What do you think about a pen that records as well as indexes an audio recording while it is happening?
Atlantic Monthly’s National Correspondent, James Fallows, writes that he can hardly be without his Lifescribe Plus pen, which he bought last year, just after its introduction. “It looks like a somewhat bulky cigar-shaped metallic writing instrument. Inside it contains a high-end audio recording system and assorted computer circuitry. When you turn it on, it starts recording what you are hearing–and also matches what is being said, instant by instant (in fact, using photos it takes 72 times per second”, with notes or drawings that you’re making in a special light scribe notebook..…
If the professor is explaining a complex equation during a lecture, you write ‘equation,’ or anything else–and later when you click on that term, either in the original notebook or on images of the pages transferred to your computer screen, it plays back that exact part of the discussion. (Works on both Macs and PCs.)”
Fallows says the battery lasts for several full days between recharges and the pen can hold dozens of hours of recordings. The pen costs $129 and up depending on the capacity. This summer Lifescribe introduced a new model, the Echo ($161), with “a slightly thinner, futuristic-looking design and some new features, like the ability to transmit marked-up notebook pages over a computer network so they serve as a shared ‘white board’ for remote meetings.”
By the way, the special notebooks have 100 pages and cost $25 each.
Sounds too good to be true…sounds like this gadget will revolutionize my life, which always is a warning not to buy. I remember Apple’s Newton, which never did software that synched with my Mac.
On the other hand…this gadget might be pretty handy for Christmas present for some of the people on my list, several of whom are as gadget loving as I am, especially those on boards and commissions where it would be handy to be able to re-listen to what was said about a particular topic.
Of course, it’s way too early to buy presents now. Or is it? Remember the Kindle debacles over the last few years when Amazon sold out of Kindle’s by early October? Maybe I should look into this miracle pen by mid-September. Maybe I should buy a test one for myself. Now.