Writing by hand isn’t dead, and a new breed of digital pens
may help it survive.
Trendhunter magazine featured 45 unusual writing utensils, including several digital pens:
Digital pens – one example is the Nokia Digital Pen SU-1B (pictured).
You write on special note pads and the pen remembers everything you’ve written
(including diagrams and doodles) and allows you to download it all to your
computer via Bluetooth. Price is around $200 (£120).
Logitech has a version that writes on any paper and stores
the information on a self-contained Flash disk that can also hold music,
images, etc. (Logitechn io2).
The D-Scribe goes one step further—it converts your writing
into digital form that can be sent as either text messages or via a Bluetooth
connection to your phone.
One I find tempting is the Pulse Smartpen from LiveScribe.
The drawback is that you have to use special paper (and it’s kind of expensive)
but the advantage is that it’s also a digital audio recorder. The 1GB version
can hold up to 100 hours, the 2GB can hold 200 hours (less if you opt for the
higher quality setting).
If I do buy one it’ll be on my next trip to the US. In the
UK a Pro Pack (pen, notebooks,
etc.) is £185 (which is about $309), in the US it’s $239 but they don’t ship
outside the US.
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