Take it from veteran journalist and computer writer James Fallows, of the Atlantic:
For my own workaday purposes, the most useful recent invention has been
the Livescribe Pulse pen, which I bought just after its introduction
early last year and now can hardly be without. It looks like a somewhat
bulky, cigar-shaped metallic writing instrument. Inside it contains a
high-end audio recording system and assorted computer circuitry. When
you turn it on, it starts recording what you are hearing—and also
matches what is being said, instant by instant (in fact, using photos it
takes 72 times per second), with notes or drawings that you’re making
in a special Livescribe notebook. The result is a kind of indexing
system for an audio stream. If a professor is explaining a complex
equation during a lecture, you write “equation,” or anything else—and
later when you click on that term, either in the original notebook or on
images of the pages transferred to your computer screen, it plays back
that exact part of the discussion. (Works on both Macs and PCs.) For me
this means instant access to the three interesting sentences—I just
write “interesting!” in the notebook or put a star—in the typical
hour-long journalistic interview. The battery lasts for several full
days’ use between recharges, and the pen can hold dozens of hours of
recordings.
Or take it from me, an average joe journalist… this device is freaking amazing, for anyone who does any kind of interviewing or listening with attention. It passes my tech test: it works straight out of the box, no need to crack open the manual. Even for people with bad penmanship. Unbelievable.
Kit Stolz 