Jacquie Berger, ThePalestra.com’s reporter at
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Jacquie Berger, ThePalestra.com’s reporter at
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From sketch artists, to researchers, students, and business professionals, everyone has a different idea of when, where and how they’d use the Livescribe smartpen. So what’s yours? Write us back by submitting a comment below. We’ll pick our favorite response on January 4, 2008 and send you a smartpen for free when we start shipping the product.
In the meantime - check out what our group friends are saying on Facebook, and have a look at what other blogs are saying:
Livescribe - Paradigm Shifting User Research Technology?
“While the [Livescribe] was not designed for user research applications, consider how it might be applied:
Ethnography: Saved by Technology?
“Enter the [smartpen] from [Livescribe]. The [smartpen] allows us to take notes even as we capture a taped version of what is said, and then to interpolate between them as need be. The [smartpen] gives us both the topographical map and the treasure map.”
“Unfortunately, at least some of that time you really do need an accurate transcription, particularly of complex ideas that are new to you and so are hard to summarize. That’s where being able to replay just that portion of the lecture with Livescribe would be incredibly useful.”
Pen Cures Restless Mind Syndrome, Reveals Office Secrets
“For business purposes, the uses are endless. The pen can attend those mindless weekly traffic meetings on your behalf.”
“This would have been a dream device for me when I was a student. I was always sloppy with my notes and would often spend hours trying to figure out why I circled three times “War/zoo analogy”. Seemed important at the time, but when it came time to study, I’d have to put on my Sherlock Holmes hat and try to figure out what the heck it meant. With this, I could double click, rewind a few minutes and just hear it again.”
“I am the old fashion type who likes to take notes by hand rather than type through a lecture. (As a former radio journalist, I also like to have my tape recorder going to catch those important quotes!)”
By popular demand, we’re going to try to finally answer your most burning questions in your blog comments.
Before we start, there’s one little caveat. Until we hit our official product announcement in late January, we will not be able to share key product and platform information (including detailed specs, pricing and other information about the product and platform). Please bear with us, and keep the questions and feedback coming. We will answer what we can. If you haven’t yet, sign up to pre-order a smartpen, and you will be among the first to know the remaining specifics about the product at launch.
So, without further ado - here is the first installment of our “FASAQ” Top Ten:
1. So what happens when the smartpen runs out of ink?
The smartpen has a removable ink tip, so when your smartpen runs out of ink you can easily take it out and replace it with a new ink cartridge. The smartpen will come standard with a few ink cartridges and others can be easily ordered online. Note: It might surprise you to know that even if your ink ran out, the smartpen would continue to capture all of your strokes and audio as well as work with pre-printed applications.
2. What kind of paper will be available?
Initially, we’ll offer college ruled notebooks and a smaller journal-style option. Other details will be available at launch.
3. Can I transfer my handwritten speeches/notes/stories/etc. to a word document or something similar?
You’ll be able to transfer your recorded audio and notes to your PC as well as review them, search them by keyword, or share them online. Information on 3rd party ink-to-text transcription solutions will be available at launch.
4. Is the smartpen and platform Mac-compatible?
Livescribe is committed to serving both the Windows and Macintosh platforms. The first release of the Livescribe Desktop software is for Windows XP and Vista operating systems. A Macintosh version of the Livescribe Desktop is planned for the second half of 2008. More precise timing and details will be announced after launch.
5. Will the smartpen be available outside the U.S.?
At launch in late January, the Livescribe smartpen will be available in the U.S. market for purchase online. More details on our international distribution plans will be announced later.
6. How much memory does it hold?
Sorry, we can’t share until launch. But we can say that users would easily be able to record the audio from every episode of Lost and still have significant room to spare!
7. Can I record audio without writing?
Great question - yes!
8. What kind of applications are on the smartpen?
The Paper Replay application, as shown in our Sneak Peek animation here will be a standard part of our smartpen experience. Other bundled software and applications available for sale online will be announced later. What applications do you want? We’d love to hear what applications you have in mind.
9. Will the smartpen have a cap?
The smartpen will include a bundled solution that will protect the tip of the smartpen and the smartpen itself. (Come on, don’t you want to be surprised?!)
10. I’m a lefty. Will that be a problem?
Nope - you can toggle the direction of the smartpen’s OLED display, so lefty’s or righty’s can easily read the screen.
Efforts are underway to loosen our collars and have a little fun here at Livescribe. We just launched a little site (warning: geared towards college students!) addressing the pain of “Restless Mind Syndrome” - a common “ailment” among college students as well as adults today: check out http://www.nevermissaword.com/. Take a look and let me know what you think…
By the way, if you haven’t signed up yet (and need a little extra incentive), anyone who pre-orders a smartpen before 12/31/07 on www.livescribe.com gets free shipping and handling when we ship in Q1 2008.
Thanks for your support - keep the comments coming!
Eric Petitt
Director of Marketing
It wasn’t too long ago that I was a graduate student - taking notes, studying for tests, and writing papers. My life was filled with lots of paperwork and lots of stress as I worked to get everything “right.” Now I’m in front of the class as a professor, and none of that pressure has gone away. If you’re a student in my class, you write one paper…but I grade 90 papers. Same goes for tests. (The one redeeming factor is that I know the answers ahead of time.) =)
I can’t wait until the smartpen is available for my students - and for me. At Livescribe, we’ve spent a lot of time developing a user interface and applications that will make life a lot easier and less stressful.
My area of expertise is instructional technology. I spend a lot of my time trying to figure out how to use technology to make teaching and learning more effective, efficient, and accessible. It turns out that there’s a lot the scientific research community has learned about how to do this. Unfortunately, much of what is known is buried in dusty journals–the science hasn’t been turned into technology.
This is what we’ve done at Livescribe. We’ve taken this scientific knowledge and created easy-to-use applications that will help you to work more efficiently and think more effectively, with the end result that you will learn more quickly and remember what you’ve learned for longer.
I look forward to sharing with you, through this blog, the science behind how our pen and our applications work. I think you’ll be amazed at what you’re capable of if given the right tools.
Andy Van Schaack, Ph.D.
Senior Science Advisor
Welcome to the first installment of our company blog!
Sorry we’ve been silent as of late…We’ve had our heads down plugging away for the last few months getting ready for launch in Q1. Meanwhile, we’ve continued to hear from many of you, and incorporated much of your feedback into our launch plans. Keep it coming!
You might be asking, “why a blog?” We realized that we haven’t taken the time to reach out to our community of friends and colleagues about what’s been happening back at the farm.
This blog, launching today, is our effort to give the Livescribe faithful (and the curious) a close-up view of what’s happening at the company - straight from the mouths of some of our 50+ employees - with different people posting about new developments or sharing insights about Livescribe. We’ll update this blog regularly as we ramp up for our smartpen and platform launch in Q1 2008. We also hope this blog becomes a place for you to get in touch with us. Feel free to write your comments, questions and feedback about the platform, and we’ll answer what we can.
It promises to be an exciting few months. So stay tuned for notes and messages from the team. Thanks for reading, and stay along for the ride.
-The Livescribe Team
Just wanted to drop a note to say hello from all of us at Livescribe and welcome to our company blog.
At Livescribe, we’ve combined the four basic modes of human communication – reading, writing, speaking and listening – into a device the form and function of a pen. By connecting the digital world with a simple piece of paper, this smartpen allows you to better capture, access, and share information and ideas in a totally new way.
As we head towards launch, we welcome you to share with us your feedback, thoughts and ideas. I’ll do the same.
So standby. We’re working intensely, towards our launch and product availability in early 2008, and are pleased to kick off a dialogue – first with keystrokes on your computer screen, and soon with ink and voice – wherever!
-Jim Marggraff, CEO
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