MWSF 2010 Demo: Ten One Design's Inklet

[MacRumors]

Ten One Design showed off their Inklet trackpad tablet software for the Mac. Inklet is a $25 application that allows you to use your MacBook, Pro and Air multi-touch tablet as a pressure sensitive drawing tablet. The drawing area is shown in the second screen and can be resized (pinch/zoom) and panned around (two finger drag). This video shows it in action:



Article Link: MWSF 2010 Demo: Ten One Design's Inklet

 

[haiggy]

Wow this is awesome

 

[RedTomato]

... allows you to use your MacBook, Pro and Air multi-touch tablet as a pressure sensitive drawing tablet.

This made no sense to me at all. Until I watched the video and realised they mean using the *laptop touchpad* as a drawing tablet.

Bad writeup!

 

[niuniu]

I love it

 

[macduke]

It seems like it would be nice to have, but $25 is a bit too high IMO since I already have a tablet. I don't always have it with me though, so I'll probably wait until a sale or a MacHeist bundle type promotion.

Really cool idea. I assume the pressure sensitivity comes from the surface area of the finger touching the surface? Less = lighter, more = heavier, etc.

 

[Jamo12]

They have had this software for like 2 or 3 months now...

 

[Sander]

Really cool idea. I assume the pressure sensitivity comes from the surface area of the finger touching the surface? Less = lighter, more = heavier, etc.

Actually, the video shows them using a stylus. Perhaps the MBP touchpad has "real" pressure sensitivity built in (the surface area trick has been known to work on old trackpads too).

 

[bdouglashall]

It seems like it would be nice to have, but $25 is a bit too high IMO since I already have a tablet. I don't always have it with me though, so I'll probably wait until a sale or a MacHeist bundle type promotion.

Really cool idea. I assume the pressure sensitivity comes from the surface area of the finger touching the surface? Less = lighter, more = heavier, etc.

I'm pretty sure you have to use the Pogo Stylus to get the pressure sensitivity.

 

[scottparker999]

It looks to me that the stylus has a soft tip. As more pressure is applied, the area in contact with track pad is increased.

 

[the Helix]

Nice try...

I've been trying the DEMO of this app. and it works much better on the video demo than it does in real life situations.

This app. definitely goes in the right direction and I laud them for that. However, it still has a long way to go. As such, the asking price of $25. is not consonant with the product's value in its current iteration. As it is now, they should not be asking for more than $12 IMHO.

My 2¢

 

[MRU]

Just bought it with a Pogo Sketch for €45 including shipping to Ireland

Great little tool for when away from the Cintiq and need to touch up a few bits with my MBP.


Oh yeah. You need the stylus for pressure sensitivity according to the site, besides you really need a stylus for proper tablet/trackpad editing in stuff like Sketch book pro, or Photoshop anyway so the $10 extra for the Pogo Stylus is worth it. Besides I can use it on my iPhone too when I'm wearing gloves...

 

[bdouglashall]

iPad as a big tablet?

Wondering if they could be working on an app for the iPad. That would be some nice real estate to draw on!

 

[SebZen]

I bought this and the Pogo Sketch and it SUCKS!

I tell you, it's impossible to get used to the "teleporting". I wish you could drag the mouse pointer, but it teleports like in an actual tablet. That's fine... if the screen was right under the trackpad.

This way you don't know exactly where it will land, wasting huge amounts of time when attempting to draw.

At least the Pogo Sketch is usable on my touch, but even there it's a waste of money. You need to press rather hard for presses to register, and because of that, typing stuff out takes LONGER than with your finger.

Oh and touch sensetivity? Forget about it. It's a scam. You'd need to press so hard it feels you'll break the trackpad's glass surface to get a thick line.

 

[ABernardoJr]

I bought this and the Pogo Sketch and it SUCKS!

I tell you, it's impossible to get used to the "teleporting". I wish you could drag the mouse pointer, but it teleports like in an actual tablet. That's fine... if the screen was right under the trackpad.

This way you don't know exactly where it will land, wasting huge amounts of time when attempting to draw.

At least the Pogo Sketch is usable on my touch, but even there it's a waste of money. You need to press rather hard for presses to register, and because of that, typing stuff out takes LONGER than with your finger.

Oh and touch sensetivity? Forget about it. It's a scam. You'd need to press so hard it feels you'll break the trackpad's glass surface to get a thick line.

There are only a handful of tablets that actually have screens right beneath them anyway, so it's hard to expect anything different when you have a trackpad that's smaller than the screen. I'm almost sure it's the same with other "real" tablets too, since those use smaller spaces than the screen itself as well. Bigger than the track pad but smaller than the screen, and the screen is still not beneath it. That's how most tablets are...

 

[SebZen]

There are only a handful of tablets that actually have screens right beneath them anyway, so it's hard to expect anything different when you have a trackpad that's smaller than the screen. I'm almost sure it's the same with other "real" tablets too, since those use smaller spaces than the screen itself as well. Bigger than the track pad but smaller than the screen, and the screen is still not beneath it. That's how most tablets are...

You must be thinking of Wacom and such (what are they called?)

Aren't tablets actually just like an iPad? (with an actual OS). Where the screen is under a touch sensitive glass

Like this:

 

[mixel]

You must be thinking of Wacom and such (what are they called?)

Aren't tablets actually just like an iPad? (with an actual OS). Where the screen is under a touch sensitive glass

Like this:

Wacom, and other manufacturers have been calling their devices graphics tablets for a long time before tablet pcs existed.

I have a Wacom intuos tablet.. if this thing works similar that's fine, you get used to the size difference/ratio.. I've had 3 different sizes too, none of them even slightly similar to my monitors, sometimes totally different ratios. If you get used to it they're awesome..

So this inklet thing is pretty intriguing as I currently take a small wacom tablet for outside the house and it could make it unnecessary.

 

[SebZen]

Wacom, and other manufacturers have been calling their devices graphics tablets for a long time before tablet pcs existed.

I have a Wacom intuos tablet.. if this thing works similar that's fine, you get used to the size difference/ratio.. I've had 3 different sizes too, none of them even slightly similar to my monitors, sometimes totally different ratios. If you get used to it they're awesome..

So this inklet thing is pretty intriguing as I currently take a small wacom tablet for outside the house and it could make it unnecessary.

Well they have a demo/trial version you could try. It's full features, but only lets you use it for 90 seconds or so at a time.

 

[mrklaw]

I tried the demo hoping it'd work kind of ok with a finger, but it was completely useless. Not sure about buying a stylus on the off-chance its good, so I'll wait for more comments.

Agree about the ipad though - this could be a killer app. Only one small thing stopping it - this is a plugin designed to work over your current apps. So that won't work at all with ipad, Ten One would have to make an entire graphics editing program.

Maybe they could write something that'd turn the ipad into something like a cintiq, tethered to a MBP - so the screen from the MBP would be streamed to the ipad like using VNC/screen sharing, and the input from the stylus would be sent to the MBP plugin

 

[Pigumon]

No, WACOM tablets are not under glass, they are nothing like an iphone which uses capacitive sensing, they use pressure sensitivity. A wacom cintiq is a wacom with a monitor under the pressure sensitive screen.


This works in a different way, like someone guess, I think the "pressure" comes from the amount of the stylus tip cover the screen at any given time. Less = thin, more = thick.

This could VERY easily be transferred to the iPad, and I hope it will be!!!

The problem is as others have stated, it really just doesn't work well.

Look at the video. They can't even draw a simple circle around two other circles. That seems to be hardware/software failure, not user failure.

 

[lotusindigo]

I have to agree that the functionality of this little app is lacking, although it's a step in the right direction. You can't take the Pogo off the trackpad without losing control of your cursor once you put the Pogo back on the trackpad. You basically have to draw without lifting your "pencil," which for most people is going to feel unnatural. Still, I will attest that the pressure sensitivity DOES work. The previous poster who said that you have to press down very hard with the Pogo to get a thick line probably did not play with Inklet's settings. You can adjust the amount of pressure it takes to start inking as opposed to just moving the cursor around. You can also adjust the amount of pressure sensitivity. In a bind, I do think that this app would be quite useful, providing you can adapt to not being able to lift the Pogo from the trackpad. But considering this rather significant caveat, I agree that $25 is a little much.

Ten One Design has something in the works for the iPad. I hope it's something along the lines of an iPad version of Inklet, or as someone else mentioned, a VNC that allows you to use the iPad like a Cintiq!