The key to the functionality of the Pulse is manifold, but it can be counted down to the infrared camera perched under the nib (I’m old, so look it up), the voice recording capabilities, and the special paper the pens use in order to work their magic. Now don’t go groaning over the fact that you have to buy special paper. Have you seen what a simple notepad costs at Barnes & Noble these days? Shocking to the point where you’ll think that paying $20 for a 200 sheet notebook which enables the power of the Pulse is a steal and a half. Combine that with the fact that the most recent Windows version of the software can print blank pages, and you’re on easy street.

So, how do the camera, recorder, and paper work to together to make this powerful combo I speak of? That’s a more complicated question, but there are answers. I am, however, going to quickly describe the Pulse and what the package comes with. First, there’s the pen, of course. Its a large pen, but not much larger than the big, thick, expensive pens which you can buy that don’t do anything the Pulse does. In the box there is a 200 page starter notebook (8.5″ x 11″, college ruled), a nicely small and portable USB magnetic dock, a pair of stereo headphones with a microphone in each earpiece, a lanyard for the headphones, a set of replacement ink cartridges and a stylus tip (nice touch!), and a crappy faux leather case (What happened!?). Take a gander at the image below:

The pen has a display embedded in the side of it. Nicely, there are several options for how you can use the pen, and one of them is to change the orientation of the screen depending on what hand you use (I’m a lefty… deal). That grill you can see under the screen is a speaker and on the top end of the pen is the headphone/microphone jack. I’ll get to the headphones later. They’re super neat. 

Now, whenever the pen is on and you write on the special paper (check out the image), the pen stores everything you write in its memory. I have the 1GB version, though there’s also a 2GB model. So, as long as the pen is on it records what you write. Now for the voice recording. If you tap on the Record button which are conveniently located on the bottom edge of every page then the Pulse starts to record, just like a standard voice recorder. Here’s where the neat trick comes into play though: as you write, the Pulse keeps track of what you are writing and tags the audio recorded to that writing. 

When you’re done taking notes, you click the Stop button. Here’s the next neato trick: While the Pulse is not recording, you can tap on any of your notes and it will play back the audio recorded for that segment. Pretty slick, eh! The trick I’ve learned already is to just write a keyword as I’m recording instead of trying to keep up and missing stuff. If I have a question, I’ll write down a snippet to remind me of the question and then carry on with my conversation. Fraking brilliant! The other controls on the pages allow you to control volume, speed, jumping forward and backward to tracks, and making bookmarks. 

Using the headphones also sports a neat trick. The jack right into the end of the Pulse so you can listen to the recorded audio in stereo. Why? Sure, the built-in mic only records in mono, but when you jack in those wicked headphones, the Pulse records in stereo. That’s why there is a microphone in each earbud. Trust me when I tell you that this is remarkably helpful. Say, for instance, you’re sitting at a table talking with 4 or 5 people. Wearing the headphones (or wearing them down on your neck using the lanyard) lets the Pulse record your environment the same way you hear. When you play this stereo sound back later, you hear the direction people are speaking from. I find it a fantastic way to recall how the conversation was going since I can visualize the meeting. 

Once you’ve collected stuff on your new pen, its time to get that data onto your desktop. LiveScribe nicely offers both Windows and Mac OS X versions of the desktop client, though the Mac version has some catching up to do. For one thing, with the Windows version you can print your own paper. Not so on the Mac. Shame! Interestingly, the box doesn’t come with a CD in it, but when you do download the client for your operating system at least you’re getting the latest version. Once its installed, all you need to do is plug in the dock and place the pen into it. It connects and moves everything from the pen to the desktop client. Once there, everything which has a voice recording attached to it is highlighted in green. 

Now, if that wasn’t enough, there’s more. Say, for example, that you’ve been taking notes for a few months now and you’ve been asked by a colleague or classmate for a note you made back in some project meeting or lecture. All you need to do is load up LiveScribeDesktop and search for the keywords. The software is so smart that it can actually parse your handwriting and show you which pages any hits are on. No kidding! This thing is so smart that it can tell which notebook you are in and which page you’re turned to. Very, very cool indeed. 

There are some other gee willikers things the Pulse can do, but they really don’t add to the functionality except for the calculator. The nice thing that the developers have allowed for is adding new features through software updates. In fact, for the first month I had this thing I received no less that 10 updates to the pen software. Its pretty amazing that the Pulse sports a 150MHz ARM9 processor and a 300mAh LiIon rechargeable battery and crams ups to 2GB of storage space into such a cool pen. 

Simply put, if you pair the Pulse up with an iPhone, BlackBerry, or one of the new Palm Pre devices, you are set to go laptop free. I’m not kidding. The only thing that LiveScribe is missing is some more options in paper products. They have the big college-ruled notebooks and some largish bound notebooks with lines or no lines, but there are no notebooks or calendar books. I’d love to see a notebook which is as long as the Pulse, 3-4″ wide, unlined, with a barrel on the spine into which you can slide the Pulse while you’re not working with it. That and I’d really like to see an integrated calendar management tool. Maybe even synching it up to Windows or Mac OS X. Now that would rock. 

Now that I’ve turned you all on to the Pulse, I would like to inform you that you can have your own right now. You can head on over to LiveScribe’s web site and order one there or you can swing over to your local Target and get it there. The 1GB model runs for US$150 while the 2GB model runs for US$200. The reality is that this is just one of the single coolest gadgets available on the planet and I can only see it getting better and better.

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Just so you know right off the bat, we’re not talking US$69 special at Walmart here. This is a US$229 MSRP piece of crafted espresso machine. Well, mostly crafted. The key to the perfect cup of cappuccino is the concerted effort of a selection of tools and the skill and/or practice of the barista. Each and every part of a well oiled machine must work in harmony for the result to be palatable. So, before I can review the espresso machine, I must first talk of the coffee beans and the grinder. In my opinion, there are only two coffee beans in the entire world. One is Jose’s, a low-cost brand you can buy at CostCo, the likes of which cannot be found elsewhere, with exception to one, 8 O’clock. 8 O’clock’s peerless bean selection, blending, and roasting produces the perfectly rounded selection of coffees from a single bean. (I should note that Green Mountain Coffee is likely the single best coffee bean on the planet, but only within spitting distance of Vermont. I’m convinced that they have roasteries around the country, and not all are equal. We used to shop at the original store in Waitsfield. -TCR.)

Its all in how you grind it and how you prepare it for use. I will not detail coffee grinding here, but suffice it to say that the correct grind is required of the correct bean. You want a mostly fine grind for espresso machines. Once the grind is ready, allowing the greshly ground beans to offer their most flavorful potential, you place it into the filter (that thing with a handle on it), tamp it down just right (it takes practice with your machine to find the right amount), and then secure it to the base of the pressure head. Now, you don’t just turn on the water. You need to heat up the system first. I suggest, for the Café Roma at least, that you let it warm up for about 10 minutes (check the on-board water level first) before firing up the pump.

The Café Roma is a simplified espresso machine designed to be used by people not accustomed to brewing their own coffees outside of a Mr. Coffee or Krups drip machine. Turn the knob left to make coffee, then turn it right to make steam. This means that the Café Roma is a single pump machine. Most machines above US$200 sport dual pumps, but this one seems to work well. I also had an issue with not being able to moderate the steam pressure for preparing the froth, but Breville has managed to figure out a new tip which makes frothing as simple as peeling a pouring the milk into the mug. (I personally steam in the mug I drink from as it warms the mug and makes less to clean. -TCR.)

The Café Roma comes with two double-walled espresso shots, the filter handle and inserts for single, double, and pod, a frothing jug, a tamper and scoop, and a small cleaning tool. One thing I noticed right off is that when the pump is working the deck vibrates and the shot cups start moving around. At my wife’s suggestion, is placed a slightly damp towel under them and no more moving about. Second, when I moved over to frothing it didn’t seem like it was doing anything at first, but it certainly was. Before long my mug was warm, the milk was hot, and the froth was creamy and thick. Extended use has revealed some best practices, but I’m sure its different with everyone. Its also easy to clean and keep together. It has a heated top, like its larger brethren, and the water canister is sizable without being obtrusive. Everything about it and its accessories speaks of pretty good quality, except the tamper/scoop.

It took a few weeks, but now the coffee is coming out nearly perfect. Yeah. Nearly. I don’t know what it is about the Café Roma, but its just won’t make strong coffee. I’ve adjusted the grind, modified the tamping, tried darker roasted beans, even tried several Italian incantations to no avail. I don’t know if its the pressure or the way that Breville creates its pressure head, or how the holes are made in the filter cup or what, but the higher pressure system seems to work fine, it just won’t make stronger, Turkish-style coffee. Feh. Do I like the machine? Yes, I do, and it would be perfect for anyone who doesn’t have the same extreme needs I do when it comes to variance in coffee. I’m not a fan of burnt beans. I like a well rounded, robust, complex flavor, and the Café Roma just doesn’t seem to be able to bring out the more finessed ranges.

I’m pleased to have it on my countertop, though.

* I made up this number. Sue me.

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Where, then, does Linux come into the picture? Do you see all of these tiny little lappies hitting the market? OLPC started it with their little green bug and kicked it into gear when they started offering the Buy-Two-Get-One deal where one goes to a child in a 3rd world country and you get the other one. ASUS saw something in that and ponied up the Eee PC, a tiny little lappy with a 4GB solid state hard drive and an eensy weensy price tag. Buyers freaked and they flew off the shelves, and other fabbers took notice and made their own. They are called MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices) and are meant to be companions to your online life.

I would say that this is simply bad timing for Microsoft, but its also bad marketing. Microsoft, as usual, isn’t giving users what they want, the Redmond giant is demanding that the users do what Microsoft wants. It has numerous ways to leverage this desire, but its primary tool is its resellers like Dell, HP, Acer, and hundreds of others. Microsoft says jump, and they all ask how high, or at least they used to. At no time in Microsoft’s long history has it had to deal with a wide-open market, a bum new OS, a re-upstart in the form of Apple, the assumed arrival of Linux for end-users in Ubuntu, and a realization in end users that they don’t have to buy Microsoft to be “in the loop”.

Of course, that’s not all. The economy isn’t helping, either. People are either buying ultra cheap and sticking with Windows XP or they’re spending more on Apple, knowing that Mac OS X systems last longer and have a better resale value. Only those who honestly don’t know any better are moving to Vista, thinking that anything coming from Microsoft must be better than the previous version. However, more and more seniors are being dragged into the market by their tech-savvy children and getting into Ubuntu is very, very easy for first time users. The people behind Ubuntu have even created a new MID-specific version which has a new UI for smaller screens. There are plenty of other small screen UIs for MIDs, as well.

What’s Microsoft’s response to this major threat? To still cancel Windows XP Professional and continue to offer Windows XP Home Edition for MIDs, and it far from clear how long they’ll even do that. MIDs, by definition, are small, ultra low power devices which are not meant to be full portable systems or to replace desktop systems, so how does Microsoft expect MIDs to effectively run Vista, one of the single most resource intensive operating systems of all time. I mean, really. Considering what you can do with Vista that you can’t do with XP and what Vista sucks up just isn’t warranted. In the meantime, Linux runs faster on slower hardware, taking the utmost advantage of whatever resources it has access to.

What can’t Microsoft do, then, when faced with this threat. It can buy Yahoo!… oh, wait. That deal’s all finished, and Yahoo! is supposedly talking to Google about a team up. Hmm. I’d suggest that MS come out and say they made a mistake then take back their cancellation of XP and announce a new version of XP based on the Pro edition. Oh, and sell it retail for US$49. You’ll make bank, dawg! Everyone will get the OS they want, and even pay for it, since US$49 ain’t a high price to pay for a commercial OS. Hell, Apple users pay US$129 for each major upgrade, and happily!

I’m not sure what’s going to happen. Really. I’m just a pundit so I’m not qualified to read the future. What I can tell you, though, is that if Microsoft continues on the path it is traveling, Apple and Linux-based systems are going to start to gain some major marketshare. No, Apple isn’t going to dominate the market next year or even by 2012. Apple will have a very large marketshare, then, though. Keep that in mind. Keep watching the iPhone and the iPods which are now as necessary as underwear. Just keep watching.

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This simple, clear, uncluttered, and audacious approach to improving the level of education in the world is a powerful concept, indeed. Sure, it won’t make Harvard graduates out of Nigerian children overnight, but it makes the US$2,000 status symbol laptop look more like a common phone and levels the playing field in a number of ways. Check out this great review over at the Fox News site. Make sure to read it all.

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