Windows 7 is
almost here, and we get the feeling that the
multitouch revolution (at least in the consumer realm) won't be too far behind. Lenovo just dished out
a pair of new
touch-friendly laptops, Fujitsu spruced up its
LifeBook T5010 with a multitouch panel and now Wacom is kicking out a finger-friendly
Bamboo tablet. Just in case you figured that yesterday's sneak peek was nothing more than an imaginative Photoshop, we've got another round of closeups today to prove otherwise. Tipster Jesus claims that he's been using the $69 device on his Snow Leopard-equipped Mac for a tick, and he's had no issues getting things working. There's also mention of a full interactive tutorial that helps you setup customer application-specific gestures, which frankly, sounds like oodles of fun.
[Thanks, Jesus]
posted Sep 16th 2009 4:24PM
Pics don't prove anything. Multitouch da big bamboo!
da-da-doo-doo
So is this a big multitouch trackpad or a wacom drawing tablet? Both? Confused. Prolly $$.
Multitouch ONLY. It does not have a pen, and cannot support a pen. It's a big capacitive touchpad.
So why call it bamboo like a real drawing pad?
Not that I doubt that it's true, just seems odd that that is the name, lying or confusing, either is bad.
application specific gestures? just use multiclutch with any multitouch capable trackpad...
Been using multitouch on Windows with iPhone Jadu VNC and RDP. Gestures rock and make things faster/efficient. But kinda silly that using Windows is actually faster through an iPhone. C'mon Microsoft, get it together already!
Jesus multitouched me...
"[Thanks, Jesus]"
LMAO
Our Best Buy already has it! $69.99 retail.
Finally a successor to the Fingerworks iGesture Pad!!!
I agree, I've used the iGesture pad for years and was completely bummed when they closed down after being bought by Apple. I could never go back to a mouse or trackball. If this pad works just as well as the the iGesture I'll be one happy camper. Not to mention not having to worry about having to spend over 300 bucks on ebay for a replacement IGesture!
Does it support Wacom pens, too? If not, no sale.
eh, yeah?
you used to buying cars without wheels per chance?
I threw away my bamboo because it was destroying my hand. I couldn't use the pen for half an hour or I would get severe cramps. A pen less solution would be truly awesome. The multi touch would also allow for numerous handy gestures in photoshop or sculpting apps.
Want!
So Josh can use this device to practice his signature Slapshot?
This is kinda perplexing. I don't have any idea why you would want multitouch in a pad so bad that you'd buy a WACOM without the spectatular pen technology.
Man, looks like I was wrong yesterday... lack of pen support is mind-boggling.
One more time, I shall post this:
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
whats the difference between the pen and craft pen?
And here's a video.
http://www.tvlesson.com/video/38892_wacom-bamboo-review.html
Nope– it's not the same, that video is just the standard Bamboo– not the multitouch pad-let (tablet + touch pad)... HAHA!
Ahrrm...nice. I'm sure I'm one of the few whose wishing this but it would be wonderful if it was a multitouchpad and a pen tab. It would just make my work flow a lot smoother if I could entirely remove my mouse from my setup. But that's just me.
It's strange that they haven't officially announced this since they're already on the shelves at Best Buy.
It looked interesting at first, but I don't see the point of getting it if there's no pen support.
i dont get this sudden multi touch love, hp has a tablet ive been lusting after for about a year, it has multitouch + a wacom pen...
No stylus, no sale. That's what Wacom tablets are for, dammit. I love my current bamboo, though.
I would love to have a tablet like the touch, but capable of pen input too. Imagine if you could draw with the pen, and at the same time use your fingers to rotate/slide the virtual canvas. If only...
Oh...NO stylus support?! So that's why it's only 69.99! I just got a Wacom Bamboo (great piece too) for christmas for $99. I was wondering why this is 30 bucks cheaper. Still I want one. Anyone here love me?, Christmas isn't that far off, I can wait.
"tipster jesus"
...christ, that seems a reliable source doesn't it...
ask him what he knows about the ponies running anywhere.
I love the premise of multi-touch functionality but on a monitor, not so much on a pad.
I highly doubt this will be something worth 'drawing' on - more-so for navigation and touch-activities like, you know, pressing large buttons, or annotating family pictures with fat-lettered-chicken-scratched words like, "great!" and "I'm with stupid".
I was going to post the pad vs monitor observtion but actually perhaps not having things obscured by your whole hand, which it is with multitouch, is a good thing and a pad is in some ways an advantage.
I just picked one up at Best Buy B&M. $69 plus tax (about $75 out the door). Includes the tablet, CD, and quickstart manual. Small box. No pen. Appears to only support 2 fingers, max. Works well in Leopard. Does not respond to my Intuos3 pen (the video tutorial says some models do both pen & fingers, tho). Here's an unboxing video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThYspkvKC6g
I would have liked to see (1) support for more than 2 fingers, and (2) the ability to program the buttons & functions for different apps, like you can do with the Intuos software. Pretty cool though, my desktop can now do 2-finger scrolling.
So it's all very experimental and too expensive basically, for the average user that is, if you want to have fun with it and pay that why not though, but if I was at all interested I'd expect a better offer.
Whack-em?
Way-com?
I say Way-com.
Thanks for the unboxing video Weaksauce12 - enlightening (:
Can we see it in action?
@ Wwhat: Yeah it's a pretty basic model, it seems like. I really don't see it replacing a conventional mouse - like, I can't even rest my hand on it because it "clicks". What I WOULD like to see is: (1) support for more than 2 fingers, (2) per-app customization (Photoshop profile, AutoCAD profile, Firefox profile, etc.), (3) Wacom Pen support, and (4) GESTURE support (like StreetDeck). Macros would be nice, too.
Gestures that launch macros would be insanely great - for example, draw "P" to launch Photoshop, which then loads the Photoshop profile, then draw "N" to open a new file, do a 'save as', and let you type in a filename. Shortcuts like that would be just fabulous - instead of configuring hotkeys that I'll just forget, I can just remember a simple letter or shape command to make stuff happen. Plus you could do 1, 2, 3, or more fingers to customize the number of inputs for each gesture. Right now, the Bamboo Touch does 2-finger swipe to go forward/back in a browser, which is very close to the 2-finger, um, "draw" to scroll left & right in a browser. A 3-finger command would differentiate the gesture enough to make it easy not to mess up.
There is potential here.
@ manlK: Yeah, I like Way-com better. I think officially it's "Whack-em", but I think that sounds dumb lol.
@ manlK: Sure, I'll post a link when Youtube is done processing. Having fun playing with it now ;)
Well most all of your ideas can be done in software, and don't seem to hard to implement actually, so I think you have a good shot at getting what you want, but for me drawing a p is more cumbersome than clicking an icon, especially if you have the mouse in your hand anyway already,
I'm not too into the gesture thing though, several companies tried to push it, even nvidia's drivers came with the gesture functionality years ago already, it didn't take of though, but perhaps that was also because nobody enabled their addon software since it crashed a lot, but they were not alone, for a while it seemed like everything came with gesture addons, but it didn't become popular with most people, but perhaps they just didn't find the right use and implementation for it, and it was for use with the mouse of course, which isn't too handy.
Perhaps it'll catch on now that trackpads and touch interfaces are getting so ubiquitous.
Awesome, thanks for sharing the action video.
I presume it can't tell the difference between one finger from two hands versus two fingers from one hand? So you're not necessarily subject to using it one handed for rotating and zooming etc?
WOW! what's so hard??? It's "Wa", like when you pronounce "water"......and "com".....like in DOT.COM.
WA-COM!
Yea, thanks for the vid though, I was and still am interested. Somewhat. OK!, alot!
Go watch one of wacom's videos. They say "WHACK-em".
Which is the confusing part... "WAY-com" sounds much more logical and intelligent.
Screw you Huang......fuckin' douche bag......
What, you no like Rotex watches and Air Jordins?
I posted in the unbox post, but here's the Quick Review of the Wacom Bamboo Touch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srcARk0Lt84
Enjoy! :)
A question: does it work like the bamboo: is the place on the tablet the same as the place on the screen? Example: if I put my pentip on my bamboo in the upper right corner, the cursor jumps the exact same spot on the screen. This is handy because you don't need to drag the cursor around. Can you do this with the bamboo touch?
I just bought the bamboo pen of the same series as the new bamboo touch... apparently there are four new models? i'm thinking i should have bought the new bamboo fun, it has four buttons on it, meanwhile the one i got has no buttons... can anybody help me here with which one is better? capabilities-wise? i'm clueless and the people in the store were very unhelpful.
Office depot has all models on display the 99 and 199 have pens and touch.
Also a bigger area to draw on then the 69.00 one.