Hands-On With the iPad Pro Apple Pencil

[appledefenceforce]

The problems with the iPad pro and pencil for me are that firstly the pencil will be rendered useless by updates - in three year's time the built-in obsolescence lag you get on all iPhones/pads will make it far from practical compared to the usual slow reactions of swipes and presses you get on the other devices. Secondly the iPad will never really be "Pro" with no accessible folder structure for storing work projects and the like, it's just too locked down for anything remotely complex.

This looks like what every naysayer has reiterated for like a hundred million times.

If the product is not right for you, why do you feel the need to click on a post, comment and declare to the people who are probably gonna buy it that you don't think it's pro enough and that you will not buy it? Why?

 

[OCDMacGeek]

Like everyone else who managed to get an Apple Pencil, the immediate problem was how you avoid losing it. Different solutions are coming out, but I wanted to show off one solution that is immediately available:

I am using this adhesive pen loop, available on Amazon, which fits the pencil perfectly:

Leuchtturm Black Pen Loop https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002RNRYN4/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_j8qtwbEG6QPNK

It must be placed in one particular spot in order to avoid interfering with the folding of the smart keyboard. Take a look and let me know what you think!

Here are the other two solutions I've seen:

http://www.moxiware.com/products/apple-pencil-magnet

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1183644800/quarter-connecting-ipad-pro-and-apple-pencil-seaml

 

[SSDGUY]

100 dollars....hahahahaha...to this day that joke still kills me. What a terrible product.

A wireless magic mouse is $79 retail. $20 more for a stylus with better capability than any other proceeding it? Pros won't bat and eye at that price. A 13" Wacom Cintiq system (and input device only) goes for $800 and it doesn't come close to what the ipad pro/apple pencil combo can do.

 

[SSDGUY]

Like everyone else who managed to get an Apple Pencil, the immediate problem was how you avoid losing it. Different solutions are coming out, but I wanted to show off one solution that is immediately available:

I am using this adhesive pen loop, available on Amazon, which fits the pencil perfectly:

Leuchtturm Black Pen Loop https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002RNRYN4/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_j8qtwbEG6QPNK

It must be placed in one particular spot in order to avoid interfering with the folding of the smart keyboard. Take a look and let me know what you think!

Here are the other two solutions I've seen:

http://www.moxiware.com/products/apple-pencil-magnet

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1183644800/quarter-connecting-ipad-pro-and-apple-pencil-seaml

I'm baffled that Apple didn't design an Apple pencil holder w/ the smart keyboard. Huge oversight IMO.

 

[TMRJIJ]

The problems with the iPad pro and pencil for me are that firstly the pencil will be rendered useless by updates - in three year's time the built-in obsolescence lag you get on all iPhones/pads will make it far from practical compared to the usual slow reactions of swipes and presses you get on the other devices. Secondly the iPad will never really be "Pro" with no accessible folder structure for storing work projects and the like, it's just too locked down for anything remotely complex.

There is no such thing as built-in obsolescence.

iPads have access to iCloud Drive as well as third party extensions for Dropbox, OneDrive, Documents 5, PDFExpert, etc. All of these apps can serve as great File Systems.

 

[SHirsch999]

Tried it at the store, and as every review has said it doesn't work on any other ipads.

Is this due to differences in the hardware or differences in software between the pro and the other iPads?

Edit: I see this was already answered, but a bit more detail about the answer would be interesting and appreciated.

 

[TrueBlou]

100 dollars....hahahahaha...to this day that joke still kills me. What a terrible product.

It's the same price as the Adonit Jot Touch. Yet it packs in more technology and is significantly more accurate. Doesn't sound like a bad deal to me.

 

[spinedoc77]

Very nice, looks like it may function better than my SP4 pen. I'd be bummed though that I couldn't run photoshop or other PC programs and put it to use. Will be curious to see what apps companies like Adobe come up with.

 

[SuperHamster]

I really hope the next iPad is compatible with the pencil. I don't want to lug around a giant 13" tablet just to be able to draw effectively with it. Adobe's Ink never quite worked out for me on the Air 2. Does anyone know if it works well with the Mini 4?
...

From an artistic point of view, I wouldn't call a 13" tablet "giant" - it's pretty close to your normal old school A4 sketchbook, which I would certainly call portable - also given the decent weight of the iPad Pro. However, I do agree that a smaller tablet would be useful, trading a bit of more pan/zoom:ing for higher portability. NB though, that personally I find an A5 sketchbook a bit difficult to hold steady in the long run, so I wouldn't like anything much smaller, so say maybe 11". I suspect though, were you to ask most graphics artists, they'd want both the 13" (on the move) and something much bigger for studio work - in the A3 range - where Wacom unsurprisingly have other Cintiq options.

 

[quagski]

…But does it sharpen?

 

[Chrjy]

I appreciate this is useful to artists but it would have been nice for MacRumors to mention how it copes with taking notes as well.

I'm **** at art but I can just about get by with note taking ;-)

 

[V.K.]

100 dollars....hahahahaha...to this day that joke still kills me. What a terrible product.

thanks for trolling by.

 

[AleXXXa]

Tried it at the store, and as every review has said it doesn't work on any other ipads.

Ofcourse it doesn't work with other ipads. They want you to buy the most expensive model if you wanna draw.

 

[SuperHamster]

Please don't compare it to Wacom. Wacom's sensitivity is million times better, and it has pen incline detection, which really makes it a professional product. And Wacom pens start from $30, up to $70 for advanced models. Apple pencil is a toy

"pen incline detection"? Not quite sure what that is, but my Wacom has tilt detection if that's what you're referring to. So does Apple according to the specs - it would essentially be a toy otherwise.
Wacom has 2048 pressure levels (and honestly, I've always suspected that I wouldn't have known the difference, had it been revealed that these were just 512), and while I can't find any spec from Apple, the quotient surely cannot be a million. I believe that Wacom's art pen (which I don't have) has rotation detection, which Apple surely doesn't. I don't go in for the kind of brushes or drawing style where rotating would matter so I can't really elaborate on the merits of it.

 

[MacDarcy]

The Apple pencil should and will eventually work on all ipads. Apple just wants to sell iPad pros right now.

 

[slprescott]

Are there any good "Learn to Draw" apps that leverage the Pencil?

I could see this being very effective, where the app displays images for you to draw -- originally tracing over the original lines -- and tracking the Pencil's lines to give you feedback.

 

[citysnaps]

Please don't compare it to Wacom. Wacom's sensitivity is million times better, and it has pen incline detection, which really makes it a professional product. And Wacom pens start from $30, up to $70 for advanced models. Apple pencil is a toy

How long have you been using your iPad Pro and Pencil? I think that answer can be quickly deduced by you obliquely suggesting the Pencil does not have what you call "incline detection." And of course, it does, and works very well.

 

[Bubba Satori]

Will the Apple Pencil work with my cat's litter box?

 

[ddelmonte]

Is there anywhere to store the pencil.. nice replies only please

 

[uid15]

The pencil with the lightning adapter cable attached looks like some odd surgical probe...

 

[uid15]

Like everyone else who managed to get an Apple Pencil, the immediate problem was how you avoid losing it. Different solutions are coming out, but I wanted to show off one solution that is immediately available:

I am using this adhesive pen loop, available on Amazon, which fits the pencil perfectly:

Leuchtturm Black Pen Loop https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002RNRYN4/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_j8qtwbEG6QPNK

It must be placed in one particular spot in order to avoid interfering with the folding of the smart keyboard. Take a look and let me know what you think!

Here are the other two solutions I've seen:

http://www.moxiware.com/products/apple-pencil-magnet

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1183644800/quarter-connecting-ipad-pro-and-apple-pencil-seaml

SIX POUNDS?!!!! LMAO!!! ACTUAL WORTH: £0.80

In the "olden days" (up to about the late 1990s, I'd guess) before people weren't taught basic life skills by their parents, someone would knock one of these up in 15 mins from some elastic, velcro and a few basic stitches with some thread. Such a lazy, LAZY consumer driven society - people DESERVE to get ripped off.

 

[Rogifan]

I'm baffled that Apple didn't design an Apple pencil holder w/ the smart keyboard. Huge oversight IMO.

Probably because both are optional accessories and not everyone who gets the pencil will also get the keyboard.

The problems with the iPad pro and pencil for me are that firstly the pencil will be rendered useless by updates - in three year's time the built-in obsolescence lag you get on all iPhones/pads will make it far from practical compared to the usual slow reactions of swipes and presses you get on the other devices. Secondly the iPad will never really be "Pro" with no accessible folder structure for storing work projects and the like, it's just too locked down for anything remotely complex.

I'm curious to know exactly how this planned obsolescence works. Does Craig Federighi call his software engineers into a room and tell them to add code into iOS that will slow down older devices?

 

[pondhopper]

Hopefully the stores get more stock soon. Why does every Apple release seem to have something that is supply-constrained lately? Maybe Apple should diversify its supply chain a bit more.

Stephen Jobs was a master at controlling the supply chain. Welcome to the new reality

 

[4jasontv]

I think it looks useful, but I would prefer it with the iPad mini.

 

[TheBearman]

My problem is that having ordered a pencil within the first 2 hours of availability I'm not really pleased that stores have been receiving stock before existing orders are fulfilled. Kind of a bad business model on how to treat your customers. Waiting for a week now and hearing that folks can now simply walk in and pick one up is really disappointing.