(http://www.trustedreviews.com/)Review For many people, my mum included, it's still easier to organise life with a pen and paper rather than a notebook, PDA or smart phone. There is still something more immediate about being able to grab a pen and a scrap of paper and to scribble. There's no boot up, no need to be able to touch type and for the great majority of us our drawing skills remain far superior with a pencil than with a mouse, writes Gordon Kelly.

Step forward Pegasus, a company that believes it has come up with a way to bridge the gap. Its answer is the Mobile NoteTaker, a portable device designed to store handwritten data so it can be transferred to a computer at a later date. The concept consists of an electronic pen with real ink and a memory unit with a monochrome LCD display and 2MB (50 page) memory that, when positioned above the writing surface, records all strokes on its scrolling screen. The effect is twofold, while you're making real world written notes a virtual copy of every mark you make is being recorded.

For good measure, the Mobile NoteTaker can also be plugged directly into a PC allowing handwritten notes to be made within Microsoft Office documents and emails. So far so good, but I'm going to jump straight to it rather than lead you on, because the theory is way better than the practice.

To begin with the equipment feels cheap. The pen is bulbous, not particularly comfortable to hold and has a scratchy writing head. The memory unit likewise is chunky at 10.7 x 6.5 x 1.9cm, weighing 90g. It's like carrying a second mobile phone around. Continuing the theme, the keypad and on/off switch are wobbly and have too much travel on the buttons. At a glance, the whole package reminds me of those free gifts you see advertised on the front of stationery catalogues.

Next up, the pen takes three SR41 batteries and the memory unit two AAA which seems a little excessive. There's no way to measure the pen's remaining battery life. On the plus side there is very little set up required beyond switching the memory unit on and writing with the pen, but while the LCD scrolls around admirably to map the pen's movements around the page its graphics are blocky and joined up writing is impossible to read. There are also very few options within the memory units itself. Capture, browse existing captures, set date, screen contrast, sound options, and memory status are the sole commands and it is impossible to get out of some menus from the keypad, meaning you must push the pen nib into the first of five command shortcut pin holes at the front of the unit to get back to the root menu.

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Plug the Mobile NoteTaker into a computer and things do improve a little, though the boxy components at the head of the link cable could surely have been slimmed down. Software installation is straightforward requiring less than 30MB of space on your hard disk and the unit is detected by Windows without any problems. It is also here that, for the first time you can truly see the quality of the scans which are for the most part clear and crisp. But there is again a downside, because the captures are pressure sensitive and if you write very lightly or with uneven pressure you will see gaps. Another complaint is that the Note Manager software is too rudimentary, providing little more than cropping, saving, emailing and printing variants.

One feature that did appeal, however, was the Microsoft Office integration which installs an additional toolbar in Word and Excel that picks up when the Mobile NoteTaker is connected and allows freehand writing and drawing directly into documents. This is great for signing your name at the bottom of a letter and ticking your way through a questionnaire but again I found the options limited. Line thickness, colour, highlight, erase, undo and redo are pretty much your lot so it's no substitute for a specialised digital pen.

Pegasus still has some bugs to sort out in the software, too. Removing the link cable from the computer while the memory unit was still on invariably caused both my notebook and PC to crash, which could prove incredibly frustrating to any user anxious to save the device's numerous batteries after uploading their scans, especially if you normally choose to upload and delete them from the device at the same time.

Importantly, Pegasus has included a basic writing-to-text program called Pen2Text. This is vital for any type of digital pen as it allows notes to be stored quickly to a more professional format for archiving, presentation or personal use. Sadly, Pen2Text is not a standalone piece of software but simply a tool that when run allows Microsoft Office's own handwriting recognition software to recognise the Mobile NoteTaker. I had hoped Pegasus would offer something a little more specialised rather than something that pretty much adds up to a glorified driver, but this was not the case. What's more, in operation I found the performance limited, as fast writing, which often appears jagged, was then understandably misinterpreted by the Office recognition software. The reliance of the pen on the pressure applied by the user, also meant writing came out with gaps. This gave the Office recognition software no chance of correctly interpreting what I had written. For me, this is one of the most important parts of any digital pen and so proves another nail in the coffin of what on the surface could have been a very good idea.

Of course, the real downside of a solution like Pen2Text is that if you don't have a copy of Microsoft Office, you're out of luck. In fact, you have to be running Microsoft Office XP or later, which means even those running older MS Office suites like Office 2000 can't use Pen2Text. A totally independent OCR package would have been much preferable, and usable by anyone, no matter which word processor or office suite you use.

Now, as a cheap gadget this would all be perfectly acceptable. But when put within the context of its price it borders on crazy. I am all for convergence technologies, but when you consider the Mobile NoteTaker is priced at just under £150 I cannot see many takers. This is more expensive than some colour PDAs we have had in the labs and 50 per cent more than the very useable PalmOne Zire 31 which can be found for less than £100. And of course, not only do PDAs have built-in handwriting recognition, but also a full working office suite with Internet and email capabilities.

If the Mobile NoteTaker was a third of the price it might have some novelty appeal, yet even then it would be just as cheap to buy a scanner which would do most of the same work. Any written pages or diagrams made on the move can be scanned when you get back to the computer. If you need to sign a document, print one, sign it and scan it. Do the same for questionnaires. In all, there are too many more affordable alternatives to the Mobile NoteTaker.

All of which I find a bit of a shame because, despite its limited functionality, the Mobile NoteTaker does have some clever and potentially useful scanning technology. Sadly, as it stands, a device which was designed to transfer notes from the real world to the virtual world has turned out to be a bridge too far.

Verdict

A potentially useful novelty gadget spoilt by cheap build quality, basic functionality, a lack of OCR support and a completely unrealistic price. ®

Pegasus Mobile NoteTaker
Rating	40%
Price	£149
More info	Importer Apcom's web site (http://www.apcom.ltd.uk/overview.php)

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