Jottings
A voice annotation companion for physical books. One gesture, one hand, while the other hand holds the book open.
The gesture
- Hold and read the passage out loud. The page freezes, and your words light up on it as you go.
- Let go and keep talking. Now you are saying what you think.
- Tap to keep it, and go back to reading.
What you get
The passage exactly as it is printed, and underneath it, what you said about it. Jottings finds the page number on its own.
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell.
The whole book is in this sentence — comfort described by everything it is not.
p. 3
What happens to what you say
- The photograph of the page
- Never leaves your phone. It is read where it was taken, and deleted the moment it has been read.
- Your voice
- Sent once to be turned into words, then discarded. It is never stored, never kept, and never used to train anything.
- The passage and your note
- Kept, because they are the point. They are yours to export whenever.
You do not need an account. Adding your number only means your notes can follow you to another phone.
Getting it
Jottings is still being made, and is not yet available to install. It is being built for one reader in particular, and the reading circle he keeps it for.