Stylus vs. Touch

Stylus has been around for ages before multi-touch invades our daily lives. Nowadays all these tablets (aka iPad) and smart phones (aka iPhone) have touch, and seems like stylus has become one of those items in the museum of gadgetry, slowly becomes a forgotten memory in our human history. However, I for one has not forgotten about that.

I always want to be able to take note in a very flexible way in a meeting or whatsoever. There are all sorts of applications that I can think of! For instance, I can record the meeting / presentation / seminar while jogging down notes, taking pictures of something I see on the street and take note, found some internet that I could take note for later use in work, etc. Sadly, it seems stylus and multi-touch are not easy to co-exist. And, those gadgets (aka semi-smart phones that use stylus) are just too slow, too small, and too impotent for anything.

 HTC Flyer and Samsung Galaxy Note then caught my attention! Actually Samsung was my first choice because of its size - 5.3", which is just right. After checking some reviews and Youtube, I have decided to visit one of those stores to check it out. Yes, it is a very beautiful device with its huge AMOLED screen (for a smartphone it is huge!). However, the only function that I want - stylus function to be able to write and take note - with its so-called S Pen just not satisfying at all - it is not responsive, it is just weird!

As for the HTC Flyer, unfortunately I could not find anywhere in Shanghai where I can try out the product. So, all I can do is to rely on the reviews and YouTube video clips. Again, from the reviews the scribble function (as being called by HTC) just functioned badly - it is not writing on the paper, size is double, and hand writing is ugly.

After checking both of these devices available, I somehow come to a conclusion - intuitive writing like on a paper is still far from being achieved by current technology! One thing for sure, the paper has friction, and precision of writing can be freely controlled by our hand, gripping force, pressing force, etc. All these natural movements are still not able to be mapped digitally on these tablets, computers or smart phones. I so hope one day I do not need to take note on a paper in a meeting, and then forget about it because it is just to troublesome to digitize it!