The Smartpen Blog

June 2, 2009

Exciting news for local Livescribe developers

Filed under: New Tools, livescribe — Mark Parker @ 10:59 am
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I’m pleased to advise that Livescribe has announced the pre-release of their software development kit (SDK) – and in unexpected news the new SDK is MAC compatible

To access the SDK you need to register via the Livescribe site. Use this link to find out more.

Here’s some of the information that was released yesterday at the Java conference:

Livescribe’s SDK includes Paper Designer for Eclipse, providing software developers with all the tools, technical documentation, sample code and support needed to create, publish, share and sell sophisticated applications for the Pulse smartpen. The pre-release Platform SDK also includes the Penlet SDK, which contains an Eclipse plug-in for penlet development as well as a suite of APIs, sample code, documentation, debug tools and command line build utilities.

Livescribe CEO has been quoted as follows:

“The release of the SDK 1.0 is a significant step forward for Livescribe’s mobile computing platform,” said Jim Marggraff, Livescribe founder and chief executive officer. “We’re anxious to see what our more than 4,000 software developers already actively participating in our developer program will create to expand the functionality, purpose and value of the Pulse smartpen for consumers.”

This is good news for our local developer community. We’ve had ongoing contact with many developers who have been eagerly awaiting this release. Given that innovation is in our genes I’m sure it won’t be long before Australian applications are available via the Livescribe Application Store.

If you have any feedback or wish to share your thoughts please use the comments or let me know if you have a longer piece. We’d be happy to publish it via a guest author spot on the blog.

May 19, 2009

Livescribe New Paper Products

Filed under: Livescribe Paper Products, livescribe — Mark Parker @ 7:13 am
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First of all, let me state up front that we’re still waiting for details of the new paper products.We hope to have news on the new range of Livescribe pads shortly; whilst they’ve been available in the US for a while, it’s taken longer to get details and shipments sorted for Australia. We’re working closely with the master distributor to finalise pricing and availability. Once we have confirmed landing dates in Australia, we’ll communicate with everyone and open up our site for pre-orders.

For our Sydney customers, you’ll have the option of inspecting the new pad products in the showroom of our Sydney partner KPOWER. Their showroom is located at 277 Sussex St, Sydney. Look for the KPOWER Kafe. The KPOWER team are all gadget nuts so you’ll be able to have an educated discussion with them about the Livescribe pen and the entire product range.

The new paper products we will introduce include the following:

Flip Notepad – 4-pack

We’ve had tremendous interest in these pads. They look really nice and having seen them first hand, I can vouch for the quality.

A pocket sized flip notebook with a protective black cover

A pocket sized flip notebook with a protective black cover

Paperblanks Handtooled Mini Wrap Journal

This is a great looking product and when you get your hands on it, you will be impressed. Again, we had a lot of interest particularly from our business customers. I predict this journal range will be a top seller by Christmas. Again, I’ve seen this product first hand and I can safely say the owner was lucky to get it back.

This small and elegant journal is ideal for your everyday notes and fits easily in your pocket.

This small and elegant journal is ideal for your everyday notes and fits easily in your pocket.

We know of a few other products coming through the system so stay tuned whilst we finalise the details.

April 6, 2009

Smartpen now on Twitter

Filed under: livescribe — Mark Parker @ 2:05 am
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Furthering the channels for customers to communicate with us, Smartpen is now on Twitter. You can find us under Smartpen.

You can use our Twitter account to contact us if you have any questions about your Livescribe pen. We’ll also announce new products, Livescribe Desktop upgrades etc.

We look forward to following you on Twitter

March 14, 2009

Livescribe – Where are we going?

Filed under: livescribe — Mark Parker @ 10:30 pm
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I had the opportunity to catch up with Eric Pettit from Livescribe this week as he made a whirlwind trip down under to try and get a grasp on what’s happening here. In conjunction with John Ong from the regional master distributor we had a great chat and I have to admit I came away really excited about what Livescribe is planning for this year in terms of core development, new development, and new ideas.

A couple of points stood out for me.

Firstly, Livescribe are listening.

They know there are a few things they’ve not done the best job on, and they’re committed to doing things better in the future. As I’ve commented many times here and in my direct communications with you, Livescribe’s a company that’s still relatively new and growing so it’s important we give them constructive feedback but also exercise some patience as they learn and grasp what they need to do better.

Secondly, they have a vision

They have a vision for where the Livescribe product is going that fits in with much if not all of the feedback that you’ve given us over the past 7 months. This applies across the many facets of the user community as well as those of you who want to develop applications. Some of the dates for new features mightn’t be what we’re expecting but we’re heading in the right direction.

I promised Eric I wouldn’t spill the beans so stay tuned as we work closely with Livescribe over the next 8+ months. It’s going to be an exciting year – there’s some great things being worked on.

March 4, 2009

Attention all Livescribe MAC uses – we need your feedback

Filed under: New Tools, livescribe — Mark Parker @ 12:43 am
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Hi Livescribe Mac users

The v1.0 desktop was released yesterday and as I’m a simple PC user I’d like to get your feedback to that I can share it to the wider community of Livescribe and Livescribe MAC users (i.e. I’m going to plug your comments directly into the Livescribe team).

Please feel free to comment on this post or contact me directly on mparker at smartpen.com.au.

We want to hear your initial thoughts as well as suggestions as to what Livescribe needs to do next.

February 24, 2009

Livescribe Desktop for Mac – NEW Release Date

Filed under: New Tools, livescribe — Mark Parker @ 9:17 am
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Recently we advised that the planned move of the Livescribe Desktop for Mac from Beta to v1.0 had been delayed till March.

We received word late today that the Livescribe Desktop for Mac is due for release on Tuesday March 3 US time – assume this will be Wednesday March 4 for us down here.

In the coming days I’m hoping we’ll get a more detailed overview of the core feature set (that’s a hint Jason), in the meantime, we know this:

  • Adding ability to Print range of pages via print dialog
  • Adding ability to Export range of pages as PDF via print dialog
  • Adding Archive your Livescribe paper products (notebooks, journals, etc.)
  • Adding Upload to Livescribe Online
  • Adding Browsing of My Livescribe
  • Adding Remove Paper Replay™ Recordings from your Pulse Smartpen
  • Adding Delete Paper Replay Recordings from Livescribe Desktop
  • Adding Drag and pan to reposition zoomed pages
  • Adding Rename your Pulse™ smartpen
  • Adding Rename your notebooks

One feature not mentioned in the recent data is the option to export audio files (in AAC format) separately from notes so you can play them back in iTunes. I’m waiting on feedback from Livescribe re this.

If you have any questions please comment or contact us directly via our support email – support@smartpen.com.au

February 19, 2009

Using a Purchase Order to Buy a Livescribe Smartpen

Filed under: livescribe — Mark Parker @ 4:13 am
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The Smartpen website has provision to accept orders from Schools, Universities, TAFE’s, and Government Departments where a purchase order needs to be issued rather than a direct credit card purchase.

To access this option, register as a user, add the required items to the shopping cart, click checkout, then under payment method, please select “Purchase Order/Corporate Order. This option bypasses the credit card payment option and prompts you to enter the specifics of your purchase order.

Once your order has been submitted, we’ll get in contact with you to confirm delivery. Purchase orders can be faxed to us on (07) 3102 6274 or emailed to admin@smartpen.com.au.

If you have any troubles finding this option, please contact us so we can help you out.

February 16, 2009

Livescribe Desktop for MAC Delayed

Filed under: livescribe — machandler @ 4:27 am
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We received advice from Livescribe today that the planned release of the MAC version of Livescribe Desktop has been delayed until at least early March.

The following note was published on the Livescribe forum:

A note to our Mac users: Our original plan of releasing Livescribe Desktop for Mac 1.0 on Feb. 17 will be delayed due to some minor software tweaks we discovered last week.

We always want you to have a quality experience when using your Pulse smartpen and Livescribe Desktop, so we felt a few extra weeks to get it right will be worth the wait. As soon as we have a precise date (which we expect to be no later than early March), we will let you know, here and on our blog.

We’ll see what additional information we can find out and post here ASAP.

cheers

December 4, 2008

Livescribe Smartpen given review in The West Australian

Filed under: livescribe — Mark Parker @ 9:04 pm
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Google Alerts bought the following article to my attention this morning.

Livescribe Smartpen, latest in pen evolution

November 18, 2008

Livescribe Desktop Upgrade – Exciting News

Filed under: New Tools, livescribe — Mark Parker @ 1:00 am
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We’ve received some exciting news from Livescribe regarding the planned upgrades to the Livescribe Desktop application. Version 1.4 will be released on November 24 in the US, so Australian customers will be able to download this from Tuesday the 25th.

Firstly, a Beta version of the Macintosh version of the Desktop will be available. This is good news as we’ve had a lot of enquiries from Mac users and we have a number of customers waiting for this release. If you’re a Mac user, Gizmodo has already had a look at the Mac version and seem pretty happy.

The really exciting news is that version 1.4 (due this month) will provide OCR capabilities via a new release from MyScript (a Vision Objects product). The features of MyScript include:

  • Send your handwritten notes directly from Livescribe Desktop to MyScript for Livescribe for conversion to text.
  • Use your personal dictionary to add names, terms and abbreviations for even more accurate conversion.
  • Convert handwriting, shapes, drawings and tables into print.
  • Edit the resulting digital text directly in My Script for Livescribe application.
  • Edited results can be sent to Microsoft Word or another word processor, to a text file, to your default email application or saved as a picture file.

We’re currently talking to Vision Objects about adding this application to our portfolio. Hopefully we’ll have some news on that shortly.

We installed the trial application earlier today and it doesn’t let you test any of your own content. So we’re installing the paid version and we’ll run some tests on the technology and let everyone know the results.

Finally, Livescribe are giving people the option of printing their own dot pattern paper with this release. I’m sitting on the fence on this one for a couple of reasons – the main one being the type of printer required to print the paper. I’ll also create a post on this on the 25th once we have the new verison.

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