Livescribe 3 smartpen Black Edition (APX-00020)

I have only had this pen for a couple of days, but I really love it. It does exactly what I wanted- convert my cursive handwriting to editable text. The OCR isn't 100% perfect, but its pretty eerie how good it is. I gave it five stars because the low reviews made me hesitant to drop so much money on a pen. Honestly, I'm confused why the reviews are so low - honestly, this is a pen that converts your cursive to editable text with a nearly 99% accuracy rate - what more do y'all want??? The one downside has nothing to do with the technology and everything to do with the ink. I usually write with a felt tip, fountain, and if neither are available, gel. Basically, never ever with ballpoint pens. The pen is heavy and a lot to wrap your hand around at first so the ballpoint just adds to the hulky feeling. Also, the first pen received was defective and didn't work. I was already doubtful of such a wonderful product existing so it made me extra doubtful so boo on you amazon. after reciving my second pen, it was obvious that the first one was a return/used.

This is the third livescribe pen that I've owned and I'm a big fan (I've previously used a Pulse and an Echo). I take notes by hand because I prefer to have an archival copy of my writing that does not need rebooting, never runs out of batteries and doesn't care what operating system I am currently running. Instead of using the old desktop software which came with the previous versions of the pen, the Livescribe 3 now transfers data to an app which I run on my iPad. The pen also allows me to record audio as I'm writing and will playback the recording as a sort of synchronized movie which can be shared with other people. This is useful as a "recordable whiteboard" and I have used it to sketch out designs and provide instructions to remote teams with great success. The app provides the ability to convert my handwriting into type but I don't use that very often. My handwritten words are searchable from the app, which is very useful considering I have completely filled five notebooks with handwriting. Pages can be exported to PDF, Evernote and Microsoft Onenote. Most importantly, the pen itself is a very nice writing instrument. The previous versions of this pen felt a little odd in the hand of the livescribe 3 feels good in the hand.

I used the Livescribe 4 GB Echo for nearly six years to take notes during interviews and for classes. The Echo was just about perfect for my needs with the exception of the horrible ink refills, something I'm not going into because so many LiveScribe users complain about the refills. When I upgraded my Mac's operating system to Sierra this year the desktop software for Echo stopped working. Although Livescribe offers newer software for Echo I was concerned because the company is clearly investing in newer products like the Lifescribe 3 and I decided to retire the Echo and buy the Livescribe 3. Despite the negative reviews I think the Livescribe 3 is a terrific time saver and productivity tool. It enables me to save all my handwritten notes to .pdf files. I often sketch out my ideas and with the Livescribe 3 I can easily copy and paste my sketches into articles and emails. The other benefit that I wasn't expecting is the cursive handwriting recognition feature. You have the option to save your cursive handwritten notes to a text file and in the transcription process your written notes will be converted to typed text. The conversion is not perfect. You still need to proof and correct the text document. But I don't have particularly great handwriting and I was impressed by how good the transcriptions turn out. Saves me a lot of time. Some people don't like the fact that the Livescribe requires special paper. As someone who is picky about paper I really like using Livescribe paper and wish it came in more sizes and templates. The paper is thick and feels great to write on. The paper is also marked in ways that makes it easy to track where you are and to use pen features by tapping on different symbols. Given the quality and functionality it's worth the price. One thing the Livescribe 3 has that the Echo didn't is a pen clip and the ability to retract the pen tip. You can actually carry it like a normal pen. That was something that drove me nuts about the Echo: it was big and bulky, it had no clip, and I could end up with ink marks all over my purse. I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to find a decently priced holder to keep the Echo from getting lost. Problem solved with the Livescribe 3. There are still a few things I wish this pen included: 1. I really liked the Echo apps created by 3rd party developers. I used a handwriting recognition app that worked even better than the native handwriting recognition in the LIvescribe 3. I know there were also developers creating custom templates and forms which I would use if I could with Livescribe 3. 2. As your notebooks get full it takes longer and longer for the notebooks to load in the mobile app. This was an issue with the Echo as well. It's possible my older Mac and iPhone are to blame: performance might be better with new products and more storage. 3. It also annoys me that the Livescribe software doesn't work with my older iPad. 4. I also wish Livescribe integrated with more productivity applications. Currently it works with Evernote and MS OneNote neither of which I use. 5. A small but enormously irritating issue is there is no option to transfer just the ink text and images to pdf format. This means any drawings or charts you create will include the lines or grid of your notebook paper. To get rid of the lines I can import the pdf into Photoshop and edit the document but it's time consuming. The Echo pen included the option to transfer ink without the background. It seems like such an easy adjustment to make because Adobe Postscript automatically separates every element on the document. I'm hoping this is something Livescribe can include in an update. Still, when it comes to integrating ink writing with digital I think the Livescribe 3 is one of the best tools on the market. It saves me so much time and hassle it has already paid for itself many times over.

Ich habe schon mehrere Smartpens getestet und diese Lösung ist mit abstand die beste. Super modernes design, gute Funktionalität, usw. Ich benutze wahrscheinlich nur einen Bruchteil der Funktionen des Stifts, aber der Rest kommt dann schon noch... Imposant ist vor allem dass der Stift meine Sauklaue trotzdem OCR-technisch gut liest. Für mich sehr positiv ist der der grosse Durchmesser. Für kleinere (Damen-)Hände evtl. schwer in der Handhabung. Randbemerkung: mein erster Stift hatte einen technischen Defekt nach einer Woche, aber der Ersatz ist super.

No es la primera vez que compro plumas Livescribe y siempre me dejan impresionado. Gracias!

Es un producto genial, muy útil, muy buena definición de la escritura. Lo único es que la.conexion con el móvil le cuesta un poco y a veces se desconecta solo.

This is an amazing gadget. I have 2 of these, the Livescribe 3 Moleskine edition and this Black edition. I prefer the black edition and you can buy a Moleskine notebook for around £15 saving you about £30 to £40. It feels good in the hand, looks premium and writes nicely. The electronic version of the ink is excellent and it syncs well and also allows you to share with Evernote, Metanoji, PDF viewers or anything that can view (and annotate) PDFs. You don't need your tablet/phone with you and it will sync later and stores up to 1000 pages onboard. The battery life is excellent too! In normal use I can get 3 to 4 days without charging easily. The Livescribe+ app for Android is slightly less functional than the one for iOS but the only thing really missing on Android is the ability to auto send to evernote or onenote. Apparently this is coming. Also Android only sends PDF formatted notes whereas iOS seems to allow jpg and pdf. I can't believe how long I put off getting one of these. And now I have two! Forget trying to write with styluses on your screen - this is the real deal!

I got this as a gift for my Husband and he is thrilled with it