SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
From a recent issue of Wired:
Study after study shows we remember things better when we write them—our brain stores the letter-writing motion, which is much more memorable than just the mashing of a key that feels like every other key. We think in fragments, too, in shapes and colors and ideas that just don't come through on a keyboard. "Think about how many things that are built start as a drawing," Bathiche says. "Most things, right? Everything you're wearing probably started as a drawing."
You can't type out the folds of a dress, or the gentle curves of a skyscraper. Drawing with your stubby finger on a touchscreen isn't much better. Humans are tool-based creatures: Our fingers can do amazingly intricate things with a pen, a brush, or a scalpel, that we can't replicate with a mouse or the pads of our fingers. Our computers are giving back that kind of detailed control. In turn, the pen is opening up new ways of digital expression, new tools for communication, new ways to interact with our tech.
My wife's cousin's husband is a cartoonist for the New Yorker. He uses a high-end Wacom digitizer. Hasn't the problem of the high tech pen been solved?
Original Submission
(Score: 2) by Marand on Thursday July 09 2015, @10:57PM
Interesting that Microsoft chose the plastic nibs, then, because the higher-friction alternatives like the Galaxy Note uses are nicer. Though, from what the Q&A on that page said, the pen you linked works with the galaxy note and the surface pro. That means you might be able to use something like the nibs from here [wacom.com], either on that pen or maybe even the pen that came with the Surface, to change the feel of it a bit. Hell, you could probably get a Galaxy Note pen, or maybe swipe the nibs from one, too. (The pen itself is very small and might not be suitable for your tastes)
The stock Pro 1 pen has no battery, its a so-called Passive Pen which does have circuitry to alter the inductance patterns emitted by (and sensed by) the screen.
Yep, I love that about the wacom pens. I suppose eventually their patents will run out and others will start adopting it.
The Pro 3 switched to a powered N-Trig pen (quad-a battery) which I've used before and didn't like them. Batteries invariably go flat and can be hard to find. They are heavier also.
Sounds like the one I had. The battery didn't actually bother me -- the weight felt good to me and I kept a spare around -- but I hated the n-trig pen tip. I don't know if it's changed since mine (it was from around 2011), but it was this huge cone shape that felt completely unnatural. the UC-logic based ones Huion (and monoprice) uses are closer to what wacom has, though the tips are still plastic and slippery. The lack of friction doesn't really bother me, though, so I like the fine. The pens are really light, too, using a rechargeable non-replaceable battery (that lasts for-freaking-ever on a charge) instead of the oddball AAAA ones n-trig uses.