STAEDTLER DIGITAL PEN BLUE 99001

I am not very fast at typing, and thus make lots of notes the old way- pen and paper. I collect my notes in college-ruled notebooks covering different general areas, about two 200-page notebooks per year. I have been searching for a way to have these notes with me on the go. The low tech way is to scan the notes with a modern photocopier to either TIFF or PDF and to assemble the pages into an electronic notebook. If you have a professional PDF maker such as an Acrobat version you can make an index with key words per page so you have a somewhat searchable document. My handwriting is not terribly messy but contains a lot of technical terms and jargon which will not be found in a normal dictionary, and includes terms such as % and Greek symbols. The ideal system is one in which your handwritten notes are converted to a fully searchable electronic format. This would require a physical system to convert handwritten text to an electronic one and OCR software to accurately convert the electronic handwriting into the corresponding word text. The other requirement was that the writing instrument has to have the feel and tactile sensation of a natural pen on paper. This excluded tablets as a possibility because these have a hard smooth surface that does not copy the feel of paper. I started with testing the 2GB LiveScribe Echo and the OCR software that it came with. The LiveScribe has a built in capability to record voice which I found useless as I could not picture myself mumbling into my pen while attending a lecture. You have to buy or generate paper that has minute orientation dots on it and use this to ink your notes on. The system works well enough but the pen ink fillings are not of a universal type. I ended up buying refills but forgetting where I had stored them. By that time I was ready to move on to a different pen.The problem with the Echo is that it is fat. Really fat. And very hard plastic. I have osteoarthritis in my fingers and the pen quickly becomes painful to use. A normal pen is about 9 mm fat and the LiveScribe measures in at 19.8 mm. No Smartpen is as thin as a normal pen. But after browsing through many smartpen web sites, looking at reviews and trying to decipher measurements I decided to try the Staedtler model which is relatively thin (0.45 inch = about 12.7 mm). The pen had to be shipped from England (seller: by: langton_distribution_ships_from_england). The item arrived relatively quickly. When I opened the package I was puzzled to find that the receiver and the clip to hold it immobilized onto your paper had parted company. When I could not find instructions how to assemble it, it dawned on me that the clip was broken –either in transit (the pen was shipped in a box inside a padded envelope) or had been opened, used and a tiny plastic bump chipped off. Without a functional clip the item can not be used so I requested a replacement clip. The company was not exactly helpful. No, they could not provide a replacement clip, I would have to ship the entire item back. They said they could not prepare a shipping label either for return to them and that I should just pop it in the mail, writing on the front “return to sender”. Not good. I doubt that the US mail will go with this and the item was too expensive to risk loss of the money. And so I spent about $20 out of my own pocket to ship it back again. The replacement took somewhat longer to arrive but was in good shape. Overall the pen is good –lightweight and relatively comfortable to use. It feels and functions like a regular pen, but the quality of what it records is actually very similar to the LiveScribe: if you don’t press your pen down sufficiently when you write your “a”s or “o”s they are open at the top, and the same goes for other letters. One of the Staedler issues is that the battery on the receiver does not appear to hold power for many hours. When you connect it to a computer to load via the USB connection, and then remove it, the pen remains on. If you don’t shut it off manually with the little button, the battery discharges over a few days and when you then want to use it, it is empty. In both systems, transfer of information to the software that comes with it is clunky or I am too lazy to read all the instructions. The Staedler comes with “Mobile note taker” software that keeps on loading and reloading the images (I am using a new Windows 8). Here the Livescribe wins in that at least you have your information organized into notebooks on your computer. The biggest disappointment was the OCR software. Both did a relatively lousy job. Reading over the original notes and how the software transposed it made it very clear that I would need to spend at least 15 minutes per page comparing and correcting the Word text version. And of course the software can not be taught to recognize your handwriting idiosyncrasies in a way similar to voice recognition software, that can be trained to your voice (I tried that too but the technical terms here too cause huge numbers of mistakes). And after all that, I realized I probably would spend about the same amount of time if I just bought a college-bound notebook, a dozen Bic Softfeel medium pens, and scanned my notes into a big assembled PDF.

I never thought I'd be reviewing a digital pen other than the Dane-Elec ...until now.I was lent the Staedtler digital pen and was so impressed that I bought one for myself, even though my Dane-Elec worked okay.The Staedtler has to be the best digital pen I've ever used. The resolution of handwriting and drawings is excellent; it's hard to tell that the final document is not a flatbed scan of the written sheet.Then, if you want to convert handwriting to text, it couldn't be easier ...or more accurate. The pen is easy to use, the software is easy to use and the results are impressive. I could drag out this review with more details of the pen's capabilities, but I want to keep this brief and to the point. If you want to know specifics just leave a question as a comment and I'll be glad to respond.From a previous long term Dane-Elec fan I am totally converted. I would now only recommend the Staedtler Digital Pen - so much so that I've deleted my previous review of the Dane-Elec. The Staedtler does everything the Dane-Elec does but with more style, greater accuracy and added finesse.This may not be the cheapest digital pen on the market, but it's definitely the best by a long way; and you don't have to buy specialist paper to use it. Just clip the sensor on to your note pad and get writing....oh, and one final note, I wrote this review with the Staedtler Digital Pen and only had to correct 10 words after conversion(well, I typed this last bit!). That's 95% accuracy - pretty impressive!

(Apologies to Oscar)I had such high hopes for this. Although i type fluently and fairly quickly there still seems to be something differently creative about the act of writing, rather than typing - I believe a slightly different way of thinking occurs when you use a dominant hand to write - different neural pathways, and also experience your own particular expressive idiosyncrasy - your writing, personal, on the page, with its energy and emotional tone.Anyway, that was the theory, I wanted to go back and explore a difference in thinking in type and thinking in the subtler, more refined muscular movements of calligraphy. But to have the advantage of being able to turn this into type without any further effort.Unfortunately the first pen worked for 3 days. I knew i wouldn't be using it again for a few days so wanted to remove the batteries in the pen, for saving (I think they last about 15 hours of writing) Except, - the batteries are well wedged in and impossible to remove. There is a little metal hook type thing in the pen which presumably can be gently pulled up to remove the batteries. So far so good. Except, putting the batteries back it it no longer worked and the 'spring' the batteries are in contact with was tipsy and wobbling around. Tried new batteries. Still no joy.Contacted Amazon, returned faulty pen and waited for replacement. Put in new batteries (noticing crossly that removal of same was going to be equally difficult as they are absolutely wedge down into the body of the pen, snug and tight)But..........what was worse was this second one was crazily oversensitive to its receiver. I wanted to use the 'train your handwriting recognition' so had the receiver in online mode so I could physically see what I was writing. Unfortunately, rather than responding only to when the pen was in contact with the paper the 'online was showing the 'pen' air-drawing across the paper, I could produce nasty scrawls all across the text i was trying to write purely by lifting the pen away from the paper.No. I shall not be trying a third in the hope that one will be a properly working model, this time, I'm asking Amazon for a refund.I'm sure, given some of the reviews, there ARE Staedtler pens working beautifully, but equally, I have seen at least one review mentioning the same air drawing oversensitivity as I have, and others reporting erratic failures. Unstable design, unstable quality in my book. Or rather, not in my book, which is just full of scrawl!

I was seduced by the thought that I could keep track of all my notes and upload them to (say) Microsoft OneNote and be ultra organised. (Plus it looks a cool gadget).The GOODThe device is light and good build quality, and the combination of pen and software come back with a pretty good handwriting and shape recognition. First try without any training and it got my first test paragraph spot on.I read in several places that people were upset by the nib moving when pressure is added. I can honestly say that it doesn't bother me. The movement is less than half a millimetre and is not noticeable - I suspect is required to "activate" the pen.The handwriting and shape recognition is good, and providing you are fairly tidy with reasonable sized handwriting then the tool does exactly what it says, so for that I would give it 4.5 out of 5.I bought this pen over other models, as it doesn't require special paper, and can use standard ink refills, but only ball point.You can use the pen as a pointer (mouse) in live mode, as well as transcribing straight to the notepad software, and use the pen option in Microsoft OneNote which is nice.Or you can use the pen offline, where the sensor clip (attached to the top of your page) can store about 100 A4 pages of text, for later upload.The BADApart from the fact that most people can actually type faster than they can hand write nowadays, with auto spell checking and auto grammar and auto this that and another, you have to ask if the pens are just a gimmick, but putting this point aside, I do have a few grumbles.The software although converts the handwriting pretty well it must be said, is really clunky to use. You have to use a notepad to record the handwriting/drawings, then a second piece of software to convert the handwriting and shapes, then you copy the text or picture into your desired software, such as Word, OneNote etc.There seems to be no way of importing the designs into other applications other than as a single image or as text. There isn't a way of importing shapes as separate elements that can later be edited/moved etc. which would be good for mind mapping, organisation charts, and other diagrams.And the note management is rudimentary at best.Plus I hate using ball-point pens. I'm sure it wouldn't be difficult to design a pen refill that uses gel ink rather than the ball point.CONCLUSIONIf they improve the software, and perhaps provide free addons/agents for software, such as Google Docs, EverNote, OneNote, Microsoft Word etc. then the software would be far more usable.Having a gel refill as an alternative would be nice too.4 stars for the pen4 stars for the handwriting technology2 stars for the software presentation and application

I bought this pen in December 2013 as I do a lot of online tutoring. Initially it worked well however it was confusing to set up the software to recognise my handwriting to convert it to text. However this did not matter as my main intention was to display my writing on the screen for sharing via Skype.On several occasions soon after I bought it, it would output garbage to the screen or not write at all. This was not a battery issue because then it would begin working again. In the last two weeks, it only writes on the bottom half of the page. I am goingf to have to claim a refund from Amazon which is annoying because I can't do without a pen right now. I will be buying a different model.The top of the pen unscrews to reveal the battery compartment. This is weakly constructed out of plastic and has now cracked. This means that it is not possible to screw up the battery compartment securely without first wrapping the cap in sellotape.A disappointing feature of the pen is the fact that it outputs to one page at a time which when full, needs to be saved and cannot be retrieved or viewed within the software provided.

I will return it. After a complete charge of the battery, I was only able to write no more than 2 hours (it was n'y non stop). I charged it again, then I was not able to use the device to notify that I was starting a new page. Then, this week, I am not able anymore to turn on the device. Disappointed!