If you’re the kind who prefers to write or sketch with traditional pen and paper instead of a stylus, then check out the latest offering from Livescribe called the Livescribe Sky Wi-Fi Smartpen. This smartpen is used like a regular pen but sends your writing, sketches, and notes wirelessly to your tablet as if you are writing directly on it.
Sky Wi-Fi Smartpen is tightly integrated with Evernote which means you can share or send your notes to the PC, Mac, iOS or Android devices. The drawback though is that you can’t just use any paper to write on. It only works with Livescribe’s proprietary dot notebooks(there’s one 50 sheets paper notebook given free with every pen) and it comes in a variety of formats and sizes:- blank, lined, notepad, hard-bound journals and others. The special paper contains tiny microdots that actually captures the exact location of what your write or draw. There’s even controls like record button on the notebook where you can just tap on and start writing.
The smartpen also comes with built-in audio recorder so that you won’t miss any of those important lectures or meetings. If you get the 4GB version, that will allow up to 400 hours of audio together with your notes, diagrams and drawings. It has a built-in rechargeable battery which is reported to last between 4.5 to 6 hours of heavy note taking and audio recording.
Setting up is easy. Once you’ve got your pen, you need to create a Livescribe account and then link it to your Evernote account. After that, use the smartpen to scan for a Wi-Fi network and then input the password. The cool thing is that you don’t need to be constantly connected to Wi-Fi to capture what you’ve written. It can work offline and once Wi-Fi is connected, it will sync the data.
The Sky Wi-Fi Smartpen comes in 2GB($169.95), 4GB($199.95) & 8GB storage and is currently available on Amazon. Check out the demo video below:-