Wacom Bamboo multitouch pen tablet spotted by Mr. Blurrycam
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted Sep 15th 2009 1:10PM
posted Sep 15th 2009 1:10PM
It's been awhile since we've seen a new tablet from Wacom. In the meantime, the company has given us a digital DJ interface, but not what we really crave -- a new Bamboo tablet with multi-touch support. So what do we have here? A brave tipster (who wishes to remain anonymous) has turned us onto some blurrycam photos suggesting that such a tablet is indeed coming out. Might the above pictured Bamboo Touch see the light of day with the impending release of Windows 7? Stranger things have happened! More photographic evidence is yours to behold after the break.
but does it play crysis? :P
Honestly?
Touch Da Big BamBoo
This is already on shelves at best buy. Saw it at the rockaway,nj location.
Price??????
bugor56 is right. I stopped by the Rockaway, NJ store this evening to check it out. There was a $69.99 tag under the product. Here's a shot from my own Mr. Blurrycam (also known as a first-gen iPhone).
http://imgur.com/KgVc9.jpg
If you do a search, you will come up with this:
(http://www.costcentral.com/searchresults.php?keywords=bamboo+touch&x=0&y=0)
Bamboo touch only tablet
CTT460
$57.91
Bamboo pen & touch small tablet w/ photoshop elements & nik filters
CTH460
$86.55
Bamboo craft pen & touch tablet w/valuable sw & scrapbook offer
CTH461
$114.84
Bamboo pen & touch med tablet w/ elements essentials nik filters
CTH661
$171.45
Intl bamboo pen & touch fun medium
CTH661M
$166.82
________________
I think this pretty much answers a bunch of questions.
I am a retoucher that uses an Intuos 2 at home and Intuos 3 at work. I've never EVER used their track-pad on the tablet because it's not very precise. It's fast to use a key stroke to zoom and rotate in my opinion.
i'm confused .. the box clearly shows this is a touch pad for a computer .. not a tablet ...
my bad ... didn't realize it's a different kind of tablet ... .. i'm gettin so used to seeing tablet referring to a portable computer device without a keyboard that uses just a touch screen. i.e. "MID"s and "PID"s and "PMP"s ... lol didn't think about a graphic tablets. oops .. :D
Does this mean you wont be able to use the pen for the tablet anymore? And it will entirely be touch based?
I'd like to know this too! I still like using a pen specially when drawing!
Yeah I mean, i wanted to get one of these, and if they're entirely going touch (which I'm sure they wont), I wouldn't buy one. I'm sure they're not since it's such a niche device for designers, but I guess we'll have to wait and see until it's officially released.
My bet is that they are expanding the line to be a touch friendly trackpad as well as a graphics tablet. Could offer something unique if you can use the pen and a finger to do things like rotate around an axis (your finger) or zoom in on a specific point (by placing your pen on one spot and doing the two finger pinching motion with your other hand). Not sure if this is possible with the Intuous line, I know it's not with my currently current generation Bamboo tablet.
But can you use a pen with it too? Won't be easy to retouch photos without.
I would have thought Apple would have brought out a mouse pad sized seperate touchpad based on the macpros by now. They are great to operate but a mutitouch wacom with Pen capability would be awesome.
Now what we need is a 17" widescreen Cintiq with full pen capabilities - tilt and full pressure... I've got the 12" but the screen is a bit crap and resolution is low really
I will be buying this on day one...
The new huge trackpads on the latest MBPs are great to work with– so much faster than a mouse if you know what you're doing...
do you even use a tablet when you do your work now?
I have a 6 x 8 Intous but rarely use it because scrolling is a pain in the ass– it it supports 2 finger scrolling like Apple's trackpads– I'm all over it.
Also pinch to zoom in Photoshop/Illustrator will be useful.
As an artist and a graphic designer, I can see how this would speed up my workflow providing that it has a certain level of accuracy that would allow me to select nodes and small icons. I would think that this would be sweet to work with when pulling bezier curves in Ai. What I would like even more is a touch Cintiq that would have an intelligent way of snapping your finger touches to the nearest selectable object no matter how minute it is. We can dream, can't we?
I really find it interesting that the rumors of companies holding off their tablet releases until Apple released theirs seems to be true. Soon as it didn't come out 9/7, here comes the flood of tablets over the last few days. Real interested to see what the new Archos is like.
Yeah, wrong type of tablet.
The new touchscreen tablets and laptops have more to do with the upcoming release of Windows 7 next month than the absense of an Apple tablet. Windows has had touch/tablet functionality in Windows for a while now, but the new version is supposed to be even snazzier.
Yeah....so I saw this yesterday in Best Buy in Nashville TN. It was $70 if I remember correctly. I think it is more geared towards browsing and resizing images, and less towards retouching. Think of it as a multi-touch trackball. Might have to go by and pick this up after work and let you know what I find out.
Not everything should be multitouch. Or should it? No! It shouldn't!
Damn Apple marketing for making everything so trendy!!!
you're right, not everything needs to be multitouch... but I think you could categorize this as "reinventing the wheel" if it works as I picture it in my head; as a normal pen tablet with the ability to pinch to zoom, use gestures to rotate and scroll, etc. Could make digital art way more intuitive, simplistic, and even a bit quicker.
Saw this yesterday at Best Buy in Waynesville, NC
Obviously this will still have pen support. Touch isn't pressure or tilt sensitive on capacitive touchscreens.
and i'll care quite a bit more when they release a multitouch product for the Cintiq line.
What makes you so sure that this will have pen support. Nothing on the packaging suggests any pen support. I really really hope that it does have a pen, or at least supports one as an optional extra, but I'm not confident at all.
I guess all this companies couldn't wait for apple any longer
*these
Yeah, wrong type of tablet. Listen, I'm going to need you to come into work this weekend, mmkay?
Mr Blurrycam doesnt always drink beer, but when he does he prefers Dos Equis.
I'm pretty sure that the Bamboo tablets seen at various Best Buy locations (by other commenters above) are the non-touch versions that are have been around for months at Amazon and everywhere else that sells Wacom gear. Sorry, guys.
Actually it was that exact model. The bamboo touch. I know the intuos and bamboo line, and this was definitely a new product, which is not even on their website yet. It is purely a multi-touch interface designed much like the new trackpads on the macbook pro line, with a few buttons on the side.
Wouldn't be the first time I was wrong...
I saw this at my local staples last night. They had a touch pad version and a touch and pen version for 69 and 99 respectively.
This is@Darren Tilley. I don't know why it wouldn't let me directly reply to his post, just kept reloading the page.
because it's a wacom graphics tablet. they are not going to put out a tablet without pressure sensitivity or tilt sensitivity. or there's no reason to use it. no one would buy it,
Capacitive touch doesn't have that. you need a pen to tell the tablet what angle it's at. resistive could do pressure, but resistive is pretty much dated (also, try controlling 512 levels of pressure sensitivity with your FINGER. you'd have to be bruce lee to use the product), and multitouch on resistive is not the norm. simply put, every major company that has a product out with multitouch uses capacitive, with the exception of a few phones. and there is even some debate as to whether the touch is capacitive or resistive on at least one of those phones.
the consumers who want to be able to touch something, and don't mind if it doesn't do anything can continue to touch their desk or hair.
I thought at first "this obviously will have a pen," but check out the dimensions. The total thing is 8.2" x 5.4", compared to the smallest current Bamboo pen tablet at 7.9" x 7.25". The active area is only 5" x 3.4", compared to 5.8" x 3.7" for the pen Bamboo. This thing is clearly looking like a replacement or auxiliary navigation device more than an input device, unless maybe just using it as a signature pad. The box says nothing about pen sensitivity levels, etc., and that is otherwise on every Wacom tablet box, plus there's no pen picture. Just look at the little rendering on the back, giving a sense of the size of the device relative to a hand. It's a bit odd that they would introduce a tablet with no pen, but there's no way I could do any useful editing on a device this small.
Also, I don't see why this would have any special timing linked to Windows 7 other than a little bandwagon-jumping. The functional benefits of Windows 7 that relate to touchscreen integration won't apply to something like this tablet, which will still require proprietary drivers.
On shelves at staples. Put the display out last night lol 69 for the touch, 99 for the touch and pen and 199 for the bigger one with the touch and pen
Great just what I needed to hear, I'm planing on getting a Bamboo fun for my birthday (which is the 28th) I hope it remains the same price, if it doesn't then I'm screwed.
maybe you should get a job...whats that Only Fools and Horse Work.
If I understand it correctly this is more a big laptop touchpad than a graphics tablet. So no pressure sensitivity, no pen, no precision.
I would love to see a regular graphics tablet with multitouch though, that would be cool.
I work at Staples (fremont,ne) and we got these in just on monday along with a pen/touch hybird version. I'll send in some pics if youd like, I honestly thought we just got them in and were were late to the party.
I bought one of these today in Tennessee. I've been using it for about 15 minutes. Ergonomics are important to me, since I use the computer a lot. To be honest I think I'm going to return it to Best Buy because this thing isn't a very good mouse replacement. You have to be careful not to let your thumb or other fingers touch it or you'll accidently go back in your browser or some other unintented action. Scrolling in web pages works ok, but my mouse scroll wheel is better. Sorry Wacom!
Photo w/ hand for scale:
http://imgur.com/NuFAc.jpg
Share please!
Can you define your own gestures?
How many fingers does it recognize?
The burning question is, does it have a pen with pressure sensitivity/tilt features. Or is it really just a 'multitouch trackpad for desktops'?!
This looks nice! Although I already have a justly outdated intuos 3, i might get the large version of this because its cheaper than the intuos4.. X]
YAY!! Multitouch is coming back to life after Apple killed Fingerworks and gave us ONE gesture from all of the years of fingerworks genius multitouch development!! I used a fingerworks touchstream for years so I am a little bitter watching this technology trickle out like its new. Hurray for Wacom.. Wacom managed to covertly release some multitouch goodness to the masses while Apple was looking the other way.. Stay tuned, They may pay for this in court.. Soooo funny that there is no mention of this product anywhere yet it is on store shelves.. Bravo..
IC
Properties window:
http://imgur.com/eC8ja.png
Properties window 2:
http://imgur.com/FHnky.png
Props 3:
http://imgur.com/gobrn.png
Seems like it's 2 fingers max. You can control zoom, rotation, forward, backward, scroll up/down, right click all with touchpad.