Pen Tablet
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Ask Engadget: Should I replace my mouse with a graphics tablet?
We know you've got questions, and if you're brave enough to ask the world for answers, then here's the outlet to do so. This week's Ask Engadget inquiry is from Whee!, which we guess probably isn't their real name, who is looking for a way to ditch their mouse. If you're looking to ask one of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com. "I'm a web developer, and my typical day involves a lot of moving and clicking when testing stuff in the browser. I've been thinking about ditching my mouse, because when using it for long hours it gets very uncomfortable. As such, I'm eyeing up a Wacom tablet and using the pen input to mouse around -- but do you think it's a good idea? Thanks in advance!" Our questioner wants to solve their wrist-pain woes, and it certainly seems like a reasonable enough idea to us. Plenty of tablets come with a mouse mode, so it's just down to the limits of your budget. If you're just dipping your toes into the water, you can pick up a Genius device for around $60. Wacom's Bamboo tablets occupy the mid-range, setting you back $80 for a 5.8-inch model, all the way up to $200 for the 8.5-incher. If you're serious about making the change, then Wacom's Intuos5 hardware is a top-range option, with the 6.2-inch version starting at $200, running all the way to $800 for the 18-inch unit, or even spending big on one of the company's Cintiq units. We've also been wondering if a touchscreen Ultrabook might be a better idea, letting your fingers do the walking to spare your aching forearms. That said, perhaps the wider Engadget community has an even better tip, so if you've already made that leap, why not share your knowledge in the comments below?
Wacom outs the Bamboo Splash: the Connect's hardware with a new software bundle
For those looking to get their feet wet with a Wacom pen tablet, but not looking to make an Intuos-sized investment, the company's Bamboo family has been a solid choice. The outfit has now added one more option to the entry-level peripheral line with the Splash. Sporting hardware identical to the Connect tablet that's already available, the latest offering includes an updated software duo in the same box. Art Rage Studio offers painting that'll keep your shiny new MacBook Pro clean while Sketchbook Express provides tools for good ol' sketching. In case you need a refresher on the Bamboo accessory's specs, the pen tab plays nice with both Windows and Mac, offers a 5.8 x 3.6 inch active area, USB connectivity and a pen that touts 1,024 pressure levels. The good news is that the new bundle won't cost you a penny more, as the kit will remain priced at $79. Truth be told, the Splash is actually a solid pick-up for someone looking to test drive a graphics tablet without committing a larger sum of cash. %Gallery-158470%
Wacom Intuos5 touch review
It's no secret Wacom has a firm grasp on what it takes to make great graphic input devices. Fresh off of its introduction of the Inkling last fall, the outfit recently unveiled the latest member of its high-end pen tablet line, the Intous5 touch. Essentially, Wacom took what made the Intuos4 a great addition to any designer or illustrator's workflow and refined it, with this latest iteration sporting a new rubber-coated shell. It also implements touch gestures -- much like those on the fresh Bamboo models -- which can be customized to speed up tasks you need to complete on the regular, preferably without the aid of a mouse. Sure, a new matte black suit and the ability to navigate Adobe Creative Suite without a pen seem impressive at first glance, but is the new model worth investing northward of $229? Are you better off sticking with the Intuos4 you splurged on a while back? Let's see.
Wacom announces Intuos5 graphics tablets, we go hands-on! (video)
It's a couple of months since we spotted paperwork for a mysterious "PTK-450" device at the FCC and now Wacom has finally revealed the gadget that goes with the label. The Intuos5 tablet is available to purchase immediately in Small (4 x 6 inches), Medium (6 x 8) and Large (13 x 8) sizes, priced at £200, £330 and £430 respectively. We're still waiting on confirmation of US pricing, but it'll no doubt be less than what a straight currency conversion suggests (i.e. somewhere below $320, $525 and $680). There's actually a fourth variant to add to the trio, but it's not an XL -- Wacom is hoping to up-sell you to a Cintiq 21UX or Cintiq 24HD if you want something bigger. Instead, the fourth tablet is a version of the Medium that comes without touch sensitivity, bringing the price down to £270 if you're able to live with pen-only input. Opting for this particular model will remove one of the biggest upgrades in this three-year product cycle: the ability of the Intuos5 to sense up to 16 finger-touches simultaneously, rather than just the nib of the pen. But there have been other revisions since the Intuos4 aside from touch, and you only have to read on to discover what those are.Update: There was a problem with the embedded video -- sorry folks. It's working properly now, along with more gallery pics below.Update: Just got word on US pricing. $230, $350 and $470 for the touch sensitive models. $300 for the Medium without touch. Also coming to the US is a pen-only version of the Small tablet -- we're not sure how much that'll cost (and Wacom's site seems to be down right now), but it'll be the cheapest upgrade of the bunch.
Wacom tablet leaves sketchy trails at the FCC, possibly a new Intuos4 (updated)
There's not a lot of detail here, but if you've been eyeing up a new Intuos4 wireless graphics tablet then it might be worth bearing this recent FCC application in mind. Behind all the confidentiality agreements and abstract descriptions that are standard fare for unannounced products these days, the official paperwork lists a highly suggestive model number: PTK-450. The smallest Intuos4 currently available is the PTK-440 and it's been around for a couple of years already, so perhaps we're due a refresh. Update: Now the two bigger tablets have made an appearance: the PTK-650 and the PTK-850, which would hypothetically complete this updated Intuos4 range.
HP replaces the Slate 500 with the Slate 2, adds Swype and cuts the starting price to $699
Until Microsoft gives Win8 the final seal of approval, the Windows tablet show must go on, right? Right. HP just refreshed its enterprise-friendly, Windows 7-flavored Slate 500 with the Slate 2, and took the opportunity to knock the starting price down a hundred bucks to $699. In terms of design, there's nothing much to see here -- it has the same 8.9-inch tablet and N-Trig DuoSense digitizer that allows for pen input. Only this time, HP added Swype, refreshed the CPU with Intel's Atom Z670 and proffered a smaller 32GB SSD option to appease the IT guys who are going to heavily lock these down anyway. Speaking of security, it also packs TPM circuitry and Computrace Pro for tracking lost or stolen laptops and then deleting the data remotely. It'll be available worldwide this month -- just in time for corporate to buy you a lil' somethin' for the holidays. %Gallery-137812%
Pressure-sensitive drawing headed to iPad in free software library (video)
"The iPad's IPS panel is pressure-sensitive, you say?" No, that's not quite right, but with some clever software and a special capacitive stylus, the folks at Ten One Design built a convincing proof of concept anyhow. While we're not quite sure how it works, the current theory states that the soft tip of the stylus expands like a brush when you press it down, generating a "larger press" that can be detected by the hooks in Ten One's code -- which they soon plan to share as a free software library (assuming Apple allows) with developers around the world. See it in action in a video after the break, and if you're feeling your inner Rorschach today, let us know what you see in the above drawing.
Wacom Cintiq 21UX reverently unboxed by honest-to-goodness digital artist
Though the hive mind of Engadget has drawn the occasional stick figure, we're not exactly what you'd call artists -- and as such, our prior attempts to describe the $1,999 Wacom Cintiq 21UX pen display have been limited to fawning over its gorgeous pressure-sensitive screen and figuring how many organs we'd need to harvest to afford one. However, a man named Christopher Miles most certainly can draw -- you'll find his resume and portfolio at the source link -- and he unabashedly calls the tablet display "a digital artist's wet dream." Christopher gave the new Cintiq a thorough unboxing and even created a sample illustration with the device, the images from which you can find immediately below. Just be sure to remove your wallet and all easily pawned items from your general vicinity before viewing. Trust us, it's for your own good. %Gallery-90246% [Thanks, Christopher]
Wacom Cintiq 21UX multitouch tablet caught in the wilderness of a live presentation
Oh you're tired of tablets, are you? Pray tell, how many multitouch 21.3-inch tablets have you seen so far then? A prototype of Wacom's update to the ultra-high end 21UX has been shown off at a recent CAD presentation, so we figured we might as well take a look at the thing -- given its predecessor's $2,999 starting price, we're unlikely to be buying one any time soon. So dive past the break for a glimpse -- just a glimpse -- of the new multitouch goodness taking place. After you're done with that, you can check out the source link for more pictures of what's sure to be the new state of the art in graphics tablets.
Wacom's Bamboo multitouch tablets finally go official, for formality's sake
There's really little point to this now, but a solid week after consumers in the US began picking up the Wacom Bamboo multitouch tablet, the outfit has come clean and confessed that it actually approved the production of that very device. Granted, there's still some merit to the release, particularly since a foursome of new wares are being introduced. The second-generation Bamboo line will initially consist of the Bamboo, Bamboo Fun, Bamboo Pen and Bamboo Touch, some of which (we'll let you guess) are the company's first to support multitouch functionality as well as pen input. Prices are said to start at £49.99 ($81) for the Bamboo Pen and soar right on up to £169.99 ($276) for the Bamboo Fun Medium, and if you're interested in finding the one that fits your style, give that read link a look.
Hantech Siso Tablo laptop stylus gets reviewed
We just caught sight of Hanwha's Duo laptop stylus a couple of months ago, but it's not the only device out there that promises to turn any old laptop into a pen-accommodating tablet PC, and the folks at SlashGear have now gotten their hands on one of its competitors: the Hantech Siso Tablo. Like the Duo, this one consists of a pen and a Wii-like sensor that sits atop your laptop screen (up to 15.4-inch only), which detects the location of the pen and lets you do everything from drawing and handwriting recognition to controlling the cursor. Best of all, according to SlashGear, the $99 device more or less works just as advertised, and even apparently rivals more expensive gear when it comes to basic design tasks -- or outdoes them, for that matter, since it can also simply be paired with a ballpoint pen and a piece of paper. Hit up the link below for their full impressions.
Video: Wacom's intuos4 pen tablet now available with special typo pricing
Not much left to say about the Wacom Intuos4 that hasn't already been said in previews and repeated leaks. The pen tablet available in S ($229), M ($349), L ($469), and XL ($789) wide-format sizes. It's worth noting that the Large, with its 102.5-inches of working area is currently listed for $369 on the Wacom eStore (even up to the point of checkout) in what's most certainly a typo. Not saying they'll honor that price but you never know. Check the video introduction and feature set in the video after the break.[Thanks, Victor]Read -- Intuos4Read -- Intuos4 Large typo pricing
Wacom's Intuos4 removes layers, gets previewed
We've already seen some blurred image of the Wacom Intuos4's box and in-store display, and now we've got some much cleaner shots and hands-on impressions from ThatPoshGirls, which seems to have come back from a years-long hiatus just to cover this tablet. The new pen base is well-received, as are the LED screens that remind what each button is programmed to do. Overall, it's what you've come to expect from the Intuos series, along with improved Windows Vista compatibility. It's worth noting that the Amazon price was spotted when a product review was submitted and was quoted at $350 for the 6 x 9 inch medium, a little less than the $480 Canadian price from Future Shop we saw yesterday. Hit up the read link below for more pics of the tablet, its pen, and most importantly, cleaner shots of the box. Of course, we're still waiting on Wacom to even acknowledge its existence, but we'd expect that announcement to be just around the corner at this point.Read - Unboxing Read - First ImpressionsRead - Hint of Amazon's pricing
Wacom Intuos4 tablet caught out of the box, in the wild
Still no official word on its existence, but one forum poster happened to stumble upon an out-of-the-box display for the Wacom Intuos4 pen tablet while browsing through a brick-and-mortar Future Shop. Lucky for us, he thought to snap a few pics, albeit 'shopped to appear in the traditional blurrycam art style. No word on pricing or availability, but let's hope Wacom isn't planning to tease us too much longer. Update: An anonymous tipster managed to snap a photo of a Future Shop inventory screen that shows four Intuos4 models and pricing: 4 x 6 inch small for $299, 6 x 9 inch medium for $479, 8 x 13 inch large for $999, and 12 x 19 extra large for $649 (all prices Canadian). No clue why the extra large one is over $300 cheaper. They're all apparently in stock at the distribution center, but there's no word on when they'll actually ship to stores.[Thanks, Joseph]
Genius introduces G-Pen M712 / M609 pen tablets
It's been a hot minute since we've seen a flashy new pen tablet from Genius, but the outfit is getting set to unload a new duo onto the market for artists looking to get their penmanship directly onto the LCD. The G-Pen M712 and M609 both arrive with Vista / Mac-compatible software, sport 4,000 LPI resolutions and come with rolling pads at the top for scrolling, zooming and adjusting volume. As for the M609, expect a screen size of 9- x 5.5-inches (wide) / 7.25- x 5.5-inches (standard) and 26 hot keys, while the M712 offers up a bit more real estate at 12- x 7.25-inches (wide) / 9.5- x 7.25-inches (standard) and includes 34 hot keys. Look for 'em both to land real soon for $195 and $249, respectively. Full release waiting after the jump. %Gallery-21520%
Genius offers up G-Pen F610 pen tablet
Genius' latest digital pad (dubbed the G-Pen F610) does quite a bit more than just give users a medium for digitally penning their most favorite doodle ideas, as the 29 programmable hot keys will probably make your keyboard a tad envious. Furthermore, the two pen buttons can "also be programmed as left and right mouse buttons," further distancing you from your tried and true control combo. As for the tablet itself, it measures in at six- x ten-inches, plays nice with Vista and OS X, and features a pen with nearly one year of battery life. Regrettably, Genius has yet to open its trap in regard to a price.[Via PCLaunches]
