In the NY Times Magazine yesterday there was a fascinating article about the Livescribe pen. This is a pen designed to record sound while you are taking notes. You write on special paper, and while reviewing you can point to a word on the paper and have the pen play back what was being said while you were writing that phrase.
They are still a bit pricey - $169 for a 4 Gbyte version on Amazon, but appealing as a toy. I’m not in any classes, but I do take minutes for lots of meetings, and I’m not all that good at it, often forgetting to write while discussing something. A pen where I could review the discussion around a key point would be good. The secretary for our conference committee could use one also.
As a matter of fact, a colleague demonstrated his for me today…I was blown away since I had no idea this particular technology existed. He not only replayed the audio of the seminar he attended by tapping the pen down on various places in his notes, he changed the language into spanish also did some tap-tap math calculations whose answers appeared in a little window on the pen.
Amazing. I could have used that thing in my college calculus class.
The company seems to keep its light under a bushel. They are up the road from me, in Oakland, but don’t seem to advertise anywhere I can find. You’d think they’d advertise in colleges, at least. My daughter graduated last year and never mentioned it. I’ll see if she has ever heard of it.