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It's a neat idea, but the lag is a dealbreaker for me. I've been looking/waiting for a pen based note-taking solution, even if it's a unitasking solution, to get rid of the heavy hardcover sketchbook in my briefcase.

My use case is simple, I just want a digital copy of my notes -- I don't need any OCR or anything fancy like that, and I'm not convinced that a LiveScribe is the way to go.

I had high hopes for the NoteSlate, but that product has turned out to be vapor ware.



Have you seen the wacom inkling? http://www.wacom.com/en/products/inkling.aspx


The Inkling looks interesting. The Verge gave it a 6.8, which isn't too too reassuring.

The thing with the smart pens is that they're chunkier than I'm used to, and then I worry about the smoothness of the pens.

I know the LiveScribe doesn't have gel based ink refills, which is basically the only type of pen I write with. I find the friction from normal ball point pens a little uncomfortable.


You should honestly consider purchasing a fountain pen. They work via capillary action, which means that they write on contact -- no pressure needed. At all.

Some good starters are the LAMY Safari, the TWSBI 540, and the Kaweco Sport. All of these cost <$50 and can take bottled ink (with possible modifications to the Kaweco), reducing refill costs drastically.

I, too, used to think gel pens were the bomb, but writing with a fountain pen is just something else. :D


Unless you're left-handed :-( Then you spend your time scratching and pushing against the paper and smudging your handwriting :-(

If you're trying to do mirror writing they become awesome again, but that's not a frequent use case:-(


I'm a 'lefty' and write with a fountain pen using Parker's Quink - a fairly fast drying ink. Works remarkably well.


Thanks, nice to know. Btw, do you use a particular model of fountain pen (hard / supple head, wide / narrow tip) ?


I'm left handed. :)


That's very informative, I think I'll give a fountain pen a shot.


Either Penultimate or Paper are fit for the task. Paper has slightly better tracking allowing for more detail, and the pencil simulation is great. The only thing missing is real pressure sensitivity.


Camscanner + regular pen and paper is solution i'm currently using. I use camscanner to create a PDF version of my paper notes.


> ... but the lag is a dealbreaker for me ... well, according to the twitter-post (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4052175) it seems that the whole thing was filmed in high-speed (https://twitter.com/collusionapp/status/208366845781221377/p...)


Livescribe works pretty well.




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