In January, we posted several Pulse demo videos that show different features of the smartpen and how it works.

While filming these videos, we had a few extra minutes to spare and made a goofy vignette comparing a Pulse smartpen with a regular pen (played by Zac, our multi-talented graphic designer). Probably not ready for prime time - but we thought we’d pass it along.

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Dear Livescribe customers,

We noticed a nasty glitch in our software that generated some of your order email confirmations. A small number of the first customers who placed orders today received April 7th as the shipment date in their email confirmation, despite being given a different date when they first created their Livescribe account.

We quickly fixed this bug - and the receipts on any new orders placed now accurately reflect your shipment date. For those of you who got the conflicting shipment message - we’re sorry for the mix-up. The date you received when you initially created a Livescribe account is the accurate shipment date based on your preorder priority.

Thanks,
Livescribe Customer Support

Just a quick update - we just sent out an email to our preorder customers, with instructions on how to complete your order. If you don’t want to wait for the email to arrive in your inbox, click here to see the email.

Greetings,

I would like to thank the thousands of readers, writers, bloggers, callers, developers, scribers and buyers for your support and interest in our Pulse smartpen and platform.

We have been overwhelmed with requests for information and preorders for Pulse that have far exceeded our early projections.

As this demand has accelerated in the past month, we have continued working towards our first shipment date of March 31st, and have struggled to determine how to address preorders that far exceed our early production ramp. We noted Amazon’s approach to handling shipment for their high-demand Kindle e-book, and ongoing Wii shortages, and have compared this to our own challenge, as a new company, to address our backlog.

In retrospect, our hiatus in our communication is long overdue. I apologize for this. As I considered posting a blog entry numerous times, new concerns regarding growing demand arose, as well as meeting our growing backlog. Perhaps we were overly cautious in not wanting to send an ambiguous message.

The time for ambiguity is past.

I am delighted to announce that we will begin shipping in limited volume on March 31st, as targeted.

To address our backlog, we will open the Livescribe Store only to our preorder list of customers, enabling you to immediately place a credit card order on Monday. At that time, we will provide you with an estimated shipment date based upon when you first preordered your smartpen. If you are already on our preorder list, look for an email on Monday, March 31st with instructions on how to complete your order.

Thanks again for you patience! We look forward to welcoming you to the Livescribe community.

Best regards,

Jim

We’re excited to share a story with you from Zara, a college student who is using a beta version of Pulse. Enjoy!

Zara wrote:

I just wanted to mention that Pulse REALLY helped me study for my math midterm today (which I aced). I was worried that the smartpen might just be one of those gadgets you think you’re going to use, and then it ends up sitting in a drawer, but I really used it. My professor is really hard to learn from in lecture because he stands in front of the board, so I can’t see problems, and his handwriting is illegible. I ended up using Pulse to go over my notes when I finally got frustrated with them, and it was amazing!

My professor’s lecture suddenly became totally understandable when I could listen to his anecdotes alongside my own handwriting, and I realized what a good teacher he is. Now I understand that almost all of the communication problems we have are just because he’s practically blind, can’t see what he’s writing, and has to stand so close to the board. I wish he’d just use overheads, though.