Category: Daily Living
Hi! I am surprised no one's brought this up at all, but aside from the name being rather stupid, does anyone else use this piece of technology? I believe it came from the RNIB, but Independent Living Aids, and a bunch of other places are carrying it... what is everyone's experience with it?
I've had mine for about a year, and I LOVE it. I use the labels on everything from cans and jars to spices to tea tins/bags to my beading organizer so I know my colours and stones.
So, how 'bout it! Anyone use this?
Um, forgive my ignorance, but what is it? Never even heard of it.
The penfriend is used for labelling things like music cds, tins of food or leaving messages. I think you can do that with it. I have had one for a few months. I use it for my cds.
Yeah... you record labels or messages on the labels, and you can touch the tip of the Penfriend to the label to play it back for you. YOu can record over them, too.
i've had a bar code reader for a while now. i use it to label my beads. but i have so many different beads, that i have maxed it out. lmao. can't add any more labels to it. so i bought the pen friend. I like it. it's easy to use and very touchy. i mean you just touch it and it plays your memo or whatever. you don't have to try to swipe it like you do a bar code reader. and it's small, so very handy for labelling my small bead bags.
so now i have so many beads, that i use both. lol
it can also be an mp3 player, though i'll never use it for that, it can.
AND YES IT CAME FROM RNIB, I Dan and I have a friend that works for them, in Ireland, so we had him send it to us. it was a lot cheaper that way.
Hmmm, I prefer to label things in Braille when I can, but this sounds like an interesting idea. Kind of like a not so expensive version of the ID Mate.
Wow, I'm glad I came across this topic. I have a couple questions.
I understand that you can record over the message, but is the label stuck wherever you put it? I'm guessing you can't remove the label and put it somewhere else.
Also, when I first read about this product, I noticed the labels had letters. Like pack a and b needed to be used first. What did all that mean?
Definitely an interesting product.
Shea, I just got an ID mate summit.
And Kate, yes, i also have a pen friend; it is a great piece of technology. :)
Hi, Polka!
Generaly speaking, yes, the labels are stuck where you put them, which is why you probably should be sure where you put them, though I guess that goes for everything.
The labels all have numbers on them so that the Penfriend can recognize them. So for example, Pack A has 380 labels, numbered sequentially. Then you buy Pack B, which has 380 labels, but the numbers start at 381 and go to 760, and so on and so forth. You don't have to use all the labels in Pack A first, but you need to start with that. Not sure why; I haven't even finished pack A, but I have packs B-E in my Penfriend box :)
Does that make sense?
Kate
Yep, it makes sense. *smile*
So here is a DIY though. I wonder if it would be possible to stick a magnetic sticker on the back of a label. So, the back side of the label would turn in to a repositionable magnet label. If that makes sense.
My only concern is, would the magnet possibly screw with the technology?
This could be a cool avenue for RNIB to look at in the future. *smile*
RNIB is the one that has the Penfriend.
I put the sticky part of the label on magnets so it can stick to canned goods. Never had a problem.
what I've done recently is put the lables on the front of the shelves in front of whatever I'm labeling and then try to put the stuff in the same spot or if we get something new just re-record the label. :)