OK ok ok ok, i admit. We aren't really a gadget blog, that is another blog's job. But every once and awhile some really cool stuff strikes our fancy. Case in point? Wacom's new Bamboo Pen and Touch tablet, offering pen/stylus input and multitouch gestures. Turning any computer into a multitouch device and drawing surface.
"Hawt." I said when I heard about this. "Awesome town," when I actually saw a demonstration of it. With my free shipping copy of Windows 7 coming, I am all over this device. I actually just got back from Best Buy and am already using it. I'm going out of my way to not use my mouse and so far this attempt is beyond successful. It takes some getting used to in the fact, I don't have a physical object I'm steering my computer with anymore. Yeah yeah, people on laptops have had this for years, where have I been, blah blah blah...it's multitouch for any computer. It instantly changes the way I navigate my computer. This is an arguement you can't deny, ask all those enthralled and happy Mac users - multitouch gestures have fundamentally changed the way they navigate that OS. But if that weren't enough I can draw on this thing!
Apart from my upcoming coffee table mod to have a USB hub built into it, this is probably the coolest thing I've seen in awhile. I've never owned a tablet input device, but I've always envied the people that do. I'm a designer, I'm a developer, this is a device I've been asked "Why the hell DON'T you have one dzak?" No more, it's mine. Anyway, this is everything you'd/I expect it to be. Two fingers left or right either forward/back pages, two fingers up and down scroll pages, pinch to zoom, twist to rotate, a two finger tap is a right click, and a single finger tap blows up your computer, haha, no it of course is the equivalent of a double click...but no seriously it blows up your computer. Having never used a tablet input device before (much less a multitouch one) I am a huge fan of the fact that while in Photoshop I no longer need the Magnifying Glass tool to zoom in or out, the device just does it. Photoshop knows what is going on. Likewise rotating, Photoshop just gets it. I think I'm in love as a designer?
I gotta say the $99 price point I argued with for awhile, because while we are reviewing the Bamboo Pen and Touch - there is also just a Bamboo Touch and a Bamboo Pen device which are both themselves $69. Either you can only draw (Bamboo Pen, this device does have a tablet it's just pen only input) OR only use mulitouch gestures to navigate (Bamboo Touch). But here's what I personally struggle with, these prices are to suggest that the ability to use the pen costs $30. A $30 pen? Yeah you can turn it upside down and erase n stuff...but...$30? I mean, I guess if you are going to do it - do it right but, gahh, this seems steep just looking at it from solely the perspective of adding a pen to the Bamboo Touch. Which by the way you can't do, if you buy the Bamboo Touch - prepare for multitouch only, you can't add a pen if you wanted to. Then again, I'm sure you could build DIY capacitive stylus but then you couldn't do the neat eraser tricks. Ok maybe $30 isn't that bad of an additional price to be able to do both multitouch and drawing.
The end result, having a trackpad for desktop is a very new experience for me (and it probably is in general for anyone) let alone the fact it's a multitouch surface. I've successfully not used my mouse for the better part of the week and I don't seem to be missing it. Plus the batteries are already in an Xbox360 controller, and there is no going back! The device is insanely accurate and just as responsive as those fancy Apple Macbooks.
If you are envious of those Apple people as a Windows user this is the device to get. With Windows 7 right around the corner I can't wait to play with the touch applications with my new tablet. This is a brilliant way to spend $99. But if you have no intention of drawing, you can settle for the Bamboo Touch for $69.
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