The Last Pen You’ll Ever Need (Video)
For this week’s Tips and Tricks Tuesday, I’m going to show you how to automatically digitize any piece of paper automatically using this little gadget.
So I’ve actually done a video on the company that makes this before because they had a product to digitize a whiteboard automatically that I thought was kinda clever but this is their newest gadget that lets you automatically digitize any piece of paper. Which seems like a very logical progression for the company if we’re being honest but is probably also a product a lot more people can use.
First, the device doesn’t have a lot to it.
It has this small charging case that houses the special pen and the sensor that attaches to your notepad or piece of paper. It takes about 2 hours to fully charge both of them and they’ll work for about 8 hours after that.
To get started, you download the eBeam Note App from the App Store or Play Store and follow the steps in it to connect it to the device (it uses Bluetooth 4.0 so it just basically connects).
Then you can slide out the sensor from the case and it has a small flap under it that can be used to attach it to a notebook or piece of paper and then you can basically just start writing from there. It automatically tracks the pen’s position on the paper using the two sensors on the front and saves that in the note app in real time.
You can then tap the New Page button on top of the sensor whenever you want to move to a new page (and then physically swap the paper out or turn the page in the notepad) and continue. It’ll even save all of the pages together in one file that can be then shared as a PDF to any normal sharing service (email, social, etc.).
Another clever feature though is that using their apps you can even live stream your writing. So, you can send out a link to the meeting via their app and anyone that joins can watch you draw in real time. You can even give people permission to live edit on their phone or computer using their finger or mouse and see the results in real time as well making it a pretty interesting meeting tool.
Beyond paper, the pen comes with a stylus tip instead of the standard ink cartridge (which you can refill with the corresponding cartridge, by the way). You simply put the pen in the side of the charging case and slide the ink cartridge out and take the stylus one from under the case and put that in. Now, you can actually just “write” on any flat surface–within a paper sized area in front of the sensor to sketch, take notes, etc.
They even have an eBeam keyboard app for Android and iOS that allows you to draw and send the sketches through iMessage, WhatApp, or even to put them into a different note app on your phone.
Pretty cool, no? The SmartPen is going to retail for $120 but right now they have an IndieGoGo campaign at the time of me doing this that allows you to get it for $77 (which is cheaper than a Surface Pen or an Apple Pencil). Go check them out there and let me know what you guys think.
