smartpen

Veterinary Science Graduate Programs from U. of I.
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One of my classmates has one and she really likes it. Especially the fact that you can click on an area in your notes and it will jump to that point in the audio. I don't have any personal experience with it though.
 
LOVE my pen. It's great. They're theoretically hoping to be able to get it to interface with OneNote a little more easily (which will make me do a very happy dance) but I do love it as is.
 
I got one as a gift, and I haven't used it yet because I don't really get it. But, since you guys like yours, I might have to finally get mine out of the box and see what it's all about.
 
Thanks Tiempo and Angelo! I think I'll treat myself to one.
Tiempo said:
LOVE my pen. It's great. They're theoretically hoping to be able to get it to interface with OneNote a little more easily (which will make me do a very happy dance) but I do love it as is.
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Wow, that looks awesome! And since we're going paperless now, that might be a good investment, huh? :idea:
 
If you don't mind me asking, what's so special about the pen? What can it do?
 
When you write on special paper, which is priced pretty reasonably, it records audio of the lecture you are listening to along with an image of the notes you are writing so that when you're reading your notes later, you can tap your notes at any point and hear the audio that was recorded at that instant. You can also upload the information to your computer to create searchable text.

It's somewhat like having a tablet pc, I suppose.

Pomona2006 said:
If you don't mind me asking, what's so special about the pen? What can it do?
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wow...i'd like to see it in action!

I must say that I'm starting to feel old with all these advances in technology!
 
Here's a link to a good video showing it in action. And, yes, you are ancient. 😉
Pomona2006 said:
wow...i'd like to see it in action!

I must say that I'm starting to feel old with all these advances in technology!
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WOW, that is soooo cool.

I wonder if something like that would help me keep track of my handwritten lab notes. Right now about 50% of my lab notes are handwritten, and its difficult getting those in electronic form. This might work, thanks for the post!
 
can people who have this talk a little more about it?

im thinking of getting one when vet school starts. how much recording does 2GB hold? this seems like a better alternative than having a tablet pc, you know?
 
UPS should be dropping mine off tomorrow. I'll let you know what I think. I won't be able to test it in a lecture setting for a couple of weeks though.
 
JustCats said:
UPS should be dropping mine off tomorrow. I'll let you know what I think. I won't be able to test it in a lecture setting for a couple of weeks though.
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Are you getting the tablet PC for vet school? If so, you can do this using Onenote. You can do it if you get the Mac as well, but not using a pen.
 
So I was shopping at Target and I walked by the smart pens and couldn't resist. I bought a 1GB and it works great!

The regular sized notebooks were 19.99/4pack and all the notebooks are sold in sets numbered 1-4, and 5-8. You can have up to 8 notebooks with your pen in use at any given time. If I start writing on page 56 of notebook #3, the pen knows its on page 56 of notebook#3. Once you finish with notebook #3, you "archive" it on your computer, and this resets the pen so you can start writing in a new #3 notebook.

The regular sized notebooks are great quality and contain 200 pages (100 sheets) of numbered, college ruled paper. The pages are perforated on the 3 hole punch side so you can tear the pages out cleanly if necessary.

I took a page of notes while I was using the EM scope and when I docked the pen in its charging cradle the notes were uploaded on my macbook pro in less than 30 seconds. I was able to view my notes electronically and then export the file to pdf without any problems.

I bought the 1 GB and I don't see myself running out of room. I tend to use 1-2 notebooks at a time, so I doubt I will ever have close to 1GB of material in just two notebooks. Once you fill up a notebook, you can archive it which will free up that available memory on your pen. I would only recommend buying the 2GB if you are going to be recording a lot or using 8 notebooks at once.

Thanks JustCats, for posting this thread. I'm so excited about my pen. 🙂
 
I'm not a touch typist and I learn better when I write notes out. 🙁
calioutlaw1a said:
Are you getting the tablet PC for vet school? If so, you can do this using Onenote. You can do it if you get the Mac as well, but not using a pen.
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Thanks for the feedback!

shelterURIgirl said:
So I was shopping at Target and I walked by the smart pens and couldn't resist. I bought a 1GB and it works great!

The regular sized notebooks were 19.99/4pack and all the notebooks are sold in sets numbered 1-4, and 5-8. You can have up to 8 notebooks with your pen in use at any given time. If I start writing on page 56 of notebook #3, the pen knows its on page 56 of notebook#3. Once you finish with notebook #3, you "archive" it on your computer, and this resets the pen so you can start writing in a new #3 notebook.

The regular sized notebooks are great quality and contain 200 pages (100 sheets) of numbered, college ruled paper. The pages are perforated on the 3 hole punch side so you can tear the pages out cleanly if necessary.

I took a page of notes while I was using the EM scope and when I docked the pen in its charging cradle the notes were uploaded on my macbook pro in less than 30 seconds. I was able to view my notes electronically and then export the file to pdf without any problems.

I bought the 1 GB and I don't see myself running out of room. I tend to use 1-2 notebooks at a time, so I doubt I will ever have close to 1GB of material in just two notebooks. Once you fill up a notebook, you can archive it which will free up that available memory on your pen. I would only recommend buying the 2GB if you are going to be recording a lot or using 8 notebooks at once.

Thanks JustCats, for posting this thread. I'm so excited about my pen. 🙂
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do you guys think this pen will help me learn how to take good notes?

I'm a terrible note taker and would much rather take notes on a laptop but I keep hearing that for vet school I will need to take super good notes by hand because the lectures cover so much more material and using a laptop won't be good enough.

I'm hoping that buying this pen will allow me to learn how to write good notes, otherwise it would be a waste of money??
 
thanks for everyones feedback.

and nena.....i feel like you do, that i dont know how to take good notes. what i think is awesome is that i can go to the topic and press my pen to the notebook and hear the whole lecture about it. i think i'll totally buy it.

was it $150 for the pen at target?

i cant wait till xmas....and gift cards! lol
 
I will say that the pen is a little fat, so it takes some adjustment. Currently, my hand is aching a bit, but I think that's probably just because I've been doing so much writing.

I'm finding it handy because I have a tendency to skip when taking notes, as in I'll be writing, lecturer continues, then I skip ahead to what they're saying without finishing the first thing leaving gaps. So, after class, I can just touch the area and re-listen to the missing bits.

Also, I have the 1GB size, and it's working fine so far. You can remove sessions from off of your pen, freeing up space on the pen, so if you do run out of room you can just store them on your computer. I also maintain a backup of my computer (actually, I have one of those online backup services that does it automatically (Carbonite, Mozy Home, etc.) as I wouldn't do a good job of it) and keep the pen recordings file backed up.
 
FYI--I ordered the pen, a set of refills, and a set of notebooks from Amazon and they gave me the notebooks for free--a $19.95 value.
 
The pen is on sale at Target right now for $129 but it doesn't include the notebooks which cost $19.99. Target is cool because you can go online, select a target store near you and check to see if the item is in stock.

Otherwise, I recommend Amazon b/c of the fast and free shipping.

Nena01, I type very fast so with powerpoint slides with lots of pictures and few words, I usually type the important concepts then go back and make handwritten notes/flashcards later. Like my esteemed colleague JustCats, I retain info though writting as opposed to typing.

I bought the pen to use for biochemistry, math or anything with drawing, because typing isn't feasable. And because the pages are numbered, I can use a notebook as my lab notebook when I'm working in the lab.
 
Nena01 said:
I'm a terrible note taker and would much rather take notes on a laptop but I keep hearing that for vet school I will need to take super good notes by hand because the lectures cover so much more material and using a laptop won't be good enough.
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I don't know if this is really true. I know plenty of people who take all of their notes on their laptops, and never on paper. I'm not a fan, so I usually hand-write mine, but you certainly can do it on the computer in vet school.

Everybody who has a smartpen: keep us updated on how you like them please!
 
Noticed today that these have been reduced in price:

Livescribe Pulse Smartpen Lowered Price The price of the Livescribe Pulse Smartpen is now lowered to $129.95 for the 1GB and $169.95 for the 2GB.

1GB was $149.95 and 2GB was $199.95, so you save $30!

There is also free shipping included!

You can get an additional 5% off when you enter the coupon code: LS05DSC781

5% of $169.95 2GB Pulse smartpen = $8.50 off = $161.45
5% of $129.95 1GB Pulse smartpen = $6.50 off = $123.45

This offer is only good at: www.livescribe.com/store
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Taken from http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=518881&t=1534517
 
Darn this post. Making me want to spend another $200 of my hard earned money... not nice. =P

That pen is just too neat. Is it christmas yet?
 
Holy crap. I think I know what I'm buying with my next pay check... 😀
 
I just picked one up today and have been having a BLAST with it.

http://www.livescribe.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/LDApp.woa/wa/CommunityOverviewPage

That's the community where people post their notes, etc. if they want them to go public. you can cruise around there to see some of the stuff, click around the notes, and see what the end product is like.

Installing the software took about 1 minute, and it takes about 20 to get stuff up online if you want it. You can make stuff public or have access lists and just allow certain people to see things.

I can see this being VERY useful for lectures - esp. that zoning out part where you completely miss what the professor was saying - just tap that portion of your notes and you can catch it after the fact. I love the real-time drawing, too, so you can see what you were exactly writing when things were being discussed - makes it easy to figure out what is later an incredibly confusing diagram.
 
Dang! That pen is nice. Its perfect for those moments when you are busy writing something down and you dont hear the professer, because your too busy trying to remember what they just said.
 
This thread is old but today I saw a thread on SlickDeals advertising a $120 4 GB LiveScribe at Target, so I went to check it out.

Found better than that. 4 GB version for $85! So if you're interested, you might check your local target and see if it's still on. The 2 GB version was still marked at $120 and I got the last 4 GB on display at mine, but there may be more at yours.

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I am slightly ecstatic.
 
The original flavor. That's all they have there, but the watermelon one is way better. And the smell is unmistakable.
 
Not sure if I should post this in this thread or in the Computer thread. In the computer thread we have been talking about One Note. I heard that you can record the lecture through your computer and onto One Note, it then syncs up with what you wrote during the lecture. I havent tried this yet, does anyone know about this? Because it seems like this would also provide similar info. as the smartpen.
 
Oh while we're at it, Target also has a decent Acer netbook for $200. I don't care for them myself but for that price it's a pretty good deal.
 
I have a few questions for those that use the pen - if you click record at the beginning of the lecture, will it record all the way through, or do you have to hit record on every new page? Does it have different modes for different tasks, like writing and reviewing, because it seems like writing a period could be mistaken for wanting to listen to that part of your lecture. Also, for those that also have tablets, was the pen convenient or redundant for you? I am a big fan of handwritten notes and have never taken notes on a computer, and although I have the tablet I'm not sure if it will be practical to try and take all my notes via computer.

This sounds really neat, if Target has one on sale I might get it since it seems super handy!
 
oo this seems really cool to be able to go back to a point in the lecture that was too fast/confusing/you spaced out. how does it do recording in a big lecture hall? does it catch a lot of background noise, or is it pretty good about focusing on the lecturer at a decent volume?
 
ZebraFinch brings up a good question.
could you just hit record at the beginning of the lecture and set the pen down until the end of lecture? Chances are I'll be buying one of these in the near future. I would love to be able to listen to lecture while reviewing my notes.
 
thearsonist said:
ZebraFinch brings up a good question.
could you just hit record at the beginning of the lecture and set the pen down until the end of lecture? Chances are I'll be buying one of these in the near future. I would love to be able to listen to lecture while reviewing my notes.
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If that's all you want to do, you could get a tape recorder for a lot less.
 
nyanko said:
If that's all you want to do, you could get a tape recorder for a lot less.
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I was only asking if the pen was able to record long sessions, while taking notes. Or if it could only record a certain length.
 
thearsonist said:
I was only asking if the pen was able to record long sessions, while taking notes. Or if it could only record a certain length.
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that isn't what your question looked like, unless when you say "set the pen down" you mean "continue writing" whereas the other person and i took it as "stop writing".
 
My smartpen can record and take notes for a long time, I would say probably a whole days worth if not more, based on sporadic usage throughout the day. Syncs super fast and works really well. I've had no problem with the recording though I haven't tried it in a huge lecture hall yet. I would probably try to sit closer to the front just to be sure
 
The amount of lecture that the pen can record is dependent on what storage size you buy. 8 GB will hold more than 4 GB which will hold more than 2 GB. Check the documentation for the length that it can hold.
 
4 GB says that it can hold 400 hours of audio with a pleasant asterisk next to it saying, more or less, 'actual recording time is based on 4 GBs of storage but you won't actually get that because, well, 800 megs are filled with the applications and programs required to get the pen to work in the first place'.

So probably around 320 hours, give or take some more for marketing.


Edit: Oh by the by it does say you can record without writing (by holding down the power button on the pen until 'Recording' pops up on the display), however I've not gotten this to work, as holding down the power button just seems to turn it off (or on, dependent on the previous state). And if you do it too much (trying to get the damn thing to work) then it runs a file system check so I didn't play with it too much beyond that.

But the alternative is just tapping the 'record' button at the bottom of each page, so I don't think it's a big issue unless you wanted to use it as just a recorder (during rounds or something).
 
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HopefulAg said:
4 GB says that it can hold 400 hours of audio with a pleasant asterisk next to it saying, more or less, 'actual recording time is based on 4 GBs of storage but you won't actually get that because, well, 800 megs are filled with the applications and programs required to get the pen to work in the first place'.

So probably around 320 hours, give or take some more for marketing.


Edit: Oh by the by it does say you can record without writing (by holding down the power button on the pen until 'Recording' pops up on the display), however I've not gotten this to work, as holding down the power button just seems to turn it off (or on, dependent on the previous state). And if you do it too much (trying to get the damn thing to work) then it runs a file system check so I didn't play with it too much beyond that.

But the alternative is just tapping the 'record' button at the bottom of each page, so I don't think it's a big issue unless you wanted to use it as just a recorder (during rounds or something).
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fantastic! This pen is definitely on my "things to buy" list.
 
ZebraFinch said:
I have a few questions for those that use the pen - if you click record at the beginning of the lecture, will it record all the way through, or do you have to hit record on every new page? Does it have different modes for different tasks, like writing and reviewing, because it seems like writing a period could be mistaken for wanting to listen to that part of your lecture.
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I can run through an example for you:
At the start of class, I turn on the pen. I date the page, etc. Once my professor looks ready or starts talking, I tap on "record" at the bottom of the page. Through the lecture I take my notes. When the lecture is over, I tap "stop," and can still add more notes if I like. As long as the pen is turned on, it will record what you write on the page. It only records audio when you tell it to, but only stops also when you tell it to.

When I review my notes for that class, I can turn the pen on and plug in my earphones (you don't have to but I think it helps, esp. in public places), and if there is a part of my notes I want more information on, or I want to hear that part of the lecture, I tap at that spot on the page and the recording skips to the point in the recording where I wrote that note. VERY handy.

When you upload your notes into livescribe, it uploads all the information, so if you are reading your notes on your computer, you can click at the spot and hear the recording also.
OR you can listen to your lecture again, and watch your notes appear! Kinda neat.

You can check out one of my recordings/notes here:
Endocrinology class notes.
That is one key feature of this: you can easily share your notes and recordings with others. VERY helpful if a buddy is out sick and misses a lecture!!!

Oh and they just came out with a new pen style; that is probably why the other ones were on clearance.

Also, you can print your own dot-paper as long as you have a printer that can handle it!
 
Thanks so much Veracosa! The sound quality is better than I thought. I think I'll wait to see how note taking with my tablet goes and if I still want to write things down on paper I'll get one of these. I really like that it jumps to the area in lecture that you want to rehear, whenever I listen to lectures via podcast I have to find the right spot, and in a 1.5 hour lecture it gets tiresome.
 
I have a tablet and an livescribe. I use them very differently.

I also find that I do NOT do a lot of true notes in vet school. I do far more jotting of notes on powerpoints or in notepacks. If the prof provides the powerpoints/notes online, I print them to one note then jot my notes directly on the screen to one note. This works great for professors that follow their powerpoints/notes cloesly.

In a class where the professor doesn't use power point, I am more likely to use the livescribe. But I draw notes, using mind map techniques, rather than classic note taking. This works well with the livescribe. I love that I can tap on notes and go to that part of the lecture...it lets me fill in occasional gaps. Later I upload my notes. If I want to, I print to one note.

I also found that the livescribe was great in labs, particularly anatomy. If I got a professor over to explain something, I would be making basic drawings with the pen while recording their notes.

So far sound quality is pretty good, I can record a weeks worth of lectures if I want to. I haven't had any issues with the pen...it is wide, but I like that. Buy ink refills. The one gripe I have is that you can't buy a ream of dot paper, you either have to print it yourself or buy notebooks. I would love to have a ream of the dot paper so that I could print powerpoints directly to it.. if they did it right, you would be able to load paper, print, it would put an ID on it which would make an image of the un-noted printed page, then when you uploaded from the pen, it would insert your notes as well, giving you your written and electronic copy.

Oh, the pen IS a bit heavy for writing all day. Last year I used it for anatomy, physiology, bacteriology, and immunology. I did not use it for behavior, virology, animal unit, embryology, or zoo med.
 
My husband got me one of these for Christmas, and I'm still trying to decide how useful it's going to be. I don't know if all schools are like this, but at OSU they give you packets of notes for every class, and most people take additional notes directly onto these. So I could either take notes in a separate notebook, or just use it as a recorder for lectures.

Even if I ran the notes through the printer to add "dots," they would upload to my computer without the original notes...so what good is that? Hmmmmm. 🙁
 
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