aZZaneko
macrumors member
As I said in my post above, were Apple to introduce Pencil support, they'd have to find a way to make hover work. So the rest of what I say kind of assumes it's there.
It's far from impossible too, as tablets do have it. And I mean graphic tablets, just to be clear. Form and functionality wise they are very similar to trackpads. The hover state issue is solved by activating the pen a millimetre or so (it's user-configurable) before it touches the surface. This way you see where you are before you commit by clicking on the surface. There are 2 possible modes - a mouse-like one, and a more traditional 1 to 1 mapping of the pad area to the screen, where you kind of know where you are approximately even if the hover was not there.
And yes, of course it's nice to have a paper-like experience with drawing on the screen. You can have it on the iPad and there are graphic tablets with a screen these days too. But it's also the fact that people have been using tablets without screens for years and doing outstanding work on them. Some would even argue that there are advantages to that. There's no screen-generated heat, no space between the tip of the pen and actual line, and your own hand does not get in the way, so you can see what you do better, neither it leaves smudges on the screen. In some way it's like the difference between a touch screen and a mouse.
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