The Smartpen Blog

July 8, 2009

Livescribe Smartpen Reviewed by SMH

Filed under: Recognition and Awards, livescribe — Mark Parker @ 9:01 am
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Sydney Morning Herald reporter Simon Tsang has produced a great review of the Livescribe Pulse Smartpen.

There was one slight inaccuracy in Simon’s article. He mentions that a user can download and print their own Livescribe paper from the Livescribe website. This feature is actually available via Livescribe Desktop – the application that a user runs on their local machine. This feature is currently also available for those users on PC – to the best of my knowledge the feature is not yet available on the MAC version.

As we’ve commented previously, to print your own paper you need the following:

  • A colour laser printer that is post script compatible
  • Print quality that is close to 600dpi.

Finally, Simon raised a good point about the types of pads that are available and what is supplied as the default paper product. We’ve been looking at this and working with the master distributor on what options might work. We’d appreciate your feedback and suggestions

June 15, 2009

New Livescribe Paper Products Now Available

Filed under: Livescribe Paper Products, livescribe — Mark Parker @ 5:39 pm
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We’ve finally received details of the two new Livescribe paper products today.

The Flip Notepads are priced at $27 (inc GST) for a pack of 4

A pocket sized flip notebook with a protective black cover

These pocket sized flip notebooks come in a pack of 4 for AUD 27 inc GST

The Paperblanks Hand Tooled Mini Wrap journals are priced at $27ea (inc GST).

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

This small and elegant journal is sold individually for AUD 27 inc GST.

Important Notice about Availability.

We only have a limited quantity of the new pads at the moment. If you are interested in the new products please place and order and we’ll hold your back order for priority filling once further stocks become available. If you don’t want to place an order now, please use the comments section of this blog post, or contact us via:

As I’ve commented before, these products are high quality and are a perfect addition to the paper products range.

June 2, 2009

Using Purchase Orders with Smartpen

Filed under: Livescribe Tips, livescribe — Mark Parker @ 11:27 am
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A few months ago we blogged about a change in our purchasing policy; at the time we were seeing increased demand from certain institutions where purchase via credit card isn’t an option. We made the decision at the time to accept purchase orders as a valid purchase option for the Livescribe Smartpen.

Our website allows you to purchase a Livescribe Smartpen via a corporate purchase order. This option is available at the last step of the checkout process.

Recently we’ve seen a spike in enquiries about purchase options so I think it’s worth reiterating our approach.

Given many of our prospective customers don’t have access to a corporate credit card Smartpen accepts orders that are submitted on an official purchase order.

This applies to the following types of organisations:

  • Federal, State, and Local government departments.
  • Universities
  • TAFE colleges
  • Hospitals, care facilities, registered charities
  • Medical research institutes
  • Public high schools
  • Private high schools

If you don’t fall into these categories and would like to purchase a Livescribe Smartpen then please contact us to discuss the situation.

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.

April 7, 2009

Introducing Flip Notepads and Paperblanks Mini Wrap Journals

Filed under: New Tools, livescribe — Mark Parker @ 7:12 am
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By now many of you will have received an email from Livescribe announcing the new range of paper products. We gave some insight into these new products in previous posts and today’s email is great news.

As I’ve already heard from many of you via phone and email, I’ll address the key questions right up front:

  1. When will they be available – I’ll have more info on this in the next 24-48 hours. We need to get stock from the US and also China so it’s not as simple as saying “this date”
  2. How much are the new products – we expect to have pricing confirmed in the next week also. As you’re no doubt aware bringing printed products into Australia is not a simple process due to our Customs laws.
  3. What colours and styles will be available – this is a tricky one. I’ll know more by next week as we get a handle on what stock is available and how quickly we can get it into the country. As we’ve done in the past we’re likely to focus on a limited selection and then build this as we start to understand what you’d like us to carry.

I’ve had the opportunity to view these products first hand and I have to say they are of exceptional quality. We’ll have these products loaded into our store in the next few days and we’ll start taking pre-orders once we have a confirmed date of availability.

As always, if you have any questions, please comment here, or visit us on Twitter or Facebook.

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

MyScript for Livescribe – MAC Version

Filed under: New Tools — Mark Parker @ 12:10 am
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Firstly, a MAC version of MyScript for Livescribe isn’t available – YET!

We’ve mentioned MyScript for Livescribe a couple of times (here and here). As MAC users, you’re aware that this product is PC only. One of the very helpful staff at Vision Objects in France (an Aussie girl no less) made the following comment about the lack of a MAC version:

If there is no Mac version it is just a question of commercial agreements and of workload priority. But I do urge Mac users to keep asking, as I think a mac version will come up on the cards, we have a lot of user feedback asking for Mac every day so it will have an effect soon I feel. Write to us at myscriptforlivescribe.support@visionobjects.com and keep pushing for your mac version !!

If you are a MAC user and feel MyScript for Livescribe would be a benefit, then I urge you to email Vision Objects supporting the case for a MAC version of MyScript.

This is the email address – myscriptforlivescribe.support@visionobjects.com

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