Improv Electronics Boogie Board Rip

Make no mistake: The Boogie Board Rip is neither a traditional tablet, like the iPad 2?($499, 4.5 stars), nor is it a drawing tablet, like the Wacom Bamboo Capture?($99, 3.5 stars). It is more of an electronic paper-replacement tool, like a clipboard and marker with unlimited paper and unlimited ink. Unlike previous writing tablets from Improv Electronics, the Boogie Board Rip is the first from the company with the ability to easily save your work and upload it to a computer.?The Rip is a simple and environmentally friendly solution for jotting down quick notes or momentary sparks of inspiration. But at $129.99, ditching the pen and pad and going green will cost you a lot of green.

Design and Use
The Boogie Board Rip measures 11.1 by 7 by 0.5 inches (HWD), with a fairly spacious 9.5-inch LCD writing surface. Above the writing surface are an Erase and Save/Wake button and a status indicator. The left side has a lock switch, while the right houses a microUSB port and a charge indicator. The included plastic stylus slides nicely into a slot on top of the Rip. The design is very minimal, with a dark-gray, plastic construction. The Rip is lightweight at only 11.5 ounces, making it easy to hold and also easy to carry in a backpack?it's definitely more portable than some of the monstrous 5-subject notebooks I lugged around in my youth. It comes with 8MB of internal storage, which is good for about 200 saved pages. The Rip charges via USB and, according to Improv Electronics, will last more than a week during typical use.

The stylus leaves a green trail on the surface as you draw, varying in width depending on how hard you press. You can see everything you draw, as you draw it, right on the LCD. To begin, you must first make sure the Rip is not locked, press Erase to start on a clean slate, and finally press the Save/Wake button before you start sketching and after you finish. The last part is most important, as the first few times I would forget and end up losing whatever I had sketched before pressing the button. The best way to ensure your input is being recorded is to check the status indicator, which will light up green to assure you the strokes are registering.

Though the Rip is pressure sensitive, it doesn't always record lighter strokes properly. This made it difficult to draw finer lines, as pressing down hard would make fat, marker-like strokes. The Rip saves files as PDFs, which you can manipulate later in a program like Adobe Illustrator. Pen strokes are recorded as black lines on a white background, and look sharper in digital form than they do on the actual LCD surface.?

Conclusions
The Boogie Board Rip is a great way to take quick notes and sketch out ideas, but the $130 price tag is steep. I had some friends visit over a weekend and use the Rip, which turned out to be a great source of entertainment. It reminded us of a disposable camera; we took turns sketching things throughout the day, and then at the end we uploaded all the files and saw what everyone had been drawing. If you can stomach the price, I could see the Rip being a great table activity for weddings or other parties. The Rip would also be a great tool for any situation where quick and easy visual communication is key, such as in a classroom, a business meeting room, or even for those who can't speak.

The Rip doesn't properly record every pen stroke, which is a problem if you are writing a lot of notes. It also doesn't double as an input device for computers; for that, you'll need something like the Wacom Bamboo Capture, which works as a drawing tablet and multi-touch input surface, although it doesn't display anything on its own. The Rip won't replace your standard notebook, but if you stick to drawing, it's a fun and simple way to record your sketches.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/wsEbSGxe3GU/0,2817,2398470,00.asp

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