPad Pro

- Steve Dotto here, how the heck you doing this fine day? Lately on the channel, we've been spending a lot of time with this, Apple's iPad, learning about it. I'm really enjoying the whole process of digital note-taking using Apple's pencil and being able to take notes in the different note apps on the iPad. I am a big fan. What I'm not a big fan of is the price tag that goes along with one of these high-end tablets and input devices, well north of $1,000, and I'll imagine a lot of you aren't a fan of that price tag either. But you do like the idea of digital note-taking, don't you, yes you do. So what to do, what to do. Oh wait, I have an idea. How about if we take a look at this? This is an erasable notebook called the Rocketbook, and I think I can do about 90% of the digital note-taking on this for between 25 and 30 bucks as I can on this for a lot more. Let's look at the Rocketbook today on Dotto Tech. This is the treat, and this is the thing that has excited the heck out of me. It's called the Rocketbook. Now, I first supported Rocketbook when it was a Kickstarter project, it was a Kickstarter back a year and a half ago, and it was an erasable notebook that they sent you a pen and a notebook, and the thing about that notebook was in order to erase it, you had to stick it in the microwave. That's how you erased the pen, which was just ridiculous on so many levels. The new version allows you to erase the page just by, just with a damp cloth, you can erase the page, and then you can put new information in. And that, in of itself, is pretty interesting, and pretty valuable. But the real value of this app is not necessarily the erasability of it, but there is obviously a benefit there, but it is the integration with a smartphone app that allows you to take all of your notes that you create within Rocketbook and then save them to whatever source you want. Let me fire up the Rocketbook app on my smart phone as I explain this and show it to you. So here's what happens. There is a certain type of pen that you can buy, at Staples or anywhere else, it's called a Frixion. F-R-I-X-I-O-N, and it's a special type of ballpoint pen that you have to use in order to work with this app. So you, let's go to a blank page here and let's create some notes. And you got one thing, two thing. Now, you aren't gonna be able to see it very well on this page, but down here at the bottom are a series of icons, and actually, I can show you what those icons look like here at the front of the book, because those icons are markers that we use to send notes to different destinations that are built into, that are built into Rocketbook. Let me show you, because this is oh so cool. Here, I have the app loaded. Now, within Rocketbook, I've got, when I launch the app, you see we have these destinations, which are the exact same here as we have listed down below. Within these destinations, I can go into any one, and let's go back to the note here and we will make it all happen together at once. There it is there. I can choose any of these different apps, destinations, to send the data to whatever destination it is. So watch what happens when I open it. So I'll use that rocket one to start, and right now, that will send it to my email address. If I go in and change the destination, watch what happens. I've got all of these different destinations that are built in through API integration. I can send this file to Dropbox, to Google Drive, to Evernote, to OneDrive, to all of these different places, and the cool thing is just, you can just send it to an email address. So I actually have it set up, let me go back. I have it set up to send this email to my email address, so watch what happens now. I'm gonna create a new scan, oops, I have to mark off the... You cross off the icon in the bottom, and then you choose, I gotta move the mic out of the way here, sorry. Then you scan it in using the phone. It takes the picture. Once it's taken the picture, it says, "What's next? "Do you want me to process this and send it?" Now, it can do OCR, you can do OCR on it, et cetera. And you click Send, and now it is sending it to my email, and I will just open up my email so you can see that it will come in here in my email in just a moment. I have it not just set up for email, but I have it set up here for Slack as well. So if we go in and we take a look at the destinations, I've got it set up to go to our Slack address to either April or to Liz. So I can just be sitting in a conference, write out a note, take a picture of that note using this app, and either send it to Liz or April's email or to Slack for them to work on. And they'd get it, and it looks just like this, here it is here, and they get this attachment sent to them. How cool is that? The Rocketbook costs around $39 Canadian for this kind of five by seven size notebook that I've got, and it's got enough pages that you can do like a couple of days' worth of notes and then you can consolidate all of the notes and send them where you need to when you need to send them. So it's awesome from that perspective. But think about this for students. Being able to take notes and then send them to Google Drive, to a notebook in Google Drive. And one other thing that they've got is, Rocketbook has, if you go to the Rocketbook site and you go into the shopping area, they have got these, Rocketbook beacons. What are Rocketbook beacons? I'm so glad you asked. They're little orange stickers that you stick on a whiteboard that converts your whiteboard into a Rocketbook, so people can then use the Rocketbook app, which is free, to take pictures of the whiteboard and send the notes from the whiteboard to any destination that you want. How cool is that? I am really enamored with Rocketbook. All of this stuff that I think and I find so impressive about using the pencil, Apple's pencil and my iPad at nearly $2,000 investment, I can do 90% of that with a $39 rewipable erasable notebook and a $2 pen from Staples. It is so cool. And I can send these digital notes anywhere I want without ever using paper. To me, the Rocketbook might be a revolutionary device. I'm super excited about it, I hope it finds a home in education. I know it's found a home regularly in my bag as I travel. Before we wrap things up, a few last points. One an editorial comment. The pages in the Rocketbook are very smooth, and with the Frixion pen, if you press with the same pressures you're used to on a regular pen, it doesn't feel very comfortable. It feels kind of awkward and kinda cludgy. But if you write with less pressure, with a much softer touch and a lighter touch, then the writing process is much more pleasurable, it works better. It took me a little bit of time to get used to writing with lighter pressure, but now that I have used the Rocketbook for a while, I actually prefer that to writing with the kind of normal pressure that you will with a ballpoint pen and paper. So that's an interesting thing that I kind of learned as I went along with the entire process. Now, we have links to the Rocketbook in our description below to both Amazon and you can order Rocketbook directly from their website. Both of those links are affiliate links. And finally, Rocketbook works really well with Evernote. And I know a lot of you who follow us on this channel are big fans of Evernote, and a lot of you haven't started using Evernote yet or started to use Evernote but never really caught on with Evernote. But if you wanna take a fresh look at it, or get started on the right foot with Evernote, we have a free course called the Evernote Quickstart Guide which takes you about an hour to go through and it will get you understanding the value of Evernote and the best way to use Evernote right out of the box. You can start using Evernote, and within an hour of taking our course, you'll really understand how it fits in your life, and if you like it, well, then you can marry it to Rocketbook and you're off to the races. We'd love to hear your thoughts and comments. Do you like the idea of digital note-taking, or do you prefer the old world of paper and pen? Is that the way you're gonna stay? I'd love to hear where you sit on that. If you've enjoyed today's video, a thumbs up would be greatly appreciated, and share this with your friends who might be into note-taking. Til next time, I'm Steve Dotto. Have fun storming the castle.