A while back, probably on The Old Place, I asked about styli for iHones. A few were suggested, and I tried a couple. They were find for tapping, but if you wanted to draw with them, they were worse than useless. Being rubber, they dragged and you had to press pretty hard to make them work. Not a good experience.

I recently found (by way of Chris Phin from MacFormat) one which works really nicely on the iPad - it’s an Alupen. It’s a big chunky piece of aluminium, and has a softer foam-like tip. Pressure needed to register a tap is very light (about the same as you would use with your finger), and there is no drag when drawing. A result!

http://www.xtand.net/alupen.html

Here are a copuple of sample drawings I’ve done:





Obviously, there is no pressure data exchanged between the pen and the iPad (apparently, the iPad CAN detect pressure, but the API is private, so no apps can use it), so to change line thicknes and opacity means doing it manually. However, the Alupen is a nice thing to use.

This new one looks rather interesting.

As long as it doesn't require Evernote for some reason.

I think it's a branding thing. They say any app that uses their updated API will work with it. No information about pressure sensitivity, so probably not for me. I bet a future version will offer that.

I'm seeing more and more people running around with a stylus attached to their phone recently...

Noteability seems to be the one they're pushing with it (it seems to be the only app that is going to have support for the added accuracy in place at launch). Noteability isn't really an art app, it's less focussed than say artrage and doesn't have the range of tools and effects that does. Once Artrage/autodesk start supporting it it could be more interesting.

I know pressure sensitivity is a showstopper for some. I suspect it might turn out to be of a 'rotring pen for the iPad' rather than more general stylus. It reminds me rather a lot of the pen you get with the Surface pro, although tbh I have only been middlingly impressed with that. You can do quite a lot with it but the pen itself feels very cheap & tacky.

Getting a Pencil for Christmas

I use the Paper app all the time with a standard cheap stylus. It's much easier than having to use your finger.

This Pencil just makes everything that much better again.

How are you managing that? They don't seem to be shipping them outside the US...

Friends of the family in the US.

Both the FiftyThree Pencil and the Adonit Jot with PixelPoint are now available on Amazon UK.

I love the look of the Pencil but the Pixelpoint Jot just seems to be technically much better. The prices are getting a bit insane either way.

Jon

It's probably cheaper to buy the Adonit model direct from Adonit.

Probably not much actually. Charge from Adonit is roughly 80 quid equivalent with cheapest shipping. You'll almost certainly get hit for VAT/Duty and if you do, the UK post office add a nice 'admin charge' on top as well. It'll probably end up less than a tenner cheaper, you'll wait a few weeks instead of a few days to get it and probably have to take a trip to a sorting office to pay the charge and accept the delivery. Frankly...

OK,what are the functional differences between the Jot Script Evernote Edition (with Pixelpoint) and the Jot Touch Pixelpoint, if any? As far as I can see the differences are aesthetics and the fact the Script is powered by AAA's whereas the Touch is charged via USB. Is it basically just down to looks, because I actually rather prefer the look of Script and it's like $40 cheaper..