The Pines Review
Winter, 2010 Vol. III No. 1
Page 42
Products For Outdoor Artists, Writers and Photographers Livescribe’s Pulse Smartpen—The Next Generation of Writer’s Gadgets?
The notes written on the dot printed paper can be transferred to the user’s computer as can the audio recordings. The Libescribe Pulse pen, some reviewers have opinioned, is the first wave of new technology that will revolutionize note taking in both the academic and professional communities.
Professional writers are discovering Livescribe™ pens. The basic principle is that a user takes notes, using the pen and writing on paper printed with dots and the writing is captured by a highspeed miniature laser camera. The pen is also an audio recorder and by writing and recording simultaneously the user can later return to the exact point in a recording where the applicable note was written. The notes and audio recordings can be uploaded to a computer and later exported to other computers. There are three package bundle levels available: the Charcoal Blue pack that includes 3-D recording headset, USB Mobile charging cradle, protective soft case, 2 ink cartridges, and a dot paper collegeruled notebook and the pen has 2GB of storage. The Titanium pack has a dot paper starter notebook rather than college-ruled notebook. Livescribe‘s top of the line is the ProPack: Black. It includes the same accessories except the storage case is premium leather, the transcription software is included and the pen has 4GB of storage. Bundled with all Smartpens, in addition to the note taking and recording software, is a variety of other functions including a scientific calculator, a simple calculator, Time, Date, Storage, Battery charge indicator. A recent innovation is that Livescribe dot paper can now be printed for free from a pen owner‘s own Livescribe Desktop program and by using currently available color printers with 600 dpi resolution or better. These home printed pages will work with the Smartpen exactly the same as the commercially available Livescribe dot paper. For more information on the Livescribe pens contact: Livescribe Pens, 7677 Oakport Street,
12th. Floor, Oakland, CA 94621, Phone: 510777-0071. Website: www.livescribe.com.
Tweetering Across The Net TweetDeck is a personal browser that updates and manages conversations across the ‗real-time web‘ for Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. Keep in touch with your friends and manage conversations with one up-to-date, organized, and searchable multi-column screen. Follow, create, and manage public and private Twitter lists and Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn accounts. With the latest Beta version The PR Assoc. Editor Alan Bunn is posting to Twitter, two Facebook ‗fan‘ pages and his personal page. Advanced features will sync TweetDeck columns across multiple computers and the iPhone, backing up all your columns, groups and saved searches. Running in the background, it will auto-update every minute: http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta/ Alan Bunn, is the USA Editor for African Expedition Magazine and he Tweeters to update readers on events in Africa and upcoming articles.
Target/Holder for Gun Writers Gun and hunting writers share a common need—targets. Whenever practical they take their guns to the nearest range and conduct their tests. But, a range isn‘t always available, or the writer wants a more impromptu test to demonstrate a product‘s features. Until now gun and hunting writers have used everything but the kitchen sink to set up a test target holder and target in the field. The problem has been that most of the so-called portable systems aren‘t always practical. That problem may now be in the past because a small North Dakota Company, JD Jaco Products, Inc., solved it with the development of a folding, disposable target frame. The frame is made of cardboard and can be folded flat, then quickly set up and a target inserted into the holder‘s frame. Writers who are members of an outdoor writer/media organization can contact the company at jjacobson@mlgc.com to receive a free target frame and supply of targets for their personal use.