What’s missing from the reactions is the obvious acknowledgment that Jobs was not only talking about using a stylus with an entirely different product – the 3.5-inch iPhone 1 – but he was referring to both styluses and screens that have been blown out of the water by newer technology.
If you see someone bringing up Jobs’ stylus remarks in relation to the iPad Pro, they blew it.
This article got it right. The Palm Pilot was a great tech for it’s time. The form factor, the stylus worked great together, but you used the stylus because the screen sensitivity back then was so bad, nothing would register without a stylus.
Jobs called it right on capacitive touch, it’s worth remembering now that the chattering class were sure that people wouldn’t touch the screen because of finger prints.
It’s not Jobs fault that in order to explain things to Joe and Jane sixpack that he has to make these simplistic declarations.
He was right for his time, and it’s right now to include a stylus. This stylus is not being included to overcome a poorly designed OS that has UI elements too small for touch – hardly. No, it’s being included because for artwork precision input is desired.
I thought I was pretty fair and factual bringing up that Apple sucks for not providing a way to not loose your stylus and for claiming to invent multitouch. Not all remarks are of the level of “Jobs said there shouldn’t be a stylus and now there is lol apple sucks lollol”. Jobs’ stylus remarks were legendary. He should never be forgiven for claiming to have invented multitouch and Apple now has the moral obligation to sell a stylus that you cannot loose and that people will want to use
Jobs’ stylus remarks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=4YY3MSaUqMg
Me blowing it?: http://www.osnews.com/permalink?617593
Meh, Is there any feature that the Apple Pencil has that the pen that comes with my Samsung Note 4 does not?
I also have a Galaxy Note Pro 12.2, which looks pretty much just like the iPad Pro. Though I think the nicer pen (that has tilting and such) didn’t come out until the Note 4.
Since this is a first party device and not a third party one, I’d venture to guess there’s going to be a lot more apps that directly support it. But that’s just speculation on my part.
They are both first party devices. S-Pen for Samsung Note devices, and Apple Pencil for iPad Pro, though it’s sold separately from what I understood.
What I mean by ‘third party’ is that it’s not supported in stock Android, and only works on Samsung devices.
Steve Jobs was correct for the common case. He was able to see the big picture and understand what works for the majority.
The Apple Pencil is a great move for artists. It allows apple to not lose to the surface pro in that group.
The Apple Pencil is not good for average people who want to use an iPad in a “normal” way. It would also be useless for programmers.
What we need next is an apple keyboard for it like the surface has. A screen keyboard sucks for anyone doing heavy input like programmers or writers. Again, this is not for the common case, but a special group much like the apple pencil.
If the ipad wants to finish off Macs, it has to become more. Until this happens, I’ll keep on using a real computer for 90% of my work and just consume content on tablets and use them as remotes.
You need to look more at the product announcements. There is a keyboard built for the iPad Pro that is much like the Surface Pro’s, but from what I’ve read, much nicer to use (i.e. not spongy, while still remaining thinner).
http://www.apple.com/smart-keyboard/
If you really want to draw this is just a hack. It is much better a resistive screen or Wacom’s technology like the Galaxy Note.
the elephant in the room: on the devices, Jobs was talking about, you NEEDED a styles to communicate with that device.
The iPad pro comes even without the pencil. It’s an absolute optional input method.
People are also of the opinion in the Apple camp that Jobs was next to God and “Could do no wrong”. Well that’s always been a load of BS. Jobs made a lot of mistakes and not accommodating humanity’s manual hand writing capabilities as well as using an onscreen keyboard/touch screen limited the devices usefulness in ways that it didn’t have to. New and shiny isn’t always better. If Jobs wanted a device [tablets] that wasn’t only a consumption advice he should have made sure that it had all the functionality a piece of paper had for input: hand writing flexability as well as being placed in a typewriter. He ignored that and tablets became little more than a convenient way to watch Netflix on the go and reading books for the vast majority of people.
All I have to do is find a way to harness the heat being produced by the epic back-peddling that’s happening over this and I can solve global warming!
http://www.cultofmac.com/126116/steve-jobs-created-the-ipad-to-show…
This is what led to the iPad and later the iPhone, even though the phone was released first.
I remember when Steve Jobs left Apple in the late eighties early nineties and then the company went into a tailspin that nearly saw its bankruptcy. Steve Jobs came back and revitalized Apple with new ideas and innovative new products. Now that Steve Jobs has passed, I can see Apple repeating its past mistakes. Why would they go in a direction that Steve Jobs clearly thought was a mistake? Nothing new or innovative has come out of Apple since Steve Job’s demise. Bigger iPhones, which Android handsets pioneered; larger tablets (again, which Android devices pioneered.) Nothing new! It’s only a matter of time before Apple finds itself in the same predicament it did in the early nineties but now there is nobody left to step in and save it.
Job’s return reminded Apple that people are loyal to the brand, but not infinately… I worry current apple is repeating the same mistake in that assuming it has its nieche safely sewn up, and no longer needs to innovate. Apple has Always copied others, but would put a new spin on it. Are they really doing that with the pencil or is it just a rehash of what others offer?
Old apple between Jobs, didn’t stop innovating, they stopped successfully developing their products. See the Pink/Copeland failure.
I mean without jobs they created things like the newton, which was pretty darn cool.
But unusable in its first incarnation : http://www.osnews.com/story/27247/The_Newton_s_prophetic_failure_an…
So was the ipod! Mac only, firewire, no music store only 1 Gb.
Gen 1 products from apple usually aren’t great. Maybe the ipad being the exception.
The iPad being a big iPhone…
Well, yes, but the iPad came first internally.
Eh, not much was as innovative under Jobs as the claims surrounding them. The iPad was supposed to save the media industry, with a new channel for consuming paid-for media. There even was an iPad newspaper available pretty much at launch! It’s gone now, of course, as are any hopes about the iPad somehow creating or saving or changing another industry.
Of course, the evangelists have now changed the story, and settled for mere popularity as proof of its success.
Under Jobs, Apple had two things that changed the industry around them (and therefore can be called ‘revolutionary’ in some sense): the iPhone, and their design language. Most moderately expensive laptops these days are heavily inspired by the MacBooks.
Nothing “new” came out of Apple worth a damn since the initial iPhone release anyway. It’s been iterations on the same theme over and over again. I don’t count the watch because it’s 1) not a stand alone item, but an extension of the phone, and 2) It’s entirely superfluous even then.
Actually it was during Jobs, that they lost their leadership in business computing with the Apple III, the Lisa and the original Mac and as far as I can remember he was removed from his position because of that. It took a year that the Mac came together with the improved ram, improved os, the laser printer and Mac write, but by that time Jobs fame was seriously hurt.
I was just saying this same thing over the weekend. Jobs believed in simplicity. You sold one product per platform, and made that device the best.
Now, Cook is definitely repeating the past with multiple devices per platform, and everything that Jobs declared what was worng with tech.
I hate the argument that Jobs was only discussing the technology of the time, because it shows ignorance of those who spew it. If that’s what Jobs meant, I think that Jobs would have said that.
– http://www.osnews.com/permalink?617582
Right on schedule!
thom is right here guys. steve jobs was talking about the palm pilot stylus for primary navigation. the ipad pro stylus is for art and so is totally different. the ipad pro is still navigated with fingers as ever
the only thing in common between these two rods is they’re long and touch the screen. they’re not used for the same thing
I read through a ton of Apple news after the 9.9. event. So far no one has noticed the obvious flaw: it has a battery! I have used Wacom pens to replace mouse since 2005 and not a single one has needed a power source.
What does this show? Apple once again entered territory where excellent competition has been operating for decades but the tech following greater public is blissfully ignorant of. And the tech press.
If Jobs was alive today, in two years we would be rid of batteryless pens and I would have yet another bloody thing to charge.
Anyway I am happy about this, but what I really want is a Wacom tablet iOS app 🙂
I could look but I’ll just assume the worst… unreplaceable battery?
I may be wrong, but aren’t Wacom pens and tablets pressure-based?
Not sure what you mean by pressure based. Wacom pen tip hovering above the surface of the tablet moves mouse arrow around the screen. Touching the surface equals left click or whatever you determine it will do. They have pressure sensitivity as well for drawing. Tablet needs a power source, not the pen. Wireless Wacom tablet has replaceable battery.
The fact that no tech journalist has noticed that the Apple pencil has a battery also means that no one has mentioned if the battery can be replaced. That info might be on Apple specs but I won’t bother looking. If I will buy one then of course I must find out more.
My question is why battery? Apple has solved something with the powered pen but what?
My thought on that was that they inverted the relationship between the wacom tablet and pen. The smarts were as you pointed out really in the tablet not the pen. Saves money on not including extra hardware with each ipad that wouldn’t be used by most users. Maybe, with a software update it will also work on other ios devices.
Wacom digitizers work detecting an electromagnetic field.
What part of ‘need’ are people failing to understand? Words have meanings – look them up and be surprised.
The original OG quote is
The other quote came later. So you could correctly argue that his position wasn’t as hostile to styluses as commonly thought. But, yeah originally he was pretty anti stylus.
But man those windows pen based computers were both awesome and awesomely expensive. It really felt like the future.
Fanboys forget very easily, and then reinterpret them for their own needs.
Like when Jobs said that no one would ever need a phone bigger than 4 inches, and how the Fanboys roared when they saw most Android phones. Now they bask in the enjoyment of their bendable bricks, and claim that the “technology was finally ready”.
99.9% of users should NEVER use a stylus
A style is for one thing
1) Creating art
Done
Anybody else that thinks they should be using a stylus on something with a screen that is 5″ or bigger is wasting a big part of their life trying to keep track of a style then pulling it out and orientating it so they can use it and then using it. They could do better to spend their life sticking blank sticky notes on their fridge over and over until it is several feet thick.
There is a reason that Apple showed someone using the Apple Pencil (not stylus) creating art and never showed them doing anything else with it.
There is another use: entering text in a phone, specially with a small screen.