Here's a nifty-looking little devil, featured in this month's Writers' Forum magazine. There's even a twirly demonstration of it's fine features.According to the blurb, it's particularly useful if you spend hours transcribing from a dictaphone, after interviews. I don't, although I have tried talking my novel into a dictaphone before now, while out walking Molly-dog. Until I realised I was in danger of becoming known as "the nutter who stomps around talking to herself and waving her arms." Doesn't have the same ring as "the yummy mummy from number 47." (Look, I can dream, can't I?)
Apparently, you can also take notes in a special notebook covered in 'smart dots.' (I'll take any excuse to buy a new notebook, even if the dots aren't that clever.) The pen has a camera which can scan everything you write and link it to the audio, (I'm quoting verbatim, here. I don't understand this bit), and later you can point the pen at a note you've made in your dotty notebook - eg 'Ideas for Novel' - and the relevent bit of audio will be played back. Yeah? No? What? Well, it sounds good anyway. You can upload everything to your PC, of course, and the pen also has built-in calculators and dictionaries, so if you write 'DEFINE stupid,' the answer pops up on a display on the side of the pen. Along with a photo of me. It's available next month and costs about £80.
I'm often tempted by gadgets - pulled in by their glittery promises of time-saving cleverness and magical properties - but they end up lolling in drawers gathering fluff, so I'm going to resist.
Unless the Smart Pen can hoover, load the washing machine, transport teenagers about and remove pet-hair from improbable places, of course.
I thought not.
11 comments:
I love gadgets but I'm not sure I'd buy this one for £80! Sounds like a bit of a faff writing to the dots on the page (or whatever), particularly as the more I write the worse my handwriting gets! I keep meaning to use the inbuilt dictaphone in my mp3 player for story and ideas etc but I don't think anything will ever replace pen and paper (or bit of loo roll, receipt, anything to hand) for me!
This reminded me of years ago when it was announced that the Council were going to make everyone use "light pens" to record their time.
It didn't work - we ended up with so many A4 sheets of barcodes and it was so complicated to work out which barcode to swipe for each task it was more trouble than it was worth.
"I Can See Clearly Now" ... this invention will not work. Eye Eye, Do I see images appearing before my very eyes? TFX
'Smart dots' - no ... sorry ... you've lost me!
But will it write my novel for me?
Now if it did plots....
And made tea ...
x
Nope, I'm confused already. Sounds pretty damn clever though but I'm too set in my ways and love the old-fashioned pen for my notes.
£80??! Is it Bluetooth-ready??
I'm not really a smart dot sort of gal. More the scruffy heap type.
And how come you've got fluff in your drawers? The mind boggles...
Ooh, just imagine how many cool notepads you could buy for eighty quid. I'm off to Woollies right now! x
This looks like a cool toy, but I think I'd play with it for a couple of days and then lose it somewhere. Not worth £80.
I've hardly ever used the dictaphone in my mp3 either.
After rummaging through my - ahem - fluffy drawers, yesterday, I found the all-singing, all-dancing dictaphone I originally bought just a couple of years ago, that I only used about three times, so I really mustn't succumb!
(I thought there was a lot of noise coming from those drawers ;o)
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