Meanwhile, another company, Plastic Logic, has been working to introduce its notepad-sized 8.5-inch reader targeted at business users.

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His rise and fall and rise again during the 1980s and '90s helped define the transition from boys-will-be-boys notepad journalism to the buttoned-up, professional digital recorders of today.

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Rather than offer a range of templates, the app goes straight for the lined notepad look and takes handwriting-to-text input only.

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The Boogie Board Jot Folio is a leather-like case with a convenient flip-over design similar to a traditional stenographer notepad.

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All the conversation, content and context from a meeting or brainstorming session, even scribbles on a notepad or Post-it note, could be captured, preserving not just the idea, but the authentic, original form of the idea.

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