Pen-based Mac not a Priority at Apple

Talk about your unloved technologies! I've been poking about the net and finding very little about our quirky digital companion, Inkwell. In fact, I can find More sites selling antique inkwells than sites discussing Apple's modern handwriti ng technology.

However, I did find this recent gem over at COMPUTER Ants*. It's a great over view of the cutting edge techologies inside OS X including our favorite, Inkwel1, complete with an interview with Apple's Larry Yaeger. Considering how avid some Mactanboys are for a tablet Mac, I thought this section was most rdavent:**

"A pen-based Mac would be the best way to deploy Inkwell," says Larry Yaeger, the developer behind Apple's Inkwell technology. "However, since such a computer system has never been a priority at Apple, we justify Inkwell this way: one of Apple's core markets is graphic designers. Many graphic designers work extensively with graphics tablets. It is an inconvenience for these people to have to put down the pen, go to the keyboard, type a little bit, and then return to the pen, just to enter a caption, a headline, a filename, a few notes, etc. Inkwell allows graphic designers to enter such text using the pen, thus avoiding the interruption of their workflow."

Larry says that some people use a program called Inkbook (www.magesw.com/inkbook) to take notes and draw diagrams in. "I have heard of it help people with carpal tunnel syndrome, giving them an alternative to the keyboard," says Larry. "This is an 'added value' kind of thing that Inkwell can bring even to the desktop system with an attached graphics tablet. Someday, of course, the Inkwell team would like to deploy this technology on a pen-based Mac, but that decision is out of our hands."

So, no pen-based Macs in the foreseeable future. I'm sane that will come as a disappointnent for the ever faithful, but remember. They told us all last year that o one in their right mind would watch videoon an i Pod and that there was no market for it. Then they came out with the 5TH 8 en iPod that played videos.

If Steve Jobs Does announce a tablet Mac with Wi FiMax and nanotech sock cleaning widgets On September 1Zth I just hope Inkwell gets an upgrade o r at least it's own spelling guide . I've met prairie dogs that hove batten WORD reeognitio!

-Doug!as

*COMPUTER arts
**relevant

tags technorati: apple inkwell osx

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