Me and my Echo smartpen

MANILA, Philippines - I just got my Echo smartpen as did this paper’s Life columnist Butch Dalisay (Arts and Culture) who wrote about his smartpen (another brand) in his column last July.

Like Butch, I’m happy with my Echo smartpen which I got (actually, I’m endorsing it) only two weeks ago. I’ve been carefully studying its many features and using it for my interviews both here and abroad has become a breeze.

Printed on the box are these words: “Never miss a word.” It’s true! I take down notes on a specially-designed notebook that comes with the package and all I have to do when I want to check out or confirm something, anything, is lightly press the point of the smartpen and, voila, it replays only the portion I need.

As I said, I’m still carefully studying my Echo smartpen’s varied features and this much is what I’ve learned so far:

• It records everything I write and hear (as the blurb says, “Never miss a word”) and I replay my interviews by simply tapping on my notes. It’s very useful not only for journalists like me but for businessmen, students, everyone!

• I can save my notes and recordings in my laptop (or, if you have one, in your desktop) where I can organize, search and, again, replay my notes.

• The Echo smartpen manual is right: it’s easy to share my notes and recordings publicly or privately as a pencast or audio file.