Gizmodo: writing

The Circuit Board Pen Is a Forgivable Oxymoron

Mark Wilson — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 19:00:00 EST

It's true, just as it's tough to simultaneously enjoy outhouses and Japanese toilets, chances are that you won't dually appreciate both circuit boards and pens.

Still, we had to write (type, I should say) about the Circuit Board Pen. Not just some ballpoint coated in a cheap electronic veneer, the pen features a real circuit board painstakingly wrapped in an extremely thin layer of custom-lathed acrylic.

The result is a touchable circuit board pen that hopefully will not cut or poison you. And while its $80 price may seem a tad steep, that's really pretty reasonable when viewed from the admittedly skewed niche of collectible pens. [Pens As Art Thanks Robert!]

Acme Ray Gun Pen Kills Bills

Sean Fallon — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:20:00 EST

I don't write much with a pen and paper anymore, but the aptly named "Ray Gun" pen by designer Ben Hall could very well bring my penmanship out of retirement.

This retractable roller ball pen features a "special 'gun sight'-shaped clip," a gun-barrel design and a stand that serves as the grip. It's even made by a company called ACME, which seems very appropriate. On the negative side, the pen does run $130, which makes me wonder how Wile E. Coyote could afford all that crap. [Acme via Sci-Fi Wire]

Nokia Patents Digital Equivalent of Scribbling Words on Polaroid Pics

Kit Eaton — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 04:39:00 EDT

Nokia filed a new patent last week trying to solve one of the problems of our digital lives: identifying what and who is in our digital photos. It's the digital equivalent of scribbling on the white bit at the bottom of a Polaroid pic (you know the kind of text: "Steve looking silly in Hawaii," "Me in hospital, April '08") and if you add in geotagging, it'd be a convenient way of keeping track. The patent details a system a little similar to Cover Flow, but when photos are flipped over to reveal a blank rear face, a user will have the option to annotate snaps with text entered on the keypad, and the text is permanently incorporated into the image file. If it makes it to reality, I hope they include that real "scribbling" option through touchscreen tech: I kinda miss writing on the back of my photos. [Patent via NewScientist]

Super Pen Is Thirteen Tools in One Tiny Package

Sean Fallon — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 19:30:00 EDT

Besides being a magnet for penis puns, this pen is absolutely bursting with functionality that will leave just about any tool junkie satisfied. At the most basic level you get a handsome stainless steel ballpoint pen, but it can also transform into "a hole puncher, a stainless steel file, a short cutting blade, a flat screwdriver, a wire sleeve remover/small nail remover, an ear pick, a long cutting blade, a tweezer, a Philips screwdriver, and a stainless steel fork and a saw." It could very well be the best $15 you ever spend outside of a bordello my friend. [Firebox via SlipperyBrick via OhGizmo]

Flowlight: Like a Blackboard With Lasers

Sean Fallon — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:00:00 EDT

Precisely how the Flowlight would work is a little unclear, but the design page notes that a base station would focus a laser beam 100 times a second into a point in the space, creating small plasma points that glow in mid air. Users could then use the pen to draw and write, making doodles look like some sort of fantastic light show. It's kind of like a cross between and blackboard and a laser pointer—which would be extremely cool if the product actually existed.

[d-Vision via DVICE]

Evolution Pen Can Shift its Weight from Butt to Bust

Mark Wilson — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:00:00 EDT

Luxury pens make for a peculiarly classic gadget. Instead of being driven by the latest microprocessor manufacturing techniques, pens innovate purely on design alone—mechanics at their most simple. And this Conway Stewart Evolution pen features a mechanical trick that took three years to develop. The user can adjust the pen's center of gravity from the front to the back depending on fatigue and handwriting style (surely just an adjustable weight, to engineer it perfectly is the challenge). And with its engraved solid silver body, the Evolution is quite "sharp," as my pen-collecting mother would say. Only 200 will be produced for $2,700 apiece. [Conway Stewart via BornRich]

Wireless Bluetooth Pen Puts Your Mid-Air Penmanship to the Test

Sean Fallon — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:45:00 EDT

Bluetooth enabled pens are nothing new, but they generally require something like special dotted paper to function properly. SMK Corp claims that their new "Wireless Input Pen" is the first device of its kind to transmit characters written in mid air. Combined with Bluetooth, the pen utilizes a a built-in triaxial acceleration sensor to detect the position of the pen when characters are formed, then transmits that information to a PC.

To be honest, writing in mid air seems like more of a pain in the ass than anything, but they do envision it having some practical use in place of laser pointers during presentations. SMK is currently applying for a patent on this technology, so when we might see it available to the public is anyone's guess. [TechOn via Japanite via I4U]

Review: Livescribe Pulse Digital Pen/Recorder (Verdict: It's Good for Notetakers)

Adrian Covert — Fri, 02 May 2008 19:32:50 EDT

The Gadget: The Livescribe Pulse Digital Smartpen records your notes two ways: it creates digital copies of everything you write by hand while recording audio at the same time. It also goes one step further and links the two together, so you can quickly access audio by tapping parts of your notes. All of this is uploaded to your computer where the Livescribe software archives and makes your notes fully searchable. In addition, it offers features like a calculator, translator, and a paper piano that plays a mini piano you draw on paper.

The Price: $199

The Verdict: I like the Livescribe Pulse quite a bit. I think it performs as advertised and is relatively easy to use. That said, this doesn't offer anything enticing or groundbreaking for people who don't use a pen and paper on a regular basis. It's a product for the likes of students, journalists, or even doctors, who are constantly scribbling things down with a pen. Here's a quick rundown of the pros and cons of the Pulse.

As a quick refresh, the Livescribe Pulse uses special dotted paper for spatial recognition to digitally replicate the notes. In one regard, this is good, because it doesn't require any secondary hardware. On the other hand, you cant just use any old piece of paper to make this thing fully functional. each sheet of paper has controls on the bottom, allowing navigation of the pens menu system, recording controls, bookmarking, playback controls, and speaker volume.

The note-taking/digital recording/replay function works smoothly. You hit the record button on the paper before you begin to write, then as you jot down your handcrafted masterpiece, it simultaneously records the audio and keeps the two linked. When you stop recording, you can tap anywhere in the vicinity of your notes and it will playback the audio from that moment when you were writing. It's awesome.

These can also be uploaded into Livescribe's Desktop software, which archives your notes according to the notebook they were written in and the page it was on. Text with audio linked to it appears in green, and when clicked, plays back the audio. There is also a search engine with handwriting recognition that works exceptionally well. I laid some chicken scratch on the page and it picked every word up, save for one word I couldn't even recognize. It doesn't currently support OS X right now, but they say its in the works.

Many of the secondary functions are neat, but I don't know I would use any of them on a regular basis. The Paper Piano is novel. The written calculator seems semi-practical, when in the middle of note scribbling, but the printed material on the inside cover of notebooks just isn't that useful. There's another calculator, a visual keyboard (which isn't yet supported) and status buttons for time and date. Also strange is that the settings can only be adjusted by the interfaces printed on the inside covers of notebooks. There's no on-screen system for adjusting this using the cross-based navigation.

The highly touted translator is also missing (though promised in the future), replaced with a demo that translates 20 words into Arabic, Mandarin, Spanish or Swedish. And one issue I had with the written calculator and translator was that I tend to write without picking up my pen between letters, and it couldn't recognize what I was writing. They say cursive support will come, but I'm not sure it will fix the recognition for people with poor handwriting.

The build quality of the pen is good, with a metal exterior that doesn't feel too light or heavy in the hand. It has an OLED screen that brightly displays pertinent info, stereo microphone, a loud speaker, and a magnetic dock/data connector. However, it's closer in size to a magnetic marker than a pen, and you have to hold the pen relatively high so as not to block the sensor. This feels a little cumbersome in the hand, but you mostly get used to it. Mostly.

The Livescribe Pulse is an amazing piece of tech, and I enjoy using it, but has an admittedly limited appeal. I'd love to see more creative and functional uses implemented with future "apps," and a touch of refinement in the current interface. But this is recommended for anyone who takes a lot of notes. [Livescribe on Giz]

Livescribe Pulse Smartpen Here

Brian Lam — Fri, 02 May 2008 15:54:29 EDT

Hey, we just got one of those Livescribe Pulse Smartpens. You remember these, right? The Pulse is one of my favorite gadgets from the past year, because it'll do basic computing like math and translation via a paper UI. But more importantly for a reporter or student, or anyone who takes notes, it'll record voice notes that you can play back by clicking on the text you wrote at that moment. Pretty insane. More to come in a bit.

Philips Patents Expressive Pen That Writes Out Your Mood

Kit Eaton — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 10:15:02 EST

The designers at Philips have been busy "emotionizing" their products, what with the cuddly Aurea TVs, and their emotional reactive jewelry. Now they have got designs on the humble pen, with a patented invention for a writing implement that actually records the mood of the writer while they're writing stuff. Its finger contact sensors detect give-aways like heartbeat, skin temperature and the pressure you exert on pen and paper, which it then uses to actually morph the look of the ink stroke:

While a biro may be a fantastic at scribbling notes, Philips thinks that they can actually increase your self-expression with this device. By processing data from the skin sensors, the pen switches flow from different ink canisters and uses actuators to modify the pen nib, allowing for different colors, stroke widths, styles and even ink flow continuity (presumably for that scratched-out-blobby desperate note to loved ones).

Since your emotions are given away by things like skin conductivity and heartbeat—after all, that's how lie detectors work—this idea may one day end up as reality. Future documents of historical note may yet be signed with such a pen, giving away how nervy the signatories are and "Dear John" letters may never be the same again. I can't wait for the keyboard version.[Philips Patent via New Scientist]

Half of Japanese Bestsellers Typed on Phones, Printed on Paper

Wilson Rothman — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 11:18:12 EST

The big deal in Japan right now are keitai shousetsu, mobile phone novels that are composed on the phone, released electronically as serials, then compiled into the ancient paper-bound codex we're still trying to ditch. In the first six months of 2007, half of the top 10 bestselling novels in Japan were originally thumbtyped on a phone, and have averaged 400,000 copies each in sales. Most of these novels are written by women, and involve some seriously messed-up subject matter.

One of the biggest sellers, Koizora (Love Sky) by a woman whose pen-name is simply Mika, has sold more than 1.2 million printed copies since October. It is about "a high-school girl who is bullied, gang-raped, becomes pregnant and has a miscarriage in a saga of near-Biblical proportions," says the Sydney Morning Herald, which adds that the book will soon be made into a movie.

Mika's work is typical of the genre.

The stories traverse teen romance, sex, drugs and other adolescent terrain in a succession of clipped one-liners, emoticons and spaces (used to show that a character is thinking), all of which can be read easily on a mobile phone interface. Scene and character development are notably missing.

Scholars attribute the shallowness of the literature to a dearth of cell-phone accessible kanji characters and small screens which necessitate "short, simple sentences with basic words," rather than admit that this is, in fact, the sign of a civilization in decline. [SMH via Gadget Lab]

A1Pro Keyboard Has Handwriting Pad With Character Recognition

Jason Chen — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 14:00:10 EDT

This A1Pro keyboard isn't that useful for us, who can type just fine with the standard QWERTY keys, but is incredibly useful for, say, Chinese people who want to write characters the way they're used to writing on paper (typing takes a lot longer to learn). The keyboard looks normal on the left, but instead of a numpad, it has a smallish glowing tablet. If we ever wanted to write in Chinese—which we haven't done in about 14 years—we'd pick up one of these for $25.48. [Dealextreme via Crave via Gearfuse]

Multi-Tool Pen Has 5-in-1 Versatility

Charlie White — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 15:30:00 EDT

There are plenty of multi-tool pens around, but none as beautiful as this hand-turned creation by John Russell. He chooses from 50 varieties of wood to craft these one-of-a-kind writing instruments.

The type of wood you get is random, but one thing's for sure, you'll have a Phillips screwdriver, regular screwdriver, tweezers, X-acto knife, and of course, a ballpoint pen in hand whenever you carry this handmade work of art. We thought it would cost a lot more than $32. – Charlie White

Product Page [Eco-Artware, via The Uber Review]

Morph Pad

Jason Chen — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 18:30:19 EDT

Two types of phone calls in the office bore people to tears: conference calls and nagging-wife calls. For these circumstances, there's the Morph Pad, a writing pad that you can mold and shape to all kinds of different designs. You can make a wavy sideways structure, a curvy vertical statue, or some kinda fanned out deal.

Okay, so there's only a few things you can do with it, but wriggling the pad around in your hand is so much fun. Oh, and you can actually write take notes on it. Call them up to order some with your own company's logo. – Jason Chen

Desktop [Schleehdesign via Cool Hunting]

Water Writing With Waves: We Wonder Why

Jason Chen — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 17:29:23 EDT

Japanese researches in Akishima Laboratories working with Osaka University made great strides in the field of writing on water. Why would someone want to do this? ~~Why ask Why? Try Bud Dry.~~ Theme parks and hotels like the Bellagio would use this to make water shows to entertain their patrons.

The device consists of 50 water wave generators encircling a cylindrical tank 1.6 meters in diameter and 30 cm deep (about the size of a backyard kiddie pool). The wave generators move up and down in controlled motions to simultaneously produce a number of cylindrical waves that act as pixels. The pixels, which measure 10 cm in diameter and 4 cm in height, are combined to form lines and shapes. The device is capable of spelling out the entire roman alphabet, as well as some simple kanji characters.

I wonder if they could adopt this into hot tub technology, drawing out words like "I Love You" and "Don't Stop Don't Stop" when you're in there with your girlie. – Jason Chen

Fuji Sankei [via Pink Tentacle via Slashgear]

Shower Journalism

gizmodo.com — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 19:38:51 EST

Are you trying to launch your aspiring rap career but can't remember those dope rhymes about bitches and cars you belted out in the shower? Problem solved, homie. This erasable shower note tablet allows you to take notes down in the shower, write down freestyle lyrics, or just draw a quick self portrait. It hangs on your wall with suction cups (probably the worst method ever, but whatever) and uses waterproof crayons to create your artistic vision. Trust us, it's stylin'. You can grab one now for only $15.99.

Erasable shower note tablet [Popgadget]