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 / lʌg / v．吃力地携带

snapshot / ’snæpʃɒt/ n．快照

patchwork / ’pætʃwɜ:k / n．拼凑的东西，杂絵

doodle / ’du: dl / n．信手写就的资料

cradle / ’kreɪdl / n．座，支架

download v．下载

tick / tɪk/ v．打上小记号

notepad n．记事本

destined / ’destɪnd/ adj．预定的

laptop / ’læptɒp / n．笔记本电脑，膝上电脑

whip / wɪp / v．猛地拔出

strap / stræp / v．用带扣住

cumbersome / ’kʌmbəsəm/ adj．麻烦的

pharmacy / ’fɑ:məsɪ / n．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

A　you don’t have to carry your laptop along

B　the information will be shown digitally on the pen

C　FedEx has special software to store your information

D　it works like an ordinary pen

E　you simply place the pen into its computer-connected cradle

F　the movement of your pen is recorded digitally inside the pen

If you want to download what you have done with the magic pen, _______.

A:A B:B C:C D:D E:E F:F

People don’t want to buy information online. Why Because they don’t have to. No more than that because they’re used to not paying for it. That’s the conventional wisdom. Slate, Microsoft’s online politics-and-culture magazine, is an oft-cited example of the failed attempts to charge a fee for access to content. So far, for most publishers, it hasn’t worked.
But nothing on the Web is a done deal. In September graphics-soft-ware powerhouse Adobe announced new applications that integrate commerce into downloading books and articles online, with Simon & Schuster, Barnes and Noble, and Salon. corn among its high-profile partners. Some analysts put the market for digitized publishing at more than $100 billion. Of course, if the Internet can generate that kind of money—some might say almost any kind of money—people want in. And this couldn’t come at a better time. Newspaper and magazine writers in particular are increasingly frustrated by their publishers, which post their writings online but frequently don’t pay them extra.
So here’s the good news: Fathrain. com, the third biggest book-seller on the Net—after Amazon. com and Barnesandnoble. corn—is now doing just what the publishing industry that made it a success fears., it’s offering a secure way to pay for downloadable manuscripts online. Fatbrain calls it offshoot eMatter. With it, the company’s executives have the radical notion of ousting publishers from the book-selling business altogether by giving writers 50% of each and every sale (To reel in authors, eMatter is running a 100% royalty promotion until the end of the year. ) Suggested prices to consumers range from a minimum $ 2 to $ 20, depending on the size of the book to download.
"This will change publishing forever!" Chris MaeAskill, co-founder and chief executive of Fatbrain, declares with the bravado of an interior decorator. "With eBay, anybody could sell antiques. Now anybody can be published. "
There’s been no shortage of authors wanting in. Within a few weeks, according to the company, some 2,000 writers signed on to publish their works. Some of this is technical stuff—Fatbrain got where it is by specializing in technical books—but there are some well-known writers like Catherine Lanigan, author of Romancing the Stone, who has put her out-of-print books and a new novella on the site. Another popular draw is Richard Bach, who agreed to post a 23-page short story to the site.
Not everyone thinks downloadable documents are the biggest thing in publishing since Oprah’s Book Club. "I think it will appeal to sellers more than buyers," says Michael May, a digitalcommerce analyst at Jupiter Communications, which released a report that cast doubt on the market’s potential. "A lot of people are going to publish gibberish. The challenge is to ensure the quality of the work. "
Blaine Mathieu, an analyst at Gartner Group’s Dataquest, says, "Most people who want digital content want it immediately, I don’t know if this model would satisfy their immediate need. Even authors may not find that Web distribution of their works is going to bring them a pot of gold. For one thing, it could undermine sales rather than enhance them. For another, anybody could e-mail downloaded copies of manuscripts around town or around the world over the Net without the writer’s ever seeing a proverbial dime. " Softlock. com, Authentica and Fatbrain are trying to head this problem off by developing encryption padlocks that would allow only one hard drive to receive and print the manuscripts. For now, the problem persists.
According to the passage, the author implies that people don’t have to buy information on Net because______.

A:it’s always free to download information from websites B:most writers offer free copies on Net C:publishing companies offer free copies on Net D:anybody can e-mail downloaded copies

Bram Cohen was an unusual kid. While other first-graders were outside playing, he was writing computer code. By junior high, he could solve Rubik’s Cube in a few minutes. A college dropout, he went on to co-found a hacker’s convention in San Francisco. " I was always really weird, " he says. Yet it was only two years ago, at age27, that he learned why. Cohen says he has trouble examining his thoughts and making eye contact but has learned to control his symptoms using behavioral psychology. Now he has a new task: warding off accusations by the Hollywood film industry that a breakthrough piece of software he wrote is threatening the movie business the way Napster menaced—and subsequently revolutionized—the music world.
Cohen is the author of a free program called BitTorrent, which has been downloaded more than 20 million times and underpins a new generation of file-sharing technology. BitTorrent addresses a couple of the biggest problems of file sharing—that downloading bogs down when lots of folks access a file at once, and that some people leech, downloading content but refusing to share with others on the network. BitTorrent eliminates the bottleneck by having everyone share little pieces of a file at the same time—a process techies call swarming. And the program prevents leeching since folks must upload a file while they download it. All this means that the more popular the content, the more efficiently it zips through the network—bad news if you’re a movie studio trying to hinder the trading of films like The In credibles. Says Andrew Parker of the Web-tracking firm CacheLogic, " It has turned the download world on its head. "
Hollywood has good reason to be worried. BitTorrent downloads account for one-third of Internet traffic, according to CacheLogic. So-called tracker sites post links to movies, video games and episodes of TV shows, the content of which is then traded at express speeds. With more folks logging onto the Internet via broadband connections, online trading of movies and TV shows is surging. Downloads of feature films alone are up 175% in the past year, says BigChampagne. In response, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) recently filed dozens of civil suits against tracker sites in the U. S. and Britain, as well as criminal complaints against sites in France. The industry is hoping that in a case scheduled for next month, the U. S. Supreme Court will rule against firms that produce file-sharing software, such as Morpheus and Grokster. Neither Cohen nor BitTorrent is named in the lawsuit, although an MPAA spokesman says Cohen is under examination for continuing to develop the software " and making it easy to steal copyright material. /
We can infer from the passage that______.

A:The Incredibles enjoys great popularity B:BitTorrent allows people to share files C:Napster lays a foundation for file-sharing D:CacheLogic is a trader in Web download

People don’t want to buy information online. Why Because they don’t have to. No more than that because they’re used to not paying for it. That’s the conventional wisdom. Slate, Microsoft’s online politics-and-culture magazine, is an oft-cited example of the failed attempts to charge a fee for access to content. So far, for most publishers, it hasn’t worked.
But nothing on the Web is a done deal. In September graphics-soft-ware powerhouse Adobe announced new applications that integrate commerce into downloading books and articles online, with Simon & Schuster, Barnes and Noble, and Salon. corn among its high-profile partners. Some analysts put the market for digitized publishing at more than $100 billion. Of course, if the Internet can generate that kind of money—some might say almost any kind of money—people want in. And this couldn’t come at a better time. Newspaper and magazine writers in particular are increasingly frustrated by their publishers, which post their writings online but frequently don’t pay them extra.
So here’s the good news: Fathrain. com, the third biggest book-seller on the Net—after Amazon. com and Barnesandnoble. corn—is now doing just what the publishing industry that made it a success fears., it’s offering a secure way to pay for downloadable manuscripts online. Fatbrain calls it offshoot eMatter. With it, the company’s executives have the radical notion of ousting publishers from the book-selling business altogether by giving writers 50% of each and every sale (To reel in authors, eMatter is running a 100% royalty promotion until the end of the year. ) Suggested prices to consumers range from a minimum $ 2 to $ 20, depending on the size of the book to download.
"This will change publishing forever!" Chris MaeAskill, co-founder and chief executive of Fatbrain, declares with the bravado of an interior decorator. "With eBay, anybody could sell antiques. Now anybody can be published. "
There’s been no shortage of authors wanting in. Within a few weeks, according to the company, some 2,000 writers signed on to publish their works. Some of this is technical stuff—Fatbrain got where it is by specializing in technical books—but there are some well-known writers like Catherine Lanigan, author of Romancing the Stone, who has put her out-of-print books and a new novella on the site. Another popular draw is Richard Bach, who agreed to post a 23-page short story to the site.
Not everyone thinks downloadable documents are the biggest thing in publishing since Oprah’s Book Club. "I think it will appeal to sellers more than buyers," says Michael May, a digitalcommerce analyst at Jupiter Communications, which released a report that cast doubt on the market’s potential. "A lot of people are going to publish gibberish. The challenge is to ensure the quality of the work. "
Blaine Mathieu, an analyst at Gartner Group’s Dataquest, says, "Most people who want digital content want it immediately, I don’t know if this model would satisfy their immediate need. Even authors may not find that Web distribution of their works is going to bring them a pot of gold. For one thing, it could undermine sales rather than enhance them. For another, anybody could e-mail downloaded copies of manuscripts around town or around the world over the Net without the writer’s ever seeing a proverbial dime. " Softlock. com, Authentica and Fatbrain are trying to head this problem off by developing encryption padlocks that would allow only one hard drive to receive and print the manuscripts. For now, the problem persists.

According to the passage, the author implies that people don’t have to buy information on Net because（）

A:it’s always free to download information from websites B:most writers offer free copies on Net C:publishing companies offer free copies on Net D:anybody can e-mail downloaded copies

People don’t want to buy information online. Why Because they don’t have to. No more than that because they’re used to not paying for it. That’s the conventional wisdom. Slate, Microsoft’s online politics-and-culture magazine, is an oft-cited example of the failed attempts to charge a fee for access to content. So far, for most publishers, it hasn’t worked.
But nothing on the Web is a done deal. In September graphics-soft-ware powerhouse Adobe announced new applications that integrate commerce into downloading books and articles online, with Simon & Schuster, Barnes and Noble, and Salon. corn among its high-profile partners. Some analysts put the market for digitized publishing at more than $100 billion. Of course, if the Internet can generate that kind of money—some might say almost any kind of money—people want in. And this couldn’t come at a better time. Newspaper and magazine writers in particular are increasingly frustrated by their publishers, which post their writings online but frequently don’t pay them extra.
So here’s the good news: Fathrain. com, the third biggest book-seller on the Net—after Amazon. com and Barnesandnoble. corn—is now doing just what the publishing industry that made it a success fears., it’s offering a secure way to pay for downloadable manuscripts online. Fatbrain calls it offshoot eMatter. With it, the company’s executives have the radical notion of ousting publishers from the book-selling business altogether by giving writers 50% of each and every sale (To reel in authors, eMatter is running a 100% royalty promotion until the end of the year. ) Suggested prices to consumers range from a minimum $ 2 to $ 20, depending on the size of the book to download.
"This will change publishing forever!" Chris MaeAskill, co-founder and chief executive of Fatbrain, declares with the bravado of an interior decorator. "With eBay, anybody could sell antiques. Now anybody can be published. "
There’s been no shortage of authors wanting in. Within a few weeks, according to the company, some 2,000 writers signed on to publish their works. Some of this is technical stuff—Fatbrain got where it is by specializing in technical books—but there are some well-known writers like Catherine Lanigan, author of Romancing the Stone, who has put her out-of-print books and a new novella on the site. Another popular draw is Richard Bach, who agreed to post a 23-page short story to the site.
Not everyone thinks downloadable documents are the biggest thing in publishing since Oprah’s Book Club. "I think it will appeal to sellers more than buyers," says Michael May, a digitalcommerce analyst at Jupiter Communications, which released a report that cast doubt on the market’s potential. "A lot of people are going to publish gibberish. The challenge is to ensure the quality of the work. "
Blaine Mathieu, an analyst at Gartner Group’s Dataquest, says, "Most people who want digital content want it immediately, I don’t know if this model would satisfy their immediate need. Even authors may not find that Web distribution of their works is going to bring them a pot of gold. For one thing, it could undermine sales rather than enhance them. For another, anybody could e-mail downloaded copies of manuscripts around town or around the world over the Net without the writer’s ever seeing a proverbial dime. " Softlock. com, Authentica and Fatbrain are trying to head this problem off by developing encryption padlocks that would allow only one hard drive to receive and print the manuscripts. For now, the problem persists.

According to the passage, the author implies that people don’t have to buy information on Net because（）

A:it’s always free to download information from websites B:most writers offer free copies on Net C:publishing companies offer free copies on Net D:anybody can e-mail downloaded copies

Internet shopping is a new way of shopping. Nowadays, you can shop for just about anything from your armchair. All you need is a computer which is linked to the Internet. Shopping on the Internet is becoming increasingly popular. In the United States, people spent over US $ 2.5 billion on Internet shopping in 1998. This figure is expected to reach US $ 11 billion by the year 2004.
People can shop for a variety of products on the Internet. Physical products include items such as books, CDs, clothes and food. These types of products are the most common purchases through the Internet. You can also buy information products such as on-line news or magazine stories, or you can download computer software through the Internet. Services such as booking airline tickets, reserving hotels or renting ears are also available on the Internet. You can also go shopping on the Internet for entertainment services and take part in on-line games.
Internet shopping offers a number of benefits for the shopper. The must important advantage is convenience. You can shop whenever you like as the on-line shops are open 24 hours a day and you don’t have to queue with other shoppers at the cheek-out counters. Secondly, it is easy to find what you are looking fur on the Internet. Even out-of-print books may be ordered on line. Finally, it is often cheaper to buy goods through the Internet, and you can tell the shop exactly what you want.
The main disadvantage of Internet shopping is that you cannot actually see the products you are buying or cheek their quality. Also, many people enjoy shopping in the city and miss the opportunity to talk to friends. Some people are worried about paying for goods using credit cards, so Internet companies are now finding ways to make on-line payment safe.
Internet shopping is sure to become more and more popular in the years ahead. It promises to change the way we buy all kinds of things-from tonight’s dinner to a new ear.
On-line news and magazine stories are ______.

A:the most popular products on the Internet B:not yet available on the Internet C:free to download through the Internet D:information products available on the Internet

Internet shopping is a new way of shopping. Nowadays, you can shop for just about anything from your armchair. All you need is a computer which is linked to the Internet. Shopping on the Internet is becoming increasingly popular. In the United States, people spent over US $ 2.5 billion on Internet shopping in 1998. This figure is expected to reach US $ 11 billion by the year 2004.
People can shop for a variety of products on the Internet. Physical products include items such as books, CDs, clothes and food. These types of products are the most common purchases through the Internet. You can also buy information products such as on-line news or magazine stories, or you can download computer software through the Internet. Services such as booking airline tickets, reserving hotels or renting ears are also available on the Internet. You can also go shopping on the Internet for entertainment services and take part in on-line games.
Internet shopping offers a number of benefits for the shopper. The must important advantage is convenience. You can shop whenever you like as the on-line shops are open 24 hours a day and you don’t have to queue with other shoppers at the cheek-out counters. Secondly, it is easy to find what you are looking fur on the Internet. Even out-of-print books may be ordered on line. Finally, it is often cheaper to buy goods through the Internet, and you can tell the shop exactly what you want.
The main disadvantage of Internet shopping is that you cannot actually see the products you are buying or cheek their quality. Also, many people enjoy shopping in the city and miss the opportunity to talk to friends. Some people are worried about paying for goods using credit cards, so Internet companies are now finding ways to make on-line payment safe.
Internet shopping is sure to become more and more popular in the years ahead. It promises to change the way we buy all kinds of things-from tonight’s dinner to a new ear.
On-line news and magazine stories are ______.

A:the most popular products on the Internet B:not yet available on the Internet C:free to download through the Internet D:information products available on the Internet