LiveScribe Echo Smartpen

Two years after launching the Pulse Smartpen, Livescribe is updating its award-winning product line: the Echo Smartpen offers a more ergonomic shape with a rubberized grip that prevents the pen from rolling when left on a table. Like its predecessor, the Echo captures handwriting while recording audio simultaneously, synchronizing it to the writing. By tapping on the notes written on the Dot Paper Notebook, users can retrieve the audio track captured at that moment. Users can access the audio information from the handwritten notes from the PDF files downloaded using the Livescribe Desktop software.

The new Echo Smartpen now features a standard 3.5 mm audio jack and a micro-USB port to recharge and download audio files to the computer. It is available in 4GB and 8GB models, recording approximately 400 and 800 hours respectively. The integration with PDF enables users to listen to a “Pencast” from a drawing on a PDF, check out the example.

The LiveScribe Application Store features more than 60 applications, including a complete 120,000 word American Heritage Desk Dictionary. The new Echo smartpens, are available in 4GB ($169.95) and 8GB ($199.95) models. The dot paper and accessories are available now at Best Buy, Amazon.com, Apple, Staples, Target and online at Livescribe.com . The 2GB Pulse smartpen is now sold for $129.95.

New Smartpen and Livescribe Desktop Features

• Launch Line: a new way to access and launch applications in seconds
• Password protection: ensures recorded audio on your smartpen remains private and safe
• Custom smartpen name: display a name or other contact information on the OLED screen, making identifying the owner of a smartpen easy
• Custom notebooks: group and organize notes as easily as creating a playlist in iTunes
• Pencast import/export: save and share pencast files locally to your desktop, a server, or to send to others as an integrated audio/notes document. Anyone with the Livescribe Desktop software (free download online) can now open, view and interact with a native Livescribe file
• English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish are supported for Mac and PC, Korean and Chinese are only supported in the Windows version.

This Fall, Livescribe will introduce its new Connect software, enabling people to send ntes, audio and Pencast PDF to email addresses, online sites and third-party application when the Echo smartpen is docked to a computer (Mac or PC). The new Paper Tablet software will turn the Echo Smartpen connected with a micro-USB cable into a graphic stylus and the Livescribe notebook into a graphics tablet.

The 8 GB Echo is available in the UK for £179 at amazon.co.uk, in Germany for €199.95 from Unimall and in Australia for $299AUD from Dick Smith, JB HiFi and OfficeWorks.