I love gadgets and it’s difficult for me to know in advance if a gadget will be one in a long list of “bright shiny objects” which I buy, adore for a few days and then relegate to some dust-catching shelf. But the Livescribe pen system is a keeper.
I don’t know about you, but as much as I am hooked on computers, and try to keep all of my notes about things on my computer, I still pick up a pen or pencil when the phone rings and jot notes on any available piece of paper. And when I’m at someone else’s office, I do the same. And then I lose the notes, or keep them but can’t find what I wrote. Or I find that I have 10 different notes listing similar information about 10 different clients and I don’t know which notes refer to which client.
A writing tablet might help, but there’s something that makes my hand gravitate to either a computer or paper and pen–nothing in between. And that’s when the Livescribe shines.
What this doohickey does is allow you to pick up a pen, write on a piece of paper and then when you return the pen to its little cradle, everything you wrote is uploaded to the Livescribe software (or to email, google docs, Evernote etc.) where you can sort it, search on it, and save it forever.
It also allows to make audio recordings your meetings and even book mark important points that correspond to note you’re taking.
The system includes a pen, that looks somewhat like an old fountain pen, special notebooks of various sizes, a docking station and software.
Livescribe pen, docking station, two notebooks and pen case
Livescribe Desktop Interface
The pen comes in 2Gig, 4Gig and 8Gig models. I’ve been using the 2 gig model for a few months without archiving and haven’t run out of memory but I don’t use the audio recording feature. If you plan on recording things, I would get more memory.
If you can’t stop using pen and paper, I think the Livescribe is a great way to go.
(Originally published in July.)
I HAVE to comment on this. Absolutely have to. And I’m doing it with all my data so everyone knows I get no money and no kickback from this.
I have a kid with sensory processing issues. It’s really difficult for him to process sound. It presents somewhat like mid range hearing loss, though it’s more complicated than that. If you talk to him in a crowded room, he’ll either understand something completely different or be totally blank.
So, until last year, his grades depended on how quiet the class was. Unfortunately that’s not always a choice. So he always had a couple of As, but his other grades would bottom out, particularly towards the end of the day when he was tired.
I was looking for something for me almost exactly a year ago, to record workshops and such, and came across livescribe. All the comments by parents of kids with similar disorders or with autistic spectrum disorders or hearing issues, or other things that create problems listening in a busy classroom had reviews saying “This pen made my kid into a straight A student.” I thought “Nah… There is no magic bullet.” But out of curiosity, I bought a REFURBISHED one ( because it’s expensive, and I thought “it probably won’t work, and besides he might not want to use it.”)
Guess what? He uses it. And he has had straight As since last Christmas. So I must comment on this, and I must ask every parent of a child who has sensory or processing issues to consider it. The only thing I kick myself on is not having found it years earlier. Maybe it won’t work for your kid. No promises. But I’m so glad I tried it.
As a gadget freak, I’ve been interested in these for a few years. The only problem is — they require a special paper. There are supposedly some files around to let you print your own, instead of depending on the manufacturer, but I haven’t checked the cost effectiveness of this.
Sarah Hoyt @ 1:
I take it this is working better than just a digital recorder would?
Is it the combination of hand use of the device to take note and the recording re-enforcing the users perception?
As I recall the software package that comes with the pen has the functionality to print the background needed on any printer. Depending on your resources though there is everything from basic spiral notebooks to, I think, a pocket sized moleskin notebook or something like it. Just depends on what you can afford. The only reason I stopped using it and gave it to my wife is I discovered I just don’t write anything anymore, it all goes in via keyboard. But if I did still use a pen this would be my go to for it. It really does work quite splendidly (and the audio recording matched to your written notes is very helpful to build multidimensional memories of meetings and lectures and such).