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Tim Cook Comment Prompts Speculation iPhone 7 Will Support Apple Pencil
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Well, I don't feel there's that much of a difference per se. I think the bigger difference is the software the pencil/stylus operates with than the device itself. The old stylus was used more for a point and tap way of doing things while the new pencil does not only that but a lot more and its more of a software enhancement I think.
The comments that Steve Jobs wouldn't approve make me laugh. Go back and watch the iPhone keynote, he is talking about phones back then REQUIRING a stylus (plastic stick) to use basic functions like dialing a number.
Remember when, after years of claiming a clean minimalist interface was the best, Jobs announced 'beautiful desktop wallpapers' and the crowd laughed because they thought he was joking? Remember how at first he was opposed to the iOS App Store (preferring Web 2.0/Ajax)? He wasn't infallible and often went back on words he said just a keynote before.
Steve Jobs LOVED accessories. Want VGA on your PowerBook, he's got a $39 dongle for that. Is your iPod cold? 6 Apple Socks for $29!
There is nothing on my iPad Pro that requires the Pencil. I can draw with my finger if I want. But unless you are three years old, you don't stick your finger in paint and draw on paper. The pencil is an ACCESSORY that allows people to draw like they would on paper on an iPad.
Jobs would spin it the same way as Cook, it's a pencil not a stylus.
Remember when, after years of claiming a clean minimalist interface was the best, Jobs announced 'beautiful desktop wallpapers' and the crowd laughed because they thought he was joking? Remember how at first he was opposed to the iOS App Store (preferring Web 2.0/Ajax)? He wasn't infallible and often went back on words he said just a keynote before.
Steve Jobs LOVED accessories. Want VGA on your PowerBook, he's got a $39 dongle for that. Is your iPod cold? 6 Apple Socks for $29!
There is nothing on my iPad Pro that requires the Pencil. I can draw with my finger if I want. But unless you are three years old, you don't stick your finger in paint and draw on paper. The pencil is an ACCESSORY that allows people to draw like they would on paper on an iPad.
Jobs would spin it the same way as Cook, it's a pencil not a stylus.
Yes, I did use one of those devices that "required" a stylus. A Treo 650. It came with a stylus and when I lost mine it was fingertip navigation for a while until I got another. It wasn't pretty as the targets were small but it would register with a fingertip or fingernail press.
It would work without a stylus.
This is from someone who actually used one of these devices, not repeating wrong "facts" they read on the Internet.
the interesting fact here is not Cook's quote, but the fact that "magically" John Gruber took it out from his hat one day before the event
Yesterday, I signed for my daughter's treatment with my finger on a computer.
Now I know how Ugg, the first indigenous spelunking dweller (cave person) signed his/her name.
Digital Pen/cils make sense. For those in this thread that want them smaller and thinner, I've used those on my Windows Phone and no, thank you. The best one I've used is the one on the Newton 2000. It had heft, and felt like I was using something of quality. My
Pencil is waiting in the box, for when I save enough to get the iPad Pro I want, but if the iPhone 7 Pro + uses it first, I'll be good with that.
It's marketing, plain and simple. Surface Pen? Yup, a stylus. Samsung's S Pen? Ditto. Apple Pencil? Still a stylus.
Jony Ive said as much. He said he didn't want to call it a stylus. He wanted to call it something else because {insert marketing speak here}. It's a stylus... they all are. You are right in that they all have more capability than the older models. That doesn't make them pencils and pens.
Steve Jobs has been conveniently repackaged in a myriad of out-of-context quotes ready to be bent and adapted to any narratives.
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Did the interviewer not follow up that question? I'm no journalism major but when your subject says something interesting, YOU ASK MORE QUESTIONS
Yeah, I didn't notice it at first! So, to recap:
1) Steve Jobs said no stylus
2) whoever "Thinks Different" has no clue
3) Steve jobs famously thinks different
3) Steve Jobs has no clue
4) stylus is good
I wouldn't be so sure on the basis that the Apple Pencil is 100% optional. One needs to keep in mind what the devices he was comparing the iPhone at the time consisted of. They were devices where the primary input method was a stylus, regardless of what you were doing. The devices used resistive displays which are a relic and didn't support multi touch.
Would Stve Jobs have been against an accessory that was optional? I'm not so sure. He's the same person who dropped in on calligraphy classes because he found the art of writing inspiring. Clearly he wouldn't want the Apple Pencil to replace touch input on an iPhone, but he may have seen use cases for it. At the time stylus input vastly inferior to what it is today, and if we are honest the OS using it were rubbing too.
Apple Pencil is a completely optional full-sized digital artists' drawing tool, and with the iPad Pro it's damn near as good as (or better than) the best digital drawing methods you can find. It fills a niche need and provides functionality that your fingers will never be able to. That is decidedly not what Steve Jobs was talking about when he railed against styli, which were an essential modus operandi for mobile devices early last decade.
I really can't believe people are still upset about this.
I really can't believe people are still upset about this.
Definition of Stylus: "an ancient writing implement, consisting of a small rod with a pointed end for scratching letters on wax-covered tablets, and a blunt end for obliterating them."
Therefore, Apple's pencil is not a stylus, till their blunt end actually erases what the pointy end creates. Otherwise, in this narrow definition, the pencil is a stylus. The context of it's creation is "creativity" not a device to interact with a UI for the purpose of functionality access. Having said this, just because it can ALSO do that, doesn't correlate to it's "reason for being".
I don't need a stylus to interact with a mobile device, I do need a stylus to draw and write on that device.
At least that's my view... as irrelevant or irreverent as it may be.
Therefore, Apple's pencil is not a stylus, till their blunt end actually erases what the pointy end creates. Otherwise, in this narrow definition, the pencil is a stylus. The context of it's creation is "creativity" not a device to interact with a UI for the purpose of functionality access. Having said this, just because it can ALSO do that, doesn't correlate to it's "reason for being".
I don't need a stylus to interact with a mobile device, I do need a stylus to draw and write on that device.
At least that's my view... as irrelevant or irreverent as it may be.
This would:
a) Be a blatant copy of Samsung
b) Truly go against Steve Jobs' original view of the iPhone. I'm sure he said something to the effect of the stylus being unnecessary and the finger being the ideal input device.
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Removing the headphone jack would allow for a lovely little pencil-shaped hole. Like the Note 7. Although that managed to keep the headphone jack. And it's waterproof. (and it explodes, but what's some fire between friends?)
a) Be a blatant copy of Samsung
b) Truly go against Steve Jobs' original view of the iPhone. I'm sure he said something to the effect of the stylus being unnecessary and the finger being the ideal input device.
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Removing the headphone jack would allow for a lovely little pencil-shaped hole. Like the Note 7. Although that managed to keep the headphone jack. And it's waterproof. (and it explodes, but what's some fire between friends?)
And if you keep reading the definition: A pen-like device used to input handwritten text or drawings directly into a computer
The Apple Pencil is a stylus, but Cook is trying to differentiate it from what the populous thinks of when they hear "stylus", i.e. the method that used to be the standard for using our portable devices, where one had a little stick, finger, etc. to put pressure on the screen in order to do anything
I'm sorry , it's a stylus, irrespective of the trademark name.
Steves point is that your should design a device that can achieve all your needs without a stylus / pencil . If your need a pencil to perform certain functions you have failed. Simple as that.