Awesome new tool for students

[shmokes]

Check out the Pulse Smart Pen.  It's a pen with a built-in Arm 9 processor.


edit:  I had an enormous post detailing how cool this thing is, but it occurs to me that the thing speaks for itself.

[knave]

That is pretty cool, Watching that makes me want one.  But I think I'll need to wait and see how it takes off and if there are bugs.  Perhaps version 2.0 will be even more cool. Either way it's not quite $150-$200 cool for me in my current lifestyle.

[shmokes]

A big part of me feels this way.  It's just the type of thing to really hit its stride with the second version.  I'd kind of like to wait for that to hop on, especially if version 2.0 is smaller.  However, my days as a student are numbered.  If I am going to benefit from one of these things it needs to be sooner rather than later.

[ahofle]

Just what every piss poor ramen-noodle-eating student needs -- a $200 pen! 
I also have yet to own a nice pen that didn't end up lost or stolen.

[shardian]

Just what every piss poor ramen-noodle-eating student needs -- a $200 pen! 
I also have yet to own a nice pen that didn't end up lost or stolen.

I've yet to buy a pen! I just find them laying around randomly. I eventually lose it and someone else will use it.
I couldn't imagine carrying around a $200 computerized pen. That thing wouldn't last a week before losing or breaking it.

[Dartful Dodger]

I remember when calculator watches were the awesome new tool for students.

They were also an easy way to determine who not to invite to a party.

Everyone benefits from these types of gadgets.

[dgordon86]

For 200 bucks and they don't even include a ghetto-ass security cord?

Lame.

I rather just use the money and buy a few hundred ballpoint pens.

[shardian]

For 200 bucks and they don't even include a ghetto-ass security cord?

Lame.

I rather just use the money and buy a few hundred ballpoint pens.

Or you could threaten a nerd and get them to write all the notes for you...unless you are the nerd.

[HaRuMaN]

My university is requiring all incoming freshman engineering students to have a Tablet PC...  so no need for such a pen... 

[SavannahLion]

I remember when calculator watches were the awesome new tool for students.

There are still students who use those. Usually Freshmen straight out of High School who somehow get it in their heads that those silly things would help them cheat on their tests.

[knave]

There are still students who use those. Usually Freshmen straight out of High School who somehow get it in their heads that those silly things would help them cheat on their tests.

LOL...I accidentally ended up with one of those calculator watches (due to a mix up) and although I felt like an idiot it was kinda handy.  It was a great way to store phone numbers, and had options for world time or many time zones.  Since I was traveling around at the time I wore it and it was pretty cool um...usefull.  I put appointments in it and my locker combinations...it was just like a cell phone with respect to light data storage. 

I wouldn't wear it now but it served it's purpose.  I suppose you could use it to store some discrete formulae.  and help speed up light math.

[shardian]

I have a calculator watch. I asked the wife for one last year for my birthday. It is low profile, and looks very sharp. unfortunately, having a calculator watch now isn't nearly as neat as it was back in middle school. I wear it occasionally, but it is kind of pointless when my cel phone does everything it does - better I might ad.
Those buttons are super difficult to hit too since they are flush with the face.

[dgordon86]

For 200 bucks and they don't even include a ghetto-ass security cord?

Lame.

I rather just use the money and buy a few hundred ballpoint pens.

Or you could threaten a nerd and get them to write all the notes for you...unless you are the nerd.

This could work for classes I don't take with my girlfriend. Shes my little secretary otherwise :-D

[patrickl]

Is this really a tool for students? I thought it was a tool for businessmen. My dad was thinking about buying one.

Just actually watched the video. The addition of the audio recording is seriously cool. I just was a week at a clients site talking to them about changes to the software. I write down a ton of things, but often I lose some details. Or there is a discussions afterwards about what we actually agreed upon. Would be great just to click on your notes and hear what you were speaking about.

I really must have one.

[patrickl]

Oh bugger, seems they only sell to preorder customers and only to US residents. Too bad the company making these is just a startup.

These pens have existed for years. Although they only recorded the writing and not sound. Forgot which brands sold them. maybe they will upgrade their pens to record audio too.

[ark_ader]

I tend to like recording my narration over a favorite instrumental mp3 then play it back or type it later.

I always hated the pen, as my hand writing sucks and i get the pain with writers cramp.  

I like the idea of the pen, but my solution is so low tech, it helps you to train your voice which IMO is the best communicator than the pen.

Also it help in revision.  Record it and play it back in your walkman.  Instant results!

Also I have seen this type of pen cheaper by another make, which records your strokes and then exports to Word.

[patrickl]

What is cool with this pen is that you click on a line in your notes and it replays the audio that was recorded at the time you wrote that specific line. I recorded some meetings too (on my phone), but I always found it too cumbersome to find things back. So I stopped recording.

[clanggedin]

They've had pens like this for a while. my niece has had one for at least a year. The audio is what's new.

I'll wait until they have one that doesn't require their special paper for it to work.

[patrickl]

Is anyone still selling those old pens? Logitech, Nokia and HP seem to have discountinued their digital pen. Destiny sells the IO2 in the UK, but it's pretty expensive. No sound recording.

Anoto (who makes the paper) doesn't have much useful information either.

[shmokes]

Leapfrog has one called the Fly Fusion pen.  It's made for kids, but the new one doesn't look so much like a toy.  It doesn't do the sound recording.  BTW, the guy who developed the pen for Leap Frog left the company (on amicable terms) to found LiveScribe, maker of this new Pulse pen.

It's definitely the sound recording that has me sold on this.  I never took a laptop to class in undergrad, but everyone in law school does.  Most law schools require laptops (mine doesn't).  So I've got in the habit, as everyone does, of opening my laptop at the beginning of class and taking notes on it.  It's awful.  My notes are way too good.  I type right around 90 WPM, and I swear to god, info enters my ears, stopping only for the briefest of moments in my brain, and then exits my fingers.  I swear I'm being trained to be a scrivener more than I am a lawyer.  I end up at the end of the semester with 300 pages of notes, that are virtual transcriptions of the lectures.  But what am I going to do with that many notes?  I can't go through all of that?  And in the process I'm wasting the class lectures transcribing rather than actually thinking about the lecture.  This pen seems like a much better way.

I've known about the Logitech pen for years, and that doesn't interest me at all.  If it's just a matter of computerizing my notes, a laptop is better.  I can type a helluva lot faster than I can write.  And my laptop already is a tablet.  That's practically useless.  It's the synchronization of your notes with the audio recording of the lecture that makes this thing great.

As for the calculator watch (and Shardian, I'm sorry, but it does NOT look sharp  ), this does one better.  Write an equation on your paper and the answer will appear automatically on the screen.  Need a translation?  Write a word on the paper and get the translation on the screen, and spoken through the speaker.  Kinda cool.

[patrickl]

Write an equation on your paper and the answer will appear automatically on the screen.  Need a translation?  Write a word on the paper and get the translation on the screen, and spoken through the speaker.  Kinda cool.

Does it do those things already? From the site I got that those were more like concepts rather than an actually available thing.

BTW how would taking audio notes help you solve the problem of going through notes for all your lectures?

[shmokes]

Because instead of getting the most out of class, I'm transcribing the entire lecture.  I end up with WAY more notes than I could possibly go through.  This allows you to pay attention in class and just jot down a word or two when needed.  No need to be exhaustive.  If you look back at your notes and see something that doesn't make sense, just tap on it with your pen and listen to exactly what the professor said that made you write those words down.

The calculator stuff is definitely built-in.  I'm not sure if it ships with the translator, but I know that it is a product that is in development cos I read a preview from a tech blog that got to test one out, and they tested the translating function.  Also, the Fly Fusion pen I mentioned from Leap Frog already has identical translator products except that they don't output to the screen, cos that pen doesn't have a screen.  I think that the translator software will be a separate (read: not free) product.  And I don't know how close to launch it will be ready.  But people have already had at least an incomplete version of it running on the pen.  The calculator is definitely built-in, though.  I'm pretty sure, actually, that it's a full scientific calculator, too.

[shmokes]

Also, I totally agree that the usefulness of this thing goes way beyond students.  Off the top of my head it has OBVIOUS application in journalism.  I imagine cops using these during interrogations, and even when just on the beat talking to people or while issuing traffic tickets.  Lawyers taking depositions.

[patrickl]

Not sure if this was posted already, but I saw a page with two demo's given by the CEO and marketing director.

Livescribe Demos

It's so annoying that I will probably never be able to get one of these pens. They don't ship outside of the US and the company seems too small to really make it. My best bet is if they get bought by a bigger company, but seeing how they are trying to roll this out on their own doesn't make that very likely.

BTW this whole thing will never work without the special paper. It's the paper that allows the pen to see where you click on the page. They do say you can print your own paper. So you don't need to buy expensive notebooks if you don't want to (although printing the pages probably might actually cost more than buying a $5 100 page book).

[HaRuMaN]

TI-89's are great for tests...  you can write text files to the calculator's memory... not that I would know anything about this...   

[shmokes]

Not sure if this was posted already, but I saw a page with two demo's given by the CEO and marketing director.

Livescribe Demos

It's so annoying that I will probably never be able to get one of these pens. They don't ship outside of the US and the company seems too small to really make it. My best bet is if they get bought by a bigger company, but seeing how they are trying to roll this out on their own doesn't make that very likely.

BTW this whole thing will never work without the special paper. It's the paper that allows the pen to see where you click on the page. They do say you can print your own paper. So you don't need to buy expensive notebooks if you don't want to (although printing the pages probably might actually cost more than buying a $5 100 page book).

I can probably get you one and ship it to you.

[shmokes]

They let you bring that laptop in?

The software we use for exams in lawschool loads up before anything else in Windows.  You have to reboot into the software.  You can't open any other programs and no devices get initiated besides the keyboard and mouse, i.e., no internet connection.  The laptop is useless for cheating.  Some tests are open book, but it is of VERY limited use.  The time limit makes looking things up a virtual impossibility.

[patrickl]

I can probably get you one and ship it to you.

That would be great. Now to wait if they ever start shipping to non pre-order customers 

[shmokes]

So long as I place an order before April 10th, I am a preorder customer.  Preordering was nothing more than giving them your name and email address so they could contact you when it became available.  However, even if I order it now it's not exactly shipping.  The delivery time is set for 4-6 weeks.  Also, shipping is highway robbery at $25 (from them to me -- there would still be shipping from me to Holland).

[patrickl]

Oh wow, you are on the preorder list and you haven't ordered yet? Order quickly and order me one too

[patrickl]

and ...  did you get it, did you get it, did you get it?  (saw you on the livescribe forum with a shipping date for today)

[shmokes]

Not yet.