Video- differences between active and passive digitizer
You hear a lot of talk about active vs. resistive (passive) digitizers and everyone has their own (often strong) opinions about each. What you usually don’t see is a video comparison of the two types of digitizers along with explanations of the benefits of each. Hussein Ismail of Geekset has created a short video overview comparing the two digitizer types and gives some interesting opinions on what type of digitizer is better for different types of devices/ screens. Well done, Hussein!
http://www.youtube.com/v/MOpe3wqZ7ts
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He missed one important difference between the two technologies… If you lose or break your pen on the active screen, your pretty much stuck until you get a new one. The workaround for resistive is pretty obvious.
-SK
The answer to this problem seems so easy that there must be something to this that I am not aware of here.
Why don’t they just add an on-screen button that will let you switch between Active or Passive as the need arises? Then you get the best of both worlds.
This could perhaps just be a firmware upgrade or software patch so you could go back and fix all the one already sold.
How about a patch and a new screen pen combo?
The pen could have a clicker on the top (like a reqular ball point) that quickly switches between Active or Passive.
I almost feel silly posting this note.
This seems so obvious.
Later!
The Web Hunter
A lot of Tablet PCs now have dual digitizers, some of which work just as you state with a button toggle between them, others that are in touch mode all the time until the pen nears the screen at which time the active digitizer is switched on.