Old-school meets new-school with smart paper notebooks. Run out of pages? Toss it in the microwave for 2 minutes.

I take a lot of notes and I’ve tried my best to jot them down on Evernote or Google Docs but you know, writing things down on paper is just better.  Research even shows people remember things better if they write them down (pay attention students). Thing is, no one likes keeping up with notebooks. I prefer having access to my notes whether I’m at work or at home. In that sense, digital note-taking is the way to go.

There is another way.

The Rocketbook Wave and Rocketbook Everlast notebooks are the best of both worlds. You write things down on paper but Rocketbook creates a digital file you can store in a cloud service like Google Drive, Dropbox or Evernote. “You can write in it, scan it with the Rocketbook app and you can re-use it endlessly,” said Rocketbook co-founder Jake Epstein.

You can always take photos of any page from a regular notebook but Rocketbook is a smart notebook. There’s a QR code on each page. When you scan it with the app, it’ll automatically send it to the cloud service you’ve chosen; even putting it in a specific file. Taking notes in biology class, scan a group of pages and instantly saves them as a PDF in a biology notebook you set up in Drive.

When the pages of the notebook are filled, you can either erase them or nuke ’em.

The Everlast notebook is erasable by wiping the pages with a damp cloth. I was pleasantly surprised at how there was no faint ink left on the page after I erased it. With the Rocketbook Wave, it’s more fun.

 

Place the notebook in a microwave with a mug of water. Turn on the microwave for about :45 seconds, then flip it over for another :30 and the pages were clean. No residue or ink left at all. The Wave notebook did crumple up slightly but it returned to its shape after putting something on top of it for a few minutes. Epstein told me the Wave notebook is good for about 5 microwave erasing sessions. The notebook is all paper and plastic with no glue so it protects the microwave and there are no toxins from an adhesive.


Rocketbook also makes a notebook just for kids. Rocketbook Color is a notebook filled with dry-erase paper. It uses kid-friendly dry-erase markers and will wipe clean with a damp towel.

You will need to use a particular pen for it to erase. Pilot Frixion pens are erasable and widely available at office supply stores, Target, Amazon and Walmart.

Links

Rocketbook Wave

Rocketbook Everlast Notebook

Rocketbook Color