DigiMemo electronic notepad

Two of the hassles of writing notes on paper are dissemination among a group, and storage and retrieval. The new DigiMemo A501 not only enables you to overcome them but has a host of other features to help you enhance your notes and promote productivity.

Ideal for both office and student environments, I can think of situations where you have a meeting and want to circulate Action notes immediately; or want to retrieve some notes or sketches (even a specific form) made on a particular day.

If, like me, you have a host of notebooks, writing pads and storage locations, you will agree these are the ingredients for a potential retrieval headache. Yes, I hear you say. What about the photocopier for circulation?

Well, with the DigiMemo A501 it's simply faster and hassle free. All you need to do is connect the writing pad to your PC, download your notes and send via e-mail to the group. If, like me, you have an Apple Mac at the office, just insert the document into a Word or Excel file and it is perfectly legible.

Where the DigiMemo goes further is in its capability to enable you to further enhance your notes, using colour and even underlining/marking notes (in colour, too). But, let me take you through this one step at a time. The DigiMemo A501, produced by Acecad Enterprise of Taiwan, consists of a digital notepad slightly bigger than an A4 sheet of paper (309 mm x 209 mm), weighing just 560 g.

It is powered by four AAA batteries with a life of about 100 hours and the writing area is 150 mm ¥ 211 mm (A5). The only other 'preparation' you need to get started is to insert a 1.55V cell battery into the digital pen (battery life: approximately 14 months) and you are ready to go.

The pad takes up to 120 sheets of paper but you can attach even a single sheet thanks to a handy clip. When you switch the pad on a small digital screen on the upper left hand side of the pad tells you what page you are writing on. It is important that this matches the number on the page you are writing on (for the sake of consistency and easy retrieval).

The screen also indicates that you are making contact with the pad and the page icon will indicate whether it is a new page or if you are writing on a page that has already been written on. Thanks to four buttons below the digital screen you can go from one page to the next, delete a page or start a new page.

It is as simple as that. What you put on the paper is up to your imagination, so the sky is the limit. With the DigiMemo A501 you also get a CD to load the DigiMemo Manager software that will enable you to read the data off the electronic pad, manage your memo pages and insert them into your PC's office productivity programs. You can save files in two formats: Acecad digital page file format for single pages (DHW) and as an e-Book file (DND).

USB connection provides power when connected to your PC.

System requirements are Windows 2000 or XP; 500 MHz Pentium III or better CPU with 128 MB RAM or better; a USB port and CD-ROM drive; and 32 MB or hard disk space. While you get 8 MB built in memory storage, enabling you to store up to a thousand pages of notes, you can also buy an optional CompactFlash (CF) memory card which slots in next to the batteries.

More information and a free demonstration can be obtained from local agents Hi-Tech Products Limited of Valletta, tel: 2124-1826, e-mail: info@hi-tech.com.mt or visit the company's Website at: www.hi-tech.com.mt

All in all, the DigiMemo A501 is an excellent electronic gadget that could easily pass for a normal clipboard. Now if only my handwriting were a bit more legible...