Editing The Pen Addict 251/transcript (section)

== Bluetooth Technology ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' So they have not sponsored our show. I did. I'd never heard of them, but they're a standalone company that works with other companies to integrate their Bluetooth tracking technology into products.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, they also, they make their own as well. So sure, sure, sure. They make their own little dealios, their own little things. I have them in my bags, right? So I can track my bags.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Would it be unfair to say if you're familiar with tile, it has that type of technology? It's exactly the same thing. Okay. So what tracker has done in this case, why it's relative to the show is they've partnered up with cross, the pen manufacturer. And I didn't hear much about this until the past couple of weeks, although I think it's might've been around. I don't know. Maybe it just started getting pressed this month, but I think the pen has been around a little bit. It's called the cross peerless tracker. And it's just what you think it is. It's a Bluetooth integration into a pen. That way, if you lose your pen, you have the app on your phone, you can then find your pen again. What are your thoughts on this?

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I'll straight up say that like all cross pens, I do not think this is a good looking pen. And neither would I want it, like Bluetooth tracking or not. But what this is, this is cross completely understanding their customer base, which they are very good at doing. This is such a great executive gift. Yeah. Because it's like, I bought you this really nice pen and you won't lose it. Right. It's like it is addressing a problem that many people think they're going to have of expensive pens that you won't lose it. Right. And I think that's, I think it's very interesting. I think it's an interesting product. I think it's a clever, very clever collaboration. I think that this will, I think this will sell pretty well for them, honestly.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. I'm pretty much on the same page. The problem I have is they blew out an already large pen design to make it larger. Yes. Big. It's real big. To fit the tech in.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I bet it's weighted so badly. Oh my God.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think they might have crossed. Yeah. They might have crossed a balance threshold here. That's not going to work. So like the cross Townsend, I think it's kind of the design. I mean, this is a basic cross design. And when it was already a large pen, like it was pushing the maximum size that I think a lot of people would be comfortable writing with a pen with. And this blew it out in every direction, like diameter, length, everything. I'd like to see this pen. I don't know if there's images of it next to a regular Townsend and see what this is. Like this is something I would never use. This is something they will sell the heck out of, just like you said. It actually, I mean, it looks good. I just think it's too big. The integration of the Bluetooth, it's kind of like the roll stopper, which is, it's kind of cool how they integrated it. It's just super large, right? It's just a big, fat, chunky pen. If I have a pen that size, I'm already not going to lose it. And I don't lose pens anyway, but I think they will sell the heck out of this. So we're looking at like $250 US for this pen. I mean, it's right in that category. Like someone's going to walk into a store in New York and say, yeah, we need five of these for the board. And this is what we're doing there. I mean, it'll sell. It'll do well. I would be shocked if I ever saw one in person. But someone will take me to that task. I really like that it has a replaceable battery.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because the actual tracking units themselves that they sell, they're not replaceable batteries. Because they're just this little cheap thing that you're supposed to keep for a year or two. And then you replace it, right? Like that's just kind of, it is in essence its own battery, right? Like it's like the cost of the battery or whatever. But this just takes, I think, those little watch batteries and you get a year battery life from them. But you can just replace them.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. And I think that's good. But that goes into the size of the pen too, right? I mean, yeah. That technology, that's all added into that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, see, I'm sure they probably could have made it smaller if the battery was integrated. But I think they made the right trade off. Because it's a $250 pen. Right. You don't want to be asking people to replace it because the battery died. True.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I think you have to do it that way. Totally. Totally. So, I'd be interested in seeing one in person and see what it feels like. But I don't think this is something I would ever own. Yep. But I do agree with you that I think they will sell. I think this will do well for Cross.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I do.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' What I think is even better, Myke, did you know this before I said this? Because I feel like I missed out on this when I was talking about the Mondo Verde One Touch pen that I like so much that Ron at Pen Chalet had a big sale on. Yep. I remember us talking about it. I didn't buy because I already had one. I don't need another one. And then my good friend Mary Collis comes out with this review at her wonderful blog from the Pen Cop. OMG, I didn't know this was a thing was basically my response. Same here.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I saw it in refill and I was like, what?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I was like, how did I miss this? How did I not know this was a thing? So, essentially, when we were talking about the Mondo Verde One Touch, we were commenting on how there's five or so versions of the pen. You know, ballpoint, rollerball, fountain pen, pencil, whatever one I'm missing. Maybe there's only four. But the rollerball, I just assume, was your regular old Mondo Verde rollerball. Turns out it is short international ink cartridge compatible. So, it ships with ink cartridge refills just like from your fountain pen, short international cartridges. So, Mary, as a good pen addict would do, she filled up one of her empty short international ink cartridges with Robert Oster fire and ice. And the output looks wonderful. This is always a sketchy thing when companies do fountain pen fillable rollerballs.

'''Myke Hurley:''' They call it the ink ball.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The ink ball. So, hopefully it was designed to flow a little bit better because that's your issue with companies that have done this in the past. Like, Jay Harbin and Kaweco. The ink just doesn't flow very well. It's a very dry, not lubricated ink ball. So, I wonder if this was manufactured to allow the ink to flow a little bit better because you can't really control the ink. Like, if you're going this route, I mean, you can always say, well, it works well with Monteverde's ink cartridges. But, you know us, we're not going to stick with that. We're going to play with it because that's why we want it because we can do weird things with it just like Mary did. It's just, it's awesome. It's ridiculously cool. I love this pen and I have to get one. I haven't bought it yet. Yeah, I want one. I want one. But I'm totally getting one. They'll be at the, I know they'll be there at the Atlanta Pen Show because their distributor usually comes. So, someone will have them there and I'm getting it. It's probably like 40 bucks or something. I missed the last sale.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And it has a ruler, a spirit level, a stylus and two screwdriver heads built into it. It's like, what is this like monster, this like beautiful Frankenstein? It is a pen that has two screwdrivers in it, a ruler, a spirit level and you can put fountain pen ink into it. What is this thing? It's incredible.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' My spirit level is high.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I need to get one of these.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I need to get one of these. So, yeah, this is going to be a thing. So, I actually, I started to go put one in my cart and then I couldn't decide on the color. And I was like, well, I'll just get one at the Atlanta Pen Show and I can look at them all. Because it comes in about six colors. And I'm all about this. I am super jacked about this pen. I love it. I love it, love it, love it. So, thank you, Mary, for opening my eyes and learning me something. It was really cool. The next new product, like we talked about on the last episode and I kind of was going to get all these together. But it's just too much, which I'll let you talk about. But Baron Fig has introduced multiple new products in the past four weeks, maybe three weeks. So, I did the Snakes and Ladder Archer Pencil last week and it's just average. Like, it's good looking. I like how other pencils write better. Before that, they introduced the Confidant Plus and Pocket Sizes to the Confidant, which is their main primary brand, I guess you could say, is the Confidant. That's what the company was built on. And then on top of that, they went and dropped a pen sheath on us, Myke. So, in the last few weeks, we've had lots of figs falling from the tree from the Lord's Baron. So, what are you thinking about all these new products? Anything you're interested in? Are you over it? Or what do you got going on?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm not... I mean, you know, the Confidant, I don't own any of them and it's not a notebook that I'm looking for. You know, like I'm just not looking to buy notebooks like that. But I do think that especially the addition of the big one, if I was a Baron Confidant fan, like if it was my notebook of choice, I would be super into the big one. Yeah. Right? I think that is... I think that this is a really sensible thing for them to do because clearly... I mean, clearly the Confidant sells best because they already sell a small notebook, right? I mean, so it shows you the fact that they now have a small Confidant shows you, I think, how their products sell. Yeah. And I think that this is a very smart move for them to make a change to their product line without adding a brand new product. I'm really pleased that this is just an extension of the Confidant rather than like another new thing, right? Like a brand new thing that they sell. Like, oh, now we have this third notebook, which is a big notebook. So, I like that. The pen sheath, I mean, fine. It's like an accessory. It actually looks pretty nice, but I don't know why I would want it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It looks really nice, like for what it is. Like, it looks like a really... I like the colors that they've chosen and stuff like that. But like, I just... I don't really have a personal need for it, like for a little leather case to put one pen in.