New innovative pen by Livescribe

Ever find yourself in lecture and missing half of what the professor says? Do you ever wish you could fill the gaps and never miss a word again? Whether you write slow, have a wandering mind, or have your own form of hieroglyphics, the new Pulse Smartpen may be your solution to lectures, manufactured by a new company called LiveScribe. Not only is the pen capable of recording lectures with this high tech device, but also keeping what is being written synchronized with what is being recorded, as to return to a certain point in your notes at any time.

Voice is recorded through dual mono recording microphones located on the pen, which work hand-in-hand to catch every word and can be replayed through a small speaker on the pen or through included headphones. Weighing only 1.3 ounces, the pen is housed in an ergonomic anodized aluminum and is about the size of a permanent marker.

Two versions of the pen are available: the 1GB model (over 100 hours of recording time) retails for $149, while the 2GB model (over 200 hours of recording time) retails for $199. The accessories in this package include a 100-sheet college-ruled notebook, case, 3 black fine point ink cartridges and headphones.

Desktop software is also included with the Smartpen, which allows you to view pages and replay notes, as well as a search feature which allows you to search for phrases within your digitalized notes. An online community is accessible through the LiveScribe website for posting and sharing content, as well as 250MB of online storage for reviewing items from your notebook from any computer.

My favorite features on this pen would be the recording of lectures and pen strokes with the 70 frames per second high speed infrared camera. I have found this useful in numerous occasions where I wanted to hear a certain part of a lecture while studying for an exam, although there are some drawbacks to this technology. The only obstacle I have found are reluctant professors who prefer to not have their lectures recorded. I was told by a professor at the start of the fall semester, “Recording lectures is not normal—I would prefer if you did not record my classes.”

The pen may be a costly tool as an aide to education but can be compared to the cost of a class textbook. Special dot paper notebooks are also required and sold in packs of four at $19.99, which is a bit costly; LiveScribe is creating a way to have printable dot paper, which should dampen the cost of expensive notebooks in the future. If anyone has trouble with any of their classes, I would recommend this pen to help them. This is a great product and I applaud the creators at LiveScribe for such an innovative technology.