I’m as big a fan of the Livescribe Pulse Smartpen as ever . The incredible device records pen strokes (so long as you use their special paper), records whatever is said and even syncs the text with the recording so you can see AND hear what was going on at any given moment. No matter where I go I always bring my Pulse and a notebook along. It is THAT useful.

The Pulse is an ideal device for the student or for the professional who is headed back into a busy season after a period of summer quiet and there are two developments related to the Pulse that are worth noting.

1. The first is that Livescribe has teamed up with Vision Objects to release MyScript for Mac. The application (released some months ago for Windows) takes the text you have captured with the Smartpen and converts it into text. The software costs $30 but a free 30-day trial is available here.

I should note that I’ve been trying MyScript since it was first released a few weeks ago and have not had a great deal of luck. The transcriptions are far from accurate but, then again, my penmanship would be hard for a supercomputer to decipher.

2. As noted, the Livescribe relies on special paper in order to do its thing. While you CAN print your own, the assortment of formats available directly from Livescribe make using their paper attractive. It isn’t, however, inexpensive.

Right now if you buy a Pulse Smartpen from Livescribe they’ll throw in four notebooks for free. That’s in addition to the 100 sheet notebook that comes as part of the kit. For details visit the Livescribe site.