Rating: 
Summary: Good idea, Horrible Product
Review: I purchased the Logitech io Personal Digital Pen from Amazon.com on Dec 5th. I received the package on Dec 11th. I found the pen to be over sized and hard to write with, but decided to give it a try anyway. Upon completion of the calibration task, I set out to put my pen to use. The ICR (Image Character Recognition) software did not recognize any lower cased letter and rarely recognized my capitol letters. I continued to try calibrating the pen, but was never successful. The idea of this product was wonderful, but the delivery fell far short of mediocre.
Rating: 
Summary: Very useful for early adopters, otherwise wait
Review: I received the IO pen in December 2003. The advice to apply the $20 coupon to purchasing MyScripts was right on target.The handwriting recognition software works reasonably well for me if I write carefully. I tend to jump around the page and draw boxes, arrows, and diagrams, and everything always shows up in the right places. The handwriting recognition is not perfect but the effort in correcting the output is much easier than re-typing my entire notes, and the best part is that my drawings remain in place and intact (though arrows are often mis-recognized). There are a few gotchas with this pen:
Firstly, the IO Pen I received from Amazon in December 2003 had firmware revision 27.02 (your firmware version is displayed on the IO Pen Settings tool). The IO Pen software (downloaded December 2003) requires at least version 27.10 to use the password protect feature. My IO Pen from Amazon must be (relatively) very old! Since the software was released in September (? - might have been December) my expectation is that the pen I purchased would work with all the software features available at the time. It does not. Logitech cannot provide a downloadable firmware update and does not consider the firmware version to be a warrantable item. However, for a product that costs over $150 I consider this a failing. I was able to achieve a product exchange when I called customer support (on my own dime) and gently and persistently requested a pen that would work with the software available at the time I made the purchase. Secondly, the on-line customer support at Logitech is unresponsive. If you think that a $150 product should be provided with helpful and timely on-line support, you may want to think about whether Logitech is for you. Thirdly, the software requires the .NET framework to work, with the attendant gaping security hole and performance drain. I have a very new machine maxed out on RAM and still I notice the performance hit (it's worse on my older machine). My firewall takes care of security issues (I hope). Just a little tidbit important to travellers, the power adapter supplied with the Logitech IO Pen works ONLY on 110 V and the power adapter must be plugged in to connect with the computer. Logitech does not offer a travel adapter. Logitech suggested I purchase the localized adapter for the countries I travel to - but I can only purchase it in that country while I am there(!). Since cheaper products I buy recently all come with SMALL multi-voltage power adapters, I don't understand why Logitech bundled this ancient brick with the new IO Pen. A handy friend adapted an electric cord to a Nokia ACP-8E travel adapter (which claims to produce the same output voltage) so I can travel with one adapter. My recommendation is that if you are an early adopter, you will find this pen to be a very useful addition to your briefcase. If not, you'll want to wait for prices to improve and more features to be available on competing products before making your decision. For example, the Nokia digital pen provides a bluetooth interface which is way cool. However, the Nokia is more expensive at this time, and the MyScripts recognition software for Nokia is not yet available (but will be).
Rating:
Summary: Very useful for early adopters, otherwise wait
Review: I received the IO pen in December 2003. The advice to apply the $20 coupon to purchasing MyScripts was right on target. The handwriting recognition software works reasonably well for me if I write carefully. I tend to jump around the page and draw boxes, arrows, and diagrams, and everything always shows up in the right places. The handwriting recognition is not perfect but the effort in correcting the output is much easier than re-typing my entire notes, and the best part is that my drawings remain in place and intact (though arrows are often mis-recognized). There are a few gotchas with this pen:
Firstly, the IO Pen I received from Amazon in December 2003 had firmware revision 27.02 (your firmware version is displayed on the IO Pen Settings tool). The IO Pen software (downloaded December 2003) requires at least version 27.10 to use the password protect feature. My IO Pen from Amazon must be (relatively) very old! Since the software was released in September (? - might have been December) my expectation is that the pen I purchased would work with all the software features available at the time. It does not. Logitech cannot provide a downloadable firmware update and does not consider the firmware version to be a warrantable item. However, for a product that costs over $150 I consider this a failing. I was able to achieve a product exchange when I called customer support (on my own dime) and gently and persistently requested a pen that would work with the software available at the time I made the purchase. Secondly, the on-line customer support at Logitech is unresponsive. If you think that a $150 product should be provided with helpful and timely on-line support, you may want to think about whether Logitech is for you. Thirdly, the software requires the .NET framework to work, with the attendant gaping security hole and performance drain. I have a very new machine maxed out on RAM and still I notice the performance hit (it's worse on my older machine). My firewall takes care of security issues (I hope). Just a little tidbit important to travellers, the power adapter supplied with the Logitech IO Pen works ONLY on 110 V and the power adapter must be plugged in to connect with the computer. Logitech does not offer a travel adapter. Logitech suggested I purchase the localized adapter for the countries I travel to - but I can only purchase it in that country while I am there(!). Since cheaper products I buy recently all come with SMALL multi-voltage power adapters, I don't understand why Logitech bundled this ancient brick with the new IO Pen. A handy friend adapted an electric cord to a Nokia ACP-8E travel adapter (which claims to produce the same output voltage) so I can travel with one adapter. My recommendation is that if you are an early adopter, you will find this pen to be a very useful addition to your briefcase. If not, you'll want to wait for prices to improve and more features to be available on competing products before making your decision. For example, the Nokia digital pen provides a bluetooth interface which is way cool. However, the Nokia is more expensive at this time, and the MyScripts recognition software for Nokia is not yet available (but will be).
Rating: 
Summary: Great communication!
Review: I received the pen very quickly and everything was just as he said it would be. All questions were answered quickly and well! Great communication!!!
Rating:
Summary: Priceless item for college student
Review: I recently purchased the Logitech io Personal Digital Pen. I love it! I can't say enough good things about it, or how easy it is to use. The software was easy to install, and automatically updated itself. Within an hour I was testing out this new technology, and was VERY impressed with its ability to convert handwriting (even pretty sloppy handwriting) to text, and its ability to convert hand-drawn diagrams, charts, and tables into wonderful digital media that can be imported into Microsoft Word. I have to go back and do very little clean up work, which is surprising considering my handwriting and charts.
I am currently a college student, and have begun to use the Logitech io for all of my classes' notes. I just put the pen in the cradle, and the software automatically downloads all the the information from the pen onto my computer, where I can then do whatever I want with it. I belong to several study groups, which makes this tool so much more useful. I can Email group members copies of my notes (converted to type-written text and Microsoft word for their ease of use).
This tool makes it so easy for me to organize and find my notes that I can't even believe how I got along without it. All of my notes are in my digital notebooks, and by using the Keyword feature I can easily find my notes on the computer and edit or review them. I can even put the word documents onto my handheld to review them later... charts and all.
Now I don't have to carry around big cluttered notebooks or binders, I can carry one notebook, and a pen. To find notes I don't have to scramble through cluttered, hard to read (even for me - the writer!) notes to find certain information, I can look it all up with the io software.
The only drawbacks to this incredible pen are the prices of the paper and the size of the pen. The notebooks are expensive. For me though, I was keeping many different notebooks to contain my notes and keep them organized, and now I find it much more efficient to keep a single notebook with all of my notes in it. This way if I need the information I can simply look it up in my computer. If I need it in paper format, then I can print it out. If for some reason I need the original, I still have it in my notebook. The pen itself is big and bulky, and I would be more comfortable using it if it were more discreet. I have relativly small hands, even for a woman, and find the pen easy to write with and comfortable to use despite its large size. But these drawbacks aren't enough to stop me from using something that has saved me hours and hours of searching through notebooks and keying data into the computer.
Rating:
Summary: MY ELECTRONIC FILE SYSTEM
Review: I take a lot of notes in business. Then I "file" them which really means I will have trouble ever finding them again. How many times I have searched through a pile of papers only to miss what I was looking for, and then a few days later after I made due without what I was looking for, it shows up in the group of papers that I already searched. Frustrating, the paper file system. It's one dimensional. Computers on the other hand let you have folder after sub folder and long file names, so notes taken with this DIgital Pen are organized where I can find them INSTANTLY. This is worth the money, I don't care if it doesn't convert to text, who needs that anyway, with all the mistakes that that kind of software makes on your spelling... This Digital Pen lets you take lots of electronic notes and make electronic illustrations in a meeting in a LOW KEY way, without being distracting or drawing a lot of attention to yourself such as those who use and take notes on a laptop in a meeting. This pen gets the job done, and is even better than typing in many ways. There is so much more you can do with the ability to draw as you take notes. Its better.
Rating: 
Summary: Definitely underrated
Review: I think the dissatisfied users are not entirely wrong in their assessments but I think they expect too much from this pen. I use it for drawing charts in meetings and taking brief notes and making reminders for myself. And it works great for those. BUT I mostly use it for my art. I do my drawings with the IO pen and it captures them in a vector format that is later convertible to EPS then later to Macromedia Flash. You need to own Illustrator to convert the native pen created EMF files into EPS. (There might be other parsers out there). But once imported into Flash, I clean up my drawings and use the Flash drawing tools to refine my curves and lines. I love it. The discovery of this pen created a whole new set of possibilities for my creative process. The Notebooks are expensive but they last a while for my purposes. It would be great if they could possibly make tracing paper with the same kind of patterns on it. That way I could use the pen for tracing my previously drawn materials. Overall, with the new discount price, this is a great digital gadget.
Rating: 
Summary: What IS it????
Review: I thought the IO was a handwriting recognition device that would save me from banging the keyboard. No such luck. According to the reviews I should have read before purchasing it, it simply makes pictures of what you write.
Anyway, I tried to install it and after receiving numerous error messages contacted the company. Their recommendation would have involved going deep into the system to make changes on something I hardly can understand. (I started to do so and ended up with my XP interface changing partially to a WIN 2000 interface --for shutting down) Maybe I'll put it up for auction on the Web. I guess I'll go back to voice recognition.
Rating:
Summary: wonderful product
Review: I usually keep all records in the PC, but notes from a meeting is not there. NBow it is possible to write notes with pen and paper as usual, and download it directly to the PC. Wonderfuul tool! I have one wish, though, and that is that it should be possible to have other inks than a normal ballpoint pen to use with it. Due to arm problems I don't use ballpoints, but felt-tipped pens instad.
Rating:
Summary: Great idea ... hidden costs ... some 'gotchas'
Review: I was an early, frustrated adopter of the A.T. Cross-Pad. The concept was intriguing, and the engineering was an interesting combination of traditional paper, special ink and handwriting recognition software. Where that product fell short, in my opinion, was the painful and frustrating sessions in which you attempted to train the software to recognize your handwriting. A second barrier was the serial interface (USB was on the horizon at the time, but not mainstream). I wrote off the technology (no pun intended) at the time after failing to find a use for the technology, so when Logitech introduced the Personal Digital Pen it seemed time to give technology another chance. The Logitech Personal Digital Pen makes no claims to transform handwriting into text, which was a major selling point for me. I wanted to scribble notes and get them into a computer in the easiest possible manner. The USB interface that is included makes this easy - merely set the pen in the holder and everything you wrote on your pad is quickly in your computer and faithfully reproduced (in my case, near-illegible handwriting and all). The pen has 2 MB or RAM and can hold approximately 40 pages of notes before you have to upload it to your computer. Up to this point I was pleased with the device, but did some quick math and discovered that the cost of owning the pen was high - it only works with special electronic pads that are relatively expensive. Currently there are two manufacturers for the paper (3M for the PostIt Notes and Mead for the writing pad). Logitech does claim that any electronic pad that is marked with an "Anoto functionality" logo will work. The show-stoppers for me, and the reasons why I returned the product were: (1) the pen's software required Internet Explorer (I have it completely removed from my system for security reasons), and (2) also mandates the use of Microsoft's .NET framework (I have privacy and security concerns about that). However, if you use Internet Explorer and are already using the .NET framework with applications such as Hotmail, MSN, etc. you shouldn't have the same issues as I with this aspect of the product. If you can live with the total cost of ownership that is imposed by the requirement for special electronic paper, you will find the Personal Digital Pen to be a handy tool and a great value.
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