The Pulse pen is nicely weighted and fun to write with, but the real magic is in the Livescribe Desktop app.
When you think of the future, what comes to mind? Hovercraft, jetpacks, and everyone wearing androgynous zippered bodysuits with communicators built into the shoulders? Possibly. But we doubt you’d think of a pen. Neither did we—until we started testing Livescribe’s Pulse smartpen, which is an ink pen that records ambient audio while linking it to what you’re writing, so you can easily find key sections of the audio by just tapping on your notes.
Sound too complicated? Think of it this way: You’re sitting in a meeting, lecture, or interview, but instead of frantically trying to scribble down ideas or quotations as they’re being spoken, you can actually listen to what’s going on and easily find key audio snippets later. Everything you write in the special dot-paper notebooks, even just a Q for “quotation,” acts as a bookmark to that part of the audio recording.
The Pulse features dual noise-canceling microphones, a speaker, a small OLED display, and an audio jack for the included 3D earbuds (which have built-in mics to capture directional audio from all around you). The infrared camera behind the pen tip captures 72 pictures per second, using Dot Positioning System technology to remember everything you write or draw on the special paper, which is covered by tiny blue dots arranged in complex patterns. Extra notepads start at $7.95 each, and you can even print out your own dot paper if your printer supports 600 dpi resolution.
The dot paper has a row of “buttons” printed along the bottom that you tap with the pen tip to start and stop recording, play back audio, and change applications (other packed-in apps include a toy piano, a calculator, a translator demo, and a couple of demo movies that play on the OLED). It’s all totally intuitive, but Livescribe’s demos and manual provide extra help too.
To use the main app, called Paper Replay, you start a recording and jot your notes. The Pulse automatically links your writing to the recording, and if you tap the pen on your notes (right in the notebook!) during playback, the audio jumps to that location instantly. Dock the pen in the USB charging cradle to upload your time-stamped audio and notes to the Livescribe Desktop software, where you can search the text, play your recordings and export them as AAC files, click your notes to jump around in the recording, and even watch your notes and doodles being dynamically redrawn on your Mac as the audio plays. (We had fun making up a story aloud, illustrating it live, and then watching our pictures be redrawn in Livescribe Desktop.)
You can even record a lecture with the Pulse without taking notes, then jot notes later as you’re playing back the audio, and the notes will still link up to the audio. Printing notes is easy, and you can save them as PDFs from the Print dialog. The Livescribe Online service lets you upload 250MB of recordings to keep private, share, or even post content to Facebook. We had some trouble getting our smartpen linked to our Livescribe Online account so we could upload items (the Windows version of Livescribe Desktop provides better direct links to Livescribe Online than the Mac version does), but the friendly Live Chat person helped us out.
We loved writing with this well-balanced, classy pen, and the powerful Paper Replay functions worked incredibly well. Businesspeople, journalists, students, secretaries, and anyone who takes a lot of notes during talks will find this an invaluable tool.
Pen and headphones capture 3D audio and link it to the notes you make on the dot paper. Pen contains other apps like a recorder, calculator, and toy piano. Print your own dot paper (600 dpi printer required). Livescribe Desktop software lets you search your notes and share them.
No OCR to translate your written notes to plain text. Livescribe Online glitchy for Mac 
travajito
November 14, 2009 at 9:09am
in your most recent print issue you quoted the price at 1199.00 and up. FYI, they are a lot cheaper at Target.
jgorski
September 02, 2009 at 6:22am
The desktop software checks for updates over the internet. This cannot be disabled. Fair enough - they have some ‘online pen lovers’ community thing going and everyone is wired these days. But at work I have a firewall (like most schools, offices, hospitals, libraries, coffee shops - okay everywhere but home).
The CHECK for updates works - but the UPDATE ITSELF does not work through a firewall.
This happens EVERY TIME YOU CONNECT THE PEN TO THE PC - EVERY TIME. YOU CANNOT DISABLE IT. YOU HAVE TO CLICK ‘DECLINE’. Then it asks you if you REALLY want to decline the update you just declined. Yes - you have to click twice every time you connect the pen.
Now I’m mad. So I send an email to tech support.
They say that it’s not their problem - they send me links to other frustrated users who have written their own software to try and correct the issue. This doesn’t correct my issue, but then again it’s just another frustrated user trying to be helpful. So I send more email to the Livescribe support staff. They stop returning my emails. These are not CAP LOCK email, these are polite but firm requests for help. I even offer to beta test software if they have something that they think might help!
I post on the Livescribe blog - within seconds (really!) I get a reply telling me that they can help and I can expect some support soon.
Then they stop replying to my email - and they disable commenting on their blog. No kidding.
I’m not sure what to do now.
MacBookPro
March 30, 2009 at 9:48pm
I have used this program since it was beta for mac in late November. There have been 2 major updates. You should download the desktop program and make sure your firmware update has been applied to your pen.As of today, March 31, version 1.1 of the livescribe desktop for mac has been released and version 1.5 of the pen firmware. You need to start up the desktop version, be connected to the internet, run the update and then plug in your pen to see if there are any firmware updates available to download the updates.Amazingly, there is handwriting recognition. I can write the word "test" and it will find it as if it were text. I can PROMISE you my handwriting is not that good. Certainly it is not 100% accurate. But out of the box, after the updates, to be able to search your handwritten notes for a word you used is pretty cool. (There appears to be a PC version program or extra that will convert your handwriting to text that is not available yet on the mac).I bought my pen with 5 notebooks, ink cartridges, etc. at Costco in November as a package. It was cheaper than anyone else. I have been sporadically using the product at seminars and meetings. The ability to take notes while a speaker is talking and play that back later is very useful.There have been a couple of issues with renaming the sound files and losing the relationship to the handwriting that have existed so I stopped renaming the sound files. Hopefully, that will be fixed.Before you record something you will be relying upon, play around with the different settings, audio quality and distances of what you are recording to get used to what you can expect.Review the forums and call support if you have problems.In the end, I would not drop $150+ on this if you think you will never use it. However, if you take notes and want to record interviews, seminars, etc., this is a very cool pen.
Sigil
March 30, 2009 at 2:55pm
"No OCR to translate your written notes to plain text. Livescribe Online glitchy for Mac." This is MacLife right?
