I always like to keep water at my desk when I am working online, but one thing that really bothers me is not having water that taste fresh. Most all bottles will of course hold your water in them, but will they keep your water at a cool refreshing temperature? The Bamboo Bottle by the Bamboo Bottle Company looks great, is easy to clean, and keeps your water or beverage fresh for a very long time.
I get asked the question all of the time,"What programs will that tablet work on?" The answer is quite simple, any program that you can use a mouse on will work with it, just install the drivers first. The tablet literally works as a mouse only with pressure sensitivity.
There are many styluses on the market now for Apple products that claim to be the best. All ranging in price, design, and function. I have used most of them, and to be honest it's hard to say that most of them have been worth the money. One thing to also keep an eye open for are fakes, there are hundreds and hundreds of fakes on the market, most of which consume the market on eBay. I have owned a few of the fakes and cheaper ones, and one sign to note is the material of the tip, if the tip is a shiney rubbery material, don't get it. Wacom has producted a fantastic stylus and app to match it! The app is currently free, and the stylus ranges in price, but can be found on Amazon for around $25 for the black one (unfortunately some places charge more for different colors). The tip is a soft rubber that is pressure sensitive and one of the best styluses on the market.
When it comes to the tablet market, Wacom is no stranger. With some of the best tablet products availiable, Wacom boast a pretty amazing lineup of art and design tablets. One of their newest tablet lines is called Bamboo. There are many core features that make their Bamboo line one worth mention. With a touch trackpad surface and of course the option of using the pen stylus, Bamboo is one of the most versitile products on the market. The color of the Bamboo Capture matches that of the MacBook Pro aluminum body and is the perfect size for most all desk sizes, also featuing a pretty open range surface area. It is a product worth getting if you do any type of graphic design or art on your computer, the included software alone makes up most of the price.
A few months ago, I purchased the Wacom Bamboo Fun Pen and Touch graphics tablet to preplace the Intuos4 tablet I had originally purchased. I use this tablet for photo editing and some light drawing on Photoshop. The Intuos was simply overkill for my needs and as a student, I wanted to save as much money as I could and so I decided to try out the Bamboo. I’m so glad I did.
My first impressions of this product are all very positive. Firstly, the build quality is superb. I thought that the build quality would not impress me considering the price difference compared the the Intuous line of tablets, but I was just blown away. The tablet feels very solid in my hand, very close to the feel of the Intuous. It also has a bit of weight to it, which for me is a positive thing. Its feels very dense and well built. Overall, I think the build quality of the tablet is excellent.
Secondly, the look of the tablet, although not as elegant as the Intuous4, is very nice. It comes is a silver finish. Although it’s made with plastic, it looks like brushed aluminum. Its more “fun” than the Intuous4 and the color matches the macbook air I use when I’m working away from my desk, which is a plus for me.
The pen is quite different from that of the Intuous. It is definitely lighter and doesn’t feel as substantial. It also doesn’t come with a rubber grip, which may be uncomfortable for some. However, after a few hours of usage, I got used to the feeling and it didn’t bother me at all.
Alright, so now that I’ve talked quite a bit about the build quality, I’m going to move on to the performance of the tablet. The Intuous is said to have double the amount of pressure sensors of the Bamboo, however, I can honestly say that I don’t feel a difference whatsoever. The sensitivity feels exactly the same to me. For those of you who want to use a tablet for the same things I do, you’ll be perfectly happy with a bamboo.
The biggest difference to me is the lack of a programmable wheel and the 4 less programmable buttons on the bamboo. When I had my Intuous, I used the wheel a lot. I set it to control brush size, zooming, rotating of the canvas and the history, which saved me a bit of time. However, I’m used to using the keyboard for shortcuts anyway so it wasn’t a big problem moving back to using the keyboard for most of the functions that I use.
Other things which I didn’t like about the bamboo are that the cable is not detachable unlike the Intuous. I bring the tablet to school and back a few times a week and I am afraid that the cable will stop functioning in the future because of the way it bends in my computer bag. A detachable cable would allow me to store it separately, and it is easily replaced if it does break. Also, the cable is white which means that it is a dirt magnet.
The one feature which I didn’t really talk about through this review is the touch feature. The bamboo fun pen and touch can be used as a huge track pad. Although this is a fun feature, I never really use it. I usually turn the touch functionality off because I accidentally click it sometimes (which can get annoying). Some people may le this feature, but I don’t. I don’t see this as a disadvantage though because it can be turned off, and I know it’s there just in case I may want to use it in the future. I’m sure that the implementation of this feature will only get better.
Overall the Wacom Bamboo Fun Pen and Touch is a great product for those of you that want tablets, but can’t afford the Intuous line. I believe that is give you the most ”bang for your buck”. Of course, there are even cheaper tablets out there like the bamboo tablets that are limited to either pen or touch (which are all excellent aswell). There are also other brands that sell tablets for much cheaper, but I believe that Wacom is the way to go because you’re almost guaranteed an excellent product. I’m happy that I downgraded from the Intuous4 and I’m sure any of you who purchase this product will be 100% happy as well.
James Agee