iPad Pro FYI 9.3 beta breaks Apple pencil

[PattyMc]

Yes that's what I'm trying to do now, holding my pencil but using finger to scroll, really like scrolling with the Pencil though!

Sjleworthy..have fun with it while you can, definitely don't want to spoil your fun, I just know how I am and going to try to adapt to this new way even if I don't like it much!

 

[sjleworthy]

true.

it's like i used my ipad2 in portrait mode. always. no other way. now i use my Pro in landscape and landscape only and much prefer it. perhaps the screen plays easier into this orientation. that was a pretty quick transition for me, which i thought i'd be kicking and screaming about. infact, not 1 toy was hurled from my cot

 

[The Game 161]

I have started to scroll with the pencil but really need to get out of doing that now ha

 

[PBG4 Dude]

I might take the fuzzy end of a non-powered stylus and glue that onto the pencil's cap. This way I can flip my pencil around when I want to navigate.

 

[Cnasty]

I really enjoy using the pencil to scroll..when its out of its box. I only bring it out in meetings and that is almost 99% note taking and no scrolling involved.

When I am casually using the Pro the Pencil is back in it's box.

I will say I enjoy the pencil and it is great at note taking but I wish the tip was a little more fine for my caveman handwriting. It is a bit too knubby if you will.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

I might take the fuzzy end of a non-powered stylus and glue that onto the pencil's cap. This way I can flip my pencil around when I want to navigate.

This is a really good idea.

 

[upritbass]

I might take the fuzzy end of a non-powered stylus and glue that onto the pencil's cap. This way I can flip my pencil around when I want to navigate.

How is that more convenient than just pointing your finger while holding the pencil?

Anyway, they need to clean up the interface. There are times when it works the same as a finger and times when it doesn't. *tap* *tap* *tap* C'mon, select the button!

 

[Eric5273]

I'm now thinking I may just get a cheap capacitive stylus instead of the Apple Pencil. The only kind of writing I would ever do is to sign a PDF. The rest of my use of a stylus would be as a mouse replacement for apps like Excel where it helps to have more precision than my finger can easily provide. I'm thinking I may be better off with just a cheap capacitive stylus that can still be used for navigation. I see there is a new one that just came out called the Adonit Mark that is only $12.99. It looks pretty nice.

 

[The Game 161]

Really does suck apple have done this, sucks we can't use it how we wish

 

[zaneliu]

Here's my reasoning for using the  Pencil for scrolling. When I've got my iPad set up with the keyboard and I'm sitting back to type and use the iPad, I have to move my entire body and lean forward to then use my finger to adjust the device. But with the pencil I get the extra 6 inches to use as an UI device. It's not that I'm being lazy but considering you lean back when operating a device with a keyboard, it's just simpler and honestly more comfortable.

 

[lagwagon]

Yes, I too can do without NightShift, lol, but eventually I know that some wonderful app will be developed and of course it will require iOS (fill in blank) and then I'll want to update.

So I figure I might as well try to get myself used to not scrolling with the Pencil...sooner rather than later when I'm even more attached to doing this.

Keep hoping that Apple will have a change of heart but it's looking more and more...not.

Apple might have a change of heart but it won't be until after 9.3 officially releases. Not everyone runs beta and even knows that scrolling with the Pencil is going away in 9.3 yet. Apple will see more feedback when more of the actual public find out its gone after they update to 9.3.

 

[Beavix]

Here's my reasoning for using the  Pencil for scrolling. When I've got my iPad set up with the keyboard and I'm sitting back to type and use the iPad, I have to move my entire body and lean forward to then use my finger to adjust the device. But with the pencil I get the extra 6 inches to use as an UI device. It's not that I'm being lazy but considering you lean back when operating a device with a keyboard, it's just simpler and honestly more comfortable.

Wait, if your hands are on the keyboard, scrolling means picking up the Pencil first and then using it to scroll the screen. Isn't it easier/faster to just scroll with the finger?

 

[The Game 161]

huh? It's a beta, apple isn't going to leave pencil support out in the public release of 9.3.

Why not? If they aren't allowing it in beta what makes you think it will change when the release is out?

 

[rhildinger]

I might take the fuzzy end of a non-powered stylus and glue that onto the pencil's cap. This way I can flip my pencil around when I want to navigate.

Not a bad idea, but it's going to take a little more effort than what you listed. Capacitive styli work by creating a conduction path from your hand to the rubber tip - that's why they are all made with metal barrels. So, in addition to glueing the rubber tip on the cap, you will need to figure out a way to electrically connect your grip on the pencil to the rubber tip.

 

[zaneliu]

Wait, if your hands are on the keyboard, scrolling means picking up the Pencil first and then using it to scroll the screen. Isn't it easier/faster to just scroll with the finger?

Well think about when you're using your laptop. To touch your screen you would need to lean forward. My pencil is always sitting on the inner edge of my keyboard

 

[upritbass]

Wow, how far away from your laptop do you sit? I just tried it -- nope, no need to lean forward.

 

[The Game 161]

I should of stayed on 9.2 instead of updating to beta.

Tempted to go back to 9.2 now. But I need my laptop to get on iTunes to downgrade.

 

[Texcess]

I don't draw. I can't draw. I don't even bother attempting to draw. However, photo editing and UI navigation have made the  pencil an absolute must with the iPad pro. The screen is so large and the oleophobic coating is abysmal. The iPad pro would look like a germ convention without it. I broke my first  pencil. I was so distraught that replacing it would take 4-5 weeks (at the time), that I paid double for a new one on eBay. If Apple takes away this functionality I simply won't update. I'm pissed they don't allow the pencil to pull down the Notification Center or pull up mission control, much less open up multi tasking from the side of the display. There is so much amazing functionality they could add, I really hope they don't take any away, especially at an excessive $100 retail price they ask for it.

 

[Beavix]

I don't draw. I can't draw. I don't even bother attempting to draw. However, photo editing and UI navigation have made the  pencil an absolute must with the iPad pro.

Try using a stylus instead of the Pencil.

 

[sjleworthy]

Try using a stylus instead of the Pencil.

Yes, the question is, in general capacative and UI navigation operations, how would a top end regular stylus perform next to the Pencil in terms of accuracy and experience?

Is the Pencil just like a good regular stylus in this respect? Or even in this capacity its miles ahead?
Would the note taking experience change much?
I appreciate the smart operations would disappear, but what for those who dont use them?

 

[Texcess]

Try using a stylus instead of the Pencil.

I do own other styli. The  pencil does more for me than just General UI navigation. I use it to edit photos and it is amazing. I couldn't justify $100 on just a General UI navigation tool, even though that is about 50% of what I use it for.
Regardless, I don't think Apple should cripple a tool. If they didn't want it to do something then they shouldn't of shipped it with said functionality. All they are going to do is piss off customers who have purchased it already and bewilder those who have not. (By the way, the smart keyboard rocks!)

 

[alecgold]

Try using a stylus instead of the Pencil.

So now I need to spen $100 on a Pencil and another $60 on a stylus?

I'm often writing in one split view screen and reading/marking in the other screen. So now I need to hold the pencil when writing and marking, but when I want to scroll in either display I need to hold it different and navigate with a finger or a second stylus?

 

[Beavix]

So now I need to spen $100 on a Pencil and another $60 on a stylus?

I wasn't responding to you.

I'm often writing in one split view screen and reading/marking in the other screen. So now I need to hold the pencil when writing and marking, but when I want to scroll in either display I need to hold it different and navigate with a finger or a second stylus?

I don't know about you and definitely nobody should use two styli. For me it is natural to use the middle finger for brief interactions with the screen while holding the Pencil. Even when I write on a paper notebook I flip the pages with the same hand (the right hand in my case) I'm holding the pencil, so on the iPad it's even easier. I know I'm not the only one doing that, I saw videos on YouTube with people who draw and write on the iPad exactly the same way I do, so that's that.

 

[nightcap965]

Short form: Beta software sucks.

I assume you brave beta users have all reported this bug to Apple.

If you didn't want to see bugs, you probably made a mistake signing up to test beta software.

In the words of Father Emil from Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility church, "If you didn't want to go to St. Paul, why did you get on the bus?"

 

[Night Spring]

I'm pissed they don't allow the pencil to pull down the Notification Center or pull up mission control, much less open up multi tasking from the side of the display.

I don't have Pencil to test this, but the people who have Pencil and 9.3 beta have repeatedly said that the only thing that doesn't work any longer is scrolling with the Pencil. From that, I assume that pulling down Notification Center and pulling up Control Center and sliding in the multi tasking screen with the Pencil should all still work.