Livescribe 8 GB Echo Smartpen: Amazon.co.uk: Office Products

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Product Information

Technical Details

Brand	Livescribe
Model Number	APX-00006
Item Weight	36 g
Product Dimensions	21.6 x 6.4 x 17.3 cm
Batteries:	1 Lithium ion batteries required. (included)
Colour	Black
Material Type	metal
Point Type	medium
Ink Colour	Black
Tip Type	ballpoint

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Additional Information

ASIN	B003UNL14S
Best Sellers Rank	348 in Office Products (See top 100) #2 in Office Products > Office Electronics > Voice Recorders & Accessories #5 in Computers & Accessories > Keyboards, Mice & Input Devices > Graphic Tablets #12 in Computers & Accessories > Keyboards, Mice & Input Devices > Graphic Tablet Pens
Shipping Weight	522 g
Date First Available	19 July 2010

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Product Description

Work smarter, not harder, with an Echo smartpen from Livescribe. Record everything you hear, say and write, while linking your audio recordings to your notes. Quickly replay audio from your Livescribe paper, a computer, or a mobile device – all with a simple tap on your handwritten notes. It's never been easier to take notes and stay organised.

A pencast is a digital version of your notes
and audio. Pencasts allow you to hear and see your notes exactly as they were captured.

Livescribe Connect: share notes and audio from your paper to destinations like Email, Google Docs, Facebook, Evernote, or your mobile device.

It's never been easier to share notes and audio.

Record and Play Back

Smartpens record everything you write and hear so you’ll never miss a word. Replay your meetings or lectures simply by tapping on your notes¹.

Save, Search and Organise

Livescribe Desktop saves your notes and recordings to your computer for fast, easy access to what’s important. Search for words within your notes and find what you need fast.

Send and Share with Livescribe Connect

Easily send notes and audio to people and destinations such as Email², Google Docs ², Facebook, Evernote, Microsoft OneNote, Google Sites ², MyLivescribe, your mobile device or your computer³ — all from your paper or Livescribe Desktop!

8GB of Memory: Room for Recordings and Notes

When digitizing your notes and audio you'll need storage space; with 8GB of memory, your smartpen has it. An 8GB smartpen can hold over 800 hours of audio* or 128,000 pages of notes.

Included Smartpen Applications

Your Echo smartpen comes loaded with applications ready to work right out of the box:

Livescribe Connect Premium: Easily send and share notes and audio to Email, Google Docs, Facebook, Evernote, Microsoft OneNote, Google Sites, MyLivescribe, your mobile device or your computer
Quick Record: record audio without using dot paper with just a press of a button
Quick Calc: Write an addition, subtraction, multiplication or division problem on dot paper and get the answer on your smartpen screen
Launch Line: launch your favourite app by writing its name
Password: protect your recorded paper replay sessions with a 4-digit number
System Utilities: multiple language support, time, date, storage info, and battery charge

Livescribe Dot Paper

Livescribe dot paper uses regular paper printed with a unique pattern of tiny microdots. This tiny pattern works a lot like a GPS system for your smartpen. It allows a smartpen to capture everything it writes or draws on dot paper.

Livescribe smartpens only work with Livescribe Dot Paper, so we've created a variety of dot paper sizes and types: College-ruled Notebooks, Lined Journals, Blank Journals, Mini Journals, A5-sized Notebooks, Flip Notepads, and Sticky Notes. You can even print your own dot paper for free from within Livescribe Desktop on many printers.

What You Get in the Box

The Echo smartpen with 8GB of memory
Livescribe Connect Premium: Includes Connect Basic (Facebook, Evernote, MyLivescribe, your mobile device, and your computer)
plus additional connectors for Email and Google Docs
Livescribe Desktop software for Mac or Windows (download)
500 MB of personal online storage
Starter dot paper notebook
Micro USB Cable
Interactive Getting Started Guide
Smartpen Tips and Tricks
2 smartpen caps
2 ink cartridges

What You Need: System Requirements

Windows XP 32-bit SP2 or higher, or Windows Vista 32 or 64-bit, or Windows 7
Intel Mac with Mac OS X 10.5.5 or higher
600MHz CPU or higher
300 MB minimum free disk space
Available USB 2.0 port
Livescribe Desktop 2.7 for WIndows or Mac OS
Smartpen firmware version 2.7 or later
Internet connection


Total hours of recording time*	200	400	800	800
Livescribe Connect Basic (Evernote, Facebook, MyLivescribe, your mobile device, and your computer)	•	•	•	•
Livescribe Connect Premium (includes all Connect Basic connectors plus Email and Google Docs)		•	•	•
Smartpen Portfolio				•
3-D Recording Premium Headset				•
MyScript for Livescribe Software Converts handwritten notes to digital text				•
Livescribe Desktop software for Mac or Windows	•	•	•	•
500 MB of personal online storage	•	•	•	•
Livescribe Starter Paper	•
Livescribe Starter Notebook		•	•	•
Micro USB Cable	•	•	•	•
Rubberized Grip		•	•	•
Ink Cartridges	1	2	2	2
Smartpen Caps	1	2	2	2

*Actual recording time varies by audio quality setting.
¹ Livescribe paper required – don't record without permission
² These connectors are available only with Livescribe Connect Premium
³ Mobile device access requires Pencast Player App or Flash —enabled web browser

Box Contains

The Echo Smartpen with 8 GB of memory (over 800 hours recording time)

Starter dot paper notebook

Micro USB cable

Interactive Getting Started Guide

Smartpen Tips & Tricks Guide

Two ink cartridges

Two Smartpen caps

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

81 of 82 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A back-to-college revolution! 8 Aug 2010

By D. Preston

Amazon Verified Purchase

I'm preparing to start a college course this autumn and I've had this Livescribe ECHO 8GB pen a week now. I feel strangely optimistic about the whole affair, now that my pea-like memory and tortoise-like note writing skills have got the ECHO to fall back on. I've used it every day, including for some serious note taking with audio (though not in a busy lecture hall as yet) - it is comfortable, relatively easy to use and very impressive.

As a very sound-orientated person, I'm finding that a link between recorded speach and the written word is an excellent memory aid, and much more engaging than plain writing.

Two quibbles though:

- my pen has frozen a couple of times, requiring a reboot to bring it back to use.
- a couple of pages of my notes have additional lines drawn on them in the pencast version, so perhaps the nib had thought it was being pressed on the paper when it wasn't?

I find MyScript handwriting-to-text converter an essential for further processing of my ECHO notes - it's purchased from a third party website and is far from perfect, but it still saves a mass of time in typing up notes. Your notes need to be legible and fairly linear for it to work well. I could just keep to the handwriting images, but converting to text allows cutting and pasting. When charts, spidergrams etc are needed, I won't bother trying to convert them to the inevitable meaningless squiggles that MyScript would make of them, though.

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106 of 109 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Livescribe Echo 22 Sep 2010

By Christopher Giordimaina

The Echo smartpen is the latest in Livescribe's range of smartpens and carries with it a few improvements over the Pulse (the "old" smartpen). The improvements are:

1) A flat area on the bottom of the pen to prevent it from rolling over.

I have used the Pulse for over a year and while its functionality is great, I often had to place the pen in its carrying case when I wanted to put it down during lectures to prevent it from rolling off the desk. This used to create a scratching sound on my audio which while not detracting from the recording, would be highly annoying when re-listening to sessions. No such problem with the Echo. You can put it down and even if it does roll over, it will stop after one or two rolls instead of falling off your notes.

2) Improved storage capacity.

In my experience I have found that around 4GB is enough to record an entire year's worth of lectures, so 8GB might seem a bit excessive at first. However, Livescribe has steadily been launching more applications for their smartpens. One might argue that the space can be used for applications (some of which can reach a considerable size, such as the English dictionary currently available) so if you plan on using a lot of apps it's best to go with the Echo.

3) Docking cradle replaced with standard USB cable.

The two main advantages to this are that you can buy a replacement cable fairly easily if your original one gets lost or damaged, and that the pen can be used while still connected to the PC. Livescribe have hinted at the future possibility that the pen will be able to be used as a graphics tablet because of this (possibly for an additional price).

4) A cap to cover the Infrared camera and ink tip.

A useful feature if you do not plan on getting a carrying case for your Echo. Otherwise a fairly useless feature.

5) A rubber grip in the bottom half of the pen.

This pen does feel somewhat more comfortable to write with than the Pulse, but not dramatically so.

Apart from these improvements on the smartpen design, there are some thing which potential buyers should be aware of:

1) The Echo is larger (physically) than the Pulse. This gives it a tendency to stand out more, as well as making it just a bit more uncomfortable to carry. It also means that the Echo will not fit into the leather case that came with Pulse.

2) The Echo does not come with its own case, headphones or A4 notebook; all these things must be bought separately. It does come with a small A5 notebook though. Moreover, the Pulse's headphones will not work with the Echo smartpen.

3) Something rather minor, but the top half of the pen has been made out of a shiny plastic which easily smudges.

The bottom line is that if you are considering buying a smartpen for the first time, then go for the Echo. It really does do everything it is advertised to do and does it well. Moreover you are ensuring that you will be compatible with all future updates (such as the tablet functionality mentioned earlier).

If however you are considering an upgrade from a Pulse to an Echo, I would reccomend you wait either until your current smartpen definitely needs replacing (i.e. breaks) or you really feel you cannot live without one of the features/improvements mentioned above.

EDIT: One thing I forgot to mention in my initial review is the brilliant customer service Livescribe have. You can get in touch with them quite easily and so far they've always sent a personalized reply to my queries.

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62 of 65 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Great device but not a major improvement on the Pulse 2 Sep 2010

By Dazza

I purchased the Livescribe Pulse when it first came out in the US in Aug 2008 and found the device excellent. My only issues were that the pen was uncomfortable to write with for extend periods, too chunky and the writing experience poor (pen cartridges overly priced). It was a relief to see an upgrade which I quickly purchased. Unfortunately, the Echo did not address the main issues of its predecessor but performed as intended. However, I had to return the first one as it failed to sync with the Livescribe desktop software owing to a faulty pen that Amazon kindly replaced. PS. I spend over 4 hours with Livescribe technical support to identify it was a faulty pen.

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