A stand alone low cost writing pad includes a rechargeable battery, a low capacity memory, a low power processor, a first pair of connectors and supports audio, video and digital ink capturing functionalities. The writing pad may be detached from and re-attached to a stand alone base unit using the first pair of connectors. The base unit includes another rechargeable battery, high capacity memory, high power processor, and a second pair of connectors. The base unit receives captured audio and digital ink from the writing pad via the communication pathway and the high power processor runs voice recognition and optical character recognition software on received data to generate second data. The second data is displayed on the writing pad and/or stored in the high capacity memory for future use.