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We can fairly say that most of us got used to typing stuff on the keyboard to the point where our handwriting got lost somewhere down the road. I for one, have noticed that my handwriting isn’t that wavy anymore, while I can type faster than I can write with a pen. That could be a good thing, but somehow I feel that if I keep going this way I just might forget how to write. Well, yeah I exaggerate a bit, but part of this worry is really true for most of us young people. Here’s something that could help us out.

The Livescribe Pulse looks like any other ordinary pen, but it knows some tricks: it records audio and also digitizes whatever you're writing, while keeping track of what exactly you were listening to while writing. Why would this be helpful? Just imagine: when you go back to your notebook and run the pen over a particular sentence, drawing, scheme, symbol or whatever you doodled there, the pen will cue up and play the audio from that moment (if there happened to be any). So now, all those vague comments that you made on the side of a page may actually mean something when they’re connected to a conversation or audio note. Or you could go ahead and draw whatever you like as long as someone has to say something important and worth recording.

On the technical part, we find out that the Pulse is powered by a Samsung ARM processor, and will eventually be able to provide much more interactive and powerful applications when coupled with PDAs, cellphones or even PCs. Right now beyond the audio and handwriting capture, there's only a calculator function, but Livescribe ensures that there will be translators and internet-connected applications to maximize Pulse’s capabilities.

How exactly does the Pulse work? The smart pen comes with a special kind of plain paper that is embedded with a pattern of tiny dots which facilitates the handwriting recognition. There's an infrared camera which then captures the patterns and this lets you upload all your important notes. Simple and useful.

There is a 1GB Pulse for $149, while the 2GB model costs $199 and you can preorder one of these on the official site.