The Pen Is Mighty

The first time I tried out the LeapPad by Leapfrog at a department store(I was bored...), I was intrigued. Little wonder that this educational toy sold millions in the US. But I thought it was quite cumbersome as you had to place the book on the large pad to work and the pen is tethered to it.

Leapfrog finally has a new product called Tag coming soon next month in the form of a chubby digital pen. The technology behind this seemingly simple looking pen is actually quite fascinating which is based on pen-based reading technology created by a Swedish company called Anoto.

It works on books whose pages are imprinted with invisible dots that allow a small infrared camera at the tip of the Tag to recognize words or images on the page.

LeapFrog Hopes for Next Hit With Interactive Reading Toy | The Innovator’s Dilemma of a Toy Maker

There's also something for adults with the Livescribe's Pulse smartpen also releasing in the coming months. It is a note-taking pen that allows handwriting on special paper printed with invisible dots to be captured to a PC.

Take Note: Computing Takes Up Pen, Again

It will be interesting to watch how successful these digital pen products will be in the near future.

Tag by Leapfrog | Pulse smartpen by Livescribe

A tip for storing numbers

This is a neat yet obvious tip over at S60.com that's possible on any phone that records dialed numbers.

A tip for storing numbers: hotel room, taxi order etc. When ordering a taxi, the operator gives me a number (usually three digits) so that know which taxi is for me. It's essential information but needed only for max 10-15 minutes. As I have a bad memory, I make a call to that number and immediately hang-up. This way, the number is available in my made calls should I need it. No need for pen and paper. Works also for storing hotel room numbers etc. Any other tips for doing this?

I never found the need to use this since I can easily access the notes app. But this method is possibly the simplest and fastest way to store adhoc numbers on almost any phone.

Alternatively, you can use the camera like the guy in this ad to break the language barrier.

Opera Mini on your PC

There's a guide over at Opera community on how to run Opera Mini on your PC.

For those with slow connections this might make surfing the Web a whole new experience.

Imagine you're in a place where you can only connect to a 56k connection (or worse), but you really need to check out some stuff on the Internet... Well, one option is to use Opera Mini on your mobile phone, but it might be a hassle since text input can be a pain (and you're in a hurry), so what do you do?

This is similar to the Opera Mini Simulator on the Opera Mini website except that you run the Java app directly from a program window instead of using the web browser. This allows you to try out the latest Opera Mini 4.1. You can also use it to test out your wehpages formatted for mobile viewing.