Steve Jobs might just be rolling over in his grave right now.
Eight years ago, the Apple leader announced to a crowd at Macworld 2007 his distaste for styluses. “Who wants a stylus,” Jobs asked. “You have to get ’em and put ’em away and you lose ’em, yuck! Nobody wants a stylus, so let’s not use a stylus.”
Jobs went on to talk about how fingers — not a stylus — could be used to take advantage of their touch screen technology.
Years later, Apple has unveiled the Apple Pencil, sparking a lot of discussion on the internet over the apparent contradiction between Jobs’ vision of mobile technology and the existence of the device today.
An article by Christian Vasile on LinkedIn played the devil’s advocate with the new device. Vasile wrote that Jobs was right in that nobody wants a stylus, but suggests that Jobs was saying a stylus wouldn’t work as an exclusive means of input for a device. As an addition to the traditional touch screen capabilities made by a finger, it may work. He goes on to say that the Apple Pencil is actually being marketed as a “precision tool” for things that require detail to excel at, such as drawing.
On the flip side, a very intricate analysis of the device by Aaron Souppouris on Engadget ran with a general sentiment: “It looks great, but…”
Souppouris argues against the idea of the Apple Pencil being useful for drawing, quoting a professional illustrator as saying the necessary software to perform such a task isn’t available on any of the devices the Apple Pencil would be useful for.
He goes on to predict that while apps may be created by developers to support the stylus, they will never be useful for anything more than casual drawing.
The big question regarding the Apple Pencil is whether it will be practical to take on tasks that are currently better suited by other forms of technology, or even a normal pen. Souppouris interviewed several others and after hearing the reasons why the device probably won’t live up to their standards, most said that they would still probably try it out anyway.
With a reputation of consistently releasing quality products, the Apple Pencil might just surprise the world with what it can do. Perhaps the jokes and the criticism of the device are simply a product of taking it away from its intended context as a drawing tool.
Either way, prospective users of the Apple Pencil can expect it to be highly responsive with no input latency. Lines of any thickness can be made by varying the amount of pressure used. Tilting the device will create shading. The device will also charge at a very rapid rate; 15 seconds of charging will give you 30 minutes of battery life. Fully charged, the device sports 12 hours of battery life.
The Apple Pencil will be available for purchase in November for $99.
