[k-munic]

The speculation about the Wacom coop with Apple produces this idea:

How about a new application, iWrite? To work on a monitor, the mouse is now for 30 years the best tool, just point and click; but to do "real" input, we all have to learn to play on a very strange keyboard.

Voice input is still a little tricky...-

But we are all familiar with handwriting (ok, most of us...-). So, if the Mac is a Digital Hub, we want to do a lot of email e.g. Why not writing on a piece of "paper" and the Mac translate it into ASCII??

The older ones remember a nice piece of shareware for the Newton, to use its ability of handwriting recognition as a "real time translator" over the ADB cable for your Mac...-

Probably we will see a new keyboard with a little AddOn, a little area for handwriting (and painting, of course) - mockup makers to the front!

Sorry, a lil´ old fashioned&simple this idea - but think about the average user...-

14 days and counting.........

[icruise]

I've discussed this idea with others before, but the thing is that I can't think of a single advantage to this. On a PDA it makes sense, since you can't have a full-sized keyboard on such a small machine, but on a desktop or laptop? Take it from a former Newton user that while the recognition was very good in the later models, it was far from perfect. It might seem good for beginners, but in reality recognition errors would actually make things more frustrating than using a keyboard.

And of course almost anyone remotely familiar with computers can type faster than they can write.

[ 07-04-2001: Message edited by: Icruise ]

[Nonsuch]

A big problem with tablet interfaces, to me, is that they don't take into account the way people actually write. First of all, it's not natural to hold a pen out from your body the way you'd have to in order to use a stylus on a computer screen. You think office workers suffer from repetitive stress injuries now? Second, people are not accustomed to writing on surfaces they need to keep free of dirt or damage. Some folks write with a heavy hand; some trail the heel of their hand across the page and get everything all smudgy. Most people would find writing on a screen very uncomfortable and hate every second of it. And you know how people bang their mouses around when they get frustrated with an unresponsive system ... imagine the fun of replacing an LCD after someone's driven a stylus through it.

http://www.wacom.com/lcdtablets/pl500.cfm

[SirCastor]

Originally posted by <nana3>:
<STRONG>http://www.wacom.com/lcdtablets/pl500.cfm
</STRONG>

Wow, that's a neat product.... too bad it cost more than my G4 and a Cinema display COMBINED.

As for the iWrite, on top of all the arguements presented, I suggest you try actaully using a graphics tablet for a couple days. After using a mouse for 14 years, It was a steep learning curve. The only reason it wasn't frustrating was because I had gotten the pad free and didn't need it. I think it would frustrate beginners to heck
-Aaron

[schwa]

Setting aside the mouse-replacement idea, I just can't see anyone accepting a stylus as a replacement for a keyboard. Once you learn how to touch-type, handwriting becomes unbearably slow for all but the briefest of instances. Average WPM on a keyboard probably falls in the 40-60 range, something you simply can't achieve in longhand.

[cube-dude]

This discussion is more Peripherals than Power Mac. Transferring to the Peripherals forum.