Livescribe Pulse Smartpen

Livescribe's Pulse Smartpen gives you the ability to record sound and synchronize the audio with your written notes, giving context to your handwriting. Wondering why you wrote something down (or even what you wrote)? Click on a piece of text and the audio will jump back to the exact moment in the recording when you wrote that word.

To take advantage of the text and audio features, you must use the Smartpen with Livescribe's dot paper; the tiny dots on the paper are used by the pen as points of reference for the audio. The dot paper notepad that comes with the pen has pre-printed controls on the bottom of each page that resemble something you'd see in GarageBand. These controls allow users to fast-forward, rewind, jump, pause, speed up, or slow down the audio. Livescribe sells various notebooks and journals with the dot paper, but you can also print your own pages for free on a color printer.

[1GB model, $149; 2GB model, $199; final Livescribe Desktop Mac software available on February 17.]

Marketcircle Daylight touch

We've seen a lot of iPhone apps in our time, but we haven't seen many as deep as Marketcirlce's forthcoming Daylite touch. A companion app for Marketcircle's Daylite desktop program, Daylite touch essentially lets you do all of the things you'd expect to do—book meetings, delegate tasks, track appointments, manage a calendar, and keep tabs on all your projects. The iPhone app syncs data with the desktop version of Daylite, but you can use it even when you're not connected to a network—perfect for road warriors. Marketcircle is still working out some last minute kinks with Daylite touch, so you'll have wait a bit longer to get your hands on it.

[Available in Q1 2009; pricing not announced.]

Sling Media SlingPlayer for iPhone

You may have heard of the Slingbox, a device that lets you watch your TV or DVR content on your Mac over the Internet. Well Sling Media has given Mac users a lot more to be happy about this week with a trio of announcements.

First is the SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone, an iPhone app that lets Slingbox owners control their home DVRs and watch streaming content from their TVs. That means no more missing the big game when you're out of town, or having to worry about what video content you've loaded on your iPhone or iPod touch.

Second, Sling is adding the ability for Mac users to enjoy high definition streaming from the Slingbox Pro-HD—a capability previously limited to Windows users. Connect your DVR, satellite or cable box, or even your AppleTV and enjoy HD content on the go.

Lastly, Sling has made its sling.com Web-based player available to Mac users as well. Just fire up a Web browser, connect to your Slingbox hardware at home, and you can stream your favorite shows without installing any additional software.

[SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone available in Q1, pricing not announced.]