<p>Are there students who have used kindle or Live scribe's Smart pen? I want to know if you use it frequently and you find it helpful ina college setting? If you got it as a Holiday gift, would you like it if it was your big present?</p>
<p>My son is a HS senior and just got accepted into UMICh LSA and I am looking for Xmas gift ideas.</p>
<p>I would ask him what he wants as his big gift. WIll he have much time for leisure reading his freshman year at college? The DX Kindle is close to $500 - that would be sweet if he could download his textbooks onto it. I have heard that you can do that (not with the regular one, though - more for non-academic material). Is the DX the one you are considering?</p>
<p>I would think the Kindle would be a better choice. The Livescribe pen is only cool if youre the kind of person that would benefit from taking notes/studying that way. Study and notetaking methods are very personalized things, whereas I feel like a kindle would appeal to anybody who likes to read.</p>
<p>The Kindle would definitely be a godsend, though I would also look into one of the Sony etc. equivalents, as they let you download PDFs as well. There are many free textbooks online in PDF format that cannot be read by the Kindle (unless things have changed).</p>
<p>The Smartpen looks cute, but a Kindle would be infinitely more useful. Especially if one is savvy enough to know where to find free PDFs.</p>
<p>As a college-bound high school student I would have been thrilled by either gift. But at this point in my college career I would not have much use for either. I do not read enough for pleasure to make the Kindle expense worthwhile, and my textbooks are so technical (read: you have to look at 4 different diagrams at once while reading the text) that they would not be displayed properly on a Kindle. It’s display is just way too small.</p>
<p>Another point to keep in mind is that most textbooks are not available on the Kindle (yet). This might change as a few colleges are considering officially adopting the Kindle for coursework.</p>
<p>The Smart Pen might have been useful when I was still taking classes where what was being said in class was important. In my current classes, the professors say almost exactly what they write on the board (minus jokes and random tangents), so a verbal recording would not be of much use unless my written notes are incomplete.</p>
<p>Garcia I’m fairly certain the Kindle 2 and DX support PDFs.</p>
<p>Barium makes a good point. If your kid is a voracious reader though then definitely get the Kindle or the B&N Nook.</p>
<p>as someone with both, I’ll say that the livescribe pens are useless and the kindle is fantastic. Seriously that pen was like the most disappointing things I’ve ever bought… the recording feature is worthless unless the professor is literally standing in front of you, and it’s a lot easier to just scan your notes than be forced to use their specific pen and pads of paper all the time if you want them on your computer.</p>
<p>What is he interested in?
Personally, I couldn’t see myself using either. A laptop, assuming he doesn’t already have one, would be more useful - imo.</p>
<p>His school library will likely have a fantastic free reading selection, so I don’t really see the need to go out buying free reading books when he’s already going to be cramped for space in the dorm room as it is.</p>