Revenge of the Stylus
Many of us have used early Windows Mobile smartphones and remember how we depended on the stylus for basic needs such as clicking and typing. I even remember keeping a nail on my right thumb to navigate and type with out pulling the stylus out :-)
Then Apple innovated over the stylus with Finger accessible touch screen controls and virtually pushed the stylus to extinction.
But now the stylus is making a come back as a productivity enhancer than a killer as it used to be. And Samsung is leading the pack with interesting stylus enabled devices and applications on Android platform. Another testament to innovation in the Android gang.
Many of us have used early Windows Mobile smartphones and remember how we depended on the stylus for basic needs such as clicking and typing. I even remember keeping a nail on my right thumb to navigate and type with out pulling the stylus out :-)
Then Apple innovated over the stylus with Finger accessible touch screen controls and virtually pushed the stylus to extinction.
But now the stylus is making a come back as a productivity enhancer than a killer as it used to be. And Samsung is leading the pack with interesting stylus enabled devices and applications on Android platform. Another testament to innovation in the Android gang.
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The stylus is a great addition to a device with just a screen without a physical keyboard and a mouse/touchpad. But the problem is in its implementation. Samsung is definitely making its stride toward that. HTC is great at implementation, they have done well with the Flyer tablet.
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Handwriting, shape and formula recognition looks more interesting on Samsung Galaxy Note 800 and the new Note 10.1. Its not just about hardware anymore. We need great inbuilt apps and deep integration for an enhanced experience.
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WOW. is that even android . its so damn good. i hope they get this in native android. i wonder if all the multitasking stuff is done my samsung itself
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Android is totally modular and these enhancements are presently available only on Samsung devices but we can expect to see similar features in future versions of Android. More over these features are hardware dependent too. Normal capacitive touchscreens are made to recognize coarse touch input where as stylus input requires fine touch enabled screens.
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True! Android is completely modular and all these enhancements can be brought in as an app if they are not merged into the core and I am positive somebody is already working on this.
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I recently tried Galaxy Note 10.1 and all the stylus enhancements are restricted to the SNote app. They were not available as core functionality. To android its just a fine gesture input (stroke) and apps have to make sense of it. On the contrary, it would be better to extend Android and integrate the stylus as an input method similar to onscreen keyboard. Stylus can then provide text input (Handwriting Recognition) and vector images as overlays from shapes and formulas to any app.
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