File under "awesome wish-ware." The NoteSlate is a tablet that takes the name "slate" rather too literally. It's an E Ink tablet which comes with a pop-out stylus to write on the screen, and while it also comes in white, the black version looks just like a real slate –- those stone chalkboards on which schoolkids worked in the dreary mists of the past.

A huge 13-inch display takes up most of the front panel of the device. The screen measures 190 x 270 mm [7.5 x 10.6 inches], and the body 210 x 310 x 6 mm [8.3 x 12.2 x 0.24 inches]. This makes it the same width as A4 or legal paper, and between the two in length (legal is 355mm [14 inches], A4 is 279mm [11 inches]). Resolution is 750 x 1080 pixels. Inputs and outputs are few: miniUSB, SD-slot, 3.5-mm jack and power (12 volts, which seems a little high).

The NoteSlate has a single purpose: to act like a piece of paper. You can sketch and write, and the three hardware buttons let you delete a whole page (with the pen acting as an eraser for localized corrections), store the current page, or flip to the previous page (no mention is made of skipping to the next page).

At $99, it looks like an awesome gadget, but has the distinct whiff of vaporware. The mockups on the site show a color version along with the black-and-white ones, and promise a "free Wi-Fi module on request with order". The resolution (claimed as 100 ppi) seems low for E Ink, and the touting of no anti-aliasing as "one of our best features" is just plain weird.

The launch date is promised as June 2011, and I'd love to see something like this as a replacement to paper notebooks. I have a sneaking feeling, though, that this will just disappear and never be seen again. I have set myself a calendar reminder for the middle of June to check up on things.

NoteSlate product page [NoteSlate via Kottke]

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