Over the summer, the Pulse smartpen headed south to Hollywood for demonstrations to folks in the entertainment industry.

In June, attendees of the MTV Movie Awards checked out the Pulse in the gift lounge atop a hotel.

A week later, more celebs checked out the Pulse smartpen backstage at the 2008 TV Land Awards. Samuel Jackson, Kathy Griffin, Judah Friedlander, William Shatner and others took in smartpen demos at the event.

Jason Priestley and ER’s Christine Elise check out the Pulse smartpen at the 2008 MTV Movie Awards.

Debbie Gibson holds a Pulse smartpen at the 2008 MTV Movie Awards.

Leslie David Baker sees how the Pulse smartpen would work wonders around The Office at the 2008 TV Land Awards.

Former Project Runway contestant Nick Verrios with the Pulse smartpen at the 2008 MTV Movie Awards.

Samuel Jackson checks to see if there are any snakes on the smartpen at the 2008 TV Land Awards.

Entertainment Tonight’s Jann Carl models the Pulse smartpen at the 2008 TV Land Awards.

The Pulse smartpen is featured in Target’s Weekly Ad today, so pick up a newspaper near you and take a look! You can also view it online here.

In addition, check out the Wall Street Journal’s video review of the Pulse smartpen. Produced by tech reporter, Andy Jordan, the video is called “Hands on Gizmos: Digitally Inked.” Click to watch the video.

Today we announced our national retail rollout for the Pulse smartpen, with availability at Target, Target.com, Amazon.com, and major college and university bookstores supported by The Douglas Stewart Company. Our partnerships will greatly expand the availability of Pulse smartpens to customers across the country.

At Target stores, you’ll be able to see the Pulse smartpen first hand and learn more about its capabilities through an interactive video demonstration. The Pulse smartpen, dot paper, and accessories will be available in the Electronics department at Target stores nationwide and through Target.com beginning July 13.

Starting July 1, the Pulse smartpen, dot paper, and accessories will also be available for purchase through the nation’s largest online retailer, Amazon.com.

When college students head back to campus this fall, they will find the Pulse smartpen and accessories in select university bookstores and computer stores through The Douglas Stewart Company.

The Pulse smartpen, dot paper and accessories are also available for purchase at www.livescribe.com/store.

Thanks for your patience as we finished taking orders from our preorder customers. Starting today, the Pulse smartpen is now available to the public via our online store at www.livescribe.com.

Current shipment estimates are roughly 4-6 weeks from your date of purchase, and are subject to change based on demand. So order now - and never miss a word again!

You’ll also notice this week that we’ve changed our website here and there. One of the things we are trying to do is improve our responsiveness to the Livescribe community. To that end, we are modifying our company blog to a post-only format, and encouraging questions, suggestions, and feedback from our customers moving forward in our Customer Support forums.

Please check out our forum page at www.livescribe.com/support and continue to send us your comments and suggestions.

You can listen to NPR’s Morning Edition coverage on the Pulse smartpen by clicking on the link below:

High-Tech Pen Makes Note-Taking Easier, Morning Edition on NPR
April 21, 2008 - by Cyrus Farivar

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.