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***Updated with Video Below- The past few months have proven to be an exciting time for the use of technology in our legal practice. In December, we purchased a Livescribe Pulse Smartpen and can’t put it down. In a nutshell, this pen will record your written notes in its memory while simultaneously recording the audio that coincides with those notes. Then, you can either listen to the audio in its entirety, or click on a portion of your notes to immediately jump to that section of the audio, both straight from the pen, or on your computer. When you dock your pen, your notes and the corresponding audio is transferred to your computer and can be viewed and listened to, exported as a PDF and even searched (it has hand-writing recognition built-in to the desktop software). The only downside is the necessity of using specially printed paper for your notes, but this paper is not only very cheap from the company, you have the option of printing your own on regular paper provided you have a laser printer capable of reproducing the miniscule dots the pen uses to locate where on the page you are writing (more on that later).
Here is how it works:
When you buy the pen, you are provided with the Livescribe Pulse Smartpen, a spiral-bound notebook of paper for initial note-taking, a USB docking/charging station, a protective sleeve for your pen and three replacement ink cartridges.
On each page of the notebook, iconic controls are printed at the bottom of each page. These controls allow you to begin audio recording, pause, slow-down and speed-up playback and raise and lower the volume of the audio as well as add bookmarks.
When you begin recording audio and move the pen over the paper to take notes, the pen’s built-in camera beneath the writing tip ‘sees’ very small dots which are pre-printed on the page and allow the pen to decipher where the pen tip is at all times. Using this, the pen synchronizes the recorded audio to your notes. When you’re done recording, you simply hit “Stop” at the end of the page and can then either upload your notes to the desktop software or you can press your pen anywhere on your notes to hear the audio recorded at the time they were written.
Battery life of the pen is amazing. Because the pen’s display uses OLED’s (even more energy efficient than LED’s), the pen can record approximately 10 hours of continuous audio on a single charge (tested in a real-life scenario by Finis). Even more amazing is the built-in memory on the Pulse Smartpen, which comes in a 1GB ($149.95) and a 2GB ($199.95) model. While we tested the 2GB version and have yet to fill it up, Livescribe’s website reports that the 2GB can record over 200 hours of audio and the 1GB can record over 100 hours and we have no reason to doubt it. Of course, you most likely won’t need 100 hours of recordings on your pen all of the time, since you can delete files as they are uploaded to your computer. given this option, the 2GB version seems like over-kill but since it is only $50 more, it’s hard not to buy the 2GB.
To print your own paper, you simply open the desktop application and print as many sheets as you would like in 25 page increments. As long as you have a color printer capable of printing 600dpi or better (which most printers can handle nowadays) you will end up with the same exact paper as is included in the spiral notebook, just in loose-leaf. If you don’t want to print your own paper, Livescribe sells lined and un-lined journals for $24.95 for when you are on the go as well as additional spiral notebooks in one and three subject varieties.
The desktop application for both the Mac and PC are very easy to use, allowing you to scroll through virtual notebooks containing your notes and listening to your recordings with the click of the mouse. You can export the pages as PDF’s for emailing to others, though they won’t be able to hear the audio attached to your notes at that point. Livescribe also offers a service through their website that allows you to upload your audio/written notes for sharing with others, but it is not in a secured environment which is why we do not recommend sharing notes and recordings this way (it woul be a reat feature if you could password protect your shared notes). Perhaps most impressive of the desktop program was its ability to recognize block print hand-writing. Performed automatically as your notes are uploaded, you can then search by using keywords quickly finding anything you wrote down. Amazingly, the program has yet to stumble over Finis’ block-printing and we didn’t have to go through any kind of training period to learn his chicken-scratch. Cursive print is recognized with the purchase of a $30 plugin.
The effortless and instantaneous playback of notes is perhaps the most appealing of the product. Finis has used the Livescribe in depositions and he was able to confirm exactly what a deponent said by simply clicking on that area where his notes were written and hear the exact testimony. When using from the pen, both the microphone and speakers used by the Livescribe Pulse Smartpen are amazing in quality and almost negate the need for the external headphones. With the optional headphones, you can connect them to your Livescribe pen to listen in a more discreet manner to the audio recordings. The included headphones also double as external stereo microphones when you’re taking notes. this is great for recording lectures or speeches where the audio isn’t always clear or when you are recording a question and answer session in an auditorium.
UPDATE- We have a lot of users not understanding what the LiveScribe is actually used for and wanting to see it in action, so we recorded a quick video using our phone so you could see how the LiveScribe works. The audio coming from the LiveScribe sounds much clearer and louder in person, but we think the video does a good job of explaining how the LiveScribe works.
While the Livescribe has proved indispensable in client meetings and depositions, using this tool at a lengthy trial would seem to be of great value. This would allow you to replay exactly what a witness ‘ testimony was later that day as you prepare for closing arguments. You now have the “perfect recall” of the facts presented at trial literally at your fingertips.
The Livescribe Smartpen is available at Livescribe’s website (includes free-shipping), also at CostCo, Target or Amazon and is only $149.95 for the 1GB model and $199.95 for the 2GB pen. Quite honestly, this is may prove to be the best spent $200 investment you will ever spend as a practicing attorney.
P.S. They’re great for students too!