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Cosmonaut stylus review: A tip-to-toe iPad writing companion

Josh Asch — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 17:26:42 +0000

The Cosmonaut is a new iPad stylus from Studio Neat which started life on Kickstarter. After a few months of manufacturing and testing, the Cosmonaut started shipping in early December to Kickstarter backers, and is now available to purchase for $25. But is it any good?

The design

The Cosmonaut is designed to be more like a marker than a regular pen. The tip is wide, which may make you think it’d be less accurate, but surprisingly, it’s one of the most accurate styluses I’ve used. This is mostly due to the structure of the tip; it’s made of rubber which pushes in slightly and isn’t too flexible. (Some other styluses, such as the Griffin iPad stylus, are completely flexible which gives a horrible experience when writing). The stylus moves across the screen with the same fluidity as a dry erase marker on a whiteboard, which I find exceedingly nice to use.

It may just be me, but I’ve found that sometimes when pushing hard on the screen with the Cosmonaut, the rubber rubs against the aluminium core inside and gives the stylus a ‘scraping’ feeling. However, this is only a problem if you push too hard with the stylus. Bear this in mind if you plan on lending your Cosmonaut to young children – it’s unlikely, but repeated rubbing against the core may split the rubber tip.

The thick ‘barrel’ of the stylus makes writing and drawing more comfortable than with any other stylus I’ve used. Since it’s made of soft rubber, it’s a lot easier on the hand than the metal that makes up most styluses. I’d pay good money for someone to offer regular pens with the same rubber barrel.

The one issue I have with the design is more to do with my OCD tendencies, but the absolute blackness of the rubber means any dust that gets trapped on the rubber is very noticeable.

Usage

I find the Cosmonaut very easy to use, since its design encourages you to hold it further up the barrel, like you would with a marker pen. This means that there is little chance of accidentally resting your hand on the iPad screen.

The entire tip can be used as the contact point with the screen, which means the Cosmonaut can be used at any angle – very useful if you hold it in a strange way, like I do (I never learned the ‘proper’ way to grip a pen, so this is perfect for me).

Its weight means that it’s very rare that a touch isn’t recognised, since it keeps itself in contact with the screen. You also get a very satisfying feeling when dotting your I’s or tapping on-screen buttons with it.

Should you buy it?

In my opinion, this is currently the best iPad stylus available; comfortable, accurate and good-looking, too. The quality of manufacturing also seems to guarantee it will last a long time, unlike some styluses I’ve tried before. Whatever you plan to do with it, a Cosmonaut is a great purchase and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it. You can pick one up for $25 on Studio Neat’s website.

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3 occasions when the pen is still mightier than the gadget

Jessica Stillman — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 14:05:53 +0000

On WebWorkerDaily there is no shortage of pieces highlighting the latest collaboration and productivity tools to help you get more done wherever you work, from idea management systems to newfangled communications channels. But just because so many cool new gadgets and apps are available doesn’t mean the old standbys are completely obsolete.

Pen and paper may be hovering somewhere between retro and extinct these days, but Kevin Purdy, for one, feels that there is still a place for ballpoints and notepads in our lives. Writing on Fast Company, Purdy highlights tasks he believes are better suited to exercising your (probably rapidly deteriorating) handwriting:

Lightning-strike ideas. “Carrying a notebook with you at all times is cheap and easy,” writes Purdy, and, according to Marina Martin, a business efficiency consultant quoted in the article, “even the most fluid, thoughtful electronics introduce too much friction into the process of thinking, writing down, then thinking further out.” Pen and paper is better for recall as well. “By committing your thought to paper, you’re also doing more to lock it into place,” writes Purdy. “Virginia Berninger, professor of educational psychology at the University of Washington, has the brain scans to prove it.”
Better to-do lists. “The role of paper is ‘changing from information recording and archiving, to a more temporary role of containing transient information,’ says Jenny Englert, senior cognitive engineer at Xerox,” writes Purdy, who continues, “In other words, paper still makes for a great to-do list.”
Jobs and events that seem overwhelming. “One thing that reliably helped very smart students with major test anxiety was writing about their anxieties to ‘off-load’ them. And that was very specifically noted as ‘writing,’” says Purdy, citing the work of psychologist Sian Beilock, an expert on choking under pressure.

Purdy’s article is lengthy and well worth a read, going into much more detail about why these situations are best handled with old-fashioned tools, but a rough outline of his argument is a great spark to get gadget lovers thinking about what situations, if any, still call for a pen.

Personally, my to-do lists have long ago gone electronic and I’m perfectly happy with that, but I agree that handwriting still channels emotions better, whether as a diary-like anxiety-control exercise or in that supremely old school gesture, the personal note or letter.

When, if ever, do you still reach for a pen?

At Net:Work 2011 this week we will discuss how the way we work is being transformed by breakthrough tools. The event will be held in San Francisco on Thursday, Dec. 8.

Image courtesy of Flickr user ElvertBarnes

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New Patent Application Suggests Apple Tablet Could Have Pen Input

Darrell Etherington — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:26:42 +0000

Apple apparently isn’t exclusively devoted to the idea of finger-based multi-touch input on all its devices, a recent patent applications shows. The patent application, found by Apple Insider, describes the use of a pen-like stylus to operate an “ink information” input system, and references tablet computing applications for the new tech by name.

“Ink information” refers to handwriting technology, specifically. The patent describes that previous attempts in this field, including in Apple’s own Newton device, have been insufficient to the task in the past. It suggests that the addition of an “ink manager,” a kind of go-between interpretive process, might reduce the occurrence of mistaken or misplaced ink detection.

Here’s the exact wording of Apple’s description of both the problem of ink detection and its proposed solution:

Even systems that attempt to improve this situation by using each stroke to determine the input field anew, such as the Apple Newton from Apple Computer Inc. of Cupertino, Calif., can suffer from failure modes that make the situation difficult for both end users and for application developers. For example, a word that accidentally spans two input fields even a tiny amount (due, for instance, to a stray ascender, descender, crossbar, or dot) may be broken up into multiple sessions, causing misrecognition and invalid data entries that must be manually corrected.

The ink manager interfaces between a pen-based input device, one or more applications (pen-aware or not) and one or more handwriting recognition engines executing on the computer system. The ink manager acquires ink information, such as ink strokes, entered at the pen-based input device, and organizes that information into ink phrases.

Along with the patent description, Apple included an image of the proposed system in the application. The graphic is very reminiscent of prototypes and concepts of the as-yet unannounced tablet computer that has the Apple community bubbling over with excitement. Note the bar at the bottom, which resembles the dock on the home screen of the iPhone. I’d also like to point out that the device looks a lot like a reader, given the scroll buttons at the bottom. Maybe Apple is planning to change the game by making sure its reader doubles as a writer, too.

Ideally, the digital ink and stylus input tech described in the patent would operate alongside touch input. This application will no doubt bring a lot of hope for digital artists hoping to work with the device, for whom pen input is infinitely preferable to touch control. Hopefully, we won’t have to wait long to find out if a pen system makes it into a production device, since the tablet is rumored to be unveiled in the first quarter of 2010.

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What's the Handiest Tool in Your Home Office?

Georgina Laidlaw — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:00:09 +0000

I confess: I’m a terrible scatterbrain. It takes a lot for me to force my thoughts into a nice, orderly line and to keep them there — particularly in those busy times when I have a lot of competing priorities. In those times, I’ll often find myself working on one project while ideas for other tasks pop into my head at random.

Those thoughts can be as simple as “don’t forget to email Pete about that invoice” or as intricate as a new angle on an idea I’d been working on before. They’re basically the random things my brain spews out while I’m trying to focus on something else. I know I’m not alone — a lot of people experience the same thing.

Through a long process of trial and error, I’ve found that the best way to deal with these random thoughts — thoughts that are important and valuable, but unrelated to the task I’m working on — is to note them down. This way, I can be sure I won’t forget them, but I also reduce their interruption into my focus on other tasks.

For this reason, the handiest tool in my home office is a pen and paper. I’ve tried using online tools to note down my ideas, but I find that going online to add a task to my to-do list is like opening a door to the world: The temptation to check the news, weather, or my email is often too great to resist.

The problem with noting these random — but important — tasks in something as simple as my text editor is that, as a result of my scattered approach to work, I usually end up with so many apps open, and so many things going on, that I can forget I have my list hidden behind five other panes. Sometimes, I have trouble finding it at all.

My pen and paper are always at my elbow, so I don’t have any difficulty finding them. I like the fact that they’re physically separate from my computer: the place where I do my work. That physical separation helps me mentally divorce these thoughts from what I’m doing, which prevents them from distracting me from the task at hand.

My notepad is my “random thoughts” area, so I treat it as such; my tasks lists are online, well-planned and carefully formulated. But my notepad is a space that’s dedicated to shards of thoughts, germs of ideas that I know need more work and attention before I can do something with them.

And I do give them that attention — sooner or later. Usually, I try to take a look at my list when I get to a break point in what I’m doing. I can take the easy-to-do stuff, prioritize it, and add it to my task list immediately. And I can check my schedule to see when I can set aside half an hour for thinking more about the new angle for that previously concepted idea. Perhaps I’ll also take the opportunity to find my brainstorming notes for that idea and add the new thought to them, ensuring that I keep all the thoughts about that project together.

Once I’ve sorted through the items on my page, I turn it over and start a new page: a clean slate for new random thoughts that may occur in the next work period. So, my pen and notepad are the handiest tools in my home office.

What about you? What remote working tool do you value most?

Photo credit: stock.xchng user RAWKU5.

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More Holiday Gift Ideas for Web Workers

Aliza Sherman — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 17:00:01 +0000

Darrell Etherington recently came up with a list of holiday gifts, and I wanted to add some ideas to the mix. I’m more of a gadget gal, myself. I like tangible items that I can unwrap and hold in my hands, marvel at the construction and hope, of course, that they are intuitive to use since I hate to read instructions.

Here’s a list of gift suggestions I’ve come up with ranging from $10 to $500 to accommodate any gift-giving budget.

For the Bleary Eyed All-Nighters

Can Haz Espresso? I’m more of a latte drinker myself but any caffeine addict knows that at the heart of any good latte or breve or cappucino is the perfect cup of espresso. For the spendy types, think of giving the web worker you love the Nespresso Concept D290 ($499 USD). But if you are looking for functionality, quality and cost-efficiency, take a look at the Gaggia Carezza Silvertone Espresso Machine ($179.99 USD). The machines are sleek, sexy, and high-octane generating.

For the Forgetful

If you’re like me, losing car keys or mobile devices is becoming epidemic. Rescue those absent-minded web workers with The Loc8tor ($169.99 USD). They can attach mini homing devices to their most frequently lost items. The Loc8tor leads them right to their missing things. The Loc8tor can also double as a personal alarm device.

For Those Who Sit for Hours

Web working can take a toll on the body with all the endless sitting. The HumanScale Foot Machine ($130 USD) can be used as a standard foot rest but it also has a ball-bearing, roller design to allow the stagnant web worker to increase circulation and exercise lower leg muscles with a gentle rocking motion. According to the promotional materials, “Studies have shown that 70% of all women and 40% of all men have health issues such as blood clots, varicose veins and pressure on the Achilles tendon due to pooling of fluids in the lower limbs — the result of prolonged, inactive sitting.” Save a web worker today!

For the Environmentally Conscious

For the web worker who loves to travel or work in the outdoors, keep them connected and powered with a Solar and Wind Charger ($80 USD). Suitable for cell phones, MP3 players, iPods, digital cameras and other handheld devices.

For the Mouse Maniacs

For being such a sedentary occupation, web workers can experience quite a few injuries, including carpal tunnel syndrom. The Switch Mouse from Humanscale ($103.95 USD) has a V-shaped base to position the wrist and forearm into a more natural stance and is size-adjustable for a custom fit. It also has a four-way scrolling dish that reduces repetitive motions and programmable buttons to remember specific functions. Super ergonomic.

For the Geekiest
Moving from the pricier gifts to a very affordable one, satisfy any geek tendency in your favorite web worker with the Ultimate 5-in-1 Geek Pen ($9.99 USD). In fact, it is affordable enough to get one for every web worker you know.

For even more functionality, try a 2GB Pulse Smartpen from Livescribe ($199.95 USD). The pen can capture over 200 hours of recorded audio, linking the audio with what you’ve written. When you are taking notes while at a meeting, for example, the Smartpen ties the notes and audio together. Actual recording time varies by audio quality setting. (Requires Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista.)
For the Spying Kind

The Rovio Mobile Webcam ($299.95 USD) is a mobile web cam. Now why would someone want a mobile web cam? You can put a Rovio at your office and attend team meetings from anywhere. Or use Rovio to check on your pets at home. You can even test drive a Rovio online before buying. Put a few Rovios in one location, and you can even hold a Battle of the Rovios competition!

What are some of the cool gift items have you found for your favorite web workers?

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