Wacom Bamboo Fun Pen and Touch Unboxing and Review

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.

For all the technical stuff, visit: http://www.wacom.com/bamboo/bamboo_fun.php 

For photography related reviews, check out my YouTube channel.

iPhone OS 4.0

Hey guys I know it has been awhile since my last post. I have just been really busy with everything but today I am really excited to share with you iPhone OS 4.0 and my thoughts on it. Yes, I know this was released yesterday but I had some previous jobs I had to do. So here it is.

First I will go over the 4 major new features that were gone over in the keynote because I just don't have time to write about all 100 new features. The first new feature I will go over is multitasking. This is a real big addition to the iPhone OS. One reason for this is because their biggest competitors have been able to multitask on their devices for a long time. Apple claims that they haven't had it on their platform until now because they wanted to wait until they had it just right. What they mean by this is not only the interface of it but while using multitasking you wont kill your battery or lose a lot of the phones power. Multitasking will let the customer play music from other apps while they go into another app. For example a user could be listening to their Pandora account and then close out of it and go into another app and the music wouldn't stop like it use to. Another way to use multitasking is by using VOIP or Voice over IP. This is like taking a skype call and then closing out and staying on the call and being able to go play a game. This is a real big thing for many people. The next big feature that was added is folders. Folders will let the user put all the apps they want in one place. With a simple drop one app on top of another app you will be making folders. You will even be able to name the folders. For those of you that ran out of space because you could only have 180 apps on your device you will now be able to have 2,160 apps with these new folders. The next big feature that was added is an even better mail app. With this new mail app you will be able to have multiple exchange accounts hooked up to the same device. You will also have the option to show all your email accounts in one big inbox so you don't have to keep switching back and fourth between the different inbox. Other parts of the new mail app include being able to open attachments in third party apps, organizing messages by thread, and switching between inbox faster. The last major feature that they showed off was iBooks. Now yes iBooks was released with the iPad but now Apple has brought that same app, book store, and all the other books you have bought to the iPhone and iPod Touch. You can even do this while listening to music. One other cool new thing they talked about and showed but didn't go into much detail was about being able to change you home screen background. You now will be able to have what ever picture you want as your background and it doesn't have to stay black. At the keynote that also went over a new thing called iAD and Enterprise. They also went over the fact that there is now over 1,500 new APIs for developers to use and make their apps do what we just talked about. iAD in a quick little description is Apples new way to put ads in developers apps so that they can keep them free and still make money.It is a really cool and interactive way to put ads in apps. Enterprise is for companies. This will let companies easily deploy many iPhones through out their company. This will also let them make and distribute apps just for their company very easily to every one. A cool new thing about that for them is that they wont even need to plug in their phones and sync the apps they will be able to do it wireless. Now here is the catch this is a direct quote for apple.com " Phone OS 4 will work with iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and the second- and third-generation iPod touch this summer, and with iPad in the fall. Not all features are compatible with all devices. For example, multitasking is available only with iPhone 3GS and the third-generation iPod touch (32GB and 64GB models from late 2009)."

Now for my feelings and impressions about the new iPhone OS. Over all I am very happy about all the new features and will love to have them on my iPod Touch. The only downfall is that I wont be able to multitask on it because I have the 2nd Generation. This disappoints me very much because this is something that I have been looking forward to for a long time. Now if we put that aside I am extremely happy. I will be able to set one of my own pictures as the background and these new folders will let my organize my minimal app collection. I will also be able to merge my inbox and for me this isn't the biggest thing because I really only get mail in one inbox but when I do get mail from the other mail box I wont have to spend the time to switch to it. Another feature that was talked about but I wont be using is the feature of being able to have multiple exchange accounts. The first and the biggest reason is that I don't even have one exchange account so this doesn't effect me. Now for the iBooks app. I'm not the biggest reader and for that I rarely read at all. When I do read it is in school and during school I cant pull out my iPod and claim to be reading so I most likely won't be using this app but if for some reason I do decide to download a book and read it using this app from what I know the experience will be great. Over all as you can tell I am very happy with the turn out of iPhone OS 4.0 and can't wait to use it this summer.

iPhone OS 4.0 will be available this summer for the iPhone and iPod Touch and then later this fall for the iPad. There is no price that it will be going for at the time. For more information on iPhone OS 4.0 go to http://www.apple.com/iphone/preview-iphone-os/. You can also download the keynote or watch it one apple.com for more information and demos of everything talked about.

For more of my work go to http://applman02-appleworld.blogspot.com/. Thanks.

Apple Rumour: Touchscreen iMac

Rumours have been floating around Twitter that Apple could be annoucing a brand new line of iMac's, along with the 'iSlate', with touchscreen functionality.

The new 22" iMac is to bring the experience from the normal iMac to a brand new level. I focuses the touch functions available on the iPhone, Magic Mouse and the Macbook trackpad all to the screen. By adding this functionality, Apple will make one of their already big products even bigger, more expensive and with more power than a average household would want.

Although this sounds like a bad idea, it would be useful to schools, particularly schools which have disabled children or adults who don't know how to use a desktop computer. The functionality would also allow photographers to skim through the photos took on the photoshoot, view it full screen and send them straight off to their client.

I must say although the idea looks a bit misty right now, if it isn't announced sometime this year, it'll certainly be released sometime next year.

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More is More in 10GUI

Over a quarter-century ago, Xerox introduced the modern graphical user interface paradigm we today take for granted. 10/GUI aims to bridge this gap by rethinking the desktop to leverage technology in an intuitive and powerful way.

A friend of mine introduced the 10GUI project to me a couple months ago. I watched the video for a couple minutes, lost interest, and shut down the computer; It was late and I wanted to get to sleep. Yesterday I revisited the site, and watched the entire video. Please visit the website, read the information, and watch this ten minute video. It will be worth your time, I can guarantee it. Before I get into what my real thoughts about 10GUI are, I want to talk about the brief history of touch sensitive computing.

The first touch sensor was invented in 1971, from that year all thew way up to the beginning of the 21st century, I believe there was no improvement on a large scale. Sure, the sensors got smaller, sure they became more sensitive, and sure, the screens got bigger, but there was never a large advancement in usability, or interaction. This is because there are many problems that arise when trying to make a large change, which I will get to within the next few paragraphs.

I believe that Apple’s Multi-Touch, or Cocoa-Touch technology has been the foundation for touch screen computing in these past few years. Upon the release of the original iPhone, other cellular carriers designed and developed touch-screen phones like rapid-fire to compete with the iPhone. Droid, Storm, and myTouch all have their own “Multi-Touch” features, but it’s not like they would be here as they are if the Apple had not developed the iPhone with it’s own “touch” capability. Apple, along with it’s competitors has given us the opportunity to realize that touch-screen computing is the future, and for me, 10GUI is the future.

Touch technology did not take off so quickly in the computing sector because of the problems that arise. When you are using a touch computing mobile device, such as an iPhone, your fingers are not always on the screen when using an application. However, when using a computer, your fingers and hands are always resting on the keyboard or mouse. Therefore, if you were to enlarge the screen of a touch enabled mobile device and put on a desktop operating system on it, your fingers would always be resting on the screen; with your hands resting on the screen, much of your viewing space is taken up. 10GUI solves this problem by using a keyboard shaped pad.

Take a look at your current desktop, what do you see? If you are the “average” person, it is likely that you have more than one window open, one, being the browser window, which takes up a decent percentage of your screen size. Then you have the other windows that take up any remaining space, or are too large and must be minimized. 10GUI solves this problem by turning your monitor into one linear window. New applications will appear as they are launched, and navigation is possible by multi-touch gestures. As you switch Applications, different multi-touch gestures become available, and there are hundreds of combinations because of the number of fingers you have.

Imagine yourself as a sound technician in a recording studio. You are manning the equalizer on a non-touch screen computer. To adjust, you must use your mouse, and singularly move each dial or fob until satisfactory; this is completely different than using a real EQ, because you have all your fingers available to move the dials and fobs at the same time.

This is one of the main phenomenons about 10GUI. It allows the user to not be limited to “a single pair of coordinates”. Using more of your fingers will increase the speed of which you complete tasks. Since multiple fingers can be doing multiple things at the same time, this makes multi-tasking a breeze. The touch-pad also has three layers of sensitivity, which triples the number of actions you can do with your fingers, depending on the number you use, and the pressure that is applied. In 10GUI, more is more.

JD

My Bite Into Apple

http://mybiteintoapple.com

Eliminate Pro Review

Hello everyone, David here. This post here is for those of you who love to game on your iPhones or iPod touches. This video on my tech channel is a review of Eliminate Pro, a first person shooter for the aforementioned Apple devices. Over all, I think it's a very good game and is a must have for iPhone and iPod owners. Enjoy the review, and make sure to read the blog post that goes along with this video on my TechnoBuffalo Sub Blog.