[NTLK] Daily Digest Subscriber - Am I the first to see the iPen and the obvious Newton connection?

[Dan]

True it is rechargeable and a nice feature to have it charge via the pad
itself, however in a couple of years the battery will start to go, as it
will in the pad itself.  Apparently not many people these days care
about such things as 'easy replaceable batteries", I for one, still do.
 And Apple is about one of the worst in this regard with replaceable
batteries and actually gluing them in place.  Although perhaps that is
better in their more recent devices?

With regard to the 15 seconds of charging that is Li-ion batteries in
general.  You can quick charge them for just a minute or less and get
anywhere from 30 minutes to a hour of usage depending on the device.
But as the battery fills up, they start to "resist" charging this causes
them to heat up and the charger slows down to compensate.  That is why
when a failure in the charger or battery happens you get explosions.

Yes they did mention doubling the sample rate to make it as smooth and
"like a real pencil"

Sure the glass is much stronger than say the plastic over the newton
screen, however think about this: have you ever dropped a device and
scratched the screen?  Grit or dirt most likely did the actual
scratching and it wouldn't be a stretch to have dirt find its way onto
your pencil tip at some point.  Then you make a nice long line and you
have a nice scratch.  But to each their own.  We will only see with time
if it truly can happen.  But I remember many styli that said "screen
safe tip" and after a while you still got scratches no matter how
careful you were.

And Ben, really?  I always thought 9v were solid not made up of
individual cells.  That is very very interesting.  Seems like it would
take some doing to open though.  At least the ones here still have a
strong metal jacket on the outside.

-Dan

On 9/15/2015 6:52 PM, Steven Frank wrote:
> 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.
> 
> 2. The Pencil can allegedly be charged sufficiently for 30 minutes of use with *15 seconds* of charging.  (A full charge lasts 12 hours, according to Apple.)
> 
> 3. With regard to responsiveness, Apple has said that when the pen is in use, they double the input sampling rate (I believe from 60 to 120 Hz?) which would make for a significant reduction in lag.  This was called out in the keynote and I think the videos accompanying it.
> 
> Finally, I would feel confident not using a screen protector with an iPad Pro + Pencil.  iPad screens are hardened glass, and can't be compared to the Newton's much softer screen layer.
> 
> Steven
>