Paper Tablet doesn’t exactly render Wacom’s nifty graphic tablets obsolete–for one thing, it’s not pressure-sensitive, so it’s not well-suited to serious art. But it sounds handy if you need to sign or annotate a digital document occasionally or want to try doodling in a paint program. (It’s not, however, compatible with all features of Adobe’s Photoshop and Illustrator.) Unlike a Wacom, it lets you write or draw with real ink on real paper.

The app is $14.99 and works only with the Echo (the USB jack on the older Pulse model is on the barrel, where it would interfere with your hand).

I have to admitting that while Pulse is by far the most practical smart pen to date and I’m rooting for it to find an audience, I’m still not sure if the whole category is worth pursuing. In theory, it’s easier to put a pen in your pocket than to tote a notebook, but the need for special paper eliminates some of the grab-and-go convenience that Pulse might otherwise have. And some of its tricks seem more amazing than practical: You can do things such as write a math problem and have it read the answer, or jot a word in English and have it read a translated version. Neat–but cell phones can achieve similar results, without requiring you to wrangle the pen and paper. Ultimately, I kind of wonder if Pulse should be marketed as a voice recorder that happens to have additional features, rather than a pen that happens to record voices.

There are, however, people who just love the idea behind Pulse. I ran into one of them in a hotel lobby last week, when I was plunked myself down on a sofa and put the boxed Pulse which LiveScribe had loaned me for review down on a table. The guy on the other end of the sofa saw it and began to wax enthusiastic about Pulse–except for the fact that it didn’t work with Macs.

I couldn’t tell him that LiveScribe had just given me a heads up about news that broke today: Pulse does work with Macs. Or will soon enough–the company has announced that it’s releasing a beta version of Mac software for the pen next week, with a final version due in the first quarter of next year. Given that the laptop I most often use is a Mac, I’m happy to hear the news, and planning to try Pulse for my real-world work–and I hope that my hotel buddy has caught wind of it, too.

LiveScribe has also announced that the Windows version of Pulse is getting one obvious feature it’s lacked until now: The ability to convert your handwritten notes into editable text on a PC. This feature is actually coming in the form of a $30 third-party application called MyScript for LiveScribe; the news would be neater still if it were simply built into the Pulse software. (I suspect that no product relating to digital ink will ever be a true breakout hit until it does handwriting recognition out of the box and does it well.)

The company is also touting the fact that you can now print out the Pulse’s special paper at home: It requires a Post-Script compatible color laser printer and only “most” models are compatible, and it’s apparently a rather slow process. LiveScribe describes this as printing Pulse paper “for free,” but last time I checked, toner and paper cost money.

More on Pulse once I’ve spent some time with one and the Mac software…

With this little device, that is going to be hard to do. Simply put it is a computer within a pen, which simultaneously captures the handwriting of the user while recording audio. Thus, a user just needs to tap on the portion of the writing where they would like to review the accompanying audio, and the pen knows where it is.

The pen is controlled through special paper that has nearly-invisible dots printed across the entire surface. Across the bottom are printed controls, which the user taps to move through the menu system, and to record, play, rewind, fast forward, or speed up and slow down audio. While it sounds proprietary (it is), LiveScribe is opening up the paper design to third-party manufacturers and home users so they can print their own paper.

Me talking about it here does not do it much justice, so check out this video provided by the company. I’m warning you now it is really corny, but it gives you the general idea.

Once the note-taking process is complete, a user can simply dock the pen and the handwritten notes are uploaded into the LiveScribe application, which then can be searchable by keyword, or like the paper, search through audio based on the location clicked within the notes.

What’s even neater is the application environment. The company’s PR people showed me a language application where a word is written out, and then translated (with the text appearing on the device’s screen and spoken from the included speaker). A variety of applications are due soon, including an interactive digital organizer, games, a Bible, and even applications that would help the visual impaired to read.

Two capacities are available, a 1GB for $149, and a 2GB at $199. While it seems like a lot to pay for a pen, I think its well worth it. Look at the price of a good digital voice recorder: this one from Sony at Best Buy is $105. Good pens do not come cheap either, so the price seems rather competitive when you look at the features in total.

This may be just the journalist in me, but I could have used this last night. Sometimes its difficult to keep up with fast-talking PR folks, especially at events like this. They are trying to talk to as many in the press as possible–so having backup is a good thing. I think I found my Christmas gift this year.