Livescribe makes digital pens–the Echo and Pulse–that write with regular ink on paper, though the paper needs to have the tiny dots on it that make it readable by the digital pen.
The pen records the writing digitally as well as the audio simultaneously. So if you take notes on a speech, the audio and writing are synced. When you upload the file to the LiveScribe Desktop software, you can see your own writing being “written” in sync with the audio. You can also tap anywhere on notes to bring up the synced audio. It can also sync without uploading to a PC, so if you can just tap on that part of your paper or notebook and the audio will come up.
LiveScribe aims to end the need to type up notes on meetings. For people who are constantly taking notes, the digital pen could be quite useful. It’s interesting technology that is somewhat hard to understand at first glance but seems like it could grow on you. Finding mainstream adoption of it – or maybe just getting people to understand it — seems to be the challenge for Livescribe. The company says it will sell its one millionth digital pen this year.
With the new announcement, Livescribe is adding a social layer so people can quickly share these “Pencasts” with co-workers or friends.
Another interesting feature is the Pencast PDF, which Livescribe created using Adobe Flash technology. After writing notes for, say meeting minutes, while recording the simultaneous audio, people can create a PDF with the audio embedded in it. It will again play the audio in sync with the writing. This embed feature is pretty slick, because someone can send the entire Pencast in one file that can be read by anyone who has Adobe Reader version 10 or higher.
For example, after taking notes or drawing something, you can write someone’s name, underline the person’s name twice and Livescribe will know to email that Pencast to that person the next time the pen is connected to a computer. (Livescribe currently doesn’t have wireless capability—which would be a major plus.) You have to set it up first so LiveScribe knows which names you want to send emails to.
It also works for quickly sharing a document or drawing on Facebook by writing “face” with an underline, and Evernote with “ever.” People can also share to Google Docs or iPhone/iPad. LiveScribe has also added a cloud service with 500 megabytes of storage so that people can upload Pencasts for people to access from mobile devices.
Livescribe has also dropped the price on its lowest priced pen, with a new 2GB Echo Smartpen Starter Pack at $99, down from its cheapest previous pen at $149. It’ll be interesting to see if the lower price increases adoption of the pen.
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