Gary’s also one of the leading advocates of creative thinking in Australia. As part of the workshop Gary gave everyone a unlined journal – he refers to them as a creative thinking journal.

This got me thinking about how I use my Livescribe Pulse Smartpen and it dawned on me that the Pulse Smartpen and our own unlined journals are a perfect example of how technology can support creative thinking in a natural, unobtrusive way.

The Livescribe Smartpen captures what a person writes and allows them to add audio if need be. So whether a user is drawing mind maps, brain storming, or simply making written and verbal notes, the Pulse Smartpen and pads capture this content. Importantly MyScript then allows a user to transcribe and share this content.

To support creative thinking, we’ve created a new bundled solution called the Livescribe Creative Thinking bundle. The pack will include a 4GB Livescribe Pulse Smartpen, a set of Creative Thinking Journals, and MyScript for Livescribe. Until the end of March, we’re also offering free shipping on this bundle.

If you’ve already got your Smartpen, you can purchase a set of Livescribe Creative Thinking Journals for $49.95.

Finally, if you want more information on how to embrace creative thinking, or to fire up your mojo – then visit Gary’s website or sign up for his Expresso newsletter.

Here’s an image of the 4GB in the new colour

2010 is shaping up as a big year for us

Firstly, the RRP for the 2GB pen has been reduced to $299 (including GST). This is in time for us to help out the flood of new students entering university as well as many of our Government and corporate users who are completing trials of the Pulse Smartpen within their operations.

You may also have noticed that we’ve added the A4 and A5 pads into the store – it’s nice having metric paper products at last…

The really important development though is that we’ve been working on some innovative ideas for where we see the Pulse Smartpen going – particularly now that the software development kit is out there. I’m going to share some ideas with you in January about how we see the technology being used in education and business.

We’re in the final stages of a pretty significant development to help us help you better. The first part of this will be the launch of an Australian support wiki. This wiki will contain FAQ’s, community feedback, as well as tools to help us solve some of the occasional problems that emerge with the pen and desktop. One of the core reasons we’re doing this is that we’re a pretty industrious bunch down here so I’m very keen to tap that inquisitive nature so that we all can benefit.

This won’t replace the support resources on the Livescribe site but will augment them and be focused on the issues that we track from you the customer.

Livescribe in Education

Another key goal of the wiki will be to create an interactive environment where we can collaborate to develop policies around how Livescribe can be used by students.

One of my core goals is to develop a framework of information and policies that schools, TAFE’s, and Universities can then refer to or use so that everyone understands what the Livescribe Pulse Smartpen does and how it can be used to help the learning experience.

If you have upgraded to Windows 7 (we will be shortly) and you have a Livescribe Pulse Smartpen – then you’re in luck.

Livescribe Desktop v1.7 is compatible with Windows 7. To get Livescribe Desktop v1.7, simply go to the Livescribe website and follows the links through the Support section of the site.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line

Great news from the team and a reflection of how they listen and react to market feedback!

Not surprisingly we’ve already fielded dozens of calls, emails, and Tweets about when the 4GB will be available here – stay tuned as I don’t have details yet.

Here are the key points about the news this week:

1. Livescribe 4GB – up to 400 hours of audio capture – but more importantly additional capacity to load applications onto the pen. I think this is a good move by Livescribe. Having spoken to thousands of customers around the APAC region the message I’m hearing is that users want additional functionality and integration
2. The new Pro Pack – I liked the old Livescribe Pro Pack – I like the new Livescribe 4GB Pro Pack even more – our problem is we just can’t get it down here – YET.
   Over the past 18 months we’ve had the opportunity to build a very detailed profile of what people NEED based on how they plan to use the Livescribe Pulse Smartpen. Shortly, we’ll be announcing a series of product bundles aimed at specific user groups – business users, teachers, students, and researchers.
3. The new Charging Cradle – Now this is a very cool – very Apple style – addition to the Livescribe accessory range. I had the opportunity to see the prototype a while ago and was amazed at how good this cradle looks. It’s only available as part of the pro-pack and in the US at the moment but we’re making enquiries as to whether we can get them into Australia and New Zealand.
4. New Colours – another nice addition to the product range.

As we learn more about these new products we’ll share it here first.

Great news through today from the Livescribe team with the announcement of a new model – the Livescribe 4GB Pulse Smartpen.

This latest model will record up to 400 hours of audio.

We don’t have any details as to availability here in Australia or pricing. Once we do we’ll let everyone know.

In addition to this, Smartpen will be introducing a number of new product bundles aimed at business and academic/student users. These new bundles will include the current Livescribe Pulse Smartpen plus the most popular accessories based on the sales data that we’ve collected over the past 15 months of sales.

I’m pleased to advise that we’ve added MyScript for Livescribe into our Smartpen store.

MyScript for Livescribe

The product has been very popular with Livescribe users, so we’ve done two things:

1. We’ve created a new product bundle – Livescribe 2GB Pulse Smartpen plus MyScript for Livescribe
2. MyScript for Livescribe – a stand alone, fully licensed version of the product.

If you’re wondering how the product works, this blog post was created by my Livescribe pen. The image below is from MyScript and shows my hand written draft post on the left and then the transcription on the right.

MyScript for Livescribe - turning my hand writing into text

I wrote out what I wanted in the blog post in my spiral notebook, and then used MyScript to turn my hand writing into text. This text was then copied into this blog post.

Our customers share some great stories with us about how they use their Livescribe Pulse Smartpens. This is another great example of how the pen can be used.

Suzi Wong is an Adelaide based user who writes about her cooking and eating adventures. Suzi is also a full time student doing an honours research project on classroom management practices of beginning teachers.

Recently Suzi wrote about how her mothers’ decision to pass on her cookbooks to her got her thinking about how she could do the same for her daughters.

The solution for Suzi is her Livescribe Smartpen.

The cover page for Suzi's recipe book in the Livescribe notebook

The Livescribe Smartpen and notebook allows Suzi to create books of family recipes that she can then store and print as she wishes.

The personal touch of hand-written recipes is timeless. Here’s another example of what Suzi is creating.

An example of a recipe that Suzi has created

This is a great example of how to use the Livescribe Smartpen.

Thanks for sharing this Suzi and best of luck with the recipes

So if you’ve been wondering about Pencasts – could you use them in a learning environment? Watch this Livescribe Pencast as it’s a great example of how to use this feature.

Sigh…all we need now is integration to Microsoft OneNote and Apple Evernote…

You can download the relevant update by docking your Pulse Smartpen – then accept the prompt to download the update.

Livescribe Desktop for Windows version 1.7

Livescribe made improvements to Livescribe Desktop for Windows to correct known issues, and improve usability. Livescribe recommend this upgrade for all users.

We’ve downloaded the new Livescribe Desktop for Windows – version 1.7 – note the attachment is 2.2MB

Livescribe Desktop for Mac OS X version 1.2

Livescribe has made improvements to Livescribe Desktop for Mac OS X to add new features, correct known issues, and improve usability. Livescribe recommend this upgrade for all users.

The new features include

• Support for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
• Support for drag and drop installation.
• Support for handwriting to text conversion using MyScript for Livescribe from Vision Objects

We’ve downloaded the new Livescribe Desktop for Mac OS X version 1.2 – note the attachment is 3MB

There are some known issues with the new Mac version. Please contact me if you need further information

PC Authority is one of the highest circulating technology magazines in Australia. Known for their rigorous testing of new technology, receiving a Recommendation is high praise for the Pulse Smartpen.