The Magic Io Personal Digital Pen

　　1　Check out the io Personal Digital Pen launched by Logitech：It’s a magic pen that can store everything you write and transfer it to your computer. And you don’t have to lug a hand-held device along with you for it to work.1

　　2　Logitech’s technology works like this：The pen writes normally, using normal ballpoint pen ink2. But while you are writing, a tiny camera inside the pen is also taking 100 snapshots per second of what you are doing3, mapping your writing via a patchwork of minute dots printed on the paper. All this information—the movement of your pen on the paper, basically — is then stored digitally inside the pen, whether you are writing notes or drawing complex diagrams. You can store up to 40 pages worth of doodles in the pen’s memory. As far as you are concerned4, you are just using a normal pen.

　　3　It is only when you drop the pen into its PC-connected cradle that the fun begins. Special software on your PC will figure out what you have done, and begin to download any documents you have written since the last time it was there. Depending on whether you have ticked certain boxes on the special notepad, it can also tell whether the document is destined to be an e-mail, a “to do” task, or a diagram to be inserted into a word-processing document. Once the documents are downloaded you can view them, print them out or convert them to other formats.

　　4　The io Personal Digital Pen is a neat and simple solution to the problem of storing, sharing and retrieving handwritten notes, as well as for handling diagrams, pictures and other non-text doodling. You don’t have to carry a laptop along with you. All you have to do is just whip out the pen and the special paper and you are off5.

　　5　It is a great product because it does not force you to work differently—walking around with a screen strapped to your arm, or carrying with you extra bits and pieces. The pen is light and works like a normal pen if you need it to, while the special notepads look and feel like notepads. The only strange looks will be from people who are curious why you are writing with a cigar.

　　6　The io Personal Digital Pen also has potential elsewhere. FedEx6, for example, is introducing a version of the pen so that customers can fill out forms by hand — instead of punching letters into cumbersome devices. Once that data is digital more or less anything can be done with it — transferring it wirelessly to a central computer, for example, or via a hand-phone. Doctors could transmit their prescriptions direct to pharmacies, reducing fraud; policemen could send their reports back to the station, reducing paperwork.

　　词汇：

　　lug 吃力地携带 snapshot快照 patchwork 拼凑的东西，杂絵

　　doodle 信手写就的资料 cradle 座，支架 download 下载

　　tick 打上小记号 notepad 记事本 destined 预定的

　　laptop 笔记本电脑，膝上电脑 whip 猛地拔出 strap 用带扣住

　　cumbersome 麻烦的

　　pharmacy 药房

　　注释：

　　1.And you don’t have to lug a hand-held device along with you for it to work：to work是动词不定式，用作目的状语，修饰lugb for it是work的逻辑主语。it指代io Personal Digital Pen。

　　2.ballpoint pen ink：圆珠笔墨水

　　3.a tiny camera inside the pen is also taking 100 snapshots per second of what you are doing：is also taking 100 snapshots和of what you are doing之间插入了per second。

　　4.As far as you are concerned：就你而言

　　5.…you are off：……你就能开始工作了

　　6.FedEx：联邦快递公司

　　练习：

　　1.Paragraph 2 _________.

　　2.Paragraph 3 _________.

　　3.Paragraph 5 _________.

　　4.Paragraph 6 _________.

　　A　A Friendly and Convenient Device

　　B　Ways to Download the Stored Information

　　C　Examples of Other Potential Applications of the Io Pen

　　D　Customers’ Passion for the Io Pen

　　E　FedEx the First User of the Io Pen

　　F　Working Principles of the Io Personal Digital Pen

　　5.There is no need to learn how to use the io Personal Digital Pen because _________.

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（实习编辑：高奕飞）