Wacom

Joining yesterday's reveal of the Slate and Folio smartpads, Wacom is back at it today, announcing something of a refresh to its Intuos pen-and-tablet line. From a hardware perspective, not much is changing with the launch of the Intuos 3D, as users will still be getting a medium-sized Intuos with a 6-inch by 8-inch active area. The real shake up comes in the form of partnerships that transform the Intuos into a product designed to be an all-in-one solution for those looking to create and eventually publish or print 3D designs.

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Wacom has announced a slew of new devices at IFA 2016, attempting to bridge the gap between taking notes on physical paper and storing them in the digital space. This new product line includes two new smartpads - the Bamboo Slate and Bamboo Folio - and a new stylus dubbed the Bamboo Omni. As if that weren't enough, the company is also launching refreshes of its existing Bamboo Solo and Bamboo Duo styli.

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The following is an Ergotron WorkFit-D Sit-Stand Desk Review - with a couple of Ergotron add-ons. Earlier this year it was apparent that my working situation was not going to be able to work any longer. I had neck pain as well as upper and lower back pain from the less-than-optimal working conditions I was providing for myself. I decided to seek out the folks at Ergotron to take some of their products out for a spin. I told them my situation and we decided that it'd make sense for me to test out several items: the WorkFit-D Sit-Stand Desk, Neo-Flex Underdesk Keyboard Arm, and the LX Dual Side-by-Side Arm for monitors.

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The Wacom Cintiq 27 QHD Touch is what I expected the high end of the digital illustration device world to be. It doesn't feel as "magical" as the iPad Pro, but it's a whole lot more powerful - and professional. It feels like a real professional piece of equipment, something that's been perfected over several iterations - a tool that a top artist would buy again and again. While (as always) there are some changes I might make if I wanted the ideal touch- and pen-friendly display/tablet, at the moment, this is as good as it gets.

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This week the fellow that introduced us to Microsoft Ink at BUILD 2016 also let loose word of a new writing tool. This stylus, he somehow neglected to mention onstage, will be made in collaboration with Wacom, and will "work across a huge number of pen enabled devices." This word comes from Microsoft's Bryan Roper who also mentions that this is "something big", as it were.

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When Microsoft switched to N-Trig for the Surface Pro 3 and again for the new Surface Pro 4, it necessarily had to push Wacom to the background. While the higher profile maker of graphics tools might not have been affected dramatically, it became less the talk of the town when it came to stylus-enabled Windows tablets. But with Toshiba's new dynaPad 2-in-1, Wacom is again front and center. Even Microsoft dubs it a digital notebook, putting emphasis on its writing and drawing talents, thanks to Wacom's active digitizer.

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Wacom has just announced the Bamboo Spark, a pen and notepad solution that turns handwritten notes into digital files. Users that prefer a physical writing experience on real paper can take notes or doodle just like they're used to, but don't need to worry about keeping and organizing the paper afterwords. Bamboo Spark features a real ink pen that communicates with a "smart folio" with an Electro-Magnetic Resonance board, tracking pen strokes and sending them to an iOS or Android device via Bluetooth.

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Macs and OS X have a reputation of being the preferred hardware and platform of designers, but quite ironically, there is not a single official Apple computer that comes with an integrated Wacom display. Perhaps Apple considers it unnecessary because Wacom's Cintiq displays work perfectly with Macs anyway. But there is still a class of people that want to get the best of both worlds, like this latest hack that puts Apple's latest operating system inside a Cintiq Companion 2 tablet, though not everything is fine and dandy just yet.

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Wacom has introduced a new Cintiq tablet for artists and related professionals, the Cintiq 13HD touch. This joins the maker's other myriad of slates (including those we saw during CES), giving many of the features users have come to expect alongside a relatively small display and a stand upon which the device can be propped up. Those interested won't have to wait long to get their hands on the device: it arrives early this month, though an exact day hasn't yet been provided.

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Joining Toshiba's new products at CES 2015 is the 2-in-1 Portege Z20t, a pen-toting tablet that transforms into an ultrabook with the use of a detachable keyboard component. The entire system is promised to be a mixture of sleek and lightweight while offering precise input via Wacom technologies and some features not entirely common on systems like this, such as a keyboard that is resistant to accidental spills. Despite its small size, this is no toy -- the system covers all the bases, and comes with a price tag to match.

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Toshiba has introduced two new tablets, the 8-inch and 10-inch Encore 2 Write slates. With both these new Windows 8.1 tablets come a stylus tailored towards those who want precise input. Says Toshiba, these are the first slates of their kind to offer Wacom's newest "feel pen technologies", making them usable in a variety of stylus-based tasks, including drawing and writing. As with Wacom's newest Cintiq tablets, these Toshiba offerings utilize a pen offering 2,048 levels of pressure sensitivity.

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Joining its new Cintiq Companion 2 Windows 8 tablet are a couple other Cintiq offerings from Wacom, the 27QHD and the 27QHD Touch. This is the company's newest flagship slate, and it boasts a 27-inch edge-to-edge display with 1.07 billion colors and 97-percent Adobe color gamut coverage, Wacom's Color Manager, and multi-touch support (the latter being for the touch model in particular, obviously). As with the Companion 2, the accompanying pen offers 2,048 pressure sensitivity levels, and supports different pen nibs including ones that are felt.

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