Seriously: Livescribe Makes App Store for Pen
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: livescribe, smartpen, app, store, pen | Themes: Business
Don't chew on this pen.
I remember writing about Livescribe's Pulse smartpen last year and thinking it was a pretty nifty little pen. This year, I find myself less enthusiastic. Maybe it's that I've become more frugal with my gadget purchases, or maybe it's a classic case of, 'if it ain't broke…" -- But why does a pen need an app store?
For those of you just hearing about the Pulse smartpen, it's described by Livescribe as "a computer in a pen." It allows the user to digitally capture and sync handwriting and audio together, making for a pretty decent note-taking tool. A camera records what you're writing and a microphone records what's being said in the room. Tap a word and the pen will replay what was said while you wrote it. Neat, huh?
Well, having upped the storage capacity from 2GB to 4GB, the Pulse can now hold up to 400 hours of recorded audio; and later this year, it will have its very own app store. It remains to be seen exactly what kind of applications they're considering but the press release does mention entertainment, education and productivity tools. Those of you willing to shell out between $170 and $200 (2GB and 4GB, respectively) can check out the Livescribe website here.
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I wonder if it'll have a spell-check...
Looks like an extremely useful pen if you're in college.
Too bad most people in college can't afford $170/200 for one pen.
I'd probably lose it within a week. And on top of that I type faster then I write.
Just like darkknight22, I type faster than I write. Regardless, I believe that I would purchase one of these pens. I originally wanted a tablet, but I found that they have some limitations when looking at regular pen and paper. While this device is a little gimmicky, I feel that this would help me immensely.
It is a little difficult typing everything that my professors say, but some people get a little bitchy listening to "tap, tap, tap" all during class. Of course, I could not care less, but I would rather be able to take notes and refer to what the professor was saying when I took a particular note.
While I believe the pen is not too overly priced, the paper seems to be a little high. If they would sell the 2 GB pen for USD$79.99 and the 4 GB pen for USD$99.99 for students and set the notebooks at $5.99 for two or three, with each having 100 pages, then I would be all over the product for sure.
Have you ever tried cramming all the notes from a majors class in 80 pages? I know that I cannot do that. My Organic Chemistry class took over 200 pages of small print to get my notes covered.
Since I do not own the pen, I do not know all the features on the pen. One thing I would like to see on the pen, if it is does not have it, audio out port. Since listening to the menu options in a lecture would be a big problem(sans an audio jack), this would be a rather large issue.
Another issue I wonder about is the quality of the microphone. I have been in some large classrooms and I have not found a good quality audio recorder that will get everything the professor is lecturing about. I have had to get directional microphones to make sure that everything told to us(students) is picked up by my recorder.
I did some research and found that is does have an audio jack on the top of the pen.
$170 for a freaking pen that can memorize, record and playback? how about $1 regular pen with your brain, your eyes, your mouth and your un-laziness?
An App store for a pen. Is there something that makes sense in my previous statement? Gees...what kind of programs can you upload to it. What can be added...audio and text encryption via hardware? maybe spellcheck like Rab1d said, though i don't know how this might work hehe.
I will not dare to say this is worthless. But, what kind of marketing or what kind of sales do you expect with this?
Don't get me wrong, it is cool. I hope the nex generation pen does have an HDMI output with internal decoder for Divx/Xvid/H.264/x.264...and at least 720p res. output.
ever heard of a thing called a camera?
It has some cool little tricks, like if you draw a musical keyboard, you can tap the boxes and they play notes. Pretty cool.
In my line of work, I purchase adaptive software/hardware for people with disabilities and this is a pretty slick little tool for not too much money compared to what else is out there for "learning aids".
I wonder if i playing with the pen and accidently drop it, may be i'll scream oh $#@!, MY %^$#$@% PEN...!!! anyway nice gadget to have(and play with,playing around between your finger lol) if u have money to burn.