Comments on: Livescribe 4GB Pulse Smartpen

By: Michael Anderson

Michael Anderson — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Wish I had this years ago
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Much better than I thought it would be. Simple to set up. The recordings are fantastic, even in a large room. The pen is a bit larger than a normal pen, but simple to use. Two people at work bought one after seeing mine in use. Could not be more pleased with this pen..

By: S. Johnson

S. Johnson — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Not compatible with OS 64-bit + Customer Service Terrible
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
I bought the Live Scribe as it looks like it will be helpful for my work.

I had to call Customer Service (snooty know it all Help Desk) and was told that their product is NOT compatible with Windows XP, 64-bit OS.

By: Neous

Neous — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

a smart pen indeed.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I’ve had this pen for nearly a month and it’s been fantastic.

I use it for work which entails a lot of detail gathering

I bought an additional docking station and some notebooks (something to reckon about when doing your cost analysis)

I couldn’t print the dotted pages on my all in one hp printer.

the pen is docked on Mac running snow leopard as well as a WinXP 32

By: Michael G. Romano

Michael G. Romano — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

This is probably the future of note-taking
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1G3SJ7AXRT1PP I have given this pen a week to impress me, and it has. I bought one for myself and one as a gift for my father. You can tell after using the pen a bit that it is probably the future of note-taking. The reason is not because your notes are place into PDF format (you could simply do this by taking regular notes and then scanning your paper into PDF format), but rather because you can make an audio recording of your meeting in real time along with your notes. Two things to be aware of: (1) I don’t reckon this pen would be very helpful for a college student that sits in the back row at lectures. The audio quality is brilliant, but is geared for having a meeting with two to several people in a room– I reckon I would sit close to the sound source if I was going to use this for taking notes at a seminar or lecture. (2) Most states require that you let all parties to a conversation know that they are being recorded. Sometimes you cannot record (i.e. conferences or seminars often don’t allow audio recording and my local courtrooms do not allow audio or video recording while the court is in session).

This pen would be a God-send at a meeting of four or five people discussion a project at work. The person taking notes can not only record the conversation, but simply write down the key points and then later click on the key points to see who offered what sort of thoughts. As an attorney, I reckon cops should be required to carry these pens so that there is no misunderstanding as to what was said or how it was later noted in a report. I am going to use this pen for my client meetings and for taking notes from witnesses.

Here is my overall verdict:

Pros:

Fantastic value for the technology that it is.

It really does work as advertised.

Simple to use.

Cons:

The digital rendition of pen strokes is a small sloppy (but you can still see what was written).

Ink cartridges run out very quick.

Special paper is required (although it’s not very expensive).

By: Marcos A. Quinones

Marcos A. Quinones — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Very Useful Pen
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I have different jobs where the pen is very useful. The function I use most is recording written work, not audio so much. Having a soft copy of my notes is very useful in my line of work.

By: E.B.

E.B. — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Like the product, despise the customer support
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
I got this pen and from the first try loved it. Installation was a breeze and all worked fine… for a day. Then for some reason the Livescribe desktop could not communicate with the pen asking to re-dock it. I followed the online help instructions to the letter but nothing happened. So I contacted customer support. They answered my e-mail straight away which I took for a excellent sign but their advice was just a cut and paste from the online help. When I answered that I had tried everything I could find on their website they stopped answering. For 9 days I have tried e-mailing them asking for somebody, anyone to help. No answer. I was ready to return the pen right after New Year.

Fortunately (or not) my laptop got hurt a couple of days ago and I had to buy a new one. My ancient one was a PC and the new one I got is a Mac. My pen is again communicating with the Livescribe desktop without any problems and I can finally can delight in this wonderful technology.

By: KARE

KARE — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Livescribe for Mac
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I received my Livescribe 4GB Pulse Smartpen as a gift for Christmas and keenly plugged it in immediately upon receiving it. What I didn’t know was that my Mac had a version of OSX that was too ancient, so the desktop interface would not work… a simple $25 fix on Amazon. I now not only have a new Livescribe pen, but Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard as well.

After the Snow Leopard installation, everything works flawlessly. I have a demo version of the transcribing software and except for an unusual word or two, it works very well also. I used the pen to record a meeting while I took notes and it did exactly what it was supposed to do. I can click anywhere on my notes and hear the audio that was recorded at that moment. Marvelous!

My plans for the pen are to use it for pen casts for my online business and also when my husband and I read our next financial book together aloud, I will take notes and record our thoughts for later review. I will use it as well when I attend various business and/or other meetings.

If you are a Mac user, I have looked diligently and I don’t see any other options, unless you have a Windows interface on your Mac. This is your digital pen of choice.

If you are a PC user, there are other options, but this pen has more bells and whistles than any other pen I researched and the company has a reputation for high quality.

By: Njmalhq

Njmalhq — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Lousy software / service
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
Their lousy server keeps timing out, and I can’t get software off of it. Lots of of other people seem to be having this problem, and livescribe tech support is non-responsive since November.

By: L. Byman

L. Byman — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Livescribe 4GB Pulse Smartpen
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This product is unbelievably useful in my field of education/teaching. It works well with the dot paper products, such as the Livescribe Single Subject Spiral Notebook, 4-Pack, Nos. 1-4 and the LiveScribe Flip Notepad.