By Andrew Liszewski

I’ve written about Livescribe and their venture into the smartpen market before, but today the company officially revealed the Pulse (as it’s now known), as well as new features and pricing info. As you’re probably already aware, the Pulse falls into the category of smartpens that rely on special dot paper in order to track and record a user’s handwriting. While I’m still not thrilled with the idea of being limited to only using this dot pattern paper, Livescribe will at least allow you to print your own instead of having to buy special notebooks all the time like with Leapfrog’s FLY Fusion.

The Pulse can also record audio and sync it to what’s being written on paper. The pen itself includes a built-in microphone, but for better quality recordings you can also use a special ‘3D Recording Headset’ which is basically a pair of earbuds with embedded microphones better suited for large rooms or noisy situations.

As for pricing, a 1GB version of the Pulse which can record 100 hours of audio and 16,000 pages of text will sell for $149. A 2GB version which doubles that capacity will also be available for $199. At the moment both pens can be pre-ordered from the Livescribe website and are expected to ship sometime in March.

[ Livescribe Pulse Press Release ]

Innovation