Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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127 of 128 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Highly-portable, cheaper alternative to a full-blown tablet, February 5, 2006
I needed a pad to write notes on, but past experiences taught me the pain of having to write on a notepad and then re-writing my notes to computer in order to transmit those notes to others or to keep a record of meeting minutes. Along comes the Adesso Cyberpad, which was being cross-linked across a number of gadget blogs.
The Cyberpad acts as a digital tablet, but uses regular paper (that's right: any kind of 8.5" x 11" paper will work fine). How does it work? You simply turn on the Cyberpad, and use the included pen to write across the paper. Everything you write will be recorded into memory. You can even use the SD slot for an SD card to store your notes instead of using internal memory.
The Cyberpad package includes a wealth of items:
- (1) Adesso Cyberpad
- (5) "AAA" batteries
- (1) NEXcell Battery Charger (for the "AAA" batteries)
- (1) 8.5" x 11" writing pad
- (1) "Leather" carrying case (designed for the Cyberpad)
- (1) Electronic writing pen
- (2) Replacement nibs (for the pen)
- (1) Plastic nib (for tablet-mode use)
- (3) App and Driver CDs (including "EverNote Lite")
- (1) User Manual and Quick Guide
- (1) USB cable (to interface to your PC from the Cyberpad)
It takes four (4) "AAA" batteries to power the Cyberpad and one (1) "AAA" battery to power the digital pen.
In day-to-day usage, I took the Cyberpad out to different meetings, and it performed well. The battery life is very good and I managed to get several hours worth of use out of the Cyberpad. When transferring notes back to the computer, I used Evernote to pull the files in and view what I had written. I haven't tried any OCR software yet but that's my next goal.
The Cyberpad itself has a number of functions available, such as creating new pages (files) in memory to store a new page of notes, and the ability to move through folders. All of this can be done through the Cyberpad itself, and output is displayed via an embedded LCD.
I did have issues in trying to use the tablet to interface to both my PC and notebook (separately, neither recognized the Cyberpad), but this appears to be a driver issue. I currently use an SD card to store my notes to transfer back to PC, which is better for me since I don't like carrying a USB cable around (and my HP notebook has an SD card reader built-in). This also means I can't use the "digital tablet" function, but I prefer to draw on paper anyway.
The resolution of the notes are great though: high-resolution captures of my writing notes or drawings are clear and easy to see. There is some jaggedness among lines, but I don't expect 300dpi resolution out of my writing notes in any case.
One other thing to note is that the writing pen is fairly thick (especially as it contains the "AAA" battery in it), so those with small hands may not like having to use the writing pen. I wish they had used a smaller pen, and I wouldn't have minded buying watch batteries or such, just so a smaller pen could be used. Maybe Adesso will offer a smaller pen in the future (hopefully).
Overall I'm happy with the Cyberpad, and I'd still recommend it to anyone who wants an alternative to higher priced alternatives like the Logitech tablet solution, or having to buy a tablet PC outright. There is room for improvement, but the Adesso Cyberpad is pretty good for the price.
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92 of 92 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty Excellent Product, February 10, 2006
Got the Cyberpad late yesterday and started working on installation of all the software. The software installed without a hitch and the product immediately worked. Total time to install the software was about 5 minutes.
The print directions are pretty lame and they are pretty small to be of great value. However, there is a pdf manual that is a little more indepth on the CD and it provides enough information to get going and function.
One thing of note is the Evernote product supplied DOES NOT do OCR of Handwriting. This is a drawback if you are intending to OCR your work and store it in a note organizer. However, if you are going to put out the bucks for this particular hardware, $35.00 bucks to get the full version of Evernote is trivial compared with the time savings you will receive.
Another drawback is the file formats are not usable for Microsoft OneNote 2003 as of yet. Although Evernote is usable for notes organization, OneNote is just a power house when compared.
The Cyberpad basically acts as an external/removable hard disk on your system. Once installed, you can drag and drop the .top files anywhere on your desktop or in a program that recognizes .top files. This is convenient if you are able to quickly understand which of the numbered files are the one you want (a01.top, a02.top, etc)
With the Evernote Handwriting Recognition, the system did fairly well with Cursive but didn't do as well with Print. Lowercase did better than uppercase in my experience. This is all dependent upon how you write and as one would expect, my handwriting is not the picture of perfection. When I wrote some programming Functions like (For X = 1 to 5 Step 1), the system didn't catch the = sign. In later writing of code, it didn't catch the + sign. Z and 2 got mixed up pretty regularly. Again, a note of caution in that my writing is not precise. Amazingly to me, the cursive was much more accurate in recognition than print. A handwriting example of recognized character types might be a good idea over time and after testing the system out a while, and possibly adjusting a little bit of your writing, the recognition will improve.
I turned the Cyberpad sideways and promptly with some supplied software called OfficeInk started writing directly into a word document and directly into Outlook. Although it stays graphical in representation, I was quickly able to markup a document and save and send back for review to one of my clients. This easy markup and drawing capability makes transfering ideas much easier than trying to sit on Visio or some other art program to detail out a concept.
Overall, the system is outstanding for getting handwritten notes into some media. It is fast, ink accurate, and manageable. Over time, the software will catchup with this amazing device. The device itself is easy to write on and although the pen is a little larger than what I would like, it was comfortable to write with.
For those seeking a writing tablet to digitize with, some pro's and con's of my research:
The Cross only has a serial interface. This seriously is not the way to go. This tablet only uses Steno Notepads (small little stenographer pads from 200 years ago :) )
The Logitech i2 seems interesting but you need specialized metalic papers. This over time is going to be pretty costly and availability of the paper will decrease when the product drops off market or out of phase with marketing practices.
The Adesso Cyberpad uses regular paper, regular pen refills able to be gotten at Staples, etc. This also allows a 8.5 x 11 regular pad to be used for more writing area.
Overall excellent product that is fully functional and will save hours of time.
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33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Day 1 - Seems to work OK, March 31, 2006
The possibilities seem great for the Adesso Cyberpad. I have to keep notes of my client contacts, and it made sense to manage them all in one place on a Sandisk Secure Digital card, which I already owned. Today was the first day to put it to the test. When I got home I accessed the .not files and noticed that while some notes came through great, a few had multiple vertical and horizontal lines running through my text. I'm not sure what to make of these. At first I thought maybe the lines were from the seams of the nylon pockets on the inside of the nice zippered leather case pressing into the tablet (which I had inadvertantly left on while closing the case). Maybe so... Adesso doesn't see fit to ship a hard copy manual with the product -- just a couple of pages of instructions about the three software disks. Overall the Cyberpad has promise. But I have to take off a star for lack of documentation. Everything else is there - Case, paper, pen, batteries & battery charger.
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