Pen Developed For Capacitive Touch Screens

[Vincent Ferrari]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.gottabemobile.com/2008/12/17/inplay-technologies-announces-new-writesense-digital-pen-technology/' target='_blank'>http://www.gottabemobile.com/2008/1...pen-technology/</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"InPlay Technologies has announced their new WriteSense digital pen technology which eliminates the need for a separate electromagnetic digitizer. InPlay's RF pen communicates directly with the capacitive touch sensors rather than requiring a digitizer. The immediate benefits result in much smaller form factor slate and convertible tablet pcs, as well as reduce costs for bringing tablet pcs to market. As more OEMs begin to integrate capacitive touch sensors in to their screens (think Windows 7), InPlay's solution could bust the gate wide open for Tablet PC technologies. Look for the WriteSense pen technology to come to market in mid 2009."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1229605725.usr18053.jpg" /></p><p>My immediate thought when I read this was how cool it would be to have a pen option for the iPhone for note taking and drawing apps.&nbsp; I'm perfectly happy not needing a stylus anymore, but there are occasions where it would be useful.&nbsp; This may work out to be a pretty cool idea.</p>

[karinatwork]

Nope. After years and years of using a stylus and frustrations, trials and errors with handwriting recognition I am very glad that the iPhone does not need a stylus. Yes, sometimes the links on a web page are quite small, but then I zoom in and I can click, no biggie. The softkeys on the iPhone are great, and it only took me a week to get used to them. Love the fact I can switch between languages. And the automatic correction works quite well. So, no stylus for me, definitively. :)

[WyattEarp]

Since we still need to sign documents I think this would come in handy. Other than that I prefer the none stylus action.

[Pony99CA]

I wrote a little editorial on why Windows Mobile should keep its stylus (http://thoughts.svpocketpc.com#THOUGHT_STYLUS_VS_FINGERS) (in the touchscreen version, obviously). Some of the reasons may be intersting for iPhone users (or at least explain why the iPhone doesn't have some features).

Steve