has anyone used Livescribe or given it as a gift?

[petitdonkey]

just that really. I am thinking about getting one for DH who loves all things gadgety but the reviews are mixed so I thought I would ask Mumsnet.

link here in case you don't know what I am talking about. Which leads me to Echo or Livescribe? Why?

I use one occasionally at work. They're great if you take a lot of notes (particularly for lectures etc). I do find in meetings, some people are uncomfortable about being recorded. If you plan to use it for lectures, then make sure you buy the earphones as the sound recording is much better through the earphones and you don't record the pen scratching as you write.

It is really only useful if you need to refer back to specific areas of your notes and hear what was said at the time. If you just want to be able to hear a recording of what is being said, then a smart phone is probably good enough.

One other thing - I can't talk and write so it is not always helpful in meetings as I had hoped. I tend to use it when I'm dealing with someone who is flaky with instructions and denies they've said something or forgets what was agreed during a meeting!

That is really useful - thank you. It sounds like it might be better to ask him if it would be useful… he is at a lot of meetings and the last point you made could be useful but I hadn't thought about the recording aspect making people uncomfortable which I would imagine would be the case in his job.

Thanks again.