Livescribe is the latest company to take a stab at creating a digital pen that’s mightier than the regular kind. The Pulse ballpoint captures audio digitally, so you can record a meeting while you take notes. Later, review any part of the recording by tapping the tip of the pen to your corresponding scribbles.
A tiny infrared camera mounted in the Pulse snaps 72 images per second to track what you write. To synch those images with audio, the Pulse requires paper that’s coated with a faint dot pattern. Livescribe sells it at $20 for a pack of four 100-sheet notebooks. This summer, the company expects to offer a downloadable application that lets Pulse owners print dotted paper themselves on standard printers. Ordering ($150 for 1 GB of memory, $200 for 2 GB) and specs at livescribe.com.
Expect eight hours of recording and writing time per charge on Pulse’s lithium battery. The 1-gigabyte pen holds more than 100 hours of recorded audio and 16,000 pages of notes, which you can upload to a computer hard drive or post on line.
