pens

Is the digital pen mightier?

For decades, tech companies have been trying to create a digital pen that appeals to the masses. But after years of effort, the world isn't exactly overrun with high-tech quills.

A new crop of companies, however, say it's too soon to write off the idea.

This week, Irvine, Calif.-based Iogear announced plans for a digital pen that can work with standard paper. Last month, educational computer maker LeapFrog introduced the FlyFusion, its second go at the digital pen. And later this year, Silicon Valley start-up LiveScribe plans to introduce a $200 device that can not only take … Read more

Digital pen does its part to save forests

Although saving trees has long been a standard cliche of the digital revolution, we all continue to waste reams of paper despite our best intentions. But EPOS Technologies is at least contributing to the effort with a way to minimize unnecessary pulp duplication.

The Israel-based company is getting ready to release a digital pen that records the intricate movements of your handwriting and stores them on a USB flash drive. Your exact writing or illustration can then be reproduced on a screen and distributed at will, reducing or eliminating the need for physical copies. The pen's receiver, which senses … Read more

Smartpens and dotpaper

As a student, I struggled to keep my notes organized and I have only faired better as a journalist through my abandonment of pen and paper. Over the years I've encountered many other people who have also struggled to keep their notes organized and for many of us a notebook computer has been the only solution. Or is it?

Livescribe, an Oakland based company, has recently introduced a suite of high-tech products which will likely put a whole new spin on the low-tech world of pen and paper. According to Livescribe, the smartpen will be available for less than $200 and the specialized electronic paper products will supposedly be comparable to paper of the old-school variety. They have three video demonstrations of the product in action, and given what I've seen I'm quite excited to actually get my hands on a Smartpen soon and see for myself. According to Livescribe the pen will be available in the fourth quarter of this year.

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Do you need a computer in your pen?

Here is one good reason that I take a ballpoint and a pad of paper to interviews, instead of a PC: so I never have to say to the person I'm talking to, "Wait, let me reboot my pen."

But that's what Jim Marggraff, CEO of Livescribe (site may not be live yet), told me last week when he was firing up a demo of his company's new product, the "smart pen" that he'll be showing off at the D5 conference tomorrow.

In fairness, the pen he was showing me was a prototype, and I forgive reboots during development. Also, it's a cool product. Like the Anoto pen and Leapfrog's Fly "pentop computer," which Marggraff also worked on, and also like Logitech's io2, the Livescribe Smartpen uses a sensor to record what it writes when you write on special "dot paper," which is ordinary paper with a faint encoded background that the pen uses to know not just what you're writing but on which individual piece of paper. You upload your pen's recordings to your computer when you want to archive your notes and make room for new ones.

The Anoto and Logitech pens are primarily writing recording devices. The Leapfrog pen has some smarts: it can solve algebraic equations that you write, for example, and speak the results. But it's a clunky, toy-like device. The Livescribe pen has smarts, as well as a speaker and an OLED display to tell you about what you're writing, and it's also much smaller and more pen-like. The most useful feature, though, is this: you can take notes and have the pen record audio at the same time. Later, after you've downloaded your pen's files to your PC, you can select text and get the audio that the pen was recording at the moment you wrote it. (I've used a similar feature in OneNote, but it requires you write or type on a PC.) Bonus geek feature: the pen comes with in-ear binaural mics for recording audio, so playback of a professor's speech should come through clearly (along with your swallowing and breathing, but what price education?).

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'Prison pen' is just for writing

Looking for the perfect gift for the prisoner in your life? Consider the so-called prison pen, which is made from a soft rubbery material that bends under the slightest pressure, making it virtually impossible to do lethal damage with it.

The pen may not be good for stabbing or shivving, but you just know the ingenious Andy Dufresne from Shawshank Redemption would still be able to incorporate it into some impossibly brilliant escape scheme. The product, which is already in use at U.S. federal prisons, according to Spycatcher, sells at that site for $10. And truthfully, prison references aside, … Read more

'Spy pen' isn't worthy of 24

Speaking of Jack Bauer, this product is not one you'd find in the pocket of his Kevlar vest. The "Digital Spy Camera Pen" reminds us of something Ian Fleming's "Q" would have provided as standard equipment for Her Majesty's Secret Service. And with images of only 160x120 resolution, the quality is about as good as a gadget from the 1960s as well, though MobileWhack says the small file sizes mean the pen can store up to 36 photos. At $60, you'd think this would have for more than 2MB of storage these … Read more

But can it read your doctor's writing?

Despite all the tablet computers in the world, few people would choose to write longhand using a screen and a stylus when paper is an option, as fellow Craver Leslie Katz observes. Taiwan-based Genius knows this well, which is why it has developed the G-Note 7100, a digital tablet that MobileWhack says will let you store your chicken scratches on the computer through a USB connection.

That's hardly unique--it's really the point of having such products, after all--but the Genius model does have some other convenient features. One is that it can use any letter-sized notepad, unlike some … Read more

This flashlight packs 800,000 volts

What does it say about society when combo consumer gadgets are made out of weapons? That's what aptly named Street Wise has done with its "Lightning Rod," a 6-inch cylinder that SlashGear says can send an 800,000-volt Valentine to an assailant. The combo part is a built-in LED flashlight, so you can make sure you're not zapping a friend or family member by mistake in the dark. Just remember, if you decide to use it for ordinary flashlight duties such as changing your oil, be sure to keep the safety lock on.

A mouse that thinks it's a pen

Finally, a mouse design that makes some sense. And maybe that's because it's not really a mouse at all.

The "Wow-Pen" seen on Chip Chick combines three features for which we have an undying appreciation: It's germ-free, includes an untethered laser pointer and has an ergonomic design that isn't weird. (After all, we started using quills this way centuries ago.)

Make that four features: It also looks pretty nifty and actually comes in colors that don't look like they came from a cartoon.