It must be the summer of analog notebooks! A few weeks ago I reviewed Pad & Quill’s Journal Notepads, which are actually paper notebooks (the type you write on with a pen) from a company that usually makes Apple-related accessories. Today I’m looking at the Tesmo Universebook, a product on Kickstarter that’s a paper notepad/planner and wireless/wired charger in one. The Universebook is currently at almost three times its funding goal with almost a month to go, and I was able to test one of the prototypes for Apple World Today.
Design
From the outside, the Tesmo Universebook looks just like one of those leather-bound planners you may have carried in the 1980s and 90s, and what a lot of people still use over the electronic versions we currently carry. On the front is an embossed graphic that looks a lot like a science textbook drawing of a solar system. Place your iPhone X or other Qi-compatible device on that graphic and guess what? It starts charging!
Flip the cover of the Universebook open, and the left side of the leatherette cover features card slots and larger slots for paper money or documents. The right side? It has a number of cables in neat little slots: a USB cable for charging the Universebook, a micro-USB cable for charging non-Apple accessories, a Lightning cable for charging non-wireless iPhones and iPads, and even a micro-USB to USB-C adapter for charging USB-C devices.
Overall, smartwatch shipments reached 10 million units as Fitbit and Garmin also saw sales rise, adds the research group. Due to their success, Apple’s share of the smartwatch market fell to 34% fro 43% in the first quarter.
Apple smartwatch shipments to Asia (not counting China) passed 250,000 units, with the LTE version accounting for 60%. The cellular version of the Apple Watch Series 3 was the best-selling smartwatch in Asia in the second quarter of 2018.
