Latest Nokia Mobile

"Write a text message with a pen!

Do you write faster with a pen than on a keypad? You may
soon be able to write a message on a notepad, easily
digitize it, and send the message to a mobile phone via
Bluetooth! To make it happen, technology is being developed
for a pen that enables you to write messages and capture
them with its built-in camera. So look out for texting pens!"

An improvement over the current crop of digital pens? Well, judging by the Nokia SU-1B and its many cousins never featured here, I'd have to give that an affirmative.

It's not that the SU-1B or the SU-27W or SU-XXX are bad devices - it's just that there are much better devices out there. Like the Nokia N800 tablet. Or the 770 Tablet. These don't require "digital paper" (last I checked, these were more than 30 bucks for one notepad), ink cartridges (the Nokia pens DO use standard ISO-blah-blah compliant ink refills), or an extremely large "baller" wallet for the pen (around $200 USD).

But a digital pen equipped with a camera - that sounds pretty cool. And if you could use a standard notepad, that would actually give people a reason to buy this new breed of pen - not only to use with their mobile phones, but also for, say, Bluetooth-equipped laptops.