Livescribe Pen

[Jeff Golas]

So over lunch I picked up a Livescribe "Sky" pen from Staples. My thing is - I'm a great typer - I don't know how fast I can type but I can type seriously fast...yet when in meetings, etc, despite not needing to look at the keyboard, I can't type and pay attention at the same time. Plus my notes always end up being bits and pieces of text.

Long story short, I take a TON of paper notes, and recently been trying to scan them in to keep my desk from becoming a sticky hell, so I picked up a Livescribe pen to see if that might help bridge the gap between the paper and the digital realms. I went with the "Sky" model which is Wifi enabled and uploads directly to Evernote. I'm still not crazy about all the Cloud stuff...I think for every technological convience its just another piece of our privacy that gets stripped away, but I'm curious to see how well it performs and if it in fact does actually provide a convenience.

Anyone else use one of these?

[Mark]

Anyone else use one of these?

Not I, but the NSA now has a fingerprint of your handwriting. 

[Bob]

I remember when they first came out I wanted to try.   I've not seen anyone use.  Let us know how that works out for you.   If I recall it's a pen that tracks movement and creates digital record for you. 

The only thing concerns me is signature.  Digital copy of your real signature such as in TAM and apps, can be manipulated put on checks, credit apps, loans, contracts etc.  I cringe when I get emails and people have scanned signature in email.  How easy it is to save that image and print elsewhere.  Not the same as having SSN but still can do some damage and fraudsters hardly care about your feelings or have any guilt in doing so.   I think digital wet signatures need to be used sparingly and not used in emails.  Hopefully not taken from some cloud service when one day news cracks they've been compromised like Drop Box was.   All that said, I'd likely not use it for copying my signature but can see good uses for it taking notes as you say.

[Mark]

Signatures are overrated and a thing of the past.   Besides, my "signature" doesn't even say my name.  It's just a scribble.  I wouldn't use that for my email, but it is what I use for my credit card receipt (which doesn't really even need to be signed) or my mortgage.

So, if someone ever says to me "IS this your signature" and it's not my trademarked scribble, I can and will say no.

[Billy Welsh]

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[Jeff Golas]

Its my understanding that say, if you're at the self-checkout at the grocery store, and when it asks for the signature you draw a smiley face instead - it still counts as "intent" and is as good as  your best John Hancock.

I don't think I'll be signing anything wtih this - at least not intentionally. I'm mainly using it for meeting and geekery notes.

In the 10 minute I've played with it so far, its very cool, but has some limitations, some of which i can think may be an issue...

1. It needs special paper to function. You can print your own or buy it, but it ONLY works with the special paper. That could be a potential dealbreaker for me, because now its extra work/time/cost that this "convenient" device is supposed to save.)

2. I can imagine not thinking to cart the pen everywhere - since I can think of a lot of places I may use it at home too. I'm debating on buying a portfolio for it to keep in my bag so I always have it handy.

3. Keeping it charged (and storage)...I already struggle with battery and storage on my phone, on my bluetooth headset, laptop, etc.

In terms of the special paper - basically what they do is somehow have notebooks set up where the pen recognizes which page of the physical notebook you're on. That part is actually pretty neat because it provides another level of interaction. You can use up to 4 physical notebooks at a time (labeled 1-4). Once  you use up a notebook, you would "archive" those notes, and then you could use another new notebook wtih the same number. So you can't say, use two notebook #1's at the same time, as notes from page 1 of each notebook 1 will overlap each other.

What I'm hoping to look into furthur, is whether this could be used to display notes on the fly, say during a webinar, etc. I dont think it does but it would be neat if so.

[Jim Jensen]

The only thing concerns me is signature.  Digital copy of your real signature such as in TAM and apps, can be manipulated put on checks, credit apps, loans, contracts etc.  I cringe when I get emails and people have scanned signature in email.  How easy it is to save that image and print elsewhere. 

About as easy as me scanning in someone's signature.

[Mark]

The only thing concerns me is signature.  Digital copy of your real signature such as in TAM and apps, can be manipulated put on checks, credit apps, loans, contracts etc.  I cringe when I get emails and people have scanned signature in email.  How easy it is to save that image and print elsewhere. 

About as easy and me scanning in someone's signature.

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