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rcalderoni

macrumors member
Jun 21, 2011
98
34
I know it's totally a meme now but in the era that Steve unveiled the iPhone stylus was the only other common input option, when he said 'who wants a stylus?' he was talking about as the method of input. There's clearly no way he would have been against having advanced drawing capabilities on top of the standard multi-touch controls.
 

dwsolberg

macrumors 6502a
Dec 17, 2003
843
824
I have no interest in the pencil working on the phone... unless it can be kept inside the phone like the Samsung Note.

Even then, I don’t care for a pencil. Give mouse support on iPad!

There is no way that the pencil would be kept inside the phone. Just no way, even though I would like it that way. It's just opposite of Apple's design philosophy. On the other hand, they might make a case that would hold a (new, smaller) pencil, and third parties certainly would.

Still, adding pencil support is a good step, especially if they add the iPad thing where you can just start writing on the screen and have the text saved as a note in notes. It would also be handy for quickly marking up PDFs.

The bigger screens on current iPhones definitely make a pencil more practical than back when it was 3.5 inches.
 
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RodSerlingLives

macrumors member
Jun 23, 2017
30
81
Ansonia, CT
Unless they plan on reducing the size of the pencil for phones, this is a useless feature. Too many people are saying, if you don't like it, don't use it. That is a very idiotic retort.

Using a full sized Apple Pencil on anything smaller than 9.7 inches defeats the purpose. It is a "me too" feature that has no place unless they are going to do it correctly. Samsung has done this year after year with the Note and that form factor is excellent, except the Note 7. (Kablooie)

If they are going to do this, the Pencil must be shrunk and housed in the device itself. It doesn't make sense to go backwards and make people carry the stylus in their pocket or in a loop on a case. This is a phone and anything more would be convoluted design from a storied design company.
 

LovingTeddy

Suspended
Oct 12, 2015
1,848
2,153
Canada
They said it can replace people’s PC’s not is a PC. For a lot of people that is true, as most people use their PC’s to do day to day tasks such as web browsing, sending and reading email, watching YouTube and Netflix. For those people the iPad Pro is a great PC replacement.

Still not makes iPad PC replacement. Still remember when this idiot called Philip Schiller laughed PC users on the stage.

Just try to do 100 cells Excel sheet on iPad it is nightmare.

Plus...any sub-300 laptop can do whatever you motioned just fine and do much more than iPad.
 

convergent

macrumors 68040
May 6, 2008
3,034
3,082
Watch the clip again.

The context is 'who wants to have to use a stylus in order to operate a phone? You've got to get them out, put them away, you lose them - yeurgh. So we designed a phone you can use with your fingers'

An iPhone with Pencil support doesn't detract from Jobs' stance as it is not essential to operate the device.

Steve's "Who wants a stylus?" comment was referring to a stylus as the only possible way to interact with the display, not as an optional input method.

The problem with what Steve said was that it wasn't true. The smartphones at that time had touch interfaces and could be used without the stylus. Was it a perfect finger interface? No. Was it usable? Absolutely.

If Apple were to add "pencil support", it would in no way provide the great experience you get with a Samsung Note. Here are a few reasons:

- The form factor of the Apple Pencil isn't going to work with a phone... and I doubt they are going to create a smaller pencil. The S-Pen is the result of years of use and is a great form factor for use with a Smartphone.
- I seriously doubt that Apple is going to create a silo for it in the iPhone. Without the silo, you lose a lot of the convenience. You have to place to safely store it. You have no way to keep it charged. And more importantly you have no easy way to trigger the iPhone that you want to use it. When you pull the S-Pen out of the Note's silo, it triggers a selector to pop up that gives you single tap access to all the pen enabled functions you'd want to use. For me, I can get to OneNote in one click, as well as all the other apps I use the Spen with.
- There are no pen enabled apps for iOS... so initially it would be pretty awkward and I doubt there'd be much support developed unless they solved some of the other issues.
- One of the greatest features of the Note is the ability to take notes on the screen without even turning the device on. If you take the Spen out of the silo while the Note is turned off, you can immediately write on the screen. Anyone that doesn't get the convenience of this is just being a fanboy and unable to see good aspects of other brands. I used to take notes on little slips of paper all the time in a pinch. Now I do it on the Note. I'm running to the grocery story and my wife wants to tell me what to get. I pop out the SPen and write it on the screen.

So just giving the iPhone support for Apple Pencil won't really accomplish anything in my opinion.
 

Winni

macrumors 68040
Oct 15, 2008
3,207
1,196
Germany.
I have no interest in the pencil working on the phone... unless it can be kept inside the phone like the Samsung Note.

Even then, I don’t care for a pencil. Give mouse support on iPad!

Oh, right. iOS can't do that -- every Android device can... Somebody at Apple missed that "little" feature that would turn the "iPad into a computer; and not like a computer"...
 
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wigby

macrumors 68030
Jun 7, 2007
2,751
2,716
It wouldn't be the first time that concerns apple are drifting from Jobs vision have been raised on a variety of products.
Jobs was also known to have changed his own mind (and been proven wrong) on many things while he was alive too.
 

Winni

macrumors 68040
Oct 15, 2008
3,207
1,196
Germany.
No point until Apps are allowed to support it.

What have apps do to with it? It's a core OS feature, apps don't need to do anything special with those mouse events. It shouldn't matter whether a finger "clicked" on something or the mouse button did.
 

JayBlueBird92

macrumors newbie
Jun 12, 2018
15
42
How many times does this have to keep coming up...

SJ was talking about A STYLUS... You know? That plastic stick that had no electronics, no 'intelligence', just a replacement for a finger with a smaller contact point because the UI's were so ****.

He was NOT referring to DIGITAL PENS, a la Waacom Digitizer pens, that all the TabletPC's were using as well as all the artists at the time. Of which, clearly, the Apple Pencil is one of these.

They are TWO DIFFERENT THINGS, you would think that so called 'tech journalists' would know the difference...

Idiots.
 

jamezr

macrumors P6
Aug 7, 2011
15,833
18,376
US
I wouldn't mind a smaller pencil to use with my iPhone x to be honest. BUT ONLY if it cam be used to navigate through the whole operating system and not just a few coloring or drawing apps.
 
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macduke

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,139
19,672
Not something I would use much but it's good to have options. Now people will complain that there isn't a pencil slot inside the iPhone XL.
 

cmaier

Suspended
Jul 25, 2007
25,405
33,471
California
What have apps do to with it? It's a core OS feature, apps don't need to do anything special with those mouse events. It shouldn't matter whether a finger "clicked" on something or the mouse button did.

The pencil SDK is different than the touch SDK and handles precision events, pencil angle, etc. It is meant for drawing and writing, not for tapping buttons.
 

78Bandit

macrumors 6502a
Jun 13, 2009
688
1,252
If they can add the digitizer and still keep the $999 Plus and sub-$900 regular anticipated prices for the XS then that is good. Give people more features for less money as technology advancements generally do. The 6.4" device in particular seems like it would make a decent note-taking device. Now they just have to shrink the Pencil to make it more convenient to take with you.
 

Baymowe335

Suspended
Oct 6, 2017
6,640
12,451
Oh, right. iOS can't do that -- every Android device can... Somebody at Apple missed that "little" feature that would turn the "iPad into a computer; and not like a computer"...
Seems like Apple knows what they are doing, don't you think? They are executing a strategy and mouse support isn't part of that...by design. You think they couldn't do it if they wanted to?

Struggling sales aren't really a problem, lol.
 

jffluis

macrumors regular
Aug 28, 2012
145
25
No one really cares. I am excited because if the rumor is true we are going to get 120 hz displays. That’s exciting.

If they offer a stylus I won’t use it. It’s worthless to me. Last time I used a stylus on a phone was with the palm treo.

Doesn’t mean there aren’t any Samsung note users looking to switch.

With premium galaxy sales at an all time low, can’t get much worst for Samsung... well the note 9 can start to explode, but don’t think anyone really cares about the note anymore.

SAMOOOUUTHH. ehehe
 
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dasmb

macrumors 6502
Jul 12, 2007
376
392
“Who wants a stylus?”
The important thing to remember about the pre-multitouch touchscreen era was that the ONLY way to register an interaction with a screen was clicking on a single pixel. And because screens were so unresponsive, the only way to do this effectively was with a stylus.

And it was terrible. You want to check on your email or your playlist or turning directions on your device, you'd have to pop out the stylus, hope you didn't drop it, and try to click a button with it.

I uh grew out my pinky fingernail to use when I lost my stylus. Yes that's gross.

There was no target interpolation so you were likely to miss. This likelihood went way up if you were walking or on transit. And text input was terrible -- your choice of those awful candy button qwerty keyboards, equally awful hunt-and-peck on screen keyboards, or pretty-good-but-hard-to-learn gesture languages like Palm's Graffiti.

"Who wants a stylus [for all forms of input]?" Nobody. Trust me.

"Who wants a stylus [to occasionally draw or jot down notes with something that's more precise than a finger]?" Some of us.
 
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