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Monday, December 17, 2007

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GBM InkShow: Capturx

- Warner Crocker

capturxthumb What's this? A Tablet PC/UMPC digital Inking fanatic reviewing a pen and paper solution for note taking? Bear with me here. Capturx by Adapx is a very intriguing Digital Ink solution. Yes, it does use specially treated paper in note books (and other media) and a special pen to capture those notes, but what is intriguing to me about Capturx is the excellent integration with OneNote 2007.

Here's how it works. The Capturx OneNote 2007 kit provides you with software, a notebook, a pen, and a docking station. Once you install the software and recognize the notebook, you can take notes on the notebook using the tried and true familiar pen and paper method. Then the magic happens. When you are back at your Tablet PC (or any other computer) you simply dock the pen and your digital Ink notes are synced to a OneNote notebook. This also charges up the battery in the pen. The notes can then be searched or manipulated in the same way any other notes within OneNote 2007.

Adapx is aiming for the enterprise market with Capturx, more specifically they are targeting businesses with field workers in extreme environments who need to take notes but don't need or want to lug around a computer with them. The OneNote 2007 package is but one method of note taking Adapx provides as they are also working with GIS clients that use ESRI to mark up maps, as well as CAD workers. In 2008 they are looking to have a Bluetooth syncing solution for cell phones and PDA's as well. In my opinion, this is good vertical market solution that just might give one of my favorite Tablet PC applications, OneNote 2007, some much needed exposure. The OneNote 2007 package is Adapx's first effort in syncing with the Microsoft Office suite and they are planning to add capability to Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and also Visio in the future.

Capturx is also location aware, and note pages can be tied back to the hard copy for easy referencing. The  bottom line here, is that Adapx is looking to provide a good ROI to customers who are looking for in-the-field note taking.

At the moment, Adapx is running a special on the OneNote 2007 package. It normally sells for $349 but through January 15 you can pick it up for $299. I've really enjoyed using the evaluation package they sent for this review. More so than I thought I would. Quite honestly, I find it to be a very successful note taking solution that could work in a number of scenarios. The integration with OneNote 2007 is the big key there and in my experience that works flawlessly.

In the InkShow, I show you the pen, the notebook, and the docking station, as well as show you how well the software syncs with OneNote 2007. Kathy Jacobs has also put together a great tutorial on Capturx on her blog, and I'd highly recommend you take a look at that as well.



12/17/2007 1:01 PM MST  

GBM InkShow: Capturx     Comments [6]  |  Digg This |  del.icio.us |  Citations 
Monday, December 17, 2007 6:58:42 PM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)
Great review Warner. The product definitely performs better than I would have anticipated. The price tag is definitely on the high side especially with the price of replacement notebooks, but I can definitely see this being a nice companion especially for those scenarios where you don't want to carry around the weight of tablet or have to worry about battery power.

I'm not sure if it was the resolution of the InkShow, but I'll go ahead and ask anyways: How does handwriting look once it is imported into OneNote? I didn't look as smooth on the screen as it normally does when you ink on a tablet. Is this the case or was it just the quality of the video?
Yonatan
Monday, December 17, 2007 7:45:36 PM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)
Thanks, Yonatan, for the comments. The Ink looks good to my eye. I'm going to update post with a screen clip.
Monday, December 17, 2007 7:53:09 PM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)
Actually I chose to update the post in the forums.
Monday, December 17, 2007 8:14:27 PM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)
I just realized I used the word "definitely" 3 times in just two sentences. I think that means I've been studying too much.
Yonatan
Sunday, December 23, 2007 9:37:02 PM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)
I'm curious as to how this set up compares to the Epos pen, which uses a wireless receiver to "watch" you write on plain paper and capture your writing. I think Sierra has tried on of those. It would be fun to see how the two measure up.
SBT
Wednesday, January 30, 2008 2:14:21 PM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)
In regards to GIS and maps, it uses regular paper. It doesn't have to be specially coated, although that paper is available. The intelligence comes from an indiscernible grid that is printed on the paper, not a special coating. Also, as I understand it, a user can actually create data collection pages (complete with check boxes and free-form entry) that will then feed into a database, so it's more than simply an OCR app.
Jason
Comments are closed.


       





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