Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Are Livescribe smartpens workplace-ready?

Livescribe smartpens have been around since 2007. Only recently do they start to pick up in popularity. They seem to be more reliable and more flexible. Aside from a rich feature set that is customizable with additional Apps available for purchase, Anoto Group ABhttp://www.anoto.com/, the produce of Livescribe pens, pleased all the hardcore geeks and provided an SDK

The products get Green Product of the Year awards, make all levels of education (from K-12 to graduate level work) easier and they also manage to connect disabled veterans to the world and back into the society. 

That's powerful stuff, but do they fit in a professional workplace? If I'm already at my workstation I can record an audio of a  training session, while taking screenshots and annotating them. Even though that example does not seem to be the most efficient, it appears to beat having an additional electronic device in my hand and attempting to write information down, to be able to tap certain words later and hear what was said during that time. 





Perhaps there are some rare cases in which a smartpen may turn out to be far more effective and indispensable than that, but so far, despite my love to technology, I am having difficulty finding the perfect use for a new Livescribe in a workplace, especially if you use Evernote to track your notes. I am looking forward to be converted.

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