[NTLK] [OT] Sharp WG-S20, a Japanese e-ink planner

[Steven Frank]

Found this interesting little device that may be of slight interest to a subset of Newton owners... I just received one today.

Note: This is a Japanese product with a fully Japanese UI.  It cannot be set to English as far as I can tell.  That said, the basic functions were pretty easy to figure out.

Basically, it's like a paper planner but with an e-ink display.  It has no "smarts" whatsoever -- no timers, no reminders, no handwriting recognition, no calculator, no nothin'.  Just preset "templates" like you would get in a paper day planner, that you can write on, freeform, with the pen.

It's about $120 imported on Amazon.

Some other Japanese idiosyncrasies: Calendar weeks start on Monday, and Japanese holidays are highlighted on the calendar.

The screen is a bit dark, like the Newton's and there's no backlight.  Cover and pen loop are not removable, but it still fits in a back jeans pocket.

Web page: http://www.sharp.co.jp/enote/ <http://www.sharp.co.jp/enote/>  (they make a couple other models that I think have less memory)

Amazon link: http://is.gd/sI2fOZ <http://is.gd/sI2fOZ>

Some pics:

http://stevenf.com/gfx/wg-s20-1.jpg <http://stevenf.com/gfx/wg-s20-1.jpg>
http://stevenf.com/gfx/wg-s20-2.jpg <http://stevenf.com/gfx/wg-s20-2.jpg>
http://stevenf.com/gfx/wg-s20-3.jpg <http://stevenf.com/gfx/wg-s20-3.jpg>

Happy to answer any questions.

Steven