As the search for the perfect portable computer continues, A. T. Cross Co. of Lincoln, R.I., has created a revolutionary pair of products: a pen with a built-in electronic transmitter and a writing tablet with a built-in computer.
Called the CrossPad, this pen, ink, and silicon combination lets you take notes on a pad of paper and then upload the information to your desktop computer. You can then file your notes away on your computer's hard drive, print a second copy, or translate your handwriting into text suitable for pasting into a word processor.
You would think the CrossPad would appeal to people who prefer to take notes on paper but want the flexibility that comes from taking notes on a laptop computer. But in my experience, both the CrossPad hardware and accompanying software are too immature to be used for serious work.
What I like about taking notes with pen and paper is the simplicity. I just take out my fountain pen, turn over a new sheet of paper, and write. Most of the notes I scribble go into a small 3x5-inch notepad I keep in my shirt pocket. I rip out the pages when the notes are no longer needed. The only downside is the clerical work: At the end of each week, I have to retype my notes into my computer or transcribe them into a new notebook when the first notebook fills up.
Using the CrossPad is a bit more complicated. First you have to turn it on, using a switch on the side. This energizes the pad's digitizing tablet and turns on the tiny little screen at the bottom of the pad. Once it's turned on, you need to be careful that you write on the paper only using the special pen that Cross provides - otherwise nothing you write will be digitally recorded.
As you finish each page, you need to tap a little button at the bottom of the CrossPad that advances you to the next page - otherwise, when you start working on the second page, your handwritten notes will be printed on top of the first page inside.
The CrossPad lets you set bookmarks and annotate keywords while you take notes. To set a bookmark, you tap the menu button twice and then click the yes button. To select a keyword in your text, you write the word, tap the keyword button, and then circle your keyword. The CrossPad makes an annoying beep each time you click a button. You can turn it off, but you can't change the tone to something more pleasant.
It's pretty easy to upload your notes from the CrossPad to your computer - just connect the pad to your PC with the provided cable, tap the menu button once, and tap yes. Your notes go into a program called Ink Manager, developed by International Business Machines Corp. Ink Manager stores your electronic notes in a series of notebooks. You can page through them, jump from keyword to keyword or bookmark to bookmark, and print out the pages at will.
Electronic Ink on your computer screen isn't very legible, thanks to the low resolution of screens compared to paper. Unfortunately, printouts from the Ink Manager program aren't very legible either: They are too faint. That's because the printouts use a brush stroke that's only about one-quarter the width as the ballpoint pen that Cross provides. If you want to make a copy, you're better off photocopying the original piece of paper that has your notes.
The big promise of the CrossPad is the handwriting recognition. IBM's recognition software does a better job than would be possible by simply scanning a piece of paper into a computer, since the pad records the movements of the pen, rather than the final printed result. But the software still has problems.
To use the recognizer, you must first train the system by copying two training sets, each with roughly 30 sentences. Some of the sentences are offensive or overtly political. Both Cross and IBM should know better than to force people to write polemics.
Once you have completed the training sets, you upload your handwriting into the computer and let it digest your marks. It took my computer roughly 30 minutes to process the first training set and 50 minutes to process the second one.
The recognition accuracy is an amazing breakthrough in technology, which is to say that most computer users will find it mediocre at best. I wrote, ``If you would rather be using a pad & paper, then the CrossPad might be for you.''
The software thought that my ampersand was a dollar sign, and that I wrote the word ``pipe'' instead of ``paper.''
I wrote, ``The pad is not great for artists, because the resolution just isn't that good.''
The software thought that I wrote, ``trays not at for arts bears to resolution just isn't to at good.''
You can correct the program's mistakes, which is supposed to improve its accuracy over time, but in my experience the improvement didn't come very quickly.
Weighing 2 pounds, 11 ounces, the CrossPad is big and reasonably heavy. What's worse, it's not as functional as a normal clipboard: There is no place to clip your pen, and there's no way to fold over your paper to mark your place.
With a retail price of $399, I am fearful of dropping this newfangled device: a sudden impact might crack its plastic case.
But the biggest problem with the CrossPad is that, unlike other handheld computing devices, it is input only: There is no way to review what you have written without hooking the device up to a computer.
For more information, check out the Cross Web site at
http://www.cross-pcg.com/ Technology writer Simson L. Garfinkel can be reached at plugged-in@simson.net
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