[NTLK] Am I the first to see the iPen and the obvious Newton connection?

[Ben]

Stephen,
Whilst in no way could I be called a promoter of anything Microsoft, the AAAA batteries are actually quite easy to obtain, just peel open a 9v alkaline battery, you will find a nice bundle of 6 AAAA cells inside, I cannot guarantee that all brands are made this way but the one I opened a few months ago was (I think it was a Duracell branded one).
Certainly much cheaper and more convenient than trying to track down individual cells.
Ben.

Sent from my iPad

> 
> Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2015 15:52:14 -0700
> From: Steven Frank <stevenf at panic.com>
> To: newtontalk at newtontalk.net
> Subject: Re: [NTLK] Daily Digest Subscriber - Am I the first to see
>    the iPen    and the obvious Newton connection?
> Message-ID: <36FBFBF1-F0FE-4801-97ED-56ADF75E9A31 at panic.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> 
> The Apple Pencil and the Surface Pro 3's N-Trig pen have some differences though:
> 
> 1. The Pencil is rechargeable, and can use the iPad itself as a source of charge via the Lightning port.  The Surface Pen has disposable batteries you must replace.  Two of them, in fact: a small "button/coin" style battery that powers the Bluetooth button on the "eraser" end, and a AAAA (yes, quadruple-A) battery for the pen itself.  I've yet to find AAAA batteries at retail locally.  I bought some from Amazon, but I've heard that pro camera shops may stock them.  AAAA batteries make for a thinner pen, but requiring a battery you can't quickly find at any corner convenience store seems like a poor design decision.  Further, there is no way (that I can tell) to tell for sure that the battery needs replacing other than it begins behaving erratically all of a sudden.