Livescribe2GB Echo Smartpen

I have been using this for about two weeks to take notes at university. I am a social science student and as such there is a lot of note taking and lectures in my courses which is the reason I wanted this pen, as I thought it would better help me prepare course outlines and study guides by not having to retype my notes.Software 4/5The Echo desktop software is great and very straightforward to use. There is an app-store that was relatively tricky to find as the software sends you to livescribe store for pens instead of the app-store. The app-store is quite limited although I did have to pickup Myscript from there as the Echo software cannot convert handwriting to text which is why I deducted a point of it. There is a lot of potential to develop interesting apps but most where quite primitive falling in the realm of language phrasebooks and games instead of productivity tools.Pen 4/5The pen has plenty of amazing features such as the ability to play music and record audio in addition to recording handwriting. I wish there was a full translator as the demo included is a great concept but presently unavailable for purchase even if you want it. If I could I would have bought the translator as the ability to translate would have been phenomenally useful for taking language classes and for self study, its a shame its not included. The pens menu interface was also user friendly with a large variety of settings to play with. The cartridge is easy to change too you simply pull it out. My only serious gripe with this pen apart from the lack of a translator was that it was not ergonomic to write with as it is too large. The pen's weight was much lighter than I expected it however it was too thick and I found my fingers fatigued from holding it for too long, I have fairly large hands and still thought it was too hefty to hold. Despite this the pen writes quite well and the cartridge doesnt smudge. I find my handwriting has slightly improved as it needs to be legible in order for it to be converted into text.Overall 4.9/5This pen exceeded my expectations however I wish that it was more comfortable to write with, had the translator, and included handwriting to text conversion without the additional cost. These shortcomings were greatly offset by its features which definately work as advertised and the simple desktop software and pen UI made this a breeze to setup and use. Overall I would recommend this product to other students especially those with disabilities but wish that future models will have the missing features and be more ergonomic to write with.

Ok, this thing is simply cool. I had been looking for a very long time for a way to digitize my notes to make them easier to find. An associate of mine has one of these and after I asked he showed me what it can do and how it works. First off the fact that it gets my notes on the computer is great. If you are anything like I am, you take a lot of notes and then lose them. With this they are always available and the best thing is that the software makes them searchable. That is brilliant and it actually works.The second coolest thing about this is that it records the meeting / class / etc. as well. I haven't reduced the number of notes that I take (I thought I would) but I have noticed that when I have a question about a note that I can just listen to the recording. The part that makes it cool is that by tapping the pen on the note it plays the recording starting from that point. I don't have to try to find where it was discussed it just plays it.The pen is pretty nice. It feels like it is a quality device. The refills for it aren't very expensive and the paper that you use with it comes in a lot of varieties. So far I really like this but I have to say, my boss is not a fan. Now when he tells me something its recorded. Next time we talk about it and his memory of what he said doesn't match what I heard I can refer back to the note, tap it and he can hear exactly what he told me to do. Everyone in the meeting loves the look on his face when I play something back for him. 3 other associates have purchased these over the last couple weeks, our meetings are starting to look like a LiveScribe user convention.

I really wanted to like this and for it to work. Based on the very mixed reviews I thought I might have to work a little extra to get it going smoothly. However, unless I was willing to invest hours of my time troubleshooting, going back and forth with slow to reply tech-support, and willing to eventually switch computers in order to use this it just isn't worth it.This pen, the Echo, is supposed to work with Windows 8 according to their website and their tech folks, however, on the box it doesn't list windows 8 (I think in this case, the box knows more than the tech folks...). For me, it does not work with windows 8 at all. In fact, my computer doesn't recognize the pen as even existing... at all...in any form. Not as a storage device - nothing. The tech guys have all these different things that you can check and change in your Windows 8 settings and you either need to turn them on or off in order for it to supposedly be recognized if this happens. Well everything they said should be on was already on, everything they wanted off was off, any software they thought could interfere I don't even use, so no more excuses blaming external factors - it just doesn't work.Now, I could use the pen and it would interact with the fancy paper as it is supposed to do, and I could record and just as it says I could then tap on my writing somewhere and hear what I'd recorded at that point. However, it would not upload in any way, shape or form to the computer because other than charging up the pen, when connected neither the computer or livescribe "see" the pen as even being there (and yes, I tried all my 3 different ports, different cord, reset the pen, blah, blah, blah....)Lets say you didn't care about the uploading and you're thinking, "well cool - I just like the recording with the written notes feature and that's good enough". Well, the problem is you cannot delete ANYTHING off the pen unless it's connected, so once you tap out the memory you'd be done. Or if you recorded something sensitive that you don't want to be on the pen - SOL, you can't get it off w/o a working connection to the livescribe software. For me, I really wanted the upload and archive feature - that was the whole point - so it's an absolute, total no-go even if you could delete directly from the pen.I'm really bummed as the idea is brilliant, and it would be so great if it would work, out of the box, as advertised. All the marketing is about simplifying your life through it's cool capabilities. Well, it's surely not simple if it doesn't work and they expect you to spend countless hours sorting out the problem on your end with only a link to a FAQ on how to "maybe" fix it sent here and there from the tech dept.Based on the FAQ sent to me, they pretty much listed every possible problem that could occur with pretty much any software program, any hardware computer, any cord/power issue, as well as timing it with the solstice, new moon and a resurrection ritual for the pen unit its-self. Well, okay, maybe not the solstice and new moon, but the list and process they send sure looks like some ancient alchemal formula that with the right season and good luck might...if you're really lucky and believe hard enough...just might resurrect your pen to a state that is viewed as real and alive by your computer.Sorry - I don't have the time or inclination to go to such lengths. Give me a product that works right out of the box, with only an extra bit of minimal work to get it going if needed.Summary: unless you're an Uber tech geek or have tons of time on your hands with nothing else to do but troubleshoot the problems with this thing in order to get it to go, DO NOT Bother if you're running the oh-so-fabulous (but let's not get into that...) Windows 8.