Logitech io Personal Digital Pen

Despues de meses de estar trabajando con el IO PEN puedo calificarlo como un excelente producto que cumple con la promesa efectuada, es decir digitaliza en forma precisa todo lo que se escribe en el papel digital. Algunos comentarios:

PRO
1. Excelente duración de la batería
2. Digitalización precisa
3. Magnifico software para administrar las notas
4. Magnifica sincronización con otras aplicaciones
5. Es un "gadget" apreciado por las personas, llama la atención y en general causa un buen impacto.

CONTRA
1. El tamaño lo hace dificil de cargar en un bolsillo
2. El papel es costoso y no es facíl de conseguir en LA
3. La interacción con MS ONE NOTE es por medio de gráficas BMP y pierden funcionalidad
4. El clip se daña rápidamente por el peso del lapicero

En general tiene más pro que contras, especialmente por que a pesar de su voluminoso tamaño es mejor opcion que un notebook, el proceso de tomar notas en una reunión o de efectar gráficos es natural, permitiendo prestar atención a la reunión y no al pc.

The idea seems good but for my general application I found it overkill and too much to use, in fact I didn't pursue it beyond initial partial installation -- I'm assuming that it works. Note that you have to use special paper which I would assume costs quite a bit. Alternatively I plan to merely scan a plain sheet of paper with writing or drawings and save it as a .jpg document using multiple indexing available in the Windows photo manager. If I want to extract a portion of a page I can use a picture editor.

It works fine. Recognition foftware works fine. You will be happy untill...
1. You realize that you need digital paper TM that cost a lot of money. They rip you off on consumables.
2. You bring it to work and see the reaction of your colleagues (male and female). It is too big for a pen. It's design and size is way too risque and resemble a... Here is the kicker - it vibrates when you make a check mark (finish page). After you see the looks when they hear that...

I'm kind of a gadget maven so this was right up my alley. For me, it's eliminating notes flying out of notebooks, stuck randomly in books etc of which I have so many. Ideas don't get lost in the shuffle of which there has been so much of. (speech becoming disorganized too) It's easier to see my own progress on a project when it's at hand not scattered all around so valuable time has to be spent searching...A frustrating exercise!! Additional software for the pen is available to turn handwriting into typed text. Haven't gotten it yet but it's in the plan. That's going to save some steps too!!
The notebooks are pricey which is why I can't give this 5 stars. I've found some deals online so leapt on them and am stocked up for awhile. Maybe in time, the costs will come down.
I had a few problems at install in that my computer wouldn't recognize the pen. Per Logitech's suggestion in their help pages, I removed the software and reinstalled it. Per my own idea, I had the pen sitting in the USB during the process so Windows could pick up on it which it did. Logitech had some fairly good support and Q&A sections. It's a matter of patience to shift through all the terminology and figure out what the heck they're talking about but with some determination, it CAN be done. Most companies don't have such extensive help sections which anticipate so many problems. Most similar companies don't have very good customer support so it's worth trying to sort things out for yourself. Gives one a sense of accomplishment too!!

The idea of capturing what you write, as you write it, for transfer to a computer later is clever. But this device is INFLEXIBLE and EXPENSIVE. I have no argument with the goals of the IO device, but this particular implementation is off-base for several reasons.

Reasons to not buy the IO --

1. The pen is big. Does not feel natural in your hand.

2. You have to write on special paper.

3. The paper is relatively expensive.

4. The paper is not commonly available -- if you are travelling and run out of paper, you are pretty much out of luck.


I have always wanted a device that could do what the IO sets out to do (but in my opinion doesn't achieve). I tried the Cross Pad which was also not very useful for completely different reasons. Folks, you need to look beyond the marketing and think about the implications of using the IO -- special paper, can't scan notes you write on pre-existing documents, memory fills up etc. It is a nice idea but has too many downsides.

Try the DocuPen instead. This tiny portable scanner works with any paper. You can scan pre-printed documents. You can store 50+ pages before having to download; and as a practical matter, you will never run out of memory because you can keep your paper until you're ready to scan it.

The DocuPen is less gee-whiz than the IO but it works and doesn't have these non-obvious downsides.