Livescribe 1GB Pulse Smartpen (APA-00001)

In my line of work (Theoretical Physics) I tend to write a lot, mostly mathematical formulae, graphs and other non-standard material. This tends to create piles of papers, and getting it all organized can be a challenge. I tried using tablet PCs in the past, but the buggy software and the small, unresponsive, screen could not match the experience and effortlessness of writing on the real paper. There had been some electronic-paper solutions over the years, but they all had many flaws that made them unappealing to me. That's why I got really excited when I found out about LiveScribe. Unlike all the other solutions out there for digital note taking, with LiveScribe you actually use real paper and real (albeit technologically advanced) pen. There is no learning curve for using the system for the basic note-taking, and all the more advanced features are easy to learn after just a very short tutorial. The pen works with special software that imports all of your files (both your writing and the audio recordings) onto your computer. The files are in a special format that can be shared online through LiveScribe's community websites, and thus it is easy to share your notes with others who might be interested. The written files can also be saved in .pdf format, and can thus be shared with an even wider audience. In fact, that way they can even be incorporated in PowerPoint or similar presentations. The only issue that I have with the desktop software is that it can only be registered with one computer at a time. I regularly use several computers, and would like the option of being able to save my notes on any one of those.

The pen fits pretty naturally in your hand, and it's very easy to use. It is much larger than a regular pen, but it actually fits rather comfortably in your hand. In fact, it is probably more ergonomically kind to your hand than a regular pen.

The in-pen software is pretty cool. Your LiveScribe pen can read out what you had written, and even translate limited vocabulary into several other languages. Since I had bought the pen LiveScribe has opened their platform to the outside developers, so it is likely that we'll see many more interesting programs that take advantage of this remarkable pen.

In order for LiveScribe pen to work you need to buy notebooks that have been lined up with a special pattern. The paper in these notebooks looks just like any other regular paper to the naked eye, but if you look really closely you would be able to notice a miniscule pattern on all the pages. This pattern gets recognized by an infrared camera in the pen, and this is in fact the way that the pen recognizes and records what is being written. This is an amazing technological trick, but a slight downside is that you need to keep buying only notebooks that are patterned in this special way. The notebooks tend to be quite a bit more expensive than the regular notebooks, but overall they have totally been worth the investment for me. The combination of the pen and the notebooks is definitely much, much cheaper than all the alternatives, and it is way more effective and convenient as well.

The pen also needs special cartridges, and from what I have experienced thus far one cartridge does not last too long, especially as compared to the regular pens. However, I still find this to be a minor annoyance compared to all the benefits of LiveScribe system.

One day we may truly have a real electronic paper with all the look and feel of the regular paper, plus all the convenience and power of using a digital format to store your creative and other information. Until then, LiveScribe pen and paper are the best products out there that help you with these goals. I have been extremely satisfied with them thus far.

I have been using this pen to take class notes for my doctoral studies.
This has been a life saver. All the discussions that we do in class- nothing is ever lost. I can re-listen to them all whenever needed. Since I know I have such a device with me, I can focus on understanding the class discussions instead on rushing for jotting down notes. For comprehensive discussions, I do not even refer to any textbook at all. The recording quality is great! I always sit in one of the front rows. So I cannot comment on distant recording. Several of my classmates also use the same device. With the proprietary online sharing software, we can send recorded class note and accompanied audio to others, in case any of us miss class. The class notes can be converted in PDF for future reference or printing. The pen is kind of thick though; make it writing with it a little uncomfortable.

The pen really is awesome, but the desktop software suffers from some bad feature definition.

Good:
o The pen records audio and synchronizes drawings made in the notebook with the audio. So, you can search the audio by clicking on the diagram, and it will take you to the point in the recording corresponding to the time at which the drawing was made.
o Pen refills and replacement notebooks are reasonably priced.

Bad:
o The Livescribe Desktop software is poorly designed and non-intuitive.
o Access to the Internet at my company is from behind a firewall. Every time I start Livescribe Desktop, it tries to contact the mothership, and I have to cancel a dialog that tries to register the device. There's no other way to register, and there's no way to disable this "feature".
o Diagrams drawn with the pen can't be shared with others except as PDFs, so there's no way for anyone other than me to synchronize diagrams with the audio (assuming they have the Livescribe Desktop software installed). Uploading proprietary content to the Livescribe server isn't going to happen, even if I could get past the proxy. There should be a way to share sessions without going through Livescribe's server.
o Can't download previous recordings once removed from the pen, so it can't be used as a portable player.

This product is recommended for students; not recommended for professionals.

Great tool. It's so much more than a digital pen and the software really makes it something special. The ability to click your paper and hear exactly what was said when you took a note is really neat. Plus, you can now print your own paper for free! The notepads are expensive, but if you compare them to other quality notebooks of their type (e.g., four star, black & red) they're not too bad and are of equal quality. The only downside is you can't erase.

One note. If you get the dreaded error code 4, just write support and follow their instructions to a tee. The new firmware fixes the problem other reviewers commented about.

The only thing wrong with mine was that it was missing the extra 3 ink replacements (might be the reason why it's "under review"), I called and immediately they let me order the replacements that amazon sells and got them at no charge = )
besides that, i think it's a cool gadget, i think soon they're gonna come out with more applications for the pen.