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Dollar Store Accessories: the iPhone Stylus
Today's Dollar Store accessory find is a stylus /pen that, according to the rather prominent advertising on the box is "compatible with cell phones, tablets." It is neither a great pen nor a great stylus, but (and this is important, given the one dollar price point) it is a good example of both. I was surprised that this particular model has a rather nice grip area for the pen and how well the stylus, which is located in the "eraser" area, worked. You twist the bottom to open the pen, which in the case of this unit had a nice satisfying click. It's not an unusual layout for pen / stylii, and you can find comparable setups on Amazon for under 10 dollars. What is unusual is the stylus tip itself, which is soft -- rather like a little deflatable balloon -- instead of being a solid hard surface. I found that approach to feel odd in my hands, but it worked well on all the devices I tested with. It provided a good contact point for both phones and tablets, which you wouldn't expect with such a flexible touch point. In the end, for a buck, it is a fine stylus if you don't mind holding the pen upside down to use it. I suspect you can find some reasonable facsimile in your nearby US-based dollar store, although stock and models vary widely from store to store. Comparable models on eBay and Amazon seem to run from about two and a half dollars up, although I didn't find any exact matches to this unit. Next up on the Dollar Store review list: tablet sleeves. Do you shop at Dollar Stores for bargain high tech items? Drop a note in the comments and let us know what items are winners and which ones you should avoid.
