The Livescribe Aegir smartpen is an amazing device. For those of you that take a lot of handwritten notes, this pen is for you. With the ability to capture, organize, and transcribe your handwritten notes, you’ll never miss an idea again. Let’s dig into the details.
A few months ago I took a teaching position at work. I had decided with the change in position I wanted to improve my organization. I started using the Bullet Journal Method and quickly realized a need for transcribing my notes. Also, with the new job I was frequently taking many pages of notes in one sitting. I needed a way to transcribe my notes.
Most of my experience with OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software was not good. Evernote seemed like a good option, but could only search handwritten text not transcribe it. I started using Evernote anyway due to the organization options. My searches finally led me to the smartpen. Mainly 2 brands: Moleskine and Livescribe. There are other options however, those two sets were the best options for transcribing handwritten notes. I chose Livescribe over Moleskine for 2 reasons: Price and options.
Breakdown:
At $120 the cost is well worth what you get. The pen, charging cable, a spare ink cartridge, and a lined journal is included with the professional set. Livescribe offers a variety of notebooks and notepads. A pack of 4 Single subject College ruled notebooks are $30 or $7.50 per book. For the service you get, it’s a great deal.
How does it work?
Out of the box, you’ll need to charge up the pen and go ahead and install the Livescribe app. Next, pair your pen with the on-screen instructions. You’ll notice the notebooks and journals are numbered. Tap the sticker on the front of the book to “archive” it. This just means you are activating it. It will show up in your app.
The single subject notebooks in the pack of 4 can be purchased numbered 1 thru 4 or 5 thru 8. Now go to page #1 in your notebook and start writing. You’ll notice the text show up seconds after you write it. The paper has a special pattern that is picked up by the camera in the head of the pen. Once you setup your cloud service like Evernote you will have the option to use quick send to transfer your page as a pdf or transcribe your handwritten notes.
Offline work:
Working offline, the pen is more than capable of storing days worth of notes. According to Livescribe approximately 1200 pages. The battery will last well over a day for normal use. Once you’re near your phone, you can sync with the app to automatically download your data.
Transcription and Syncing with Other Apps:
You may have noticed the circled numbers or quick send at the tops of the pages. This can be set up to transcribe and/or send your notes to external apps like Evernote. Combined with. Evernote, the power of the Livescribe Aegir Pen shows. Using tags and being able to search even your handwritten notes, you should always be able to locate information.
The transcription feature is by far the reason to purchase this device. Accuracy is very high and any mistakes are usually due to poor penmanship. My e’s sometimes form a complete circle and turn into o’s during the transcription process. Considering having to type notes up vs making some minor corrections, I’ll go for the latter. In fact, this entire article was written by hand and transcribed. If you consider your handwritten page your first draft you would be correcting it anyhow.
The Pen Itself:
The Livescribe Aegir Smartpen is somewhat bigger than the average at 11.8 mm, but is easy to get used to. I found myself pushing too hard when I first started using it. I think it was that I was used the flow of Pilot Gel pens. I’ve since stopped pressing so hard.
The ink is supplied by a standard 4C ink cartridge by Zebra 0.7mm. Livescribe states that any cartridge with carbon-free ink and 67mm length and diameter of 2.35mm. I’ve been using my pen for 1 month and written 90 pages, with no end in sight.
Other Features:
There is a feature called pencast that you can use to record a lecture for example while you take notes. So far I have not used this feature. If you have been sure to leave a comment about it!
Questions I Couldn’t Find Answers To:
When I was researching this smartpen there wore a few questions I had that I had no answers to until I started using the pen.
Can you add to a page after your session?
Yes, anything you add will update and you can resend to Evernote or Onenote again and again.
How do I know if the pen is working?
Just start writing, if you see the green or blue LED, you know it is working. Blue indicates you are connected with Bluetooth, Green indicates the pen is reading, and Red indicates low battery, low space, or you need to adjust your writing angle.
How does the transcription work with something like a drawing?
Short answer, it doesn’t really. If it is not recognized as a letter or word it usually isn’t transcribed. If transcription is what you’re after keep the drawings and symbols to a minimum or you could combine the transcriptions and drawings later. Sometimes I use a lot of symbols like *, -, •, and → with varied results. These symbols did fine at the time of this writing.
Can I use a ruler to draw something like a habit tracker?
Yes, you can. As long as the pen’s camera can see the paper it will work. This might mean you would draw at a funny angle. The pen will beep at you if it isn’t happy with your angle.
What happens if the paper gets wet?
If you’ve already written your notes, it won’t matter, even if you send the note after the paper had gotten wet. A drop of water here or there is okay, but I would suggest keeping it dry.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
- Transcribe your handwritten notes
- About 90% accurate reproduction
- Good price compared to other smartpens
- Easy to use
Cons:
- When writing the pen makes noise. Every time you lift the pen and make contact there is a click. No worse than hearing a mouse click.
- The pen cap will not stay on. Not a deal-breaker, I have reached out to support about this issue. They answered my message quickly and offered a replacement cap. As of this writing, I am on a waiting list. As stated, not a deal-breaker, but be aware of this issue.
Update: Livescribe sent me a replacement cap that stays on!
Conclusion:
I bought this pen for one reason: To transcribe my handwritten notes. The Livescribe Aegir Smartpen does the job very well with long-form writing like this review. After using it for a month I am still very happy with this purchase. I would recommend this smartpen for students, lawyers, and other business professionals. It serves a very specific niche well. If you have purchased this pen, what do you think about it? Would you recommend it? Comment down below.
Thanks for reading!
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