Product Review: 6Pack Transparent Sticky Notes, Clear Sticky Notes, 3’’ x 3’’ Translucent Sticky Notes

 

These are transparent sticky notes that allow you to see through to what you are placing them on. They are great for students, especially those who are in STEM programs and who do their homework using an iPad or an E-ink tablet. If you are in physics or engineering classes and want to transfer a drawing from the book to your homework, you can trace the drawing from the book, and then trace it onto your homework and get a much better drawing than you would likely get trying to draw freehand. 

You can also use a highlighter on these, so you can put them on the pages of your book, highlight or mark up the book, without actually ruining the book. And, if you accidentally go crazy with the highlighting, you can remove the sticky note and redo it with a clean one. One thing to note when using these is that gel pen ink does smudge on them, so you will want to use a regular ballpoint pen or, if you do use a gel pen, use two of them, one to write on and one to put over the note with the writing to keep the ink from smudging when you close the book. 

Product Review: Rocketbook Smart Reusable Notebook - Dot-Grid Eco-Friendly Notebook with 1 Pilot Frixion Pen & 1 Microfiber Cloth Included

 

This is a reusable, paperless notebook. The idea behind it is good, but I do think that with the advent of E-Ink tablets, in a few years, this will end up going the way of the mini-disc which gave the best of cassette tapes and CDs, but was ultimately rendered irrelevant when electronic recorders, mp3 players, and ultimately smartphones were invented. The idea behind Rocketbook is to provide a notebook that can be written on with special pens or markers (basically the Pilot Frixion line of pens and markers, or things similar to those) that can be washed off the pages. At the bottom of each page is an icon that corresponds to a delivery method so you take your notes, and then put an x over the icon that corresponds to how you want the notes to be delivered. The options are to save them to the Rocketbook app, send them to Dropbox, send them via email, etc. When you take a picture of the pages in the Rocketbook App, the notes are sent as a PDF file to whatever delivery method you choose. Then you can take a damp cloth and wipe the pages clean.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, the pages are made from a specially coated material, and while it is similar to the feel of writing on paper, it is not exactly the same. Second, you can only write on the pages with erasable ink pens/markers, which run out of ink very quickly. If you accidentally write on it with a regular pen, then the ink will not come off and the page (or the part you write on) is essentially ruined. And because the pens run out of ink much faster than regular pens, if you are using this for something like taking school notes, then you are going to be spending a lot of money on refills for the pens. Finally, even when you do use the correct pens, the coating on the pages does degrade over time, so the ink does not erase as well after you have used it. Also, the pages have grid dots as opposed to lines, so it is kind of hard to write in a straight line like most people try to when taking notes.

This is the first generation of the notebook so some of those issues may have been resolved in subsequent upgrades, but if you get this one, keep that in mind. Ultimately, I would look into getting a digital E-ink writer that has templates and allows you to do everything this can do, plus a lot more. But, if you are looking for a less expensive way to go paperless, at least for the short term, this does work.