Tag Archives: Notebook

Huion Note E Review: The Notebook That Never Runs Out of Pages

Posted on by

PROS:


  • Streamlined and focused note-taking experience

  • Looks and feels like using a digital A5 notebook

  • Battery-free stylus with 8,192 levels of pressure and tilt support

  • Sharp display with anti-glare nano-etching, DC dimming, and soft light

CONS:


  • No microSD storage expansion

  • Cover attachment feels prone to breaking

  • Custom software has room for improvement

RATINGS:

AESTHETICS
ERGONOMICS
PERFORMANCE
SUSTAINABILITY / REPAIRABILITY
VALUE FOR MONEY

EDITOR'S QUOTE:

The Huion Note E delivers an enjoyable writing experience on a notebook that never runs out of pages.
award-icon

Huion has made a name for itself with digital drawing tools that empower creatives, both professional and hobbyist alike, regardless of their budgets. It has lately dabbled in the realm of standalone Android tablets, bringing its technologies that would allow designers and artists to let their creativity roam free, figuratively and literally. It even put out some “Smart Notebooks,” catering to the note-taking crowd more than artists.

Against this backdrop, the Huion Note E arrives with an ambitious goal: to be the electronic notebook to replace your handful of paper notebooks. It’s designed to even look the part! But this has been attempted before by many companies, including more expensive fruit-labeled slates, so how does the Note E fare in this regard? Is it able to deliver that paper-like writing experience, or is that just another bullet point in a smorgasbord of disjointed features? We take out our thinking caps, jot down our musings, and take it for a spin to find out.

Designer: Huion

Aesthetics

Huion dubs the Note E as an Electronic notebook, and the first impression you get definitely supports that characterization. Out of the box, it already sets itself apart from typical Android tablets and even from e-readers that have thick bezels and a wider left edge. That left edge uses a rough textured material that mimics the appearance and experience of spines on some paper notebooks.

In fact, the Huion Note E tries quite hard to push that notebook metaphor, almost to the extreme. Instead of your typical smooth edges, the tablet’s sides have an unusual ridged structure that looks like pages of a notebook. That is, if your notebook used black paper. All in all, the Huion Note E presents itself well as an electronic A5 notebook, which helps endear itself to those planning to make the switch from paper to digital.

The included cover adds a pinch of luxury to that presentation, with a PU leather material on the outside and a soft, felt-like texture on the inside. It’s reminiscent of premium journals and their leather-like covers, reinforcing the image of the Huion Note E as an electronic notebook. It’s nothing grand or spectacular, but small touches like these help give the product a distinct personality as a carefully designed object rather than just another tablet in the market.

The Huion Note E embraces a very minimalist design, at least aside from those aforementioned details. Without any physical volume controls, only the power button, USB-C port, and holes for the mics, speaker, and cover break the flow of the ridges around the device. The LCD screen with anti-glare nano-etching is laminated and lies completely flat, just like a page of a notebook. The back is also pretty bare, save for the Huion branding in the middle and the camera bump in a rather unconventional corner. The back has a somewhat matte texture that is, unfortunately, quite a smudge and fingerprint magnet.

The included stylus, a Huion PW510 with PenTech 3.0, follows that same minimalist aesthetic. It has no side buttons, for better or for worse, and aside from the pen nib, the only interaction point is the springy eraser on the other end. The 9mm-diameter barrel has two flat sides that keep it from rolling off a table. Amusingly, the pen seems to roll on its “back” more often than not, ensuring that the Huion name on the barrel is always visible.

Ergonomics

The comparison with a paper notebook doesn’t stop at the appearance. The Huion Note E is almost exactly the size and thickness of an 80-page A5 notebook. At around 348g, it almost weighs as much as one, though the cover adds around 100g more to that ensemble. It’s still light and slim enough to carry everywhere you’d normally take notebooks with you, with the advantage that you only need one Note E versus a stack of A5 notebooks.

That also means it’s convenient to hold the Huion Note E up in one hand, though your exact comfort will depend on your hand size and grip. Those with larger hands or longer fingers might be able to more comfortably grip both edges to hold the tablet like a notepad, while some might prefer gripping the textured left edge instead. That said, the device has enough heft that it can start to feel a bit tiring after a long period of time.

The Huion PW510 pen’s 9mm diameter also makes it a joy to hold and use. It has enough girth to feel comfortable without being too chunky. The body is also well-balanced, so nothing weighs down your hand to get in the way of writing. The lack of a side button aligns with the goal to mimic a pen and paper experience, though at the expense of some useful functionality. The pen magnetically attaches to the side of the Note E, making it easy and convenient to stow away the pen when not in use. There’s also a pen loop on the included cover, though designed in a rather unusual way.

That magnetic cover itself is a bit of an odd duck, sadly. While it’s understandable that Huion avoided using extra-strong magnets that would have affected the EMR pen’s performance, the mechanism they chose feels both unintuitive and flimsy. There are two small prongs inside the spine of the cover, and you have to slide the tablet up or down, depending on whether you’re removing or attaching it, respectively. Given the size of the prongs, it feels like an accident waiting to happen.

One rather curious note is the placement of the power button, which also functions as a fingerprint scanner, on the upper right edge. I usually open books or notebooks from that corner, so when I flip the cover open, my finger naturally brushes against the power button and automatically unlocks the tablet so I don’t have to do that step consciously. Whether that design was intended or not, it was still a nice touch, no pun intended.

Performance

Huion already has quite a number of Android-powered tablets in the market, including a 10-inch one with an E Ink screen. The Note E, however, has a distinct purpose that calls for a rather different combination of hardware and software features. It’s meant to be a highly portable digital notebook first and foremost, so everything else falls under this lens, both the good and the bad.

Specs and Battery

The Huion Note E is unambiguously what would be considered a mid-range tablet, especially with its MediaTek Helio G99 processor. While that may have been billed as a gaming chip for budget smartphones back in 2022, it doesn’t hold a candle to today’s mid-tier silicon, at least in theory. In practice, however, it actually performs quite well, especially with 6GB of RAM that gives apps sufficient space to operate. It’s no racehorse, for sure, but that isn’t even the point of this device in the first place.

The tablet comes with 128GB of RAM, which is modest by 2026 standards, especially without any option to expand it with a microSD card. It will be enough to hold notes, pieces of art, and ebooks aplenty, but you’ll definitely feel cramped for anything else. You will definitely feel the intentional limitations Huion put in place, preferring to focus on the core use cases for the device: note-taking with a bit of drawing and reading on the side.

Huion Note E (Left) | POCO X8 Pro (Right)

That’s also why the Huion Note E’s camera story is almost non-existent. There’s an 8MP shooter on the back that’s primarily for scanning documents, notes, and books. You can take passable photos, definitely, but the quality is so basic you’d be better off reaching for your smartphone. Yes, you can probably snap up a reference for your drawing, but don’t expect accurate colors, let alone fine details. Unsurprisingly, there is no front-facing camera, even for video calls.

A 4,500mAh battery sounds a little too modest for a tablet, but it does surprisingly well. On standby, with 2 or 3 benchmarks run, it lasted almost three days from full to 5%. On a full day of regular use, you won’t even need to reach for a power bank until the next day. The 18W “fast” charging speed is definitely a bummer, requiring 2.5 hours to top up.

Display and Pen

Where the Huion Note E excels is, of course, the screen and stylus experience, which isn’t surprising given the brand’s core technologies and target market. The 8.4-inch laminated LCD screen comes with an anti-glare nano-etched surface that is advertised to provide a traditional pen-on-paper experience. In practice, it feels more like writing on a sheet of smooth, high-quality paper, like the ones you’d find in Japanese-made notebooks and planners. It doesn’t exactly have that “scratchiness” of regular paper, but there’s enough resistance that it doesn’t feel like plastic sliding on glass.

With a 1920×1200 resolution, the 60Hz screen boasts a pixel density of 270 PPI, close to what ereaders offer. Huion doesn’t advertise it as something similar to E Ink, nor does it even talk about a paper-like reading experience. It’s still an LCD screen, though with some features aimed at helping reduce eye strain. For example, it opts for DC dimming over the more popular PWM to reduce flickering that hurts the eyes over long periods of use.

All of these come together to deliver a screen that is sharp, clear, and colorful, allowing for a variety of uses that go beyond just scribbling or reading. Under bright light, even under the sun, the screen is still readable, especially at max brightness. The anti-glare finish does affect viewing angles, but very few people would read or write at an extreme angle anyway.

The Huion PW510 stylus that comes in the box utilizes the brand’s PenTech 3.0 technology, promising 8,192 levels of pressure as well as tilt sensitivity. It definitely works as advertised with no latency in any app, reproducing that joyful feeling of seeing “ink” flow smoothly from the tip of the pen as it glides across paper. Sadly, the design of the 1.6mm felt nib makes it harder to take full advantage of tilt, but it’s definitely there.

Software

That the Huion Note E is specifically designed for note-taking is perhaps best seen in the mixed bag that is the software experience. It runs on a customized Android experience that more closely resembles an e-reader than a typical Android tablet. Most of the features and settings are still there, just hidden and sometimes even locked down.

There is thankfully not much bloatware installed, save for some “basic” Google apps. Ironically, while the device does support Google Play, you have to take some extra, but thankfully easy, steps to register the device. It’s an unfortunate situation, but not a complete deal-breaker. Once you get past that, almost any app on the Play Store is available to install.

Huion’s built-in software, however, leaves some things to be desired. The launcher, which has “tabs” on the left, is designed to be minimal and distraction-free. It’s also the only way you can get to the Huion Notes and To-do apps, as they are baked into the launcher, following the practice of some Android ereaders. Unfortunately, it’s so minimalist that there’s no option to rearrange apps in the Favorites tab (but you can do that in the All Apps tab), nor is there a dark mode that will avoid blinding your eyes in a dark room.

The Huion Notes app is also capable but basic, designed more for quick notes rather than elaborate journals and planners. You have four “pens,” only one of which takes advantage of pressure sensitivity. There’s no way to directly type in text, forcing you to write by hand and then convert to text, but once text is already there, you can edit normally with a keyboard. One key feature is the ability to record audio while writing, for example while taking notes in a lecture, and you can later play the recording back and watch your handwriting appear in sync.

The built-in To-Dos app is even more basic, simply letting you scribble a task, which it converts to text, enter sub-tasks, and assign due dates and times. You can type in text at all, so you’ll really have to do everything with the stylus, which is the entire point in the first place. You don’t type in your paper notebook, after all.

HiPaint, which some consider to be the Android Procreate, is also pre-installed, but you can install any drawing app of your choice. With Huion’s display and pen tech, turning the Note E into a portable digital sketchbook is like second nature. Of course, you can also read books, comics, and, if you really want, scroll through social media, though the reading experience might be subpar compared to a color E Ink device.

Sustainability

The Huion Note E doesn’t exactly score well in this criterion. The device is mostly plastic, with no mention of recycled parts. The packaging is compact and minimal, but there’s still quite a bit of plastic there as well. The device itself is only rated for IP40, which practically means no protection even against accidental splashes. It does run Android 15, which was last year’s release, but there is no clear upgrade path moving forward.

The Note E’s sustainability advantage is in what it saves in the long run, even if indirectly. It is trying to create a culture of swapping out paper notebooks for electronic ones, at least for the more disposable use cases. The battery-free stylus is not only, well, battery-free but also saves up on energy you would have used to charge the pen. Small wins, definitely, and hopefully Huion would move toward stronger sustainable practices and materials soon.

Value

At $369, the Huion Note E is hardly what you’d consider a budget tablet. It does include an excellent stylus and a somewhat ambiguous cover, but if you’re looking for hardware chops, you’d best look elsewhere. A mono speaker and a single 8MP camera are not what you’d consider modern features. It is definitely not the only Android tablet with a stylus, either.

What Huion brings to the table isn’t just another Android device, but one that is clearly designed, both in hardware and software, for a specific, focused purpose. That it looks like an A5 notebook isn’t an accident, and, incomplete as it may be, the streamlined software experience is quite intentional. The Note E aims to be your one electronic notebook to replace your other paper notebooks, and it definitely gets the job done, with plenty of room for growth.

Verdict

There is no shortage of Android tablets that support pen input, from the large and expensive “Pro” slates to E Ink readers. At first glance, the Huion Note E looks like yet another entry in that market, but just turn it to the side, and you will immediately see that it’s a different beast entirely. It’s an electronic notebook first and foremost. Everything else is just side effects.

What really sets the Huion Note E apart is the carefully selected mix of features and limitations that make it look less like a mass-market device and more like a considered object. It looks like the object it’s meant to replace, and the limitations it has in place streamline rather than restrict the experience. Sure, there are a few quirks, most of which can be fixed with software updates, but, in the end, the Huion Note E still manages to deliver its promise: an enjoyable writing experience on a notebook that never runs out of pages.

The post Huion Note E Review: The Notebook That Never Runs Out of Pages first appeared on Yanko Design.

Field Notes Just Made Notebooks That Look Good Enough to Eat

Posted on by

One thing that I’ve always shared when I do my journaling workshops is that this hobby is something that involves a lot of our senses: sight, sound, touch, sometimes even smell (if you have materials that have fragrance). The only one missing, really, is taste, since you probably don’t eat any of your journaling materials. This latest collection from stationery brand Field Notes is probably the closest we’ll get to tasting our notebooks, as they seem to be pretty and cool enough to eat.

Their 71st Quarterly Limited Edition for Summer 2026 is actually inspired by the iconic frozen fruit treats from Mexico called paletas. Each of the notebooks in the collection is designed to not just look but also feel like one of those popsicle flavors, in one of their most visually playful releases to date. Too bad they’re not actually edible, although you probably can slurp on a frozen treat while you’re using one of these pretty notebooks.

Designer: Field Notes

More than just a cool aesthetic, the brand really looked into the history of the paletas, telling the story of how this beloved frozen treat came to be. These frozen treats are actually made from real fruit and fresh ingredients, created by brothers Ignacio and Luis Alcázar and their cousin Agustín Andrade. They’ve become not just a tasty tradition but a cultural landmark, from their small town of Tocumbo, Michoacán, to Mexico City, and eventually reaching the U.S.

Each of the Field Notes notebooks (or, rather, Notas de Campo) has a combination of shiny gloss and frosty matte varnish, which gives them a texture that feels like you’re actually holding a paleta. There are nine “flavors,” each representing a specific paleta with its own color and personality, sold in three packs of three. Pack A has Chicle (Blue), Sandía (Red), and Queso Crema (White); Pack B has Piña (Yellow), Jamaica (Garnet), and Fresas con Crema (Pink); and Pack C has Limón (Green), Coco (White), and Mango con Chamoy (Red/Orange).

Inside, you get 48 pages of cream-colored dot-grid paper that you can use for note-taking, sketching, journaling, planning, or whatever it is you use notebooks for these days. Printing for this collection uses soy-based inks, which is perfect for sustainability-minded stationery lovers. There is a backing card illustration created by artist Atlan Arceo-Witzl, adding an artisan, handcrafted quality to the collection.

Each pack is priced at $14.95, making it easy to pick up just one flavor trio or go all in and collect all three. For subscribers, Field Notes sweetens the deal even further: you’ll receive the full set of all nine flavors, free U.S. shipping, 10% off on the site, and the special 2026 subscriber box beautifully designed by artist Jennifer Farrell of Starshaped Press. And if you want to display your paleta love on the wall, there are only 100 of the limited-edition Paletas Press Sheets available, showing all nine flavors together in one vibrant, poster-worthy print.

Whether you’re a longtime Field Notes collector, a journaling enthusiast, or simply someone who appreciates beautiful and thoughtfully designed objects, the Paletas edition is genuinely hard to resist. There’s something really special about a notebook that not only gives you a wonderful writing experience but also makes you smile just by looking at it, or, in this case, almost makes you want to take a bite.

And circling back to what I always say in my workshops: journaling is a deeply sensory experience. The Paletas collection somehow manages to hit almost all of them: the vivid, fruit-inspired colors that delight your eyes, the gloss-and-matte texture that begs to be touched, and the crisp sound of the pages as you turn them. The only sense still left out is taste, but that’s what an actual paleta in your other hand is for. Go grab yourself a pack and maybe a mango con chamoy while you’re at it.

The post Field Notes Just Made Notebooks That Look Good Enough to Eat first appeared on Yanko Design.

This $20 Pen Is The Reason I Quit My Notes App

Posted on by

There was a time when writing something down felt simple. You had a notebook, a pen, and a thought worth keeping. But somewhere along the way, that tiny ritual got interrupted. The notebook is in your bag, the pen is on your desk, and the idea, the one that felt sharp and urgent a second ago, is already slipping away.

It’s a small frustration, but a familiar one. The kind you barely notice until it happens again. A quick note you meant to save. A phrase that arrived at the right moment. A reminder, an observation, a sketch of an idea that felt important for all of five seconds before real life moved in and erased it. We talk a lot about creativity as if it lives in grand gestures, but most of it begins in quieter moments, and those moments will stay within reach when you have the Inseparable Notebook Pen with you.

That’s what makes this Inseparable Notebook Pen so compelling. It doesn’t promise to make you more creative. It just makes it much harder to lose the moment creativity shows up. Designed to attach seamlessly to your notebook, it turns one of the most common little frustrations in daily life into something smoother, quieter, and far more intentional.

The Pen That Changed How I Capture Ideas

At first, I thought the Inseparable Notebook Pen was just a well-designed pen with a smart magnetic clip. Sleek, compact, and clearly made to look good next to a notebook. But after a few days of carrying it around, I realized it had changed something more important than aesthetics.

  • I stopped patting down my pockets looking for a pen.
  • I stopped opening my notebook only to realize I had nothing to write with.
  • And I stopped trusting my memory to hold onto thoughts that deserved better.

Because the pen stays with the notebook, the whole act of writing feels uninterrupted. You open the cover, detach it in one quiet motion, and start writing. No searching. No delay. No break in thought. It turns out that the best writing tool isn’t always the one with the most prestige. It’s the one that’s there the exact second you need it.

Precision Craftsmanship for a Seamless Experience

  • Magnetic clip attachment: Keeps the pen securely connected to your notebook, always within reach.
  • Built-in silencer: Makes attaching and detaching feel quiet, refined, and unexpectedly satisfying.
  • Smooth gel ink flow: Delivers clear, precise writing whether you’re jotting a note or building an idea.
  • Minimalist form: Clean, understated design that feels like a natural extension of the notebook.
  • Comfortable grip: Easy to hold for quick thoughts or longer writing sessions.
  • Compact everyday carry: Small enough to disappear into your routine until the moment it matters.

This isn’t about adding another accessory to your bag. It’s about removing one small friction point that interrupts the entire process.

Desk scene with a black pen laid over light documents, a small Polaroid-style photo, and a calculator on a beige surface.

Why Readiness Still Matters

We live in a world where ideas often arrive faster than our tools can keep up. A note app can help, but it rarely feels as immediate or grounded as putting pen to paper. And a notebook without a pen nearby is really just a good intention waiting to be interrupted.

The Inseparable Notebook Pen fixes that in the simplest possible way. It makes the notebook feel complete.

That matters more than it sounds. Because when the tool is ready, you’re more likely to capture the thought, sketch the idea, write the reminder, or hold onto the memory before it disappears into the noise of the day.

Design That Reflects Restraint

There’s a quiet confidence to the Inseparable Notebook Pen that makes sense the longer you use it. Nothing about it feels overworked. The silhouette is clean. The clip is integrated rather than decorative. Even the silenced magnetic attachment adds a small layer of calm to an interaction most products would never think to refine.

It doesn’t ask to be admired on its own. It becomes meaningful because of how naturally it belongs with the notebook. That’s the power of thoughtful design. It doesn’t just look good. It makes the whole routine feel better.

Close-up of a black notebook with a rectangular clip on its cover, a black pen nearby, and part of a camera in the corner.

Who It’s For

  • Notebook Loyalists

For people who still trust paper more than a blinking cursor.

  • Creative Thinkers

A pen that stays ready for ideas before they disappear.

  • Minimalists

One clean, integrated tool that removes clutter instead of adding to it.

Black stylus pen with a looped cord on a beige textured surface, shown beside a slim black stand or holder.

Where Thought Becomes Capture

You don’t realize how many good ideas are lost to small delays until one object removes them. Most of us don’t need a better imagination. We need fewer interruptions between the thought and the page. That’s what the Inseparable Notebook Pen understands so well. It doesn’t turn writing into a performance or a productivity system. It just makes the act of capturing something feel available again.

And maybe that’s why it works. Because the best everyday tools don’t demand attention. They quietly earn their place by being ready, by feeling right, and by making a routine just a little more whole than it was before. The Inseparable Notebook Pen won’t write the next great idea for you. But it will make sure you’re ready when it arrives.

At the end of the day, it’s still a pen. But sometimes, the right one changes the entire ritual around writing things down. The Inseparable Notebook Pen is available now for $19.95.

The post This $20 Pen Is The Reason I Quit My Notes App first appeared on Yanko Design.

Moleskine Just Turned Issey Miyake’s Iconic Pleats Into Paper

Posted on by

Even though I’ve spent most of my life in the digital space, I’m still a firm believer that the analog world is just as relevant and that the two can work together. I’ve built a career in digital marketing and content creation but I’m also a paper and stationery person who prefers to journal and take notes on actual pen and paper. So when new, interesting paper products come out, I always get giddy and see how it can fit into my productivity and lifestyle.

Moleskine has teamed up with Issey Miyake, specifically Miyake Design Studio to come up with NOTE-A-NOTE, a piece that marries the utility of a notebook with the sophistication of a card case. Since people still do carry around business cards, we need a way to keep them organized while at the same time add to our productivity flow.

Designer: Moleskine x Issey Miyake

With this hybrid piece, you don’t know if it’s a business card holder that has a notebook or if it’s a notebook that has a business card holder. This pocket-sized item has a hard cover with rounded corners and inside you get two expandable pockets that can house up to 24 business cards. Or if you want to use it as a wallet, you can put your cards and bills inside as well. It is able to open flat to 180 degrees. It also comes with a color-matched box that can also be used as a storage case as it can be attached to the holder with an elastic band.

Normally, notebooks are made up of many pages but NOTE-A-NOTE actually uses just one long, folded single piece of paper. It’s basically a folded insert in the business card holder that has 14 accordion-style pages. It actually echoes the signature pleating technique that Issey Miyake is known for, bringing their iconic textile innovation to paper form. The acid-free paper is ivory-colored and uses FSC™-certified paper from managed forests. The signature Moleskine elastic band elegantly secures the case with a striking gesture across its central embossed line, making it instantly recognizable as a collaboration between these two design powerhouses.

It comes in eight different colors that can match your aesthetic: Black, Scarlet Red, Myrtle Green, Grey, Blue, Earth Brown, Orange, and Dandelion Yellow. The goal of having this card holder and notebook in one is to have something handy to write down ideas, thoughts, and important details while keeping the exchange of business cards close to you as well. The clean and thoughtful structure actually takes inspiration from traditional Japanese emakimono scrolls.

I can see this being perfect for creative professionals who attend networking events, conferences, or client meetings. It’s compact enough to slip into a clutch or small bag, yet substantial enough to make an impression when you pull it out. The variety of colors means you can choose one that reflects your personal brand or collect multiple for different occasions. For stationery collectors like myself, this is definitely a piece worth adding to your collection—it’s not just functional, it’s a conversation starter that showcases your appreciation for thoughtful design.

The XS size makes it incredibly portable, fitting comfortably in your hand or pocket. Imagine being at a networking event and jotting down a quick note about a conversation right after exchanging business cards with someone. That immediate capture of thoughts and context is invaluable in our fast-paced professional lives.

The NOTE-A-NOTE collection is available now on the Moleskine website for $46 USD, with shipping in 4-8 working days. Released in October 2025, this limited edition collection represents a meeting of minds between two brands that understand the power of tactile experiences in our increasingly digital world.

This collaboration beautifully merges two iconic brands: Moleskine’s legendary notebook craftsmanship with Issey Miyake’s revolutionary approach to pleating and folding, creating a functional accessory perfect for professionals who value both aesthetics and utility.

The post Moleskine Just Turned Issey Miyake’s Iconic Pleats Into Paper first appeared on Yanko Design.

Transform Business Cards into Cherished Memories with This Minimalist Log Book

Posted on by

Business cards and shop cards are often regarded as boring, impersonal representations of people and places, but that’s partly because we often forget to associate the person with the name on the card. It’s easy enough to forget the first encounter with a stranger who hands you their business card, not unless you actually turn that card into an unforgettable memory. Rather than keep those cards in some container that you forget inside a drawer, why not slip them into this minimalist and profound log book that lets you write down your own thoughts and memories about people, encounters, and events, turning them into small stories that let you cherish these memories and remember them better for days to come.

Designer: Replug

Click Here to Buy Now: $19

Some people and events definitely leave a lasting impression, but our frail human minds can easily forget them as well. Photos and even business cards offer tangible triggers to jog our memories, but they can still end up feeling distant and impersonal, more like watching a film from the eyes of an outsider rather than from your own perspective. What better way to ensure you’ll remember the poignant details of that memory than by writing it down? And that’s exactly the kind of space that this Memories Log Book provides, allowing you to make every business card, shop card, or photo a truly personal and memorable encounter.

Using the log book is genius in its simplicity. You simply insert the two corners of a card into the slits and it will stay in place without the need for messy adhesives or cumbersome pockets. It can fit business cards, shop cards, and even small Instax photos, anything you might collect from brief but memorable encounters. Beside each card is an empty space, a blank canvas where you can write your own reflections on the person or event, helping your future self remember what made the card worth keeping. You can even draw on it, if you’re so inclined, creating a stronger association with those people you’ve only just met.

This A5-sized business card file log book can hold up to 120 cards, but you can add, remove, and rearrange pages just as easily as you add cards. An elastic band serves as the binding, running across the height of the book and through cutouts on the top and bottom edges. This innovative system makes it trivial to organize those cards the way you like that you might actually find yourself losing time just personalizing the pages.

The Log Book’s minimalist design extends to its choice of material. High-quality paper is simple yet holds deep meaning, both for our minds and especially our hands. The tactile warmth of each page creates a bond between the person and the cards on that page, and its elegant yet unassuming appearance is a perfect fit for any setting, whether it’s at home, in the office, or even in a meeting. It’s definitely a great gift idea not just for workers but for anyone who loves collecting memories in a more meaningful and personal way.

Click Here to Buy Now: $19

The post Transform Business Cards into Cherished Memories with This Minimalist Log Book first appeared on Yanko Design.

This Japanese Kintsugi Art Notebook Is Your Journaling Partner to Help You Realize Ikigai

Posted on by

Paper notebooks are in again, though some would argue they never really went out of fashion. Even with the inherent limitations of the medium, there is just an unbridled joy in putting pen or pencil to paper that has not yet been sufficiently replicated by the most advanced technologies and designs. In a way, notebooks have also become a reflection of the owner’s own self, while also acting as a gateway to their own inner world, their thoughts, their dreams, and maybe even their own self-image. Some people like their notebooks and their covers plain, while others opt for designs that display their interests and loyalties. Still, others treat their notebook covers like a blank canvas ready to tell their life story through stickers and art. This rather distinctive Japanese-inspired notebook tries to tell a different story, one that aims to inspire the owner to not only rise from the ashes but also embrace their own imperfections.

Designer: Sutta Design

Click Here to Buy Now: $29

Ceramic pots have great value not just because of their intricate, often hand-made designs but also because of their fragility. A single drop or hard bump is enough to break a beautiful vase, and most people simply throw these away, even if there’s just a crack. The Japanese, however, aren’t ones to dispose of what can still be repaired, and so the famed kintsugi, the traditional art of repairing pottery, was born. In a nutshell, this art uses golden lacquer to patch up and cover cracks, resulting in a piece of pottery that is even more beautiful because of its obvious flaws.

Over time, kintsugi became a symbol of embracing imperfections and self-healing, and those are the sentiments that this golden healing notebook attempts to convey. Using an equally traditional screen-printing method, wriggling lines of gold are painted on the notebook’s plain black cover, mimicking the cracks covered up by lacquer in a kintsugi masterpiece. And as with cracks, there is no uniformity or pattern to the branching lines, giving it a sense of randomness that you would find in nature itself. It’s a striking visual, with the gold contrasting with the black, that evokes both awe and wonder, subtly leading the mind to deeper thoughts.

The notebook’s theme of recovery and revival goes deeper than the cover. The paper used inside is bagasse which is made from the residue produced during sugarcane extraction. Instead of creating new paper from virgin pulp, it reuses what has been discarded, trying to make whole what was broken. In its own small way, it helps heal the planet’s cracking health, patching it up in small beautiful pieces rather than in one grandiose but ineffective sweep.

The kintsugi notebook embodies not only a traditional Japanese practice but the very highlights of Japanese culture itself. It is the perfect example of Japanese minimalist design, the frugality and efficiency of its people, as well as the profound thinking they can evoke from just a few simple symbols and materials. Whether you’re writing down your most secret thoughts, planning out your day ahead, or simply scribbling ideas and dreams, the notebook’s beautiful recycled paper invites you to let your pen roam free on the page, while the seemingly cracked cover exhorts you to embrace even the flaws that could, someday, lead to a beautiful design.

Click Here to Buy Now: $29

The post This Japanese Kintsugi Art Notebook Is Your Journaling Partner to Help You Realize Ikigai first appeared on Yanko Design.

This Ultimate Magnetic Pen attaches to the side of any notebook like the Apple Pencil on an iPad

Posted on by

If you love the idea of your Apple Pencil magnetically attaching to the side of your iPad, this ‘Inseparable Notebook Pen’ brings a similar concept to your analog diary or notepad. With a clever clip-on base and a magnetic pen, this piece of stationery ensures you’re never left searching for a pen. The magnetic interaction ensures the pen’s always attached to the side of your notebook, available at a moment’s notice whenever you need to sketch a concept, make a doodle, jot down an idea, or take notes during a meeting.

Designer: Yusuke Nagao

Click Here to Buy Now: $17

Inspired by Simplicity, Crafted for Perfection

Always Ready, Wherever Inspiration Strikes

The Inseparable Notebook Pen, as its name suggests, pairs your pen with your notebook to ensure they’re always together like the happy couple they are. The pen comes with a three-part design, featuring a plastic protector, a metal clip, and the ballpoint pen itself. The device works practically on any notebook, whether soft or hard-bound, giving you a convenient way to store your pen when not in use. However, just like the Apple Pencil sits diligently on the side of y23-our iPad, this pen waits patiently on the side of your notebook, diary, or pad too, waiting to be grabbed and used.

Effortless Writing, Anywhere You Go

To pair your book and pen, first start by placing the plastic protector on the edge of your book’s back cover. This ensures that the metal clip doesn’t accidentally damage your book (it would be a shame if your Moleskine had marks on them, no?) Once the plastic protector’s in place, fix the minimalist metal clip onto the back cover, ensuring it’s gripping your book cover securely. You can now ‘dock’ your pen onto the notebook of your choice. Once the notebook’s over, simply shift the protector and clip onto another notebook and you’re ready to go all over again!

A Daily Companion That Enhances Your Life

The Inseparable Notebook Pen is an adorably minimal piece of stationery that does something so simple, you’ll wonder why nobody’s ever thought of this before. We’re so used to placing pens in pockets or in stationery kits, it’s strange how nobody thought of putting it in the one place it NEEDS to be… your notebook! The pen sits flush against the side of your book, with a magnet that’s just strong enough to ensure that accidental bumps don’t dislodge the pen while in transit. A fabric pull-tag on top allows you to un-dock the pen when you need to write, and the clip’s satisfying magnetic action lets you snap the pen back when you’re done writing… or even if you just feel like fidgeting for a bit!

Click Here to Buy Now: $17

The post This Ultimate Magnetic Pen attaches to the side of any notebook like the Apple Pencil on an iPad first appeared on Yanko Design.

GPT-powered ballpoint pen can digitize, summarize, translate, and compute your notes in real-time

Posted on by

Imagine a pen that solves your mathematical equations as you note them down, or converts all your handwritten meeting notes into a comprehensive list of bullet points, or even enriches your essays with tags and other relevant information for easier searching and even for a better output. Sure, ChatGPT can do all of that, but it’s limited to the fact that it exists in your phone. The XNote puts the powers of AI inside your ballpoint pen, allowing you to instantly digitize drawings, doodles, and notes, and even have the AI interpret, expand, and solve them for you. Notes get synced in real-time, and through the power of GPT, can also be summarized, bulleted, or even translated instantly. Never did I think that AI would revolutionize the world of stationery, but here we are!

Designer: XNote

Click Here to Buy Now: $179 $249 ($70 off). Hurry, exclusive secret perk for YD readers only! Raised over $275,000.

The XNote looks like an ordinary classy notebook and pen combo – the kind you’d carry to work and into meeting rooms… but let not its deceptive exterior fool you, because within that pen lies some of the most impressive tech ever invented since the gel pen that could write in space. The XNote pen comes with a built-in computer that instantly digitizes your notes, sketches, doodles, and technical drawings… but it doesn’t stop just there. It leverages the power of ChatGPT to interpret what you write, allowing you to simply have GPT summarize meeting notes, turn a set of instructions into a task list, solve equations in real-time, translate notes into different languages, and even expand on paragraphs you may have written with even more information. Your notes then exist in two forms – the one written on paper, and the other, in the XNote app, where you can save notes, search through them, and use them digitally however you see fit.

The borderline wizardry lies in the XNote pen’s engineering, and the way it communicates with the app to tap into its AI powers. The pen boasts a 300mAh battery that grants it an impressive standby duration of 60 days, along with 7-8 hours of actual usage. Transmitting data to XNote’s app via BLE, the pen also offers a noteworthy 100MB of storage capacity. While these specs may initially seem modest, it’s equivalent to a thousand A4 pages teeming with text and illustrations. The notebook pairs with the pen wonderfully too, with its Moleskine-like exterior and its luxurious appeal that just makes the XNote feel incredibly premium.

All your written matter – be it notes, scribbles, drawings, or even complex graphs – get digitized and synced with the XNote app, which leverages the full spectrum of ChatGPT’s capabilities. Operating on OpenAI’s API, it intelligently interprets text and drawings, deducing insights from them, comprehending inherent instructions, and conveniently categorizing them for effortless future retrieval. Write a paragraph, and the app can summarize it, or translate it into 53 different languages (as of January 2024). It gives you the ability to ‘chat’ with your notes, unleashing the kind of power that seemed absolutely impossible just 2 years ago. During a meeting, it transforms your notes into task lists, action plans, or ready-to-send Minutes-of-Meeting emails within seconds. You can even pose questions to your notebook, convert quick scribbles into reminders, or tackle complex equations and graphs with ChatGPT’s assistance. A simple paragraph could become a dissertation, a note could become a well-executed email, a quick list of ingredients could convert into a perfect recipe, or even the opposite – your recipe could get converted into a shopping list that you could then use to pick up the right groceries. The possibilities are quite literally endless, and the XNote’s ability to create meaningful tags for all your written matter means you can effectively search through your notes too.

The beauty of the XNote lies in the fact that it takes cutting-edge advanced technology, but packages it in a way that pretty much anyone can use. You don’t need to ‘learn’ how to use the XNote pen, simply because there’s nothing really to learn. The entire experience is automatic and intuitive, and the app helps you work with your data in a myriad of ways, saving time and effort without having you ‘adjust’ to a new technology or method of working.

There is, however, the concern of privacy… which XNote takes incredibly seriously. XNote relies on ChatGPT’s secure API, which is end-to-end encrypted to protect user data. Moreover, your data doesn’t ever get used to train OpenAI’s GPT models, so you can rest assured knowing that your information only belongs to you and nobody else. Your handwritten notes obviously exist in the notebook, but the digitized version of your notes exist on the cloud, and can be stored offline on your device so you don’t need an internet connection to access them. The app even supports adding voice memos to your text, a pretty useful feature that lets you add context to all your notes. Most of the app’s essential OCR and transcription features are free, like unlimited cloud storage, seamless syncing, and offline accessibility. However, the ChatGPT-powered features require a subscription to the XNote AI+ Membership plan, priced at $59 for an annual subscription.

The notebook and pen combo, typically priced at $199, is available for a special Yanko Design exclusive price of $179. This offer includes an 18-month warranty for the pen’s hardware, a charging cord, 5 complimentary ink refills, a 1-month trial of the AI+ subscription, and worldwide shipping options.

Click Here to Buy Now: $179 $249 ($70 off). Hurry, exclusive secret perk for YD readers only! Raised over $275,000.

The post GPT-powered ballpoint pen can digitize, summarize, translate, and compute your notes in real-time first appeared on Yanko Design.

This ChatGPT-powered smart notebook can understand and summarize handwritten notes

Posted on by

The pen is mightier than the sword, especially given how it has withstood the test of time, even in our current digital age. But while writing things down by hand has plenty of cited benefits, from psychological to practical, handwritten notes also miss out on a lot of conveniences and potential, especially when it comes time to search through dozens of pages of scribbles. For years, smart notebooks have tried to bridge this gap between analog and digital with some measure of success, but the majority of them stop at turning handwritten notes into digital text you can easily search. This innovative smart notebook, however, upgrades that experience by harnessing the power of AI to make the best out of your scribbles and sketches, turning them into summaries, tasks, appointments, and even translations that will take your productivity to the next level.

Designer: XNote

Click Here to Buy Now: $179 $249 ($70 off). Hurry, only 7/210 left! Raised over $230,000.

AI has been a hot topic for the past years, impressing many while scaring off others. The power that artificial intelligence, machine learning, and neural networks can bring to seemingly ordinary products can really be mind-blowing, especially when you consider the new experiences they enable. ChatGPT, for example, is quite a famous large language model (LLM) application that is being used for things like conversations, searches, and other text-related processing that makes it feel like you’re talking with an actual human person. The XNote smart notebook utilizes this amazing AI to bring together the joy of writing on paper and the convenience of digital technology in an intuitive and seamless way.

The magic of the XNote starts, of course, with pen and paper, specifically a beautiful invisibly coded notebook and a revolutionary smart pen. The notebook itself bears a Moleskine-like design, complete with an elastic band to keep it from opening accidentally. The smart pen looks like it’s simply leaving ink marks on paper, but it’s also detecting invisible patterns so that every stroke is accurately sent and mirrored to the XNote app via Bluetooth in real-time. You don’t have to take pictures of your notes and you don’t even have to wait for your scribbles to sync with the app. You can see your scribbles and drawings recreated inside the app instantly, almost like magic. With a built-in 265mAh rechargeable battery, you can write for 7 to 8 hours of use without having to worry about a forced break.

While other smart notebooks stop there, XNote transforms your ink marks into text, formulas, or diagrams, all kinds of digital objects that can later be searched or even shared with others online. XNote, however, goes beyond handwriting recognition and uses ChatGPT to create contextual recognition, smartly identifying the kind of text so that you can simply ask XNote when you need to look for a note. Can’t remember where you stored a friend’s suggestion for your next binge reading? Just ask in the XNote app to look for the book recommendation you wrote last week. Need a quick recap of the meeting notes you took earlier? Ask XNote to summarize those for you in easy-to-digest pieces. You can even have those notes translated for easier communication beyond geographical boundaries. And since the notes are digitized, you can easily search across different notebooks and access your data on platforms, ensuring that your analog notes remain accessible long after the paper notebooks go away.

XNote not only cares about your notes but also about your privacy as well. It uses advanced end-to-end encryption, two-factor authentication, and top-tier cloud security protocols to ensure no unauthorized person ever lays eyes on your notes. And while the basic package has the core features you need, XNote offers a $9/month ($59/year launch special) Premium subscription that brings all the power of AI to your fingertips, including Smart Task Alerts and AI-driven Tags and Categories. Even better, now that it has reached its $200,000 funding milestone, every backer who has selected either the 1-Year Subscription or the Combo Bundle will be automatically upgraded to a Free Lifetime AI Membership! With the ChatGPT-powered XNote smart notebook, you can employ that powerful AI to do the heavy lifting of making sense of your notes while you continue to enjoy the benefits of writing with pen and paper.

Click Here to Buy Now: $179 $249 ($70 off). Hurry, only 7/210 left! Raised over $230,000.

The post This ChatGPT-powered smart notebook can understand and summarize handwritten notes first appeared on Yanko Design.

Note and Sketch Anytime, Anywhere with this Magnetic-binding Clipboard

Posted on by

Productivity systems like GTD and the Bullet Journal have made paper notebooks all the rage again. But while it’s inspiring to see so many creative designs for notebooks and stationery, these can also get in the way when you just need to write or sketch something down. Bound notebooks might not have the right combination of grids and lines that you need, or they might have too many or too few pages. Ring binders let you add, remove, and move pages, but the rings tend to get in the way, and the holes lead to tears and unaesthetic pages. You could always make a DIY notebook combining just the sheets and designs that you need, but keeping them together can also be a hassle. If all these sound familiar to you, here’s how this simple yet ingenious clipboard removes the friction when it’s time to take notes while also letting you design your notebook your way.

Designer: Hirock Design

Click Here to Buy Now: $39 $45 (13% off). Hurry, deal ends in 48 hours!

Gather the Paper You Need and Want

Rather than limiting yourself to the type and number of pages a notebook comes with, this clipboard lets you mix and match any kind of paper that fits inside it. An A4 jacket, for example, can hold A4 paper or A3 paper folded in half, while the A5 version can use A5 and A4 sheets in the same way. You can use unmarked blank paper, grid paper, dotted sheets, printed designs, or anything you want or need to give your thoughts a physical form.

You can really use any paper that you can write on, even those with printed text on the back. This is an excellent way to make use of those discarded sheets before they’re dumped into the bin. Even perforated or loose leaf paper with holes is fair game because they can easily be hidden inside the jacket’s “margin.”

Clip Paper Easily in Any Order

Unlike typical binders, this clipboard uses a clever Magnet x Lever mechanism to hold those loose sheets together while still letting you easily remove them as needed. Simply pushing down on the edge lifts up the clip, releasing the paper and allowing you to add or remove sheets in a snap. The clip can hold up to 30 sheets of paper, but it can secure even a single sheet if that’s all that you have left.

This deceptively simple design gives you absolute freedom in how you arrange your notes. You can always put a blank page at the top of the stack, ready to meet the tip of your pen or pencil at a moment’s notice, or you can order them according to topic or a specific flow of thought. Or you can just leave them as-is and none will be the wiser.

Take Notes Anywhere

This ultra-minimalist paper notebook isn’t just easy to organize, it’s also super easy to use. Simply lift the flip tab to open the notebook and you’re good to go. You can even leave your pen inside so that it’s ready the next time inspiration strikes. The same strong magnets that keep the sheets of paper together also keep the cover from accidentally opening and exposing your precious scribbles. The jacket’s rigid hardcover and flexible angle make it trivial to fold it around and hold it in one hand, allowing you to take notes even while standing up.

Best of all, both the inside and outside of the jacket are waterproof and you can easily wipe any drops that fall on it. This gives you the flexibility to not just take notes anywhere but also take your notes everywhere. You can even put it up on a metallic surface or whiteboard thanks to its magnetic clip. Time to ditch those pretty but inflexible notebooks and embrace the freedom that this magnetic, loose paper jacket can bring to your creativity and productivity.

Click Here to Buy Now: $39 $45 (13% off). Hurry, deal ends in 48 hours!

The post Note and Sketch Anytime, Anywhere with this Magnetic-binding Clipboard first appeared on Yanko Design.