Wacom Bamboo multitouch tablet found at Best Buy, unboxed on video

Need even more proof the Wacom Bamboo multitouch tablet is real? Apparently cued by one of our posts (or so he says), "weaksaucetwelve" ran out to his local Best Buy and picked up the device for the previously-heard price of $69 plus tax, and then proceeded to take it home and unbox it on camera. From his experience so far, it only seems to support up to two fingers at a time with OS X Leopard, but otherwise it works great. Video after the break.






See more video at our hub!

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 16th 2009 10:11PM]

Why can't I find any info on the wacom site about this product?

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 17th 2009 12:48AM]

I bet it's because it's not been announced yet and got put on the shelves early.

[reebokshoes Posted Sep 16th 2009 10:16PM]

they've had this at some staples for weeks, theres a touch model, pen model, touch/pen model, bigger pen/touch model i think respectively 69, 69, 99, 199...

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 16th 2009 10:20PM]

I want to see this thing in action. Open up a web-browser or something. use photoshop with this thing. show it in action. for 6 minutes i thought you wouldve.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 16th 2009 10:22PM]

Uploading now! Will post back when it's up.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 16th 2009 10:27PM]

saw a whole kiosk of 'em at Staples. There are three, a small, medium, and large. Got to use one, too! :D

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 16th 2009 10:31PM]

Quick Review of the Wacom Bamboo Touch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srcARk0Lt84

Enjoy!

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 16th 2009 10:33PM]

thats what she said....so many times in your video hahaha

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 16th 2009 10:35PM]

you know ive always wanted a hand-touched mouse. this works really nicely id say..

and good thing things not apple branded. wouldve cost an arm and a leg....like that tablet of theirs..

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 16th 2009 10:41PM]

I think it'd be cool if Apple did an RF-based model. Bluetooth mice kinda stink, but RF is great. If they did a Wireless Trackpad, with like a docking station and a rechargable battery like the iPhone, that'd be pretty sweet. Especially with all the cool multi-touch stuff they've got going on now...

If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, you can pretty much do this for free (well, $3) with the Mobile Air Mouse app:

http://www.mobileairmouse.com/

Basically turns your phone into a wireless trackpad, even does 2-finger scroll, which is pretty sweet. And more compact :D

[Indyaner Posted Sep 16th 2009 11:44PM]

Thanks for the Video. But can you make a quick Photoshop-Review with this device? Look like its not that great for rotating. 90° Rotatings are not impressive.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 16th 2009 10:36PM]

Finally!!! Thanks Weaksaucer! *** Front of pants get tight......

[ch3burashka Posted Sep 16th 2009 11:28PM]

I would totally buy one and create masterpieces of art and create virtual sculptures. Then I would wake up and remember that I can't draw for shit. Sad me is sad.

[broken89 Posted Sep 16th 2009 11:48PM]

;_; i know how you feel.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 16th 2009 11:47PM]

weaksauce,

how is it with drawing in photoshop/illustrator? I hate using a wacom pen but might find using my finger a tad bit easier!

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 16th 2009 11:55PM]

Well, it depends on your artistic style, I guess. Personally it looks like a 5-year-old drew it when I try to draw with my finger, haha. Try drawing in Photoshop on a laptop's touchpad, the result will be about the same. I wouldn't say this is any kind of drawing device, it's more of a manipulative tool for rotations, zooms, and so on. It will be interesting to see how Wacom markets this...

If they let you customize the functions on a per-application basis, I can see this being a lot more useful. Right now it's a neat toy, but I don't see myself replacing my mouse or any of my other speciality input devices like my Logitech NuLooq just yet. I've gotten a good feature-request list going so far:

1. Add per-application function programming (custom profiles for Photoshop, AutoCAD, Firefox, and so on)
2. Add custom Gesture support (similar to StreetDecks)
3. Add the ability to recognize more than 2 fingers (I'd assume this is a hardware feature)
4. Tie in hotkeys & macros to the Gesture support & custom profiles
5. Add a bigger model (although if Gestures & more than 2 fingers were supported, that's not a big deal, well not really either way I guess).

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 17th 2009 12:23AM]

actually I am an artist and work almost exclusively in illustrator. I'm not good with a wacom pen (I've tried 4 different types over the years and was none too fond of any). I have more control with my fingers...so I wonder if this would work for me as I am left handed, but use the mouse in my right. I could be working with two hands ambidextrously

plus...rotate and zoom? wow

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 17th 2009 12:31AM]

@ sthig:

Yeah, you can configure it for Left-handed or Right-handed operation, so that's no big deal. I'm right-handed and right now I'm using my mouse with my Right and my Bamboo Touch with my left. Not too hard to get used to. You might need a USB hub, depending on how far away your computer tower is. I think my Intuos3 has like a six-foot cable, and the Bamboo Touch is only 3 or 4 feet long - bit of a stretch for my setup.

I'll have to give it a go in Illustrator and see how it handles, if it "knows" what the rotate & zoom features are. It won't let me manually program a profile for Illustrator or any other app, so right now any changes I make are global. Lame. I'll have to put it through it's paces to see what apps it works properly in. If Wacom adds support for more fingers and improves the software, I can see this being a real gamechanger for us artists, and even for technical users & designers - AutoCAD, Maya, InDesign, etc. could all benefit from a multi-touch trackpad with gesture & macro support!

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 17th 2009 12:23AM]

Ahah, figured out some workarounds:

For Windows:
1. StrokeIt (for custom Gestures) * free
2. Macro Express (for custom macros, based on the Gesture hotkeys) *$64 (or $96 for Pro)

For Mac:
1. xGestures (for custom Gestures) * $5
2. Keyboard Maestro (for custom macros, based on the Gesture hotkeys) * $36

Of course, there are plenty of alternatives for the above-mentioned software, but you get the idea. So the workflow pretty much goes like this:

1. Install & configure the Wacom Touch software
2. Install a Gestures app & configure profiles for all your favorite apps
3. Install a Keyboard Macro app (if desired) & create stacks of shortcuts for all your favorite apps (especially useful for repetitive workflows)

Pretty simple. Wacom should really build this stuff in, though. And add support for more than 2 fingers. The Bamboo Touch is the perfect size for finger-based gestures!

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 17th 2009 1:59AM]

hey can you email me? (scott.thigpen gmail), I'd like to pick your brain a little bit more...this just may be the ticket I needed to help my workflow. I'd really be interested to see if all best buys are carrying them right now

[Poita Posted Sep 17th 2009 12:45AM]

Weaksauce,
i'm just a novice pc user. Do you think the bamboo would be a good mouse replacement? I use illustrator a bit but even with maximum zoom i can never position things 'exactly' on spot as I want. Stuff always overshoots a bunch of pixels. Would the bamboo be more sensitive and er controlerable than my average mouse?

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 17th 2009 1:52AM]

@ Peter:

Holy buckets, batman - I'm glad I tried Illustrator...holy cow holy cow HOLY COW!!! This device is easily worth DOUBLE the price in Illustrator! Hahahahaha! I just tried it out in CS4: draw a few lines....pinched to zoom in, pinched a bit more...two fingers to scroll down...right, no, a little left...wait, diagonal?! Pinch to zoom in a bit more, two fingers to scroll a bit up...in *seconds*!

Excuse me while my eyeballs bug out from the sheer ease of how I can now navigate Illustrator. Wow. I think my life just changed, lol. My Logitech NuLooq does this with the "floating puck" deal, but wow...it's so smooooooth with the Bamboo Touch! Hot diggity! :D

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 17th 2009 1:58AM]

yeah? so is it at Best Buy right now? Like if I went tomorrow to my local best buy would they have it?

[Poita Posted Sep 17th 2009 12:47AM]

In the ads for it they should CG impose it into the song that Dick Van Dyke sang in Mary Poppins (or was it Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?) 'The old bamboo'.

[KrazyCalvin Posted Sep 17th 2009 1:07AM]

"guest"-ures. i think he should have practiced that a time or two before recording.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 17th 2009 1:39AM]

Hey, you can't be first AND perfect. Don't worry, I'll fire my editor...

er, wait a minute...

[reddyroc Posted Sep 17th 2009 1:26AM]

well shit. i just bought the (now old) bamboo last week. now i want this one!

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 17th 2009 2:33AM]

How does the zooming / scrolling work/feel in Photoshop?

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 17th 2009 2:46AM]

I fired it up in Illustrator CS4 under Leopard here: (btw @ 2:21, keyboard = touchpad, sorry!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZF8U7TfZ8E

Wow...awesome...amazing...totally simplifies my workflow. It's so annoying to navigate, because you either have to use the keyboard (like CMD+ or CMD- for Zoom) or you have to click the Zoom Tool and use your mouse. My stupid scrollwheel never works right for zooming, it always switches to scrolling up & down on the image canvas.

With the Bamboo Touchpad, I can keep my tool selected, move around, and zoom in & out...no sweat. Wow. This is the tool I've always wanted. Even if this is the only thing I ever use it for (navigation in Adobe products), it will totally be worth the $70, despite the current drawbacks & limitations (no built-in gestures/macros/custom app profiles & limited to 2 fingers max). That's about what I paid for my Logitech VX Revolution, so it's not a crazy-insane price like some of the higher-end Intuos tablets ($$$). The size is perfect...just right for doing gestures with your fingers, not too big, not too small. Very portable. I'll be bringing this to my graphic design class every day, for sure!

Note that rotate doesn't work in Illustrator, I'm guessing that's due to the nature of the canvas - you'd have to go in and manually change it. It'd be cool to program the rotate gesture to rotate a selected line/group/shape though. Hopefully Wacom gets on this and makes it easy to program soon...

I'll do some more testing with Photoshop and stuff tomorrow. It's like 2:45am here lol, I've been playing with this thing waaaaaaay too long :D

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 17th 2009 3:00AM]

I think for now, given the current state of the software, I would label it as a "convenience tool". If you're a heavy Adobe user, then you're probably going to know all the nifty shortcuts like Spacebar+Mouseclick and Alt+Scrollwheel. It definitely makes the action smoother, not to mention more fun. If you're a light Adobe user, then you may not have all the quickie keyboard/mouse combos memorized, so this would be even more convenient because not only is it very fluid, but it's also pretty much brainless to operate...you don't really have to memorize anything because it's fairly intuitive. Just move your hand around with 2 fingers to scroll in any direction, and pinch to zoom in or out. Easy peasy.

If they added the software suggestions I have, then it could turn into a *real* power tool instead of a just a fun convenience tool. I mean, you can do that now with like xGestures or StrokeIt, but it's a little bit more work and not quite as...seamless to setup. So as with anything else, whether this tool is for you or not really depends on your level of familiarity with Adobe products (or whatever you use) and how much effort you're willing to go through to get the extra goodies like gestures and macros. Pretty nifty though. I like it :)

[bemymonkey Posted Sep 17th 2009 4:47AM]

So it's a crappy touchpad with the same multitouch features netbooks and laptops have had for ages? Who the hell cares?

[YoctoYotta Posted Sep 17th 2009 6:18AM]

I've been hoping that Apple would take the MacBook glass trackpads and put it in a standalone device like this for desktops. There may be specific needs that require a mouse still, but I think the multitouch trackpad will replace the mouse for general consumer use sooner than later.

[casoich Posted Sep 17th 2009 8:05AM]

Nobody has commented yet on how weaksauce plugged the USB cable into a PC-box, but the interface was decidedly "OSX-ish" ;-) Hackintosh much?

Thanks for the review though, I work a lot in Adobe products, too. I'm trying to determine if this would be useful in addition to my Wacom Cintiq and my 8-button Logitech mouse. (I'm also guessing that USBOverdrive will let you do button-per-application. have you tried that?)

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 17th 2009 9:47AM]

100 comments and you're the first one to notice, you get a cookie ;) Yup running solid on 10.5.8, very happy with the machine! Got a Gigabyte UD3P board with a quad-core Intel chip and 8 gigs of RAM. Flawless...better than my real Macs since I can fix & upgrade parts easily, haha. Installed straight from the retail Leopard disc, too...couldn't get much easier!

Yeah, I've been playing with a variety of input modifier apps. There's xGestures, Keyboard Maestro, USB Overdrive, ControllerMate, etc. One of the problems is there's no documentation for what the built-in gestures actually DO. I mean, from what I can tell, say, pinching does CMD+ & CMD-, but you'd have to rig up an interpreter function in your input modifier app to capture that input before it goes in the program, if the program already has a keyboard shortcut for those keys. So it's kind of annoying, I'd really like to see all that functionality built-in, at the very least to the level of the Intuos software.

I'm looking at the PDF Manual, and it is describing a model that can do both Pen & Finger input. I highly suspect there will be an Intuos Touch or something along those lines released at some point. The video tutorial mentions that if you want to use both a Pen & Finger input, you can on "some" models, and the software will auto-switch to Pen if you were using your fingers, then you switch it back to Finger input in the prefPane, I believe. Sounds interesting. Right now I'm using both my 6x11" Intuos3 for drawing and my Bamboo Touch for navigation. Very very very fluid setup! I spend more time drawing in Corel Painter though, and it only supports the Zoom function right now, so that kind of stinks. But in Photoshop, where Zoom/Move/Rotate is supported, it's pretty dang sweet.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 17th 2009 9:18AM]

Hi,

Do you know where we can buy these online? I am looking for one with multitouch and pen.

Thanks
Thomas

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 17th 2009 9:38AM]

I haven't seen them online anywhere yet, and Wacom hasn't made an official annoucement. But I know they are in-stock and out on the floor in at least 2 Best Buy brick & mortar stores. My local one had a bunch, but the employees had no idea it was even there or what it did. I'm guessing it was just a mistake and they released them early in their system...

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 17th 2009 9:27AM]

Okay, so I fired up some more apps today: (in Leopard 10.5.8)

Photoshop:
+ Rotate
+ Zoom
+ Move

Illustrator:
+ Zoom
+ Move

Painter:
+ Zoom

Photoshop is KILLER with the Bamboo Touch on my left hand & my mouse on my right. WAY more fluid than using keyboard shortcuts or keyboard/mouse combos. Don't even have to think about it. The canvas rotates very nicely too! The rotation gesture is a bit tricky, because you either need to use your thumb and your finger (in which case your thumbnail hits the pad and doesn't respond, so you have to remember tilt your thumb) or your pointer finger & your middle finger (which doesn't get a lot of distance for spinning, even though I have long fingers, so you have to rotate a couple times for a large rotation).

I already mentioned Illustrator & threw up a short vid. It does Zoom & Move pretty nicely. Since it's vector and on a fixed canvas, it doesn't do any kind of rotation. Although again, I would like to see some programming functionality in the software so that I could at least rotate objects, which would be KILLER!

This obviously wasn't programmed with Corel Painter in mind. Both the Zoom & Move gestures simply zoom. Rotation does nothing. And there's no way to custom-program the gesture command for a Painter profile, so that's kind of annoying.

Bottom line: Cool for easy navigation, needs more functionality in terms of programming the software.

[neoshi Posted Sep 17th 2009 12:19PM]

Hmmm.. I could totally use this in my left hand to control the canvas and my other Bamboo in my right to draw. Now I just need something to select my tools via voice.

[povrazor Posted Sep 17th 2009 5:33PM]

Very cool, especially the Illustrator test video on page 2 of the comments here. I tried mimicking the pan gesture while holding my Intuos Pen, and I think I'm pretty much sold. As soon as the Pro models come out, I'm in.

[routb3d Posted Sep 17th 2009 6:28PM]

I cant find a Bamboo touch anywhere in Washington state.. There is One staples that says they have the display but no product. GRRR.. Waiting for them to see if they get it in todays shipment.. Im getting the model with the pen (I may even pop for the medium size if it is available).. Hopefully it will be good enough to replace my mouse and my giant Intuos3..

IC

[SirNoDroin Posted Sep 18th 2009 6:01PM]

keyboard shortcuts are still 500 times faster then gestures.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 20th 2009 4:10PM]

Has anyone tried the standard Bamboo pen on the Bamboo touch tablet?

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 21st 2009 4:46PM]

Alright, well thanks to Weaksauce, I went out to my local best buy and picked one of these up for myself. Called first but they said they didnt have it, and that there is nothing called the Bamboo touch in their system. I called back ten minutes later and asked the girl if she could run to where the tablets were and see if there was a purple and pink box.

Sure enough they had one. No price label or anything... Had her put it on hold and went to get it 20 minutes later.

So far, It is pretty cool. Ive always wanted a touchpad as a mouse as I work on my macbook pro when im not at work, and have always felt a touchpad is more natural.

No it is a bit different as there is no click on the actual touch surface. But I just think it will take some getting used to.

Anyway, here are some pics. Go out to your local best buy and pick one up! I got the only one they had...

http://www.definitivecars.com/posted_pics/bamboo/1.jpg

http://www.definitivecars.com/posted_pics/bamboo/2.jpg

http://www.definitivecars.com/posted_pics/bamboo/3.jpg

J

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 21st 2009 4:46PM]

http://www.definitivecars.com/posted_pics/bamboo/4.jpg

http://www.definitivecars.com/posted_pics/bamboo/5.jpg

J

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 22nd 2009 9:47AM]

One little question: when I use my Bamboo now, the point on my tablet is also the point on my screen. It's very handy because you don't have to replace your hand to move the cursor higher, like you have to do on a normal trackpad. Does the Bamboo Touch support this?