Livescribe Announces Pencasts.

May 5 2009, 12:25pm CDT | by Robert Evans

This afternoon, another social media networking tool was born. Following in the footsteps of blogs, podcasts, and twitter, the pencast is another way for people to expose their ideas to the world at large. Livescribe, makers of the Pulse smartpen, have just released a new tool that can be used to upload notes, drawings, and audio recordings made with their smartpens to the Internet.

Users will need to upload their files to the Livescribe Community page, but they can then link their 'pencasts' anywhere they want. Artists can share new sketches the moment they finish, and writers who don't want to lug around their netbooks can transfer their handwritten notes to the internet with ease.

Anyone who purchases a Pulse smartpen automatically gets 250MB of free space on Livescribe's website. With this announcement, we're expecting them to start increasing that amount shortly. If Livescribe wants this to be as popular as podcasting, they're going to need to remove as much of the financial burden associated with using their product as possible. Smartpens are currently retailing for $150 (1 GB version) and $200 (2 GB version), so anywhere they can cut customer costs is going to benefit them.

Honestly, I think 'pencasts' are a really neat idea, but I don't expect them to really take off until we see the smartpen market start to blossom. When a few more retailers start unveiling products, and cheaper or free hosting for pencasts starts to proliferate is when we'll really see this take off. This idea has the potential to be huge, especially within artistic communities like DeviantArt. I have no doubts that Livescribe will find enough fans to keep the idea alive until the technology gets a little more popular.

where to buy

Buy from Amazon

What Others Say about This

The Most Traded Video Games of 2011, According to GaBoom

hellfire7885: Pardon my language, but if they do that they will maken othing but enemies among games. Taking down PSN, likely because they're bored, will only piss off legitimate customers. Sony won't be hurt by downtime on a network not many pay for.02/ ...
Full article at: Game Politics More like this 1 hour ago, 4:29pm CST

IndieGala Bundle 2: The Line-Up So Far

While we often elevate the Humble Bundle as the de facto DRM-free and pay-what-you-want game bundle, there are other bundles out there worthy of just as much ink. IndieGala is one of those other examples, and today it has added Hacker Evolution to its li ...
Full article at: Game Politics More like this 2 hours ago, 3:45pm CST

Bulgaria Will Not Act on ACTA Without EU Consensus

Like flies drowning in a summer cooler left to thaw in the August heat, countries that once considered the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) a grand idea worth supporting are walking away from it. The latest country to step back from ACTA is Bul ...
Full article at: Game Politics More like this 3 hours ago, 2:32pm CST

Don't miss ...

Hot Gadgets

Nike Air Mag Self Lacing Shoes from Back To The Future...

Robert Evans
The excitement about new smartphones, tablets and anything mobile drive Robert to unearth the latest rumors and developments in this fast moving space. He adopted 4G as soon as it become available and knows where the mobile market is going.
Robert can be contacted directly at robert@i4u.com.