

 Bill Gates: Microsoft pursuing 'a lot of' tablet projects - luminary
http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/04/bill-gates-microsoft-pursuing-a-lot-of-tablet-projects-pen-b/

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viraptor
> _Bill Gates has been an unashamed promoter of pen-based computing for the
> longest time, and it's fun to see that even cold hard facts are insufficient
> to shake his confidence._

Does "hard facts" simply mean that iPhone doesn't use a stylus and is still
sold? That says almost nothing about using pen-based input. iPhone didn't have
one, so people didn't use one. App creators knew there's no stylus, so they
designed UI accordingly. That's pretty much it...

Now if MS stepped up with their Pad and introduced a high quality handwriting
recognition, people would want to use a stylus for it.

PS. I'll give my stylus when you take it from my cold, dead hands. I love
using it for web browsing. And I love my task switcher. Not everyone lives
S.J.'s dreams.

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stcredzero
I have both a tc1100 and an iPad. I find that Windows XP Tablet's text
recognition is phenomenal. However, my text input is faster one-handed on the
iPad in _portrait_ mode than it is on the tc1100 writing with the stylus. My
text input with the landscape keyboard two-handed is almost the same as on a
physical keyboard.

Also, the user experience on the iPad is much more refined.

When the iPhone/iPad ecosystem matures, I expect Apple to reintroduce the
stylus. Either that, or someone will develop a bluetooth stylus. (Which would
exploit the capacitative touchscreen, but add pressure sensitivity.)

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melling
I agree that some sort of pen based solution would be useful. Imagine a screen
where we could write anywhere on it then select any area, like a drawing, and
paste the text. Being able to compose our own notebooks like Leonardo is the
endgame.

[http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8...](http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=leonardos+notebooks)

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mirasombra
I love pen input but touch too(touch between options, be able to draw and
write).

In fact, I think Apple does too, and they are going to enter the market with
only touch, and when mass production is ready, add cameras and pen too. They
always do things in an progressive evolutionary way.

MS tried tablets but not changed the UI enough. Ultra expensive and you need a
pen for anything(only one detailed point, we have ten fingers).

IMHO Chinese, Korean and Japanese really need the pen for writing.

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joubert
You can use the iPhone sausage stylus.
[http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/08/sausage-stylus-for-the-
ip...](http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/08/sausage-stylus-for-the-iphone-now-
on-sale-in-the-us/)

