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USC undergrad builds DIY PowerBook Wacom tablet
Inspired by the DIY Wacom Cintiq tablet that we wrote about a few weeks ago, Florian Maurer, a USC mechanical engineering undergraduate student, recently took apart his Wacom Graphire 6 x 8 inch tablet and combined the internals with a PowerBook Titanium 800MHz machine. The result, two days later, was a a fully functional PowerBook tablet, with a touch-sensitive section. From what we can tell, he also added in a feature so that you can draw words (such as "google") and then use a gesture stroke to load that particular page. Check out the YouTube vid on the next page for the full effect. Watch out Jobs, hackers are always a step ahead.[Via digg]
Wacom's Hello Kitty Favo graphics tablet
There's nothing we hate more than a mismatched desktop set, so now that we've got a Hello Kitty keyboard, Hello Kitty mouse (with matching mousepad, naturally), and Hello Kitty mini-vacuum all hooked up to our Hello Kitty Epson Endeavor laptop, our dull grey graphics tablet stands out like a sore thumb. The nice thing about being a Hello Kitty fanatic, though, is that you never have to wait too long for your favorite peripherals to get Kitty-fied, and sure enough, Wacom has just made all our dreams come true with its new HK-adorned Favo tablet. Although the A6-size tab doesn't provide enough workspace for the serious graphic artist, those of us who use these input devices solely for drawing mustaches and devil's horns on our photos should find it more than adequate, and of course the pink pen and plastic, Kitty-shaped pen holder are just icing on the cake. Chances are good that you'll have to get your import on if you want to scribble all over Kitty's face each day, but if you're as obsessed with appreciative of finely-crafted Kitty swag as ourselves, nothing can stop you from adding this feline-friendly Favo to your collection.
inkBook 1.2.0: Handwriting, sketching and more
Recently released as a Universal Binary version, Mage Software's inkBook 1.2.0 is a handy application for note taking, sketching and handwriting recognition in a friendly package.I downloaded and ran inkBook with my (ancient) Graphire Wacom tablet. After some initial frustration due to my lack of installed drivers for the Wacom (easily downloaded and installed), the inkBook software was a quick learn. Certain functions are really nifty; switching quickly betweeen writing and sketching is one example. One downside is that inkBook depends on Apple's Inkwell handwriting recognition which works much better with non-script handwriting.A 30 day trial version with no restrictions is available and the purchase price for unlocking is a mere $20US. inkBook requires OS 10.4.0 or higher and an Apple Inkwell compatible device such as a Wacom tablet.[via MacNN]
Wacom introduces 21-inch Cintiq 21UX LCD graphics tablet
Wacom has released what may be the Cadillac of LCD graphics tablets. The 21-inch Cintiq 21UX tablet has a 1600x1200 display, can handle a full range of pen input from forms entry to animation, and works with Macs and PCs. While graphic artists may find themselves drooling over this, for $3K, we can't help but wish they'd included Bluetooth, so we wouldn't have to be tethered to our computer via a USB cable. [Via MacCentral]
