Artists and designers have long embraced pen-based devices, such as those made by Wacom, which use tablets to translate your drawings into high-quality digital artwork. Wacom’s tools have brought professional quality to normal Joes, but some customers want something else out of a digi-pen — or at least, that’s what electronics companies hope. They’ve experimented with items like the Chatpen, which claimed to send SMS or email directly from what you wrote manually. They’ve built phones into them for wannabe Dick Tracys. Currently, there are two standouts among pen gizmos that don’t require computers to do their thing. The $50 FLY Fusion, which emphasizes built-in homework help, says it can record what you’re writing and do everything from spell-checking to translating to French or Spanish. The Pulse Smartpen ($150 to $200) has higher- and post-educational users in mind, offering to make MP3 recordings of a lecture or interview that are automatically linked to your ink-on-paper notes. Both require special paper to work their wonders, meaning that you’re not able, as one might assume, to simply slip all that helpful computer power into your shirt pocket and go.