5 ms·

Has a Messagepad 100 back in the day; hated it, sold it and bought a Psion 3MX. (Alas, Psion shrieked and ran away when Microsoft announced a competitor to thei

by cstross 11y ago

Has a Messagepad 100 back in the day; hated it, sold it and bought a Psion 3MX. (Alas, Psion shrieked and ran away when Microsoft announced a competitor to their micro-laptop-esque palmtops, which eventuated as vapourware.) Some of us just don't get on with handwriting. Having said that? If you have a smartphone but the list of benefits from the Newton appeal to you, you might want to try a Livescribe+ smartpen. Syncs with your phone or tablet, works like a pen on notepad or paper, the sync app takes care of handwriting recognition, and you can sync through it to Dropbox or Evernote. So you can leave your phone in your pocket and just use a pen and a notepad, and still have the benefits of everything being transcribed automagically and available online. (Yes, it needs special paper, but the dot pattern is available as a PDF if you want to print your own.)

opless 11y ago
That's Microsoft's general new-product market strategy. 1. See a potential game-changer in the marketplace. 2. Announce new product that would compete. ("Real soon now") 3. ?? (bring sub-par product to market, eventually) 4. Watch as the non-early adopters patiently wait for Microsoft product to arrive and competitor's potential market disappear. Why do you think it took so long for decent tablets to get to market? A: "Pen windows"
deleted 11y ago
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devin 11y ago
Toward the end of my college career I fell in love with my LiveScribe. You might hear an aside in a lecture about X, and you could simply write X in your notebook. Later on, you could search your notes for X, and if you were wondering what exactly was said about X, you can tap on that note to hear what was happening in the lecture at that point in time. Later on, Y might be brought up in relation to X. Write Y in the notebook, and draw a line to X, and so on. I am not much of a note taker nowadays, but I highly recommend trying out the LiveScribe. I am considering buying a new one just to see how things have progressed.
- cstross 11y ago
  Livescribe's developers pivoted. The original model was positioned as an app platform -- the OLED screen, the downloadable extras. It was a bit clumsy and annoying (and had a steep learning curve). I recently bought the Livescribe+. It cut back on features but made the core functionality work a lot better. Charges over micro-USB (like everything else these days), can run on generic pen refils. No apps, but realtime streaming to your phone (iOS or Android) over Bluetooth. It can still do pencasts/audio recording (but doesn't give you a headset so you can replay audio notes on the pen itself -- it's not a true dictation machine). In other words, it does more by doing less (but doing it better).
  - matthewmcg 11y ago
    Second this. The OLED screen conked out on my WiFi-enabled Sky pen and they sent me a free + model. I love it for all the reasons you've listed.

by cstross 11y ago

opless 11y ago

That's Microsoft's general new-product market strategy. 1. See a potential game-changer in the marketplace. 2. Announce new product that would compete. ("Real soon now") 3. ?? (bring sub-par product to market, eventually) 4. Watch as the non-early adopters patiently wait for Microsoft product to arrive and competitor's potential market disappear. Why do you think it took so long for decent tablets to get to market? A: "Pen windows"

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

devin 11y ago

Toward the end of my college career I fell in love with my LiveScribe. You might hear an aside in a lecture about X, and you could simply write X in your notebook. Later on, you could search your notes for X, and if you were wondering what exactly was said about X, you can tap on that note to hear what was happening in the lecture at that point in time. Later on, Y might be brought up in relation to X. Write Y in the notebook, and draw a line to X, and so on. I am not much of a note taker nowadays, but I highly recommend trying out the LiveScribe. I am considering buying a new one just to see how things have progressed.

cstross 11y ago
Livescribe's developers pivoted. The original model was positioned as an app platform -- the OLED screen, the downloadable extras. It was a bit clumsy and annoying (and had a steep learning curve). I recently bought the Livescribe+. It cut back on features but made the core functionality work a lot better. Charges over micro-USB (like everything else these days), can run on generic pen refils. No apps, but realtime streaming to your phone (iOS or Android) over Bluetooth. It can still do pencasts/audio recording (but doesn't give you a headset so you can replay audio notes on the pen itself -- it's not a true dictation machine). In other words, it does more by doing less (but doing it better).
- matthewmcg 11y ago
  Second this. The OLED screen conked out on my WiFi-enabled Sky pen and they sent me a free + model. I love it for all the reasons you've listed.