A Kickstarter for the CrowView Note came across one of my social media feeds. It basically is a rechargeable 14″ screen, keyboard and trackpad with a handful of ports. It can be used to extend the screen of many modern mobile phones while also charging them. It also works for a lightweight computer console. My Dell laptop doesn’t play well when I remove it from the dock in my office and try to put it to sleep. i also worry about it in the car and never want to leave it out of site. It is a pretty powerful machine for its era and I’d hate to lose it.

At first glance, the Note looked like a nice way to be able to answer emails, blog and do LinkedIn activity without having to lug around the heavier computer. You can do this from a smart phone, but there are times a bigger screen makes it a lot easier and enjoyable. I’ve got an older Galaxy Note 10+ which is already considered a “Phablet” but the larger screen is really nice to have. I also have had no need to upgrade since it has a terabyte of storage and plenty of power. It supports Dex (ADD DETAILS), and I’m actually sitting at Mi (SOMETHING) in Rohnert Park writing this blog right now on it. I’ll share some of my thoughts on the device, but first have to lso mention one of the big differentiators.

The CrowView Note can actually hook up to two different devices at once. And the kicker is – they make adapter boards for Raspberry Pi 5 SBCs and also Jetson Nano systems. This means I can be working on my Marketing Events or my IoT Project Kit site with less hardware from the comfort of the couch. I use an old “laptop desk” but it is pretty simple and straight forward.

Here are a few things I’ve discovered so far:

• Some apps better on web than native phone. Try the “Desktop version” also.
• No spell check on web for me right now.
• I’d prefer a shorter USB cable.
• Starts with Numlock on – perhaps a Dex/phone item.
• DEX DOES have its own font settings! (I need to explain how to get there)
• If cable disconnects you have to restart apps.
• I hit the touchpad a lot and need to get better at where I rest my hands.
• Site says battery is good for 1 to 2 hours. A bit shorter than I’d like, but so far it seems like the battery usages points to much longer life.
• Myself, and several Kikstarters, wanted it to take a standard USB power adapter. I’ll put the reasons from CrowView here as to why it doesn’t. The power adapter is pretty light for what it is worth.
• I’d suggest labeling the power adapter so it doesn’t get mixed in with others in your collection. Since it is specific, you don’t want to lose it.

I’ll be taking these for a test drive at the Maker Faire Bay Area in October at historic Mare Island. Curious to see how they fair (no pun intended) for people that haven’t used one before.