I’ve had a livescribe pulse since it came out more than three years ago. Just yesterday my pre-order of the Wacom Inkling pen came in from Amazon. So now I’ve got something to compare the livescribe to. Really, though, there isn’t much comparison. Livescribe wins, handily.
- livescribe is more accurate, especially out at the edges of the pages
- livescribe software is much better — the inkling software is bare bones to say the least; to wit, livescribe has search, Inkling’s Sketch Manager does not. livescribe software knows about the ordering of pages, Inkling does not. The list goes on and on.
- livescribe is much cheaper — half price, really.
- livescribe is easier to carry around: with the livescribe, you carry a pen and notebook just as you would need to otherwise. With Inkling, you need to carry an extra receiver that you need to clip on to whatever you write with.
- livescribe records audio, giving you a whole dimension of context you just don’t get with Inkling.
I can see how the inkling, with its pressure sensitivity, etc. could be useful for artists. But for a scientist, engineer, student, journalist, or anyone else really other than an artist, the livescribe is a far superior product.