Wacom’s upcoming Bamboo Touch multitouch tablet has not only been spotted in the wild, but prematurely bought, unboxed and reviewed, all with no official word from Wacom themselves. Meanwhile, Wacom’s corporate site has confirmed that [pdf link] they’ve begun mass production of a Windows 7 compatible multitouch panels for notebooks, which can be combined with the company’s pen sensor.
Video unboxing and review after the cut
Green-House Japan have announced their new graphics-tablet-cum-LCD-display, and unfortunately the one thing we really want to know about the 17-inch device – how it compares, price-wise, to Wacom’s Cintiq 12WX or PL-900, both exceedingly expensive – is left unsaid. What we do know about the GH-PTB17-E is that it has a 1,280 x 1,024 LCD paired with a wireless pen capable of 512 levels of pressure resolution.
An acoustic instrument bristling with buttons and knobs is always off to a good start, but Patrick Sébastien Coulombe’s “la Guitare à crayon” goes a few steps further into strangeness. Taking the body of an acoustic guitar and then strapping a Wacom digitizer to the front, the unusual instrument translates sketched images into sound.
Video demo after the cut
Touchscreen MacBook conversions aren’t new, and in fact if you’ve got the money then we’ll be the first to say that the Axiotron ModBook is a great off-the-shelf OS X tablet. If, though, you don’t have the money and you want the accuracy of a Wacom active digitizer, you might have to replicate Wei’s iTab project: merging a Wacom Intuos tablet with a first-gen 1.83GHz MacBook.
Video demo after the cut
Wacom’s new Intuos4 graphics tablet range has launched on the company’s European website, offering a range of four sizes each with 5,080 lpi resolution and 2,048 pressure levels. As well as pen-input, the new tablets have eight customizable ExpressKeys with OLED displays (six, with no OLED, on the smallest model) to show their current assignment.
Video unboxing and demonstrations after the cut
Wacom unveils the PL-900, a 19-inch LCD pen tablet, offering a 4:3 native resolution of 1280×1024 of interactive pen screen real estate with a smart auto-sensing video scalar that switch source aspect to 16:10 widescreen format.
Axiotron, maker of the successful Mac tablet, the Modbook, have just announced an update to their system that really changes the entire thing for the better. This isn’t just a miniscule upgrade; rather, it’s significant.
Some of the updates affect the system’s hardware controller board. This has made for overall improved system performance, better battery life and an improved sleep function. Radio frequency shielding now also improves the digitizer’s responsiveness, making it so the tablet is not as susceptible to interference.
The Modbook AnyView LCD panel has also gotten an upgrade by means of a new bonding process and a ForceGlass screen cover that improves contrast ratio. Plus, it now features the QuadCoat process, which protects the top shell with a liquid metallic coating. Apparently, this process was taken from the auto industry and reduces the overall weight down to 5.3 pounds. Other added features include full Bluetooth, improved compatibility with Mac OS X, improved GPS, Autodesk SketchBook software and more. You can get the new and improved Modbook now for $1,299 for just the modification of a MacBook or $2,249 for a MacBook and the modification combined.
Wacom are planning to deliver capacitive touch panels, similar to that used in the iPhone and iPod touch, in 2009 under the name CapPLUS. Going by the press release, the company is initially planning larger-scale panels than used in the Apple devices, intended for desktop monitors and vertical market equipment such as medical and entertainment. However the CapPLUS specifications confirm that panels from 3-inches to 46-inches will be available.
Axiotron, makers of the ModBook Mac Tablet that we were reviewed back in February, are now offering a service to convert any plastic Core 2 Duo MacBook into a pen-enabled slate. The ‘Modservice’ adds a 512-pressure-level Wacom digitizer, glass screen, GPS and chromed display bezel, creating a tablet ideal for graphics professionals and mobile users. It’s cheaper than a brand new Modbook, too, starting at $1,299.
Lenovo’s ThinkPad W700 caused a few double-takes when it launched, with a 5.1 x 3.2-inch Wacom digitizer built into the palm-rest, integrated color calibrator for the 17-inch 1920 x 1200 display and a range of available processors that easily let you throw away your desktop workstation. Laptop Mag have had the W700 in for testing, in the shape of a 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 model priced at over $3,800, and have come up with the conclusion you might expect: it’s good, but it’s niche.
SlashGear JP
