Bamboo Pen & Touch

[Peter Korsten]

So, as one of the first things I did when I got my new contact lenses 
and thereby my life back (have been with my glasses and being totally 
dependent on other for the last couple of weeks), I went to the local 
computer supermarket (that's the only way I can describe it; the only 
thing missing is trolleys, but they do have baskets and 
supermarket-style checkout counters) and got myself a Wacom Bamboo Pen & 
Touch.

This is a graphics tablet and multi-touch capable touch pad in one 
device. With one finger, you move the mouse cursor; with two, you can 
scroll both horizontally and vertically, zoom, and rotate. With the pen, 
you get either absolute (pen-like) or relative (mouse-like) navigation.

Now, I'm not in the least artistically inclined, and as a graphics 
tablet, I think a professional would quickly find the limitations of 
this device.

But as an alternative means of controlling the mouse, it's a blast. I 
find myself constantly switching between mouse, tablet and pad. For 
example, if you play the on-line game 'Doodle God', you really want to 
use the pen.

One minus I've found: I don't think it integrates very well with 
multitouch under Windows 7. And scrolling with the stylus simply doesn't 
work.

Now, it actually does these multitouch thingies under XP as well (which 
may explain why it doesn't do 7 too well), but when I took the thing 
back to my Windows 7 machine, the scrolling, rotating and zooming via 
the pad stopped working altogether. I had to reinstall the software.

Still, if you find you suffer from RSI, you may want to have a look at 
these. As I said before, I hate laptops, but now I not only have a 
laptop-style keyboard, I also have a touch pad. :)

- Peter