Livescribe Echo Smartpen
NEXT time you’re moaning in a meeting about the rest of your team, just have a glance around and make sure nobody is taking notes with one of these pad and pen combos. Because if they are, your rant is being recorded and could soon be doing the rounds in the office.
This is the latest generation of the Livescribe Echo Smartpen – which turns your handwritten words into digital files you can search and save and records audio too. The unique notebooks act as digital pixel books basically, transforming whatever you write into data. The pen you use to navigate the pages also has a built-in mic, activated by a tap on the ‘record’ icon on the actual paper.
It sounds like science fiction but it is in fact science fact and the firm have been around for a few years. Bosses say it bridges the gap between pen and PC – and it’s true. You could argue iPad does the job of note-taking, but we all know it’s never quite as fast typing something.
The Smartpen is also great for search – once all of your files have been synched up to your computer or social network, you can search all of your notes with just a word. While pressing on a line of text will replay the audio recorded at that time through a speaker in the pen. Imagine going back over a few years of work – or if you’re a student, you can log and search all of your notes and more than 200 hours of audio for the 2GB version.
A subject underlined at the top of a page groups it too, so one notebook works for all your meetings/classes.
I love it – but fear it will be a challenge in the digital landscape to make this a success with businesses.
But i would say it’s a great buy for students who spend a lot of time scribbling notes, only to lose them and have no form of back-up.
Livescribe Echo 2GB Smartpen Starter Pack costs £99.99. Livescribe Echo 4GB is £149.99. Extra notebooks are about £10.
