Help without a sound.
For the library, a shared desk or a late night. Buddy keeps up with your screen, stays silent, and leaves a quiet card when it can help.
- No microphone, no voice
- Read-only cards, never edits
- Stop any time; never starts on its own
Week 3: How enzymes work
Enzymes are proteins that speed up chemical reactions in cells. They are not used up by the reaction, so a small amount of enzyme can process a great deal of substrate.
Each enzyme has an active site, a pocket whose shape and chemistry fit its substrate. When the substrate binds, the enzyme lowers the activation energy the reaction needs.
Temperature and pH change the shape of the active site. Too far from the enzyme’s optimum and it denatures: the shape is lost, and so is the activity.
Library mode on: Buddy reads along with the page you share and leaves a short card with the idea that matters.
Quiet, and still there.
Library mode is for when you can’t talk, or don’t want to. Nothing listens, nothing speaks, and nothing changes in your notes.
Quiet cards, when they help.
Buddy reads along as you work and leaves a short card when it has something useful. Glance at it when you’re ready.
Any subject on your screen.
A biology chapter, a history reading, a law case or your code: Buddy follows the page you share, without a word.
Ready to talk? Just start.
Start a conversation and Library mode ends. Buddy picks up from the page you’re on.
Week 5: Why 1914 became a world war
Historians often group the long-term causes of the First World War as militarism, alliances, imperialism and nationalism.
In June 1914 the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo set off a crisis between Austria-Hungary and Serbia.
Within weeks, the alliance system drew in Russia, Germany, France and Britain, and a regional crisis became a continental war.
Your notebook, your device.
Your notes live on your Mac or iPad. Pen Buddy sends AI services only what it needs to think, and only when it needs it.
Stays on your device
- Your notes, handwriting and PDFs
- Study sessions and review cards
- Reading your handwriting and the text on your screen
Sent when Buddy needs it
- Your speech, to turn it into text (Amazon Transcribe)
- The conversation and what Buddy needs to read (Google Gemini, Amazon Bedrock as backup)
- A screen image or page text, only when there’s something new to read
Automatic screen reads are never recorded or saved. While Buddy can see your screen, a “Screen shared” badge is always showing, with a stop button.
Questions, answered.
A silent way to study with Buddy, for the library, a shared desk or a late night. Buddy doesn’t listen or speak. It follows the screen you share and leaves a short, read-only card when it has something useful.
No. Library mode never turns on the microphone or the voice. Everything Buddy has to say comes as a quiet card you can glance at when you’re ready.
On the Mac, only the screen you choose to share, with a “Screen shared” badge and a Stop button showing before Buddy looks. On iPad, the study browser inside Pen Buddy and the Pencil and PDF pages you have open. Automatic reads are never recorded or saved.
They suggest: the key idea on the page, a step worth checking, a hint when you look stuck. They’re read-only, so Library mode never changes your notes or writes on your page.
Tap Library mode next to Talk to Buddy. On the Mac it’s also in the Buddy menu and in Settings › Screen. It’s off until you turn it on.
Yes. Start a conversation, or type a question, and Library mode ends so you can talk to Buddy as usual.
Whenever you press Stop. It also stops when your Mac sleeps, when you close the app or when Pen Buddy on iPad goes into the background, and it never starts again on its own.
Anything you study on screen: a biology chapter, a history reading, a law case, economics, a maths problem or your code.
Pen Buddy
Everything you need to study, and someone to study with.