Digital Pens To Write On Any Paper.

In gadget-head circles, one of this summer's most buzzworthy new products is the Pulse pen: a ballpoint that simultaneously records both your handwriting and the sound of the words you are transcribing. Both are transferred to a Windows PC when you return home -- seemingly perfect for lecture-hall students, journalists and note-takers of any kind. Well, perfect except for one thing: the Pulse pen doesn't work unless you write on special paper. Thousands of tiny micro- speckles tell the pen's tiny camera where it is on the page as you write, but limits you to writing in notebooks that you buy from the Pulse company. No back-of-the-envelope brainstorms, no legal pads, no using your own letterhead. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]