In my line of work (Theoretical Physics) I tend to write a lot, mostly mathematical formulae, graphs and other non-standard material. This tends to create piles of papers, and getting it all organized can be a challenge. I tried using tablet PCs in the past, but the buggy software and the small, unresponsive, screen could not match the experience and effortlessness of writing on the real paper. There had been some electronic-paper solutions over the years, but they all had many flaws that made them unappealing to me. That's why I got really excited when I found out about LiveScribe. Unlike all the other solutions out there for digital note taking, with LiveScribe you actually use real paper and real (albeit technologically advanced) pen. There is no learning curve for using the system for the basic note-taking, and all the more advanced features are easy to learn after just a very short tutorial. The pen works with special software that imports all of your files (both your writing and the audio recordings) onto your computer. The files are in a special format that can be shared online through LiveScribe's community websites, and thus it is easy to share your notes with others who might be interested. The written files can also be saved in .pdf format, and can thus be shared with an even wider audience. In fact, that way they can even be incorporated in PowerPoint or similar presentations. The desktop software can be easily installed on both Mac and Windows computers.
The pen fits pretty naturally in your hand, and it's very easy to use. It is much larger than a regular pen, but it actually fits rather comfortably in your hand. In fact, it is probably more ergonomically kind to your hand than a regular pen.
The in-pen software is pretty cool. Your LiveScribe pen can read out what you had written, and even translate limited vocabulary into several other languages. Since I had bought the pen LiveScribe has opened their platform to the outside developers, so it is likely that we'll see many more interesting programs that take advantage of this remarkable pen.
In order for LiveScribe pen to work you need to buy notebooks that have been lined up with a special pattern. The paper in these notebooks looks just like any other regular paper to the naked eye, but if you look really closely you would be able to notice a minuscule pattern on all the pages. This pattern gets recognized by an infrared camera in the pen, and this is in fact the way that the pen recognizes and records what is being written. This is an amazing technological trick, but a slight downside is that you need to keep buying only notebooks that are patterned in this special way. The notebooks tend to be quite a bit more expensive than the regular notebooks, but overall they have totally been worth the investment for me. The combination of the pen and the notebooks is definitely much, much cheaper than all the alternatives, and it is way more effective and convenient as well.
The pen also needs special cartridges, and from what I have experienced thus far one cartridge does not last too long, especially as compared to the regular pens. However, I still find this to be a minor annoyance compared to all the benefits of LiveScribe system.
One day we may truly have a real electronic paper with all the look and feel of the regular paper, plus all the convenience and power of using a digital format to store your creative and other information. Until then, LiveScribe pen and paper are the best products out there that help you with these goals. I have been extremely satisfied with them thus far.
I had no idea what it would be like using a smartpen. I decided to get one for two purposes: one, for taking notes in notebooks as a math student, and two, for uploading notes online to my students as a math teacher. I am going to break down my experiences on some different aspects of the pen:
1) Wow Factor 4 stars It's really fun having new technology. When I received a request from a student to have an official notetaker due to a disability, I immediately asked if anyone had a smartpen in class. No one had any idea what I was taking about. It's also fun to show off to friends and family and to make devious plans to use it as a secret recorder that will never come to fruition. Although I do love the idea of having a discreet recorder.
UPDATE: It doesn't look as cool without the pen cap.
2) Writing Functionality 4 stars I have no complaints on the ink, though mine has yet to run out. I bought back-up ink due to the complaints. The ink cartridges do seem on the small side and a little too easy to take in and out. As a result, depending on how you hold the pen, the ink cartridge can slightly wobble. I merely adjust it, meaning I hold it at a slightly different angle and it's a non-issue. Overall the pen itself seems solid. This pen does not have the gripper, but the fingers get used to it after a few tries. It feels just like normal note-taking to me.
3) Camera Functionality 5 stars When I transfer my notes to the computer, it looks exactly like what I have written. At first I was a little worried about this since I have very messy handwriting. There are an insane number of little dots on the paper to record where the pen is actually striking the paper. It never misses a noticeable beat on my handwriting, math symbols notwithstanding.
4) Audio Recorder Functionality 3 stars It would definitely be nice if the audio recorder worked better. People have returned theirs for this alone. I recorded myself alone in a parked car in the evening where there were no noise distractions. I was leaving a little message for my wife to give her as an audio gift. The recording there worked great. Now in class, where I am a student, I sit near the front and it's a small classroom. It's not easy to hear the professor on the playback, although I can hear him and get the essential information. It picks up on some other noises as well, though the pen is the most obvious one. You have to adjust a little so that the pen does not strike the paper with too much force. I can hear the pen, and I wish I didn't. In essence, it gets the job done if the job is just to pick up on something that was missed in lecture, but to replay an entire lecture, it does not work as well. I find the pen noise on the audio playback to be more of a nuisance than a deal-breaker.
UPDATE: I brought my pen to record live audio for some Occupy Wall Street interviews. It worked very well.
5) Software 2 stars The software is bad, as many have mentioned. It uploads my notes, but when I try to upload them to livescribe connect, it always crashes. Also, the uploads don't work. I have to download to my computer, and then reupload them to livescribe connect, and then suddenly it works. I don't do anything to the file, so I don't know why it doesn't work the first time. Also, it crashes way too often. I don't understand. Do they not have enough funding to make the software efficient?
6) Sharing Notes 3 starsAssuming you can get the notes online, which I sometimes can using the method above, you can merely click to have it displayed free to the public with a link. This is what I use to display lecture notes to my students. What's great is that the audio is embedded with the notes, and the viewers can click ahead and then hear that part of the lecture. This is a huge plus. Also, the livescribe websites are a good size and the ink is green. You can kind of see it in the background with light gray, but then it comes to life as it was written for the viewer along with the audio exactly when it was spoken. I had some trouble with the audio a couple of times on this, as did one of my students, but for most it seems to be working fine. It's not perfect, but it's an excellent platform. I don't know why the software doesn't get up to speed with this.
UPDATE: I downgraded this part as well because I have wasted way too much time trying to share lecture notes. I have a student literally waiting for them right now.
7) Notebooks 4 stars Sure it's a little annoying to have to buy notebooks for these, but they are top quality. I have the standard notebooks, and two of the smaller unlined hardbound notebooks. Both are some of the best notebooks that I own. They really made a solid effort with the notebooks. Also the pages are real pages! 100 pages does not mean 50, it means 100, so 200 if you use front and back. I wish they had more unlined options, but I'm really impressed with what I have seen. My wife also complimented them.
UPDATE: My only reason for taking off one star is that it has not been easy to keep them in the spiral bounds. I'm not a fan of spiral bound. I wish livescribe would make the composition style notebooks the composition style size. If you look around, you can find pretty good prices on the notebooks ($5 each).
8) Pen cap 2 stars This is a minor detail, but you can't appreciate how useless the pen cap is until you use it on a regular basis. It's nice to have a pen cap, but there is no place to hold it and it's very small compared to other items. So there's not a good place to put it in my backpack. I have tried placing it in the binder of my notebook. It has already been accidentally knocked across the classroom floor twice. I felt a little foolish when this happened. I wish there was a better way to deal with the pen cap. Even more to the point, I currently don't know where mine is, and I have had this for about a month.
Overall I am happy to have this smartpen. It is a bit of a financial investment since you do have to buy the backup ink and the notebooks, so you have to have some extra money to spend. On top of that, they say that you can print out the paper for free if you have the right kind of a printer, so I think that they are trying to keep costs reasonable for people. I tried it on mine and it didn't work. I could only justify the cost myself by thinking of it as a fun gadget, in addition to a useful tool for education. I am hoping that it will come in handy for archiving notes long-term and in reviewing for comprehensive exams.
Buy Livescribe 2 GB Echo Smartpen Starter Pack (APA-00009) Now
Livescribe's "Never miss a word" is a very apt description of the usefulness of this device. You know how useless those digital voice recorders are; well think again. Voice records that are keyed to printed or scripted notes in bound notebooks become organized in a way that permits usefulness for years. "Excuse me sir, could you repeat that" no more.
For thirty years my small engineering firm has required everyone to carry a "Yellow Book," a 9.5" x 6", Mead, spiral notebook with yellow (hence the name) lined pages and a business card taped to the front. The idea was to use the book to note details of discussions, phone calls, inspections, and to sketch building and system layouts and dimensions.
This practice was an outgrowth of my days as a naval officer, when we were required to carry a 5" x 3" green memo book in our back pocket to be ready to take notes when talking to others, especially one's boss. God help you if the captain gave you a long instruction, and you didn't have a notebook in hand. It's still a common Navy practice forty years after I left the service.
I have come across former employees years after they left my firm and found them still carrying their yellow books.
Well, now we carry "Black Books," the 9.25" x 6" Livescribe spiral notebooks. There is no good way to carry the Echo pen in a pocket, so we fasten a 5/8" x 2.5" strip of black fuzzy Velcro (has adhesive back) to the top back of the pen and a 2" x 4" mating piece (also with adhesive attached) to the left top corner of the notebook. The pen is quickly and reliably secured. The mating piece on the cover has to be much larger than the piece on the pen to keep the notebook piece from lifting off after many uses. (The Livescribe portfolios with a pen loop and notebook inside padded plastic covers are a bit too bulky.)
Notes and sketches are now accompanied by recorded explanations and conversations. Livesscribe Desktop sucks it all up from the pen for backup and review in the office; but the pen alone with its built-in speaker will play back the sound when you touch any note in the notebook.
Mostly we carry the notebook everywhere we go and play back sound as needed with just the pen connecting to the computer only when we need to charge the pen battery. The connection is a common mini USB; so go anywhere without fear of running out of juice. The pen even has a very useful display with date, time, calculator, and setup information. It looks like something that Apple would do until one remembers that Steve Jobs hated use of a stylus. He killed the stylus-based Newton, which was developed while he was doing Next and Pixar.
The included "Interactive Getting Started Guide" gets a new person going in ten minutes and with a big smile too. The pen by itself records notes and sound and, with the pen's own speaker, plays back the sound associated with a note when you touch it again. It is imortant to remember that you can go anywhere in a notebook and add notes with or without sound. (The pen is recording what you print whenever it is on and you are touching Livescribe paper. The recorder is turned on when you touch a hot "on" or "off" button preprinted on the page.
A Livescribe page has millions of preprinted and invisible (to you) microdots, The dots permit a highspeed infrared camera in the pen to know pecisely where you touched and where you recorded. The page is interactive (much like a web page) and has touchable printed buttons to do common functions.
As the big cheese, I carry the 8 gig pen; but the 2 gig at $99 has 200 recording hours and should take care of the fifteen or sixteen months (my guess) before you lose it. There is a 4 gig model too. All Echo pens are identical except for the amount of memory. The free desktop software saves everything. Just archive the oldest items to free up space on the pen.
Paper is reasonably priced (about 2.5 times the cost of standard notebooks) so no need for most to print their own with the free printing software for those with Postscript printers.
Notes/sketches along with the attached recording can be emailed and posted on the web and then read and played back with sound using Acrobat; i.e. the recipient needs no Livescribe device.
You can put our music on the device and use the Livescribe earphones (an extra) or other earphones. The Livescribe earphones have a 3D microphone that does a better job than the pen mic for recording "far" sound, the sound of a lecturer at the front of a classroom. Pen mic is fine to pick up conference table remarks.
Read Best Reviews of Livescribe 2 GB Echo Smartpen Starter Pack (APA-00009) Here
It is a known business practice for a third party PR firm to be hired to write amazing reviews for products on websites like amazon. The five star reviews above are great examples. Let this review set it straight.
the echo smart pen is a great idea, but it is a work in progress.
1.) the on board recording for the pen isn't very good. It isn't horrible, but not good. You hear more scratching on paper than real lecture.
2.) my notes are clean on paper and scribbles when I upload them. This is the worst part and whats so tragic about it is that it's not even all the time. Each time I upload I hope its going to work and sometimes its great. more often, though, its awful.
these are the only two things the pen is supposed to do and it lacks in both.
Want Livescribe 2 GB Echo Smartpen Starter Pack (APA-00009) Discount?
This is a revolutionary pen that has changed the way I do business. I own a small company and the time this product has saved for me...is immeasurable. The fact that I can sit and listen to my clients, without trying to capture every important note while trying to pay attention to what they are saying...is amazing. For $100 this is a smart investment for any small business owner. I can imagine this would really be helpful for students and other professions as well!