I reviewed my Livescribe smart pen in a previous post. I really like it. It records what you write (on special paper you can buy or print out your own) and audio. It's great for taking notes. I brought mine, with a 5 x 9" pad, with me to ISTE and took all my notes using it. The battery lasts forever and it was very easy to write with.
I also took audio recordings of parts of sessions. The audio recordings are linked to my written notes also, which makes it easy to review the audio recordings with your written notes. I also sent a couple of the notes to email and Evernote for follow up use. I find that I can take better notes using a pen and paper because I can use symbols and create drawings.
I noticed many people had iPads and laptops with them and were using them, but many were also looking for outlets to charge them up throughout the day. If the HP TouchPad had been released by then (I will be reviewing it shortly - I love it!) I would have brought it with me, but the Livescribe smart pen was even better for a couple of reasons.
1 - small and lightweight
2 - battery lasts for days
3 - we went out to lunch and dinner and saw the sights. We were able to keep the notepad and Livescribe smartpen in our small bag and not worry about it getting banged around on the bus, or wet on the Duck tours, or targeted for theft.
4 - Notes synced and backed up as soon as I connected it to my laptop at the hotel.
5 - 3 days of conference notes only used about 5GB out of 8GB of memory.
It was extremely useful and easy to use. Check one out.
