Piiing! Your clean notebook is ready

MY JOB means that I’m privy to a lot of really pointless ‘world firsts’. The world’s first pancake printer. The world’s first ‘intelligent toilet’. I could go on.

But I still did a double take when I saw: ‘The world’s first microwaveable notebook.’

But the Rocketbook Wave is (surprisingly) a sensible idea. It’s a smart notebook that lets you email yourself your scribblings instantly, just by pointing an app at the page. And when you’re finished, you scrub the notebook clean by microwaving it. It feels pleasingly like you’re a secret agent getting rid of some kind of invisible-ink message. I’m also reasonably sure my six-year-old now thinks I have magical powers.

You need to use a Frixion pen, which comes with the Rocketbook. To erase your ramblings, plonk a cup of water on top of the book, then microwave until the cover logo changes colour. Once the water’s hot enough, the ink inside vanishes. Honestly, you want to turn round and say: ‘Ta-dah!’

The uploads work neatly via the Rocketbook app: there’s a scannable QR code on each page, and you can tick boxes at the bottom of the page to upload via email, Dropbox, etc. Sadly the app offers no option to convert your scribblings directly into text.

Rocketbook went from being turned down by sneering celebrities on Shark Tank (the American Dragon’s Den) to selling a million notebooks, which must be one of the purest pleasures in life. For less adventurous souls, there’s also a wipe-clean version – but where’s the fun in that?