Livescribe Pulse - Handwriting Takes a Digital Leap Forward

Note taking has one big problem: whether you take notes by writing with a pen or typing on a keyboard, you're forced to strike an uneasy balance between detail and speed so that you don't miss anything but still have a reliable record that you can use hours or days after the initial presentation. Well, what if you had all of the context you needed thanks to a digital pen system that combined your written notes with a recording of the speaker talking? That would probably help eliminate a lot of the worries about accuracy or speed, leaving you to clarify the occasional point with some scrawl.

That's the idea behind Livescribe's new Pulse Smartpen system: it combines a digital pen with special paper that synchronizes your writing with the audio recorded by its built-in microphone, allowing you to download the result to your computer via USB and play it back while reading your notes through the pen's core software. Though the pen isn't cheap - MSRP is $149 for the 1 GB model and $199 for the 2GB model - Livescribe has eliminated one major obstacle to adoption: they've not only stated that their special paper will be comparable in cost to standard notebook paper, but will be offering a free template for use with laser printers starting in April.