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Time has weighed in on back-to-school gadgets, and listed Pulse as the #3 Best Back-to-School gadget!
Pulse is featured in addition to gadgets like the Apple iPhone 3G, MacBook Pro, Amazon Kindle DX, Sony PSP Go, and the Microsoft Explorer Mini-Mouse, and more.
Check out Time’s list of the Top 25 Back-to-School Gadgets!
Post written by Mark Zecy with American Micro.
Connect with him via e-mail or on LinkedIn.
Mark Zecy
I recently bought a new Pulse Smartpen-the technology is amazing.
I never thought I would benefit from a pen that not only writes, but also records voices, has a video camera, translates to multiple languages, calculates and has up to 2 GB of memory. I’ll never again take pages of notes and forget what I was hearing at the time.
With the way Pulse works, McGyver would be envious. It’s now been several weeks since getting my new pen. I’ve demonstrated it to many people, and I’ve been very focused on my note taking in meetings and during sales presentations.
So what’s my take on the new pen?
My new pen is just another sign of the rapid pace of technology changing the way we do business. But no matter how small the tool, or sophisticated the technology, at the end of it all - we still have paper.
I continue to have important contracts that need to be signed, documents to be shared, and pages upon pages of important notes. And now I have a nifty little pen to make sure I don’t forget anything.
If you’re interested in buying a Pulse smartpen outside of the United States, please visit the Livescribe international resellers’ websites below.
Territory
MyScript for Livescribe lets Pulse smartpen users edit handwritten notes in Word, create a dictionary of frequently used words, and even convert shapes, drawings and tables.
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – July 27, 2009 – Livescribe Inc. (www.livescribe.com) and Vision Objects announced today the availability of a handwriting-to-text transcription service for Mac users, bringing handwriting-recognition software to a larger community of Pulse smartpen users. Mac users can download a 30-day free trial or buy MyScript for Livescribe online from Vision Objects, an expert in ergonomic, easy-to-use alternatives for text input.
“Handwriting-to-text transcription has been one of the most frequently requested applications from our Mac user community, and we are very excited to finally be able to provide this capability through our partnership with Vision Objects” said Eric Petitt, senior director of marketing for Livescribe. “Vision Objects is known for providing the highest recognition accuracy in the market, with confidence second to none.”
With MyScript for Livescribe, Pulse smartpen users can make edits to their converted text and even create a personal dictionary of frequently used words, names, abbreviations or terms for an even more accurate conversion. They can also:
• Directly send handwritten notes from Livescribe Desktop to MyScript,
• Convert shapes, drawings and tables, as well as handwriting,
• Send edited text to Microsoft Word or email, or save it as a picture file.
Vision Objects has been developing handwriting recognition technology for laboratories, universities and corporations worldwide since 1998. “Livescribe’s ‘computer-in-a-pen’ radically transforms the way students take notes collectively as well as individually,” said Jean-Marc Aïchoun, vice president of sales and marketing for Vision Objects. “Sharing technologies such as pencasts and MyScript for Livescribe invite a new level of collaboration likely to change the way people teach, learn and create information.”
Pulse smartpen owners can download a free 30-day trial or purchase MyScript at http://www.visionobjects.com/handwriting_recognition/pulse/pulse.htm.
Mac users must be operating Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger or 10.5 Leopard on an Intel processor.
Looking to share your notes and audio with friends, classmates or colleagues? Whether you’re a Mac or PC user, sharing your notes is easy through the Livescribe Online community.
Sharing Private Files
By default, when you upload your notes and recordings to Livescribe Online, they are marked as private files that only you can see online.
To let your friends see your notes, simply add their e-mail addresses to your Access List. Once they create a Livescribe Online account (with the e-mail address you added to your Access List) and log in, they can play your interactive pencasts online or download your notes as a PDF file.
Sharing Public Files
If you make your pencast public, you can link to the file or share it on Facebook by posting it to your profile’s newsfeed. You can even send it as a Facebook message! Anyone who has your file link can watch your pencast or download your notes into a PDF file.
If you want to promote your notes or pencasts publicly, you can share it on the Livescribe Community page and select what category you want it to appear in.
The Livescribe team made a splash at the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) last month held in Washington D.C. Check out some of our pictures from the Pulse booth, where we gave away Pulse smartpens to some lucky winners!
For more pictures, visit our Facebook page.
Entering to win a free Pulse pen!
Teachers and educators learn how to bring Pulse to their classrooms.
A lucky winner!
A happy new Pulse owner.
BusinessWeek and research company YouNoodle have selected Livescribe in addition to 49 other buzz-worthy tech startups from around the world worth paying attention to in their 2009 list.
Livescribe is honored alongside the likes of Ning, AdMob, RockYou, Slide, and Monitise.
Read about it on BusinessWeek’s Fifty Tech Startups You Should Know!
Post Written by Tracy Wendt, IT professional. Connect with him on Twitter.
Tracy Wendt
I used to take notes by hand in paper notebooks since all I had was a desktop computer. Trying to find my notes from a week or two prior was a nightmare and wasted a lot of time. I finally received a notebook computer to carry with me, but lugging that thing around with all the requisite cables and accessories was another pain to deal with.
Last February, I picked up the 2GB Pulse smartpen after doing some research on it (with several notebooks and a couple of journals) and began to use it at work and school.
I fell instantly in love and now carry it with me all the time. At work I can leave the notebook computer on my desk and just grab a journal with the smartpen and run to a meeting. I write my notes on one project then go to the next meeting and continue with notes regarding a different project.
Once uploaded, I can search through my notes quickly and easily to find what I need. Colleagues are continually amazed at how quickly I can find references to specific details and meetings. I won’t trade my pen for anything now.
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Are you on-the-go with tons of notes to keep track of? Try these tips from Tracy to make your note-taking even easier:
Interested in sharing how you use your Pulse smartpen? Email Karen at klee @ livescribe.com.
