[NTLK] Apple Newton Cadillac

[James Fraser]

Hello,



>His point isn't that a structural tether is bad, but that an electrical one is, 
>because it's fragile. 
>

Exactly.  I understand fully that there's a need to retain the stylus in a 
commercial setting like a grocery store or a bank. :)

>Ignorant people twist the cord to the point that it breaks, which causes the 
>device to operate sporadically.

Worse, the stylus tether in this case (a point of sale system) terminates in a 
small, relatively delicate square plug that, of course, is going to take the 
brunt of the stress when people yank on the stylus tether.  The whole 
arrangement seems to have been engineered to polite, genteel consumer 
specifications rather than the arcade specifications that the setting really 
requires. : /

>A Wacom pen with steel cable epoxied to it would be just as secure and a lot 
>less delicate. 
>

Do Wacom styli work on a capacitive basis?  Could I hope to use a Wacom stylus 
with a capacitive point of sale system?

>A resistive touch screen would be a terrible idea, though, because they need to 
>flex to work, and people >who write with their whole hand rather than their 
>fingers would destroy them rapidly.

I wasn't aware that resistive screens suffered from that deficiency; thank you 
for pointing that out.  It really is too bad that that's the case because the 
Space Pen I usually lug around for signing charge slips has a stylus tip that 
works perfectly on resistive screens (like the one found on a certain green 
device). :)


Best,

James Fraser