Livescribe created waves last year when they introduced the Sky Wi-Fi Smartpen which lets you beam your notes to your device via any Wi-Fi connection. However, that’s not the most convenient when you are without any Wi-Fi connection and you can’t send your notes instantly to your smartphone or tablet. That’s where the new Livescribe 3 attempts to rectify.
The Livescribe 3 is actually the company’s fourth pen and is built to look classy and expensive looking compared with the Sky Wi-Fi Smartpen which was rather chunky. The primary function of the pen is still the same though which lets you take notes on the special notebook and instead of syncing it with Evernote, you can use a free app called Livescribe+ for syncing, viewing and sharing your notes. So basically you get to digitize all the notes that you’ve taken on a piece of paper.
The pen itself has both an ink tip and a stylus tip, so you need not get a separate stylus if you need to write on your tablet directly. The stylus tip also houses a micro-USB port which lets you charge up the pen and has an LED indicator to let you need when battery is low. The pen itself should last 14 hours of continued use on a single charge.
The Livescribe 3 contains little technology except that it needs to connect to your iPad or iPhone via Bluetooth low energy(LE). The pen has a tiny infrared camera tip which reads the pattern of dots on the Livescribe notebooks as you are writing and beams the data to the app. If you’re somewhat away from your devices, the pen can store up to 2 GB of notes which is around 20,000 pages and sync it later. You’ll also need the device to capture audio if you’re planning to record a meeting conversation or a lecture. So your phone or tablet does most of the work.
The Livescribe+ app is where all the real action takes place. When launched, It will prompt to connect to the pen. There’s a handy Find My Pen function which will make the pen beep loudly if you lost it. The app lets you manage your notes and listen to past pencasts.
The downside of the smartpen is that it requires special dot paper to record what you write. You get a notebook with every purchase of the pen but if you need a replacement, you can purchase one for around $8.95 from Livescribe’s online store.
Livescribe 3 is currently compatible with the iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPad 3, iPad 4, iPad Air, iPad mini, iPad mini with Retina display, and iPod touch (fifth-generation). Android support will come soon. It also needs it to be on iOS 7 to make use of the Bluetooth LE.
The Livescribe 3 comes in two versions. For the standard version retailing at $149.95, you get a black and chrome pen with a 50-sheet notebook while the Pro Edition retailing at $199.95 will get you a leather portfolio with a 100-sheet journal and a one-year subscription to Evernote Premium.
If you like a real pen that writes on real paper and somehow want it synced to your mobile devices, then you might want to check this one out. Take a look of the product demo video below:-
