Livescribe. Is this a joke?

[chopper]

I bought a nice, small notebook at Target yesterday--on clearance for like $3. I opened it up and it has some ... odd MP3 player like illustrations. I thought it was a gag but then looked at the Livescribe web site and ... are they serious? A pen to record your thoughts as you write down your thoughts on paper?

http://www.livescribe.com/

[Robert M]

Chopper,

Just delved into the site. Seems very cool! Especially for students who have to take notes in a class. Likely, good handwriting is a must. That means it's useless to me. They don't call it RobScribble for nothing.

Robert

[binky]

Not a joke. I got one (the pen) on sale at Target around Christmas for $28 and gave it to a teenager. They say it works well and allows them to put written notes into their computer.


Bink.

[walscobry]

Not a joke at all.

I bet that the $28 pen mentioned above by BLINKY is the the kids version called the 'FLY PEN' and not the 'Pulse' witch is the adult version w/Livescribe. Both are awesome.

The kids version talks a lot and plays sounds, where as the adult version does audio recording. I freak people out when I draw a drum machine and keyboard on my note pad and then start PLAYING them by taping on the icons I drew with the pen. It even supports looping, and a little scratch wheel for us DJs. I've gotten pretty good at "playing" two pens at once, one drums, the other keys...I got a couple when they were ~$10 on close out at target. If you go for the FLY get the blackjack model, its ALL black and does not look like a toy like the older 2-tone silver/grey one.

EXTRA BONUS it can play mp3s too. But then my car keys can play mp3s, my beltbuckle and well doesn't everything play mp3s nowadays.

Here is how the adult version works:

Its a pretty nice, metal pen. Lighter than you would think.

It records audio (in 3D stereo with noise cancel! to all you show tapers out there with DAT and MDs take note!) AND the notes you are taking, later you can click on a note and the audio will also goto that spot in time. Makes reviewing/correcting notes a breeze. You can make these into "PEN CASTS", there is a good demo one of Obama's speech on the livescribe site.

It also does math for you, write out a problem, the answer is on the LCD. (you get to write it down yourself if you want to keep it or say it out loud to record it)

It also has a range of PDA/schedule functions. ALARMs, TO-DO reminders, etc.

And to ROB thats part of the point, all you really have to do it is DRAW/WRITE markers WHEN important things are SAID. You don't have to take notes at all, but if you do it is all captured and can later be OCRed into a word or exel file.

The only problems: It uses SPECIAL PAPER with micro-dots. They don't sell pre-printed graph paper at this time. But there is a menu on the pen case to operate all the functions, it looks like a + symbol and you can of course DRAW your own UI on the page, IE records start/stop, add datebook entry, etc SO you'd don't even need the paper to get use out of it...

SALES MODE for a product I have NOTHING to do with over!

Good luck and get the 2GB version...if not now when it hits $99 for sure.

PS If your target has more of them notebooks for $3 pick me up some! They are $12 normally, unless maybe you got a Journal for the FLY pen for $3 and even that is a good deal, I would buy all I could for $3 ea.

[Robert M]

Wal,

From what /I saw on the site, one of the reasons to own the pen is to record your penstrokes and turn them into something usable on your computer, preferably actual text. In my case, it'll be utterly useless. I've yet to find any OCR system that can decipher RobScribble and make it into something usable without a tremendous amount of editing on my part. Markers for spoken words recorded are handy only if you're in a situation where you can listen to it. To me, seeing things works much better than hearing it, especialyl if you're recording a professor who constantly goes off on tangents.

Robert