For starters, the Boogie Board 8.5 LCD Writing Tablet is available in a black, pink, red, or cyan border. It retails for around $30, and is a pretty neat toy for a kid. We’re not too sure about any adult who’d buy this as a business too, though. The manufacturer promotes it as a way to get rid of all those paper notes around the house and office–anywhere you keep sticky notes, memo pads or scrap paper. You can write notes on a liquid crystal display that’s (sometimes) easy to erase.
More accurately, this is a high-tech version of those $1 tablets where you can write using iron particles and a magnetic wand. Which is fun, yes, but there’s no way to save a note for future retrieval. That’s been a problem for lots of grown-ups who thought they had an actual useful business tool. We’re also not too pleased to spend $30 on a tablet where you can’t replace the battery–which supposedly will last for six years, but we’ve heard differently. Our own tablet is holding up, though.
At least the Boogie Board tablet is as thin as advertised, and easy to take with you in a purse, scheduler, briefcase or backpack. The screen can get scratched, but it’s still pretty tough. And while your kid (or even a grown-up) is pretty sure to lose the stylus that doesn’t attach to the tablet, you can also use any other kind of instrument–like your finger–to draw on the tablet.
There are actually more upscale Boogie Board Tablets that might serve an executive. For kids, this is a great alternative to having them pass the time on a plane trip by endlessly playing video games. You can come up with a lot of fun activities with this device. We can’t help but feel that this same device will someday be available as a $5 knock-off, but that’s the risk we always take as consumers. For now, this low-tech high-tech Boogie Board is lots of fun. Just don’t be surprised if you have to return the first one that you buy. The quality control needs some work–but when it works, this Boogie Board is a quality good time.
