Livescribe 3 Smartpen Announced for iOS Devices with IR Camera, Content Recognition Capabilities

[TLewis]

Wow, they got rid of the on-pen display, as well as the in-pen audio recording capability. Now uses your smartphone/tablet to record audio???

No thanks.

 

[Jessica Lares]

I prefer to write on paper still, and just about everyone tells me how AMAZING my handwriting is. I don't see it myself, but whatever...

I almost bought a Livescribe once, but have always thought them to be too expensive. I could get the new one pretty easily no problem, but note taking in general, just gets smaller and smaller.

So I write on a crappy $1 dollar 6x4 notebook with 80 pages. This is like my 4th semester with it, and I'll probably finally finish it in December. I have some new $1 knockoff Field Notes that I'll have for next semester.

Even if I took more classes, I'd rather just get a few of those Volant Moleskine notebooks (or knockoffs, I don't care, they're just notes, haha), and then scan them into Evernote. They do the same OCR stuff, without having to pay the $100+ price tag.

The other thing about the Livescribe is that it just looks too bulky. Not even my Intuos Creative Stylus with a AAA battery I just bought is that thick and it's nice to hold.

I prefer to write in pencil too.

These still exist mostly because of the fact that writing on a tablet is frowned upon at most places, even at college. eBooks are fine otherwise. I don't see anyone ever using their tablet otherwise. Except me when I was sketching my homework on Bamboo Paper the other day.

 

[iMatamoros]

It would be better in my opinion to use a regular $0.50 cent pen and then take a picture of the notes you took and using free OCR technology (like this site
http://www.free-ocr.com) turn it into editable text or even spend $5 buck on an OCR app, it is better than spending $200 on a fancy pen, if someday its price gets down to $15 dollars i would consider into buying it.

Because if you don't use paper, there won't be trees. All the paper you use was made out of trees grown to be paper. The tree farmer has to feed his family, and if he can't sell the trees he is growing on his land, he'll sell his land to some developer who will cut down the trees and put in a shopping mall. There are more trees in North America now than there were 100 years ago.

Trees are also grown to produce a little thing called oxygen, im not a tree hugger hippie but i think that using less paper its beneficial to everyone, i know paper its easy to recycle but 80% of the paper used its new paper and also trees take a long time to grow and if you turn them it into paper they lasts so little so rather than use them to make paper lets use them to produce oxygen or goods that last longer like furniture or even cardboard stuff. BTW trees not only produce oxygen but are a vital part to balance the fauna that you call meat and eat.

 

[TheJae]

Wow their brand name sounds so much like HP's Lightscribe. Which is a totally different product.

 

[ChrisA]

Paper/wood is the most easily renewed and recycled resource we have. I wouldn't worry about "wasting" it per se. It's not like coal, oil, or even natural gas. We can grow more.

We have loads of dirt also. Why don't you cary around a few bucket loads of dirt with you? No need to answer, I know what you will say: "Because it is unpleasant and there is not reason for it"

I don't like to carry a mess of papers around for the same reason.

Paper has all kind of problems
1. There is no "search" function you have to read it top to bottom.
2. It can not be emailed without first being turned into non-paper, so why not start with non-paper and eliminate a conversion step.
3. it is unreadable, if I write it.
4. it is bulky if you don't frequently toss it out.
5. While it can be recycled, the fibers shorten each time so it is never made into the same product. Also it requires energy to make and to ship and to recycle.

 

[hafr]

Yes but why waste trees when we don't have to. The future brings other possibilities and alternatives to paper.

I don't think you really get it though... Using paper isn't wasting trees per se. There's nothing stopping you from using recycled paper, and quite a few manufacturers now plant two trees for every one tree chopped down (and these are fairly fast growing trees as well, it's not like they're cutting down 250+ year old pine and oak trees to make notepads). Another factor to take into consideration is that a lot of paper is being made from leftovers, parts of the tree that isn't used to make timber for instance.

 

[GKThursday]

Trees are also grown to produce a little thing called oxygen, im not a tree hugger hippie but i think that using less paper its beneficial to everyone, i know paper its easy to recycle but 80% of the paper used its new paper and also trees take a long time to grow and if you turn them it into paper they lasts so little so rather than use them to make paper lets use them to produce oxygen or goods that last longer like furniture or even cardboard stuff. BTW trees not only produce oxygen but are a vital part to balance the fauna that you call meat and eat.

Trees are important producers of oxygen (along with algae). But not all forests are equal. The tropical rain forests produce most of the land based oxygen, even though they only cover 6% of the surface area. No one is cutting down those trees for paper (That is not to say that deforestation is not a problem in those areas, but going paperless isn't going to help stop farmer clear cutting and burning the trees to make grazing land).

Now on to responsible forest management. You've probably heard that the timber companies plant 2 trees for each 1 they harvest. That might have been true 20 years ago, but it isn't today. The reason they did that was to grow stands of identical trees, and harvest whole sections at a time. Now most forests go with a more natural approach of planting a mix of trees, and harvesting 1 out of 4 every 10 to 15 years. This actually creates a healthier forest than just letting nature take it's course. You see the stories about forest fires running out of control? That's what happens when you don't manage a forest. That's all fine and dandy until we start developing very close to unmanaged forests, and those fires start destroying buildings.

The reason paper is made out of virgin fiber, is because there are better uses for recycled fiber. Check out this French paper ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnyHMSz7JDE
It is actually more environmentally friendly to use virgin fiber to make paper than it is to create 100% recycled paper and here's a few reasons:
1) Carbon footprint. The paper factories are closer to the forests, and are usually run on a combination of hydro and biofuel power (black liquor is a byproduct of pulping trees to make paper, it also burns very well to run steam turbines)
2) Chemicals. People want white paper, and recycled paper takes far more bleach to make than virgin paper does.

Some recycled content in paper is fine, better even, but anything over 10-20% is usually just "upcycling" which what we call this bit of "greenwashing." Worse for the environment, but makes it look like you care to the misinformed.

On the bit about furniture, not all trees are equal. Some makes great furniture, some doesn't. That's why responsibly managed forests plant and harvest a mix of trees.

Lastly, without a market for paper, the owners of the forests are going to sell the land (both families and corporate owners need to make a return on their investment in the land). Most of the buyers aren't going to keep the forest, they are going to clear cut it for farms or buildings. So using paper helps keep the world green.

 

[axual]

From the Department of Redundancy Department

This comes from the Department of Redundancy Department.

$10 stylus + Free Notability App = Same Thing and Save Trees

 

[MacDude21]

If I had this, it'd last 2 hours before getting lost.