Echo Smartpen by Livescribe

I was looking for some gadget to capture whatever that I wrote in paper and send it to people via my laptop. And if it can capture any audio (any ideas that I can talk about), I’m considering it as a bonus. I’ve search high and low for it, until I found Echo smartpen by Livescribe.

I like to write in my free time. And sometimes I need to send my stuff to other people and share the ideas with them. It’s quite difficult to scan something that I wrote in my manual notebook, thus the idea of having a smartpen is quite interesting.

Echo smartpen by Livescribe

I am able to capture everything that I hear and write. Imagine having to write minutes of meeting (which I done thousands of times) and there’s no access to your laptop. The pen is able to capture everything you write on your notebook (in this case, the special A4 notebook by Livescribe) and at the same time, you can record the proceeding of the meeting. After the meeting, all you have to do is to sync it with your laptop (Windows or Mac) and it’s automagically converted via the Livescribe Desktop, where you can view back everything on your own time.

Starter pack

The one that I bought is the 2Gb version. This is enough, in my opinion, based on my habit of transferring everything to my laptop everyday.

What's inside the box

The starterpack comes with the pen, smartpen cap, USB cable, literatures and a starter dot paper.

Echo smartpen

On the pen itself, there are on/off button, micro-USB connector, audio jack (which can fit your standard 3.5mm earphone), high contrast OLED display, microphone (to capture audio), build-in speaker (to hear your playback audio) and soft rubber grip.

A4 Notebook by Livescribe

You have to buy the Livescribe A4 notebook to enhance your experiences with the smartpen. At the bottom of every page, there are special printed icons for your recordings and playbacks (photo at the bottom of this page).

Details of the notebook

The one that I bought comes with 80 sheets paper, each page has its own scientific calculator and divider with two storage pockets.

Printed icons

Pros: Works on both Windows and Mac platforms; easy to use; you’re able to customise your pen with other apps.

Cons: Not cheap; pen is bigger than you think; accessories given with pen are limited; the cap can be easily lost; accessories are also hard to come by; most shops listed as retail shops did not stock enough accessories; only a maximum of 8 numbered notebooks can be used at one time (after that you have to archive and start fresh).

You can check out the pen and its accessories in Malaysia at BIG’ant or retails shops around Malaysia (listed in the website).