Livescribe has launched a budget version of its smartpen that will also make handwritten notes and recorded audio easy to share as pencasts via social networks and email.
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The Echo and Pulse smartpens, which digitally capture everything you hear and write when written on special notepaper, map and synchronise penstrokes and audio so that it can be converted into PDF format and shared with anyone in the world.
When you want to listen to what you’ve recorded, you simply tap anywhere on your handwritten notes either on your Livescribe notebook, on a computer or on a mobile device, to play back your notes.
Now the company has launched new software called Connect, which can send handwritten notes and recorded audio as interactive pencasts through Facebook, Google Docs, Email, Evernote, and even smartphones. Pencasts can be taken advantage of with Adobe’s new sharing capabilities that use embedded Flash within PDFs.
To share notes using Livescribe Connect, all you have to do is draw a line and write the name of the destination on your notepad, for instance Facebook, and then tap the pages to send. When the smartpen is next docked to a computer, the notes and audio are automatically sent to their destinations.
Jim Marggraff, CEO and founder of Livescribe said: “Millions of pages of handwritten notes are taken daily in meetings, classes, and brainstorming sessions. These notes have incredible value, but are trapped in the pages of your notebook. With Livescribe Connect, it is easy to make your handwritten notes and spoken information digital, searchable, shareable and accessible any time, anywhere with a simple tap of your smartpen.”
People can also use Livescribe Connect within Livescribe’s free desktop software – by dragging and dropping pages of notes to Connector icons. Connectors include Email, Google Docks, Facebook, Evernote, mobiles including iPads and iPhones, computers and the MyLivescribe Connector software, which gives you 500MB of free online storage for pencasts.
The 2GB Echo smartpen starter pack retails at $149 and stores more than 200 hours of audio. It comes with several sheets of Livescribe paper as well as Connect Basic software.
Users who want to upgrade to the Premium software can download it from Livescribe’s online store for an added $14.99.
Accessories for the 2GB Echo smartpen will be available from Dick Smith, JB Hi-Fi, David Jones, Officeworks and smartpen.com.au
Current Livescribe customers can begin using the Connect software by installing the latest version of Livescribe Desktop at www.livescribe.com/install.
