The Smartpen Blog

September 4, 2009

Livescribe 2GB + MyScript Offer Finishes – Should we bring it back?

Filed under: livescribe — Mark Parker @ 8:21 pm
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Over the past few months we’ve been running a really great offer whereby the Livescribe Pulse 2GB Smartpen has been bundled with MyScript for Livescribe. Our regional distributor organised this for us and it’s been very successful (thanks John!).

But all good things must come to an end – or do they?

We’re currently investigating whether we extend the special offer or even create a special offer or special bundle.

We need your feedback.

If you purchased a Pulse Smartpen how important was it for MyScript to be included?

Should we extend the offer?

What are your thoughts?

August 31, 2009

Livescribe Desktop Upgrade for MAC Snow Leopard

Great news from Livescribe over the weekend for our MAC community. The Mac Livescribe Desktop v1.2 for Snow Leopard is now live!

We’ve included the release notes here.

Livescribe recommends this upgrade only for customers using Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6). This update is not recommended for customers using Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5).

New Features for MAC Snow Leopard Version

Livescribe made improvements to Livescribe Desktop to add new features, correct known issues, and improve usability:

  • Currently supports Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard only
  • Includes drag and drop installation

We’ll post a link to the documentation as soon as we have it.

Known Issues

  • New installations of MyScript® for Livescribe from Vision Objects® are not currently supported on Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard. If you already have MyScript for Livescribe installed with Livescribe Desktop for Mac 1.1 and upgrade to Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard, it should run properly
  • Sometimes, the displayed size of a recording is incorrectly displayed as 0 bytes when viewed in the List View. These recordings are not 0 bytes and will play back correctly
  • Double-clicking on a page thumbnail in the Now Playing panel does not open and display the page in Single Page view

If you have any questions you can contact us via comments – or via Twitter – Smartpen or Livescribe

August 20, 2009

Livescribe @ Assistive Technology Forum – Day 1 Recap

Yesterday was day 1 of a 2-day, multi city event with Livescribe. In conjunction with Livescribe we’re exhibiting the Livescribe Pulse Smartpen at the biennial Assistive Technology Forum.

Given we’re doing quite a bit of work with this segment I figured this was going to be a pretty cool day talking to a lot of great people who are doing wonderful things with students who don’t have the opportunity to learn like some of us – and I was right.

The event was very well run and even though I’m not directly involved in Education I thought the speaker line up was first class – the opening address by Professor Ron McCallum was first class and one of the most entertaining speeches I’ve heard in many years of attending conferences.

I was surprised (and a little disappointed) that there wasn’t a greater use of tools like Twitter and Facebook at the event, particularly given the technology focus. I would have thought speakers on technology like Gerry Kennedy, or the reps from Microsoft and Apple would have been encouraging use of these tools.

We had a really busy day with literally hundreds of attendees wanting information about Livescribe. The attendees kept us on our toes by throwing many different types of ‘Can it help if…’ scenarios at us. A common theme was how Livescribe can help students participate and remain relatively independent in the classroom.

I was pleased to meet a number of our existing customers – and we owe them big thanks as they often hung around our stand talking to prospective customers – there is no power greater than an existing customer talking enthusiastically about your product.

Newcastle is the next stop tomorrow. We’ll be Twittering again, sharing photos, and talking to as many people as we can. If you’re coming to the Newcastle event, please stop by.

August 17, 2009

Livescribe – Feedback from the field

We received some great feedback from a customer late last week and given we are exhibiting at the Assistive Technologies Forum this week I thought it was good feedback to share

Our customer originally bought a Livescribe pen for himself as a business tool. As most of us do with new toys he was showing his family and was impressed with how quickly one of his sons took to the technology. Given his son has a learning disability he sent him off to school with his pen.

The impact was immediate and enough for his teachers to show considerable interest in his magic pen. This was enough for dad who purchased a pen for his son and has been a great advocate for Livescribe and Smartpen at his school.
Dad spoke to me late last week – he’s very happy as his son is learning dozens of new words every day and best of all – learning is fun. Learning has gone from a frustrating chore to a fun experience.

This is an important point that we hear a lot from parents and educators. One of the hidden powers of Livescribe is its ability to help young people keep up with their peers in the classroom – making their day more enjoyable and less stressfull.

At Smartpen, we really enjoy hearing stories like this – if you have a similar experience please let me know – we’d love to hear from you.

June 2, 2009

Using Purchase Orders with Smartpen

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

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.

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