Gadgetory

(light music) - So, I've been a cartoonist for a long time and I'm always trying to look for ways to get away from the computer and stop looking at screens so much. This is The Slate Repaper from a French startup called iSKN and this'll let me do just that. So, what's special about The Slate is that it comes with these magnetic rings that you can take off and put on to any one of your drawing tools like your own pencil or pen and there's a magnet inside the ring that works with the magnets in the tablet so it knows exactly where you're drawing and it shows up in real time on a companion app on the computer or your iPhone or Android phone. So, this is the fourth generation of The Slate and the company actually started out as a Kickstarter back in 2015. I actually tried out its second generation model and it had a few issues, but the company's worked out most of its kinks and what's special about this new generation is that it adds pressure sensitivity. Before when I tried it out, the lines would sometimes go off on their own or it wouldn't pick up most of the strokes, but I think the latest generation has fixed all that. They said they have a new firmware update and it seems to be working pretty accurately. So, how it works is you slide in a piece of paper into the tablet. Keep in mind this is just a prototype so, the final version is probably gonna have clips on the side, but once you have your paper in place you can just grab one of these magnetic rings, put it on any pencil or pen that you own and you have to connect it to the computer or your phone app so you can use it with the companion app and then just start drawing. The companion app gives you a couple different brush options. There's felt pen, chalk, there's an air brush and you can also choose what color you want to be shown on the screen. So, what you're drawing on the screen could look a little bit different from what you're drawing on paper but that just opens up more room for creativity. But you don't have to use paper if you don't want to. You can always just take it out and use it as a regular tablet with the stylus that it comes with. So, it's light enough to be portable and you can actually unplug it and take it with you to a cafe to draw on the go. The company's planning on adding an SD card slot so you can draw without WiFi and it'll be stored internally and uploaded to your computer when you get back. So, The Slate Repaper's gonna cost around $200 when it launches in September. That's around the same price as other tablets like the Wacom Intuos but this also gives you the option to digitize your paper drawings and that's super cool. (light music)