The discontinuity between my abysmal penmanship and my career as a journalist is not lost on me. To be honest, I've had to work doubly hard to write, if not legibly, at least in a way that captures on paper the essence of what people say. Of course, I'm adept at reading my own form of hieroglyphics. One solution has been to type all my notes whenever possible. This works well for phone interviews and even sit-down meetings, but not so well when I'm trying to take notes on a trade-show floor or at the scene of some major event. For me, the Livescribe Pulse Smartpen ably fills that gap.

Essentially a writing implement with a small computer wrapped around it, the Pulse Smartpen uses a camera (just under and behind the pen) and custom paper with millions of microdots to capture every stroke and notation. The real magic, though, is that the pen simultaneously records every sound and connects the resulting audio to the captured image. All the captured material is timeline based, so turning back to any page in your notes and tapping the pen on a word will restart your audio at the precise moment your wrote that word.

The implications and benefits are obvious. Now instead of wondering whether your subject said "may" or "will"—as in, "We [may/will] launch a new division," you'll know for certain that he said "may."

I tested the 2GB version ($199 direct); a1GB model is available for $149. Each pen ships with one college-ruled notebook of microdot paper. Additional 100-page notebooks come in packs of four for $19.95 per pack, and the company is promising that users will soon be able to print their own microdot paper on ink jet and laser printers. Also included in the package is a sheet of interactive controls that you can affix to any surface. Among them are a calculator, menu navigation arrows, bookmarks, and paper replay, playback speed, and volume controls. There's also a USB-based magnetic docking cradle and faux-leather sleeve for the pen. You get no software in the box, so you'll have to download the Livescribe Desktop app (for XP and Vista).—Next: Smartpen in the Real World

Smartpen in the Real World

It takes little effort to use the pen. Simply charge it via the USB cradle, turn it on (there's a tiny button next to the equally tiny screen), open any page of a microdot notebook, and start writing or drawing. Even without the software installed, I was instantly able to write notes, capture the audio of an entire meeting, and play back any portion I chose. I stopped playback by tapping the playback controls printed on every page of the notebook. Playback of AAC-based files is startlingly loud for such a small device.

Writing is smooth, though the hard, near-cigar-sized body isn't particularly comfortable to hold. The on-board single-line LED screen offers menu feedback and a playback timeline, and can even display little pixel movies. The sample movie, a truly odd and animated confection about a semi-mad hairstylist, is of questionable value. Still, the sound and 3D audio simulation from the included proprietary headphones are pretty amazing.

Three audio-sensitivity settings are available: conference room, lecture hall, and automatic. I opted for the latter, and in general, the Smartpen did a remarkable job of picking up sounds in even the most trying situations. In one instance, I not only captured conversations with my coworkers around the table but also got crystal-clear audio from a number of people on a conference line. One odd downside, though: I picked up the scraping sound of the pen dragging on the paper as I scrawled; but it wasn't distracting and didn't hinder my ability to discern who was talking or what they were saying.

Even with the ability to capture 100 hours of audio (on the 2GB version), you'll eventually want to move audio and pages of notes off the pen. That's where the Livescribe Desktop comes in. This relatively basic application manages the firmware and all the data you collect. When I first attached the pen to the desktop software, the device downloaded a complete set of firmware updates. It was a slow process that made no obvious functional changes. The software then immediately began downloading my written notes and audio into "sessions." Every Smartpen user gets 250MB of free storage at Livescribe Online. There's even a community where you can post pages you've written or drawn, and people can comment on your work. There's little value here, but it's fun.

The software is clean and well thought out, and you can manage multiple pens and notebooks. Selecting one of your notebooks in the Page views brings up thumbnail views of all the pages in the notebook. A double click brings the page into full view, and you can use the zoom slider bar to zoom in on any part of the page. The image-capture verity is near perfect. All text starts as pale green and fills in as dark green during audio playback. You can click on any part of the written notes to hear the corresponding audio.

What the software lacks is any way to index or organize your notes. There are no native transcription features, but you can use one of two transcription services, LivingPaper or WinScribe, if you're willing to pay the extra, per-job fee (typically less than $1 per page). Livescribe plans on offering handwriting recognition software later this year (something I bet will be no match for my poor penmanship). While a speech-to-text engine might be a bit much to ask for (though I'd like to have one), I should be able to tag every page with keywords so I can easily retrieve them later. At this point, the software is little better than my old stacks of notebooks. Having the audio is a huge boost, but if I don't know which page or which notebook to open in the first place, what's the point?

Initially, I found the microdot paper distracting, but I soon got used to its grayish tint and came to love the way the pen responded when I used virtual navigation, tapped the virtual calculator (sums appear on the tiny pen screen), or tapped on any spot in my notes.

This extraordinary bit of technology may seem familiar to some. That's because it comes from Jim Marggraff, inventor of the LeapFrog LeapPad system and the LeapFrog FLY Pentop computer. Both products use microdot technology, either to replay encoded content or to capture whatever you're doing on paper. Although they work well, the Smartpen is easily the best implementation of microdot and audio/image capture technology to date. It's easy to use and small enough not to look or feel ridiculous in your hands. If Livescribe updates the desktop software with some intelligent indexing features and perhaps adds a clip to the pen, so it stops rolling off my desk, I think the Pulse Smartpen could become an essential investment for any student, businessperson, or journalist.

Video
Watch the LiveScribe Pulse Smartpen Video Review!

More Gadget Reviews: