Moleskine may trace its history to a more nostalgic time, branding itself as the “heir and successor to the legendary notebook used by artists and thinkers over the past two centuries,” but now, it’s getting a bit of a modern twist. Last year, the company unveiled its new Smart Writing Set, which promises to work together with a smart pen and an app to instantly digitize notes and sketches made on paper. And now, the company has added to the line with its Smart Planner, which combines your old-school paper planner with some new-age technology. It’s a far cry from the notebooks used by Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, and Bruce Chatwin — but hey, if they had this kind of technology available to them, they probably would have championed it too.
Thanks to the special Paper Tablet notebook, the smart Pen+, the companion app, and now the Smart Planner, you will be able to digitally edit and share what you create on paper in real time, all without ever having to take a photo, upload, or scan anything at all.
The Paper Tablet is certainly reminiscent of a traditional Moleskine, but is “specially marked” with a grid of little dots so that the pen knows exactly what you’re marking down. It’s still paper, but makes use of invisible NCode technology by NeoLAB Convergence embedded within each page. The pen itself is quite the technological achievement — a small, embedded camera is responsible for a lot of the magic, keeping track of your scribbles and converting them to a digital format. And of course, the app allows you to access all your work in various, non-paper media, and share everything with just about everyone.
The Planner, like its Paper Tablet notebook, uses real paper that is embedded with sensors that both read and sync anything and everything written using the Moleskine Pen+. Once you note a new meeting or appointment in your planner, it will automatically be transferred to your Google or Apple account. That way, you can continue practicing your penmanship and save your thumbs.
The set doesn’t come cheap, launching at $199 for the Pen+ and the Paper Tablet. But considering what you are paying for their normal, non-advanced notebooks, maybe this isn’t such a splurge after all. The Planner will set you back an additional $29.
Update: Moleskine adds the Smart Planner to its Smart Writing Set.
