Livescribe 2GB Pulse Smartpen (APA-00002)

by Livescribe

• Record and link audio to what you write
• Listen to your recordings by tapping on what you wrote
• Search and share your notes and recordings from your computer

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B001AAN4PW
• Item model number: APA-00002
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (144 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #33,006 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: November 15, 2005

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

From the Manufacturer

Capture Everything
The Pulse smartpen records audio and links it what you write. Missed something? Tap on your notes or drawings with the tip of your Pulse smartpen to hear what was said while you were writing.

No Need to Lug the Laptop
The Pulse smartpen automatically captures everything as you write and draw. Transfer your notes to your computer, organize them, and even search for words within your notes. Find what you want in seconds.

Share Your Notes
Transform your notes and audio into interactive movies. Upload your creations online for everyone to see, hear and play.

What You Get The Pulse smartpen (1.3 ounces, anodized aluminum housing) 2 GB of memory (actual user available memory will be less) Livescribe Desktop software (download) 3-D Recording Headset 100 sheet dot paper college-ruled notebook USB mobile charging cradle Smartpen case 3 black fine point ink cartridges + 1 stylus cartridge Demo card and interactive stickers Interactive Getting Started Guide What You Need Windows XP™ 32-bit SP2 or higher, Windows Vista™ 32 or 64-bit operating system, or Intel Mac with Mac OS X 10.5.5 or newer 600MHz CPU or higher 300 MB minimum free disk space Available USB port Internet connection

The Pulse smartpen works only with Livescribe dot paper.

Warranty Information

International Limited Warranty. Livescribe warrants the Pulse smartpen to be free from defects in materials and workmanship under normal use for a period of ninety (90) days from the date of original direct or retail purchase. This warranty is void if the product has been damaged by accident or unreasonable use, immersion in water, neglect, abuse, improper maintenance, or other causes not arising out of defects in workmanship or materials of the product. All warranty claims are subject to: (1) you notifying Livescribe of the warranty claim within the warranty period, (2) Livescribe verifying the existence of a defect in the product and (3) receipt of valid proof of your purchase and the date of your purchase. Your exclusive remedy shall be, at Livescribe's option, to have it repaired or receive a replacement Pulse smartpen. All shipping costs, both to Livescribe and back to the user/owner must be prepaid by the user/owner. Before returning the Pulse smartpen, please contact the Livescribe Customer Service Department for instructions.

In the event that a product under warranty is repaired or replaced, the replacement will be covered under the original warranty or for 30 days, whichever is longer. Repair or replacement is your exclusive remedy, and Livescribe’s exclusive liability, under this warranty. The limited warranty set forth herein is the only warranty made to you and is provided in lieu of any other warranties (if any) created by any documentation or packaging. This limited warranty gives you specific legal rights.

Disclaimer of Warranties. You expressly acknowledge and agree that use of the Livescribe desktop software, Pulse smartpen and other products and services is at your sole risk and that the entire risk as to satisfactory quality, performance, accuracy and effort is with you. Except for the limited warranty set forth above and to the maximum

Extent permitted by applicable law, the Livescribe desktop software, Pulse smartpen, products and services are provided "as is", with all faults and without warranty of any kind, and Livescribe and Livescribe's licensors (collectively referred to as "Livescribe") hereby disclaim all other warranties and representations, either express, implied or statutory, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, of satisfactory quality, of fitness for a particular purpose, of accuracy, of quiet enjoyment, and non-infringement of third party rights. Livescribe does not warrant against interference with your enjoyment of the Livescribe desktop software, Pulse smartpen, products or services, that the functions contained in the Livescribe desktop software, Pulse smartpen, products or services will meet your requirements, that the operation of the Livescribe desktop software, Pulse smartpen or services will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that defects in the Livescribe desktop software, Pulse smartpen or services will be corrected. No oral or written information or advice given by Livescribe or any Livescribe authorized representative shall create a warranty. Should the Livescribe desktop software, Pulse smartpen, or services prove defective, you assume the entire cost of all necessary servicing, repair or correction.

Limitation of Liability. To the extent not prohibited by law, in no event shall Livescribe be liable for personal injury, or any incidental, special, indirect or consequential damages whatsoever, including, without limitation, damages for loss of profits, loss of data, business interruption or any other commercial damages or losses, arising out of or related to your use or inability to use the Livescribe desktop software, Pulse smartpen, or services, however caused, regardless of the theory of liability (contract, tort or otherwise) and even if Livescribe has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

In no event shall Livescribe's total liability to you for all damages (other than as may be required by applicable law in cases involving personal injury) exceed the amount of fifty dollars ($50.00). The foregoing limitations will apply even if the above stated remedy fails of its essential purpose.

Paper & Accessory Products
The warranty is 30 days. The customer would have to pay shipping both ways for defective product.

Customer Support Information
Phone 1-877-SCRIBE9 (1-877-727-4239): Mon.-Sun., 7am-7pm PST
Chat via www.livescribe.com/support: Mon.-Fri., 9am-5pm PST
Email [e-mail]: 7 days a week

Support Languages
At this time, Livescribe only offers support in English.

Product Description

The Livescribe Smartpen records audio and links it to what you write. Missed something? Tap on your notes or drawings with the tip of your Livescribe Smartpen to hear what was said while you were writing. No Need to Lug the Laptop: The Livescribe Smartpen automatically captures everything as you write and draw. Transfer your notes to your computer, organize them, and even search for words within your notes. Find what you want in seconds. Share Your Notes: Transform your notes and audio into interactive movies. Upload your creations online for everyone to see, hear and play. The 1.3 oz. anodized aluminum Livescribe™ Smartpen records audio and links it what you write. The 1GB of memory can hold over 100 hours of recording. Actual time may vary. Requires Windows XP with service pack 2 or Windows Vista

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

424 of 460 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Relax and join the Revolution-BREAKING NEWS-Mac Desktop available 2/17/09 July 13, 2008

By G. Ware Cornell Jr. TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

My brother ordered two of these pens when they were first available from the manufacturer. His thinking apparently was that he would have a backup should he ever lose one. Quickly realizing that he might have over-ordered, he offered one to me to try.

There were a lot of reasons I was not enthusiastic about his offer. The first was that unlike my brother, I actually do lose pens from time to time, even expensive ones. So if I lost this thing I would owe my brother money. Second, I am a Mac enthusiast and the desktop software for a Mac platform will not be available until the end of 2008. Finally, the necessity of the product escaped me.

But being a toy lover I put aside my objections and accepted his loan. A few weeks later I was calling customer support on a desktop issue (I installed it on my only Windows computer, a Toshiba tablet). The problem was a software glitch, since in reality the pen was still in beta. The customer service rep solving the problem asked if it was registered in my name. I assured her it was. I then told her that my brother had bought the pen but that he was never getting it back. I could hear my statement relayed around the support department where it was greeted with shouts and laughter. They knew. I was a convert. I had drunk the Kool-aid and was forever theirs.

Okay so what do I use it for? I take it to hearings and depositions (I am a lawyer, remember?). These are public events under Florida law and there is no reasonable expectation of privacy.This is important since the pen doesn't just record the strokes of the pen, it records everything being said. And it records it very well. Here is the cool part, touch a word in your notes and you will hear whatever was happening at that time.... My favorite demonstration to date is to touch a word from a contested trial where I got to ask a witness if he had ever told people that he spoke to the dead and that they spoke back to him. The guy nearly came across the table at me, a point also recorded. Now an aside to lawyers, law students and pro se litigants-do not ever ask someone this question unless you have an email from the witness attesting to his ability to commune with the formerly alive.

The recording capacity of this pen is astonishing. The manufacturer suggests that the 2GB pen will hold 200 hours of audio. I have no reason to doubt it, since constant use has barely tapped its capacity.

When the pen is uploaded to the desktop software (currently Windows only) images of the notes and the audio are loaded into the computer. From there it can be uploaded to an online site where it is Mac accessible. For now this satisfies my Mac needs at least till the end of the year.

You need special paper to take advantage of the upload features. Fortunately, the supplies are reasonably priced and available online. However the notebook supplied with the pen is most generous.

There are lots of other features in the pen. It is possible to draw a keyboard and play notes (musical notes) on it. My daughter, a music ed major, particularly enjoys this. There is even a cute animation demo built in whose 3-D sound as heard through the earbuds is astonishing and mildly amusing.

So who could use this pen other than trial lawyers? Students seem to be a logical group. Perhaps physicians and nurses could use it. Did the patient really say he had a condition or did he say something else? Livescribe needs to produce industry specific paper for just such uses, or to allow outside vendors to create it.

This product will revolutionize the workplace in ways that we cannot now predict. All we can predict is that it will prove to be one of the most significant technologies of this decade in the same way the personal computer was in the 1980s. Click the"Buy" button now. You will not regret it.

BREAKING NEWS

The Mac Desktop (not the Beta) promised for the first quarter of 2009 will be available on 11/24/08 for download at [...]. It promises certain enhancements over the original windows software and the original beta released in November, 2008,

"The Mac version of Livescribe Desktop also offers two additional features not available in the Windows version. First, Mac users will have the ability to export their recordings into AAC audio files. Mac users can also export their notes as PDF files directly from the Desktop application. All current and new users of the Pulse smartpen can use Pulse with Mac computers for free. "

Addendum: As of February 2009 a full version of the Livescribe Desktop for Mac is available for download free to registered users. The Mac Desktop is fully functional and comparable but not identical to the Windows desktop. The Mac version lacks one major feature at this time-the ability to print the special paper found in the Windows version. Some users have reported that they are able to print paper using the Mac software and Adobe so this may not be that important an omission. Printing also does require a color laser printer at 600 dpi, the feature may be of limited utility in any event. On the plus side the Mac version allows the audio capture to be saved in AAC format which makes it playable on standard CDs. Third party software which converts handwriting to text is not currently offered for Mac. Read more ›

434 of 473 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Useless in lecture halls October 16, 2008

By G. Tremblay

This product was prematurely launched. It does not record lectures very well at all in typical lecture halls, regardless whether or not you wear the dorky earphones and regardless what setting you select for sound recording. Any ambient noise, no matter how quiet, will be picked up by the device. This noise will completely mask the speaker's voice, rendering the recording essentially useless.

Because the file formats are proprietary, you cannot load the noisy files into audio processing software to filter out the noise or amplify the speaker's voice. The need for the headphones (which serve as microphones) makes the pen obtrusive in a corporate environment, where one may want to save audio recordings of meetings while taking notes.

The pen has a built in microphone, but it is useless in a large room. It is often recommended that one use the headphones (wearing them around one's neck), but in normal environments with air conditioning or computers nearby, the only thing you'll record is noise.

The pen does faithfully record the notes you make if you use the company's special notebooks. These contain an array of dots that tell the pen where it's located on the page. This information is stored as you write. When you upload the pen's contents to your computer, an image of what you wrote is regenerated. This is of course a neat trick, but you have to use their file format and user interface, and I find it is not sufficiently flexible. Not being able to use standard file formats like mp3 and pdf is a real nuisance. Apparently you can upload your files to the company's web site and they'll convert them to pdf for you, but what if your notes contain private or proprietary information? And even if it's just your math notes, who wants the hassle?...

This device may be suitable for some students if the lecture room and level of ambient noise are appropriate for the pen's limited ability to capture clean sound. This is not a trivial problem, because in its current state, unless you're recording in an ideal environment, the noise will make it impossible to hear the lecture when you play it back. You do not notice these faint background noises most of the time, but that's essentially all the pen will record.

I gave up on the pen and frankly don't even know where it is at the moment. Too bad, because I got the one with 2GB of memory along with about a dozen of their special notebooks. Now I just use them with an ordinary pen and record my lectures using a digital recorder I got from Ramsay Electronics. Its sound quality is perfect, regardless where I sit, and it can record in any format I choose.

I am disappointed in the unbalanced reviews I've read about this pen. One has to wonder if some of the more enthusiastic ones are from the company itself. Likewise, I found reviews online that were so slick, detailed, and positive that they had to have come from the pen maker. I have never written a review before but after reading reviews that gave this device unqualified praise, I felt it my duty to warn other potential purchasers--let the buyer beware. Read more ›

200 of 219 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Partly Fantastic July 25, 2008

By Pamela Van Beekum

The pen does what it says but if you have used the Leapfrog Fly Fusion pen - which is the company the founder came from - you expect that it will convert your writing to text - but it doesn't.

The company promises to do this but has not delivered on their promise and since the pen has been out since at least April - I feel it is long overdue. They could give one access to the digital audio which then would enable the user of the pen to use another text conversion program -- but they don't or won't.

The other problem is the tease of the apps like language translator - which the pen does but only as demo so far.

What the pen does do - it does it fantastically - so if you are a student of someone just wanting to have a verbal recording of something and the ability to take notes that associate the recording so that it is easy to find what you want right away - it does that very well.

The problem is that all digital recording devices do this too and also allow text conversion. So... if you don't need to take notes to find your recording places - then the pen will be less functional than a digital recording device and perhaps cheaper and more efficient.

I will hang onto mine for a bit longer but I need the text conversion or the pen is useless to me - if they don't get their act together on their promises I will just sell mine for whatever I can get and go back to using my cheaper fly fusion pen.

If they get the text conversion together and add real apps instead of teasers - then this product will be a real winner and useful for a wide range of people.