“Echo lets you put pen to pad to draw on your computer (Mac or PC) via USB port, records audio, and can even sync that audio with your note-taking. The 60-plus selection of Livescribe apps range from the American Heritage Desk Dictionary to a poker game, and a new feature called Launch Line lets you launch an app by underlining an associated word and tapping the line. You can also create custom notebooks, just as you would an iTunes playlist.”

and the really good stuff…

“Livescribe also announced a few enhancements coming this fall, including Connect—software that lets you send notes and audio from your smartpen to email addresses, websites, and other applications—Paper Tablet collaboration software, and Pencast Player, which lets you access your pencasts on iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch.”

Here’s a quick ad/demo if you’ve never seen Livescribe products in action.

The Echo smartpen from Livescribe

Read the full article and press release here.

Digital textbooks could in theory knock printed versions into the dustbin of history, but it may take longer than some of us (myself included) would like.

If you’re an Apple watcher, the standard rejoinder is that Apple has instead been busy working on a touchscreen tablet device. This rumor has been rolling for years now, and many Apple followers have gotten rather lathered up as the Mac tablet has repeatedly failed to materialize. In keeping with its penchant for secrecy, Apple has never responded to the tablet rumors. But tales of its impending arrival continue to appear.

The latest account from AppleInsider proclaims that Apple is “racing toward an early 2010 launch” of a device “akin to a jumbo iPod touch” with a 10″ screen, WiFi, and 3G capability. Color me a sucker, but I think this iSnipe may actually show up. It makes sense for Apple to leverage the immense developer base for the iPhone/iPod touch. Apple has been highly focused on mobile computing in recent years, and the spot between handhelds and laptops needs to be filled. I imagine there are plenty of iPhone developers who would love to move into larger screen territory (and establish themselves in what has been traditionally considered the laptop market). Macintosh software developers whose apps need more screen real estate than the iPhone and iPod touch provide could also benefit.

A thin touchscreen tablet built around ubiquitous connectivity could be the perfect computing device for law students, particularly if Apple were to sell it for less than the price of a MacBook. Would you run FinalCut Pro on an iSnipe? No. But for taking notes, writing reports, researching, and even playing the occasional game to blow off steam, it could be just right.

I say could because it may never see the light of day. It may just be a research project at Apple, or a side project that gets killed off. Who knows. But I’m hoping the iSnipe is real. I’m also hoping Apple gives it a better moniker than iSnipe, for all our sakes.

Image Credit:

Thanks for making your photo available under a Creative Commons license, úlfhams.

New Mac netbooks have long been a staple of the Mac rumor mill. But Apple has fairly convincingly put that rumor to bed with recent public statements. I’m unsurprised that Apple is not interested in the low-margin netbook market. While netbooks can be tremendously useful, they don’t fit Apple’s sweet spot.

Another longstanding chunk of vaporware, the Mac tablet, is more likely to become reality. Apple has been using the iPhone and iPod touch to make touchscreen interfaces familiar to mass market consumers. Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) will incorporate location-finding and other mobile-focused technologies. It doesn’t take a crystal ball to imagine a thin touchscreen device about the size of a Moleskine notebook.

The real key to the success of a Mac tablet would lie in applications. Rather than scaling the Macintosh experience down to a small device, I wonder if Apple might instead scale up the iPhone/iPod touch experience to a tablet. Zillions of application developers have jumped into the iPhone/iPod touch market, hoping to strike gold. If Apple could give these developers the opportunity to easily adjust their iPhone/iPod touch apps for use with a new tablet, the chicken-and-egg problem of getting developers on board would be solved.

A Mac tablet could be the ideal classroom companion. I never felt comfortable with a casebook and my 15″ PowerBook sitting in front of me in class. Add a supplemental reader or binder to the equation, and you can’t help but feel cramped. But a thin, small tablet for taking notes, looking up cases, and so on would be perfect.

Beyond education, imagine the benefits a Mac tablet could bring to other markets. For example, Houston Neal posted an interesting piece at Software Advice, exploring the viability of a Mac tablet for EMR (Electronic Medical Records).

p.s. – Yes, I know about the Axiotron Modbook, but while the Modbook is an impressive engineering feat, it is essentially a MacBook with a touchscreen rather than a flip-up screen. I’m hoping for something designed by Apple from the ground up as a tablet.

Image Source: MacPlus

Check out the story at MacNN.

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