{"id":325,"date":"2012-02-02T09:35:36","date_gmt":"2012-02-02T16:35:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mattdturner.com\/wordpress\/?p=325"},"modified":"2019-05-17T12:16:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-17T18:16:00","slug":"cregle-ipen-an-active-stylus-for-ipad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mattdturner.com\/wordpress\/2012\/02\/cregle-ipen-an-active-stylus-for-ipad\/","title":{"rendered":"Cregle iPen – An Active Stylus for iPad"},"content":{"rendered":"

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For those of you who have read my previous post on the Adonit Jot Fine-Tipped iPad Stylus<\/a>, you (like me) are probably on the never-ending quest of finding the perfect stylus for handwriting on the iPad.  Well, without being too optimistic, it looks as though product developers are taking steps in the right direction.<\/p>\n

A couple of months ago I happened upon a Kickstarter project for a new active stylus, the iPen<\/a>.  For those of you unfamiliar with active styli, they use proximity sensitivity in order to determine where the pen is located.  Also, they are NOT capacitative styli.  The iPen uses a sensor that plugs into the iPad’s charging port and senses ultrasonic and infrared signal in order to determine the iPen’s precise location on the screen.  Some of the main benefits of active styli are that they can have an extremely fine point, and since the stylus is not capacitative there is a built-in palm rejection feature.  This allows you to rest your palm on the iPad screen while writing.<\/p>\n

One of the downsides of the active stylus design is that it does work natively through the iPad.  You can only use the stylus in apps that have been developed to include support for the stylus.  There is a complete list of compatible apps on the Kickstarter page (linked above).  Here are a few of the apps that I am looking forward to using with the iPen:<\/p>\n

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  1. Ghostwriter Notes<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Notes Plus<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. My Notebook!<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I’m also hoping that the developers of Upad integrate iPen support into a future release.<\/p>\n

    Here is a quick video from YouTube that shows the iPen in action.<\/p>\n

    http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=W9NxwizUBYU<\/p>\n

    For more videos of the iPen, check out the Kickstarter page.<\/p>\n

    The iPen is not currently on sale, however the www.cregle.com website suggests that it will be available to order any time now.  The bad part about the iPen?  The price.  This stylus will retail at about $89.99 (I think, but could be wrong).  However, if it works as well as they show in the videos, it will be totally worth the price.<\/p>\n

    What do you think of this stylus?  Is this something that you will buy?  Let me know in the comments.<\/p>\n

    UPDATE<\/strong>:  The iPen has now been released and you can purchase it at the Cregle Store.  According to the store, you get the following in the box:<\/p>\n

    1 Digital pen<\/p>\n

    1 Receiver<\/p>\n

    2 Sets of batteries, i.e., 4 batteries<\/p>\n

    3 Replaceable pen tips<\/p>\n

    1 Pen tip extractor<\/p>\n

    1 Pouch<\/p>\n

    1 Year standard warranty<\/p>\n

    Related articles<\/h6>\n