In Defense Of The Stylus • Hacker News Board

Re: In Defense Of The Stylus

#21

Post by suivix » Sat, Nov 12, 2011, 5:12 AM UTC

jbermudes wrote: post #7

dgurney wrote: post #4

My main problem with the stylus is that it's so easy to lose; who wants to carry around a separate part with their device? That said, imagine if styluses (styli?) were mass produced and available as ubiquitously and cheaply as pencils. Lose one? No problem, there's another one on the table over there. In that case, I can see styluses catching on big time, and as noted in the article, their precision would give them h…

It's possible that just as pencils have erasers, that in the future were the stylus more ubiquitous pens might have their opposite side designed to be a touchscreen stylus

It's much more likely that there will be almost no pens or styluses.

Re: In Defense Of The Stylus

#22

Post by backprojection » Sat, Nov 12, 2011, 5:52 AM UTC

rafski wrote: post #15

Jobs understood that stylus was a psychological barrier, additional interface between user and screen. Direct touch gave the biofeedback needed to make operating the device personal. Your touch makes things happen, rather than you touching it with an 8 inch pole. It seems an irrelevant detail to a logical mind but this was key element to iPhone's success. There is this good PBS documentary on psychology of marketing.…

Depends on what kind of work you're doing.

I'm a grad student in math. If I'm taking notes for a class, I prefer to have my laptop and LaTeX the notes on the fly.

If I'm working on my research, I find working with pen and paper is a psychological help: it's a good interface for working on math. The only problem is that pen and paper is a bad system generally, for a couple of reasons:

1) most of the notes ends up being crap/scratch work, it'd be really nice to be able to copy and paste the good stuff out easily.

2) Paper is heavy, I always have to decide which of my notes to carry around.

3) It's easy to loose your notes.

I'd love to have a tablet with a stylus good enough to write mathematics with.

Re: In Defense Of The Stylus

#23

Post by 6ren » Sat, Nov 12, 2011, 6:21 AM UTC

Is it possible to use a stylus on a capacitive touchscreen? (perhaps by ensuring it has the same capacitance as a finger - a small finger).

I found editing maddening on an iPad because of the inaccuracy. You can roll your finger to adjust the cursor position, and the magnifying window helps, but it's not as good as simple cursor keys (disclaimer I was just trying it out in an apple store, so there may be ways around this problem that I don't know of).

Re: In Defense Of The Stylus

#24

Post by d_r » Sat, Nov 12, 2011, 6:36 AM UTC

6ren wrote: post #23

Is it possible to use a stylus on a capacitive touchscreen? (perhaps by ensuring it has the same capacitance as a finger - a small finger). I found editing maddening on an iPad because of the inaccuracy. You can roll your finger to adjust the cursor position, and the magnifying window helps, but it's not as good as simple cursor keys ( disclaimer I was just trying it out in an apple store, so there may be ways around…

You can. For example, this one by Wacom: http://www.amazon.com/Bamboo-Stylus-for-iPad-CS100K/dp/B004V...

(Disclaimer: I haven't tried it yet. Would be interesting to hear others' feedback.)

Re: In Defense Of The Stylus

#25

Post by SoftwareMaven » Sat, Nov 12, 2011, 6:41 AM UTC

I'm dying for an accurate stylus for my iPad. I do too many notes and visual mockups that upi epwant more precise that the big rubber blobs give. I'd be willing to pay $50 for this if it lasts and works as advertised.

No luck so far!

Re: In Defense Of The Stylus

#26

Post by john61 » Sat, Nov 12, 2011, 6:46 AM UTC

The smartphone N900 has a very sensitive touch screen and a stylus. Altough it would be possible to live without it, it would be a big regression. People just said ohhh that's so old fashioned. Sinve my phone is not a fashion item but a work horse, I never understood the irrational fashion the drop of the stylus by the fashion industry.

Re: In Defense Of The Stylus

#27

Post by rayiner » Sat, Nov 12, 2011, 7:47 AM UTC

dnquark wrote: post #20

The lack of adoption of stylus-based input is very disappointing. I'm always floating in random scraps of paper with notes, derivations, etc. I've always found note-taking, especially when math is involved, much more natural with a pen than with a keyboard. The article does a good job of outlining why that is. I'm not alone; just think of the likely penetration rate of Moleskines among HN readers. On the other hand,…

I too use pencil and paper when I really need to "think", but I think for most things a stylus is the wrong sort of input for what you want to do with a portable device.

For consumption tasks, browsing the web, etc, a touch interface is far preferable. For those tasks where touch isn't sufficient, a stylus isn't at all better. A stylus just doesn't work without the tactile response of paper (which the textured Wacom tablets can offer but a portable device can't).

Re: In Defense Of The Stylus

#28

Post by chc » Sat, Nov 12, 2011, 8:33 AM UTC

6ren wrote: post #23

Is it possible to use a stylus on a capacitive touchscreen? (perhaps by ensuring it has the same capacitance as a finger - a small finger). I found editing maddening on an iPad because of the inaccuracy. You can roll your finger to adjust the cursor position, and the magnifying window helps, but it's not as good as simple cursor keys ( disclaimer I was just trying it out in an apple store, so there may be ways around…

Although they make them, I'm pretty sure capacitative screens don't have the kind of precision you want from a stylus.

Re: In Defense Of The Stylus

#29

Post by dnquark » Sat, Nov 12, 2011, 12:14 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #27

dnquark wrote: post #20

The lack of adoption of stylus-based input is very disappointing. I'm always floating in random scraps of paper with notes, derivations, etc. I've always found note-taking, especially when math is involved, much more natural with a pen than with a keyboard. The article does a good job of outlining why that is. I'm not alone; just think of the likely penetration rate of Moleskines among HN readers. On the other hand,…

I too use pencil and paper when I really need to "think", but I think for most things a stylus is the wrong sort of input for what you want to do with a portable device. For consumption tasks, browsing the web, etc, a touch interface is far preferable. For those tasks where touch isn't sufficient, a stylus isn't at all better. A stylus just doesn't work without the tactile response of paper (which the textured Wacom…

That hasn't been my experience (I've been using a tablet PC for the last 3 years). With a precise digitizer and good software, stylus-on-screen writing isn't very different from that of pencil on paper. The convenience of permanence/editability/easy sharing vastly outweighs somewhat inferior tactile feel.

Re: In Defense Of The Stylus

#30

Post by pfraze » Sat, Nov 12, 2011, 3:02 PM UTC

You know what I would like? A tablet with a stylus input for one hand, and a kinect facing up off the left side for the other. I'd write with my right, and hover my left to make small gestures that manipulate the screen space. Drop the stylus, both hands are making gestures.