Remote notes into your PIM?

Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Dec 2, 2007 at 07:52 PM

I use Digiscribble for the one thing it seems to be convenient for, namely notetaking. During meetings I find it impossible to take notes on my PC and concentrate on the discussion at the same time. I have no such problem with handwritten notes, albeit these are rather overtly encoded, i.e. noone but me can make sense of them, which is not a serious problem.

The accompanying software is quite simple and usable. It automatically downloads notes from the mobile memory when you attach it to the PC. I simply copy the notes I want from within the application and paste them into Evernote, which acts as my electronic journal. I can then organise the notes whatever way I want, or link to them from within other applications.

There is also an accompanying handwriting recognition program which I haven’t tried, as my working language is Greek which is unsupported by such software. Evernote actually tries to recognise text in images and index the notes accordingly, anyway. It seems to be able to handle English quite competently.

The Digiscribble was a lucky find. Both the Logitech IO pen and the Fly Fusion mentioned here require special paper, as will the upcoming Livescribe. A couple of other solutions I had found required carrying a cumbersome pad along. The Digiscribble (and the Pegasus apparently) are happy with whatever paper you throw at them.

Mind you, the system is not without faults. It requires the discipline of writing within the specific area it covers and seems to interpret certain sudden movements strangely, adding lines on the notes (I still haven’t found what those movements are exactly, not that I’ve tried much). If you write with the special pen on a piece of paper outside your main writing surface, i.e. a post it note, which happens to be within the portable memory device’s range, you’ll end up with an image that includes the main note and the post-it note as well.

Hope the info helps. Nevertheless, if you are based in the US (which I assume since you talk in dollars) I suggest you take a look at the Pegasus as well. I suspect it may be the same device under a different brand. There used to be another similar one from Seiko as well.

Cheers, alx

GeorgeB wrote:
> >Would you please elaborate on when and how you use
>digiscribble? For $103.99 + $15.00 shipping, it sounds like a note taker
>I’‘ve been looking for. I’m trying to justify a purchase. Thank you.