Based on the still-popular 1970s Magna Doodle toy, this
product increases the resolution of the toy's screen and
enhances the toy's simple permanent magnet erase bar
with with low (by disk r/w head standards) resolution
magnetic read-write capability. Drag the bar over (under,
actually) the
gadget's magnetophoretic display panel (e-
paper of an early sort), and it both writes a black/white
image on it, and reads the previous image, including
whatever marks have been made using the magnet-tipped
stylus. Add a modest amount of non-volatile memory, a
clock to make it time-aware, and power everything from
movement of the bar. A small enhancement to the stylus:
give it a reverse-polarity "eraser" end, functionally like an
ordinary pencil.
Forget video (other than of the flipbook sort) or other non-
user driven events - not one wee capsule of the display
changes other than by the user changing it with the stylus
or sweeping the bar. Color? Overrated, unnecessary, and
not an available e-MagnaDoodle option. No microphone or
speaker - an enduring charm of the original toy is that it
tends to promote quiet. Anything else goes. With its
innate limited-by-the-speed low bandwidth, communication
needs only thin pipe - wifi or USB cable.
Perhaps the simplest use is simply as a multi-paged Magna
Doodle: tick a "back" checkbox common to every screen to
access simple menu/directory pages to navigate in various
useful ways to every image you've ever wanted to keep on
one of these toys. A trivial variation on the theme and
some pre-loaded data, and its as good an B&W ebook
reader as any - better if infinite battery life is considered
a big plus.
Simple data entry: handwrite text, checkmarks, and
graphics in drawn fields, then enter the page full of them
with a barsweep. Trivial variation, a word-processor, as
well suited to writing the great novel as the paper and pen
system on which many of them have been, and equally free
of the irksome, insistent distractions of the typical active
electronic devices.
Web browser: fine, for nice clean pages (like this one),
less fine to unusable for flash/script bedeviled
monstrosities (who wants to visit these, anyway?).
Price around $30, $50 with wifi. No service plan required,
beyond "where to get wifi (or make the box I plug it into
work)" Like the toy, very sturdy and long to infinite
lifetime 'til obsolescence.