New Tech Gadgets for College Students
September 27th 2010 09:05
From: Smart Money
It’s been 20 years since computers became more than a curiosity on campus and at least a decade since the cell phone became as commonplace as the logo sweatshirt. But now college students—and, of course, parents who may be footing the bill—have a new wave of tech decisions to make. A host of recording and transcribing gadgets offer to bridge the divide between the spoken word (Professor So-and-So’s lecture) and the written one (that paper Junior has to write). Lightweight netbooks are positioning themselves as a back-strain-free alternative to laptops. And even more potentially popular is the wave of e-readers and tablet computers, including the heavy-hitting iPad, which devotees laud as a computer and a textbook library rolled into one.
Smart Pens
Best Option: The Livescribe 2GB Pulse ($130)
Best to Avoid: Pens that require purchases of “refill” paper
Digital pens rely on a built-in camera and special paper that lets the user download handwritten notes to a computer. The bulky pens can feel cumbersome—like trying to write with the handle of a spatula—and some models have a reputation for glitches in the handwriting-to-digital translation. But in tests by the Information Technology Institute, students preferred note-taking with the pens to using a computer. Livescribe also says its redesigned model, the Echo, is less chunky.
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