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The Rocketbook solution, offering reusable notebook facilities, came about due to a series of chance circumstances which resulted in a meeting at a local pub.  Probably like many other such meetings regarding putting the world to right,  the two drinking companions, Joe Lemay, a sales executive, and Jake Epstein, a product developer, put their heads together to come up with the idea of combining elements of Cloud storage and innovative methods of recycling note-taking pages into a system which became known as Rocketbook.  Later developments saw funding of nearly two million dollars being raised from a combination of Kickstarter and IndieGogo investment.  The result of this backing was the Everlast and Wave notebook range.

My initial experiences with Rocketbook were with the Everlast product.  The Rocketbook Everlast is available in Letter or Executive sizes.  I have been using the Executive version of the product.  This version has dimensions of15.24 x 22.35 cm and contains 18 pages.  The notebook comes with its own Pilot FriXion pen with press button and clip for pocket attachment. 

In some cases appearances can be deceptive.  Although the FriXion pen possesses what appears to be a push button control, this facility is non-operational and serves no purpose.  To extend or retract the pen’s nib element, you need to use the pocket clip attachment.  It tool me a while to work this out.

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While you might consider that Rocketbook was being a tad stingy in producing a notebook with just 18 pages, just remember these pages are meant to be reused many times over.  The pages may look and feel like normal paper but they are actually composed of a synthetic blended polyester material.  This facility, when used with the supplied Pilot FriXion pen’s ink, will bond to the note paper’s surface.  The written notes can then be wiped away by the use of a damp cloth. This action reminded me of my school teaching days as I used a dampen sponge to clear the blackboard of its chalk content.  Those were the days!  A towelling type cloth is provided with the product for the cleaning purpose and once the notes have been removed the page can be reused for any subsequent note taking you may wish to conduct in the future.

Earlier I mentioned that the Lemay – Epstein partnership focused on Cloud storage as part of the Rocketbook’s main platform.  This particular aspect of the Everlast notebook can be seen by the presence of seven symbols on the inside of the notebook’s front cover.  These symbols can be linked to a specific service or destination.  The actual linking process is carried out by a free-to-download Rocketbook app.  This is available from the Play or Apple store.

When first run this app will require the setting up of an account.  This process will require supplying name, email address and password.  With an account set up you can editing the seven symbol destinations which are set by default to your supplied email address.  These destinations could be other email address, storage services or a particular folder.  Note content can then be transmitted to these destinations following a scanning process carried out by the handset hosting the Rocketbook app.

When firing up the Rocketbook app you will have access to a camera icon that is used to scan and photograph the current page of the notebook.  I found that some care was needed when lining up the targeted page with my smartphone before the scanning process took over.  Once the scanning was complete, the results could be saved and directed towards the appropriate destination.

As well as the editable Destination options, the Rocketbook app grants the user access to various adjustable settings categorised as those relating to the Scan function and the Naming Template used to identify the various scans.  When adjusting the Scan feature you can set the resolution, focus mode, icon sensitivity and a default action for pages that are unmarked.  Data relating to the year, month, day and time can be used with a RB designation to set up as the default file name format for capture content.  Scans can be saved on the handset.

Once the evidence of the FriXion ink has been removed from the page then you can reuse the page for a further bout of note taking and help the product justify its Everlast designation.  The Rocketbook method does lack many of the functions found with the Livescribe solution which some will consider vital, but it should satisfy less demanding users.  As reviewed the Executive Rocketbook Everlast is priced at £32.99.  Appropriate Pilot FriXion pens are available from a variety of sources.

https://getrocketbook.co.uk/products/everlast-rocketbook