If all of the recent coverage of tablet PCs has piqued your curiosity about pen input, but not enough to drop $2,000 on a new PC, you now have a far more affordable alternative: Logitech's $199 io digital pen.
Unlike tablet PCs, which allow you to write digital ink directly onto an LCD display, you use the io on paper--albeit special, high-tech paper (available in a variety of forms, including Post-It notes and a specialized notebook from Mead) with an invisible grid of dots embedded on its surface. A sensor in the pen tracks your writing motions on this paper. When you're done, you stick the pen into a USB-based docking station, and your notes are downloaded to your PC. Logitech's software then allows you to import your notes into Microsoft Outlook and Word, Lotus Notes, and myriad other applications.
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