ADONIT JOT SCRIPT

$75

Take notes with stylus on tablet, smartphone

Note-taking skills are crucial for school — or business meeting. With the Jot Script stylus from Adonit, you can ditch the pen and paper and take notes with an Apple tablet or smartphone.

Once synchronized via Bluetooth, the Jot Script offers a smooth writing experience. With a 1.9-millimeter tip and a slim barrel, the stylus resembles a ballpoint pen in shape, weight and performance. Palm rejection technology, which works with newer Apple devices, allows you to rest your hand on the screen without producing stray marks.

The stylus does not come with a cable for charging, just an odd-looking USB charger in which the stylus sits upright to charge. (Adonit says the stylus will last up to 20 hours on a full charge.) The stylus works with any app, but Adonit offers its preferred choices on its website. Topping the list is Penultimate from Evernote; a six-month subscription to Evernote Premium is included with the Jot Script.

NEW YORK TIMES

PIPER NV

$279

Smart camera could be home security system

The Piper NV (the NV stands for night vision) can play a few roles in your home.

Icontrol sells the Piper NV, with a 180-degree view, for home security.

The camera itself is stationary, but when you're watching on your phone or tablet, you can pan, tilt or zoom in on the HD video and even save multiple viewing zones from the camera to be viewed at the same time.

You set up and interact with Piper from a free smartphone app. As with a traditional alarm system, you can set the camera for stay, away or vacation.

When any of the criteria is met, you'll get a notification — by e-mail, text or phone call.

Besides the notifications, if an event is triggered, you have the option to record a video clip and sound a built-in 105dB siren (that's very loud).

The Piper app also helps you monitor indoor and outdoor temperature, humidity, light and sound levels and see a graph showing when motion is detected.

Piper isn't perfect. The field of view is so wide, it's at the expense of video quality.

DALLAS MORNING NEWS