gemnotes is a notebook and the software that reads it, sold together. The device is in development; the software runs now. And because it's device-neutral by design, you can put it on an e-ink tablet you already own and start today, before the gemnotes notebook ships. What isn't finished is the signed installer, and we'd rather say that than hand a warning dialog to people who came here for the privacy.
Signing & notarisation in progress
Code signing certificate pending
Behind the two above
Waiting for the gemnotes notebook? You don't have to. The capture app runs on an e-ink tablet you already own, raw pen strokes with pressure, ink latency measured at 5 ms on our reference hardware. It's the same software that will ship on the gemnotes device, on a tablet you can use right now.
Held until the installers are signed. See below
A writing surface that runs in your tablet's own browser, reMarkable, Supernote, an old iPad, anything with a pen and a browser. Nothing to install, nothing to sign. About 30 ms ink latency instead of 5, and it produces exactly the same .ink strokes the native app does.
This ships with the desktop app: it's served by your own computer, on your own network, so it arrives when the desktop build does.
Minimum OS versions and exact app sizes are published with the first build. We don't have them measured yet and won't guess.
Installers for macOS, Windows and Linux are built and tested on every release. They are not on this page yet, and there is one reason left, and it is ours to fix.
An unsigned binary makes macOS and Windows warn your users that the software is untrusted. For a product whose entire argument is about handling your most private data, the first thing you see cannot be a security warning. No certificate is held yet, and getting one is paperwork and a wait rather than engineering.
This used to be the second reason and it is now done. A tablet has to ask; your computer shows you which device is asking; only after you approve does it get a 32-character key, and every later request has to carry it.
It is not finished, and the two remaining gaps are on security: it only guards once the first device is paired, and the traffic is plain HTTP on your LAN. Neither is a reason to hold the download, because neither is worse than not shipping the handshake at all.
Nothing you write leaves your machine, and there is nothing to download beyond the app itself. Your handwriting is read on the tablet. The two things the tablet can't do are offered as a server you name yourself, and that field starts empty.
Your handwriting is read on the tablet, where the pen already is. The app used to run a 6 GB model here for two optional jobs; it read 64% of words, we measured it, and it ruled out every laptop that couldn't host it. It is gone.
Reading ink that never passed through a Boox, and answering a circled question, need a server you name in Settings. Leave it blank and nothing about your notes leaves the machine. Fill it in and two things travel: the picture of the region you circled, and — only for a circled question — the text of the note pages that answer it.
The tablet reads your handwriting on its own, but it needs somewhere to hand the ink and the text to. Your computer has to be on and on the same network when you sync. A real constraint, and one that rules some people out.
Not a newsletter and not a drip sequence, one message when the button above turns black, and nothing in between.