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iPad Pencil idea

T

thewinelake2

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 13, 2015
30
15
One of the things I like about iOS is how good it is at voice recognition dictation. I also quite like the pencil for sketching and a bit of handwriting recognition, but how cool would it be if they could build a bluetooth microphone into the blunt end of the pencil? One of the problems with dictation is that one has to talk quite loudly or hold the iPad right up to your mouth to do it discreetly. To make the pencil perform as an elegant microphone (almost a la Terry Wogan back in the day) seems to be a good idea to me...

...but maybe I'm just getting carried away?
 
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thewinelake2 said:
One of the things I like about iOS is how good it is at voice recognition dictation. I also quite like the pencil for sketching and a bit of handwriting recognition, but how cool would it be if they could build a bluetooth microphone into the blunt end of the pencil? One of the problems with dictation is that one has to talk quite loudly or hold the iPad right up to your mouth to do it discreetly. To make the pencil perform as an elegant microphone (almost a la Terry Wogan back in the day) seems to be a good idea to me...

...but maybe I'm just getting carried away?
Click to expand...
I really don't have any issues with the iPad hearing me or not, even when it's in my lap or across the room, but it's not a horrible idea I suppose--I guess it would work kind of like the Siri remote for Apple TV. I don't know if they'd ever want to waste space on something like that or not though. Seems kind of redundant.
 
If you're in a reasonably noisy room, I'd have thought it would make sense, but I shall try it with just the internal mic and see if that works...
[doublepost=1500495895][/doublepost]Mmm, not a great success, I think the background noise resulted in significantly poorer TTS accuracy.
 
Yeah, I bark commands to Siri across the room no prob. I don't see a need for another mic in the Pencil. It would just make it even more expensive. Yipes.
 
Mmm, so maybe it's my desire to be discreet which is at odds with society!

I've just ordered a £10 (wired) tie-clip mic from Amazon. Will see how well that works.
 
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I think this would be a cool idea. If it was a good quality microphone it could be used for Siri, but also dictation, podcasts, etc.
 
thewinelake2 said:
One of the things I like about iOS is how good it is at voice recognition dictation. I also quite like the pencil for sketching and a bit of handwriting recognition, but how cool would it be if they could build a bluetooth microphone into the blunt end of the pencil? One of the problems with dictation is that one has to talk quite loudly or hold the iPad right up to your mouth to do it discreetly. To make the pencil perform as an elegant microphone (almost a la Terry Wogan back in the day) seems to be a good idea to me...

...but maybe I'm just getting carried away?
Click to expand...

If they add a Bluetooth microphone, then I would also question the battery life that would be associated with the Apple Pencil. Especially if you're using the Apple Pencil as it is, then you have to factor in its communicating with the iPad, which is going to require more battery life.
 
AirPods - not a bad idea, but yet another thing to not lose and to keep charged up. Battery life could be an issue, I guess. Maybe a "push to talk" button might help there? I'd be curious to understand the power consumptions of all the bits.

Presumably a third party would be allowed to make its own pencil? Maybe one with a clip that wouldn't keep rolling away?!
 
I'd like to be able to talk to my devices through my Apple Watch, Knight Rider style.
 
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