Whenever ENR editors find a tool we want for ourselves that also has crossover appeal for architects, engineers or construction managers, we like to show it off. Livescribe's Smartpen is one of those tools. At first glance, it just looks like a stocky pen, but the technology inside allows users to record audio and, at the same time, turn any written notes into digital files that users can save or upload to cloud computers.
One user, Donna Ou, senior engineering project manager at Epocrates Inc., San Mateo, Calif., reports that she uses the pen to deal with managing the hundreds of deliverables in software development. She says this is where the Livescribe pen comes in really handy.