Bill Gates on the iPad: Needs a stylus and a keyboard

I have an iPad and I just ordered a stylus, the Pogo Sketch. I have an application to take notes with that I purchased and have tried using it with my finger. It's looks like a woman put her lipstick on with a kids elbow. I used a pencil eraser to "TRY" and see what a stylus would do for me. AWESOME!!!! It actually looked like my handwriting and I could read it. I can't wait for the stylus to get here in the mail.

The question was, yet again, "Will a stylus make the iPad just what you want?" For me, yes. I would like to be able to use it to take notes, but the keyboard is too linear. I use more of a mind-map style, and I don't want to have to look at an onscreen keyboard while I'm putting something down (an onscreen keyboard doesn't lend itself to touch-typing). I'd like to be able to underline, draw arrows, draw, and scrawl in my e-books, too, in a way that's natural for *me*. I didn't grow up with using computers for everyday tasks, so as much as I may try, typing on any kind of keyboard is never going to be a natural note-taking style for *me*. I'm not saying the UI should be redesigned; I'd just like the option to use the iPad as, well, a pad.

I guess it's understandable that anything Bill Gates says about a Mac product is going to raise hackles, but really, all this talk about the dock and RS-232 interfaces and Ballmer's comments on the iPhone are simply off-topic. Yes, a stylus is not something everyone, even most people, would want on this, but it would be nice *for me* if there were the option of having one with a diameter smaller than a pencil eraser and software which could ignore the presence of a hand when the stylus is used and handwriting recognition software for people who just don't like typing on *any* keyboard very much. Why all the disdain for people who don't like typing?

No one is going to like this, but Gates is right here. Input will be a mix of voice, keyboard (onscreen), stylus, and touch. If I could use my iPad as a stand up note taker, it would be perfect. As a manager, I walk around a lot, go to meetings, and am away from my office at least half of the day. If I had a good stylus for the iPad, it or my iPhone (which doesn't need a stylus by the way) would be in my hands about 75% of my waking day.

I know Jobs doesn't like the stylus, but I honestly thought his desire to expand into the "classroom" would change his mind on the iPad. Imagine being a student, your text book is already on your iPad, now you just need to be able to notate in it. Without a stylus, no way. Some people take notes on keyboards, but graphs, charts, diagrams, and basically math toss real note taking out.

Yes, there are 3rd party stylus'. But if I wanted to write with a chubby tip, I'd use my.... finger. :) Seriously though, I don't mind paying more for a stylus so 3rd parties are, I'm hoping, going to be my saving grace. Come on capitalism! There is money to be made in a great stylus!

Finally, a personal note to Steve. You are the greatest, and some day, touch will be the king.... also, Tom Cruise will solve crimes before they actually happen. Until then, during the transition, we need multiple forms of input. The more the better! The more people feel comfortable using these kind of devices the sooner Scotty can beam me up!

The one thing I'd really like to do on an iPad or any other slate-/tablet-like device is exactly that: making notes the old-fashioned way, and storing them the 21st-century way. I was very surprised (or annoyed..) that Apple didn't include any form of handwriting recognising in the iPad... that would have got me to run for the Apple store, that's for sure!

In other words: A stylus, even optional, would be great idea...

This is almost as amusing as reading all of the 2007 responses to Ballmer's 'the iPhone is doomed to failure' rant. It's similar to the foaming rhetoric that fanboys spout about the iPad's lack of a front-facing camera (do that many people want to take their clothes off for thousands to see?).

A stylus, like a cam, isn't something that the vast majority of the audience will ever want or need. Most of us have digits known as fingers, which are amazingly good for 99.9% of iPad usage. If the market (users, not critics) were to demand a stylus, Apple *might* think about including one. But why bother, when you can get a cheap third party stylus? Perfect solution.

Lots of third party apps also exist for voice input of all kind - Dragon, et al.

Apple always does one thing well - they limit the feature set and either nail the interaction or make it good enough that 90%+ of the users will be very happy with the result. The formula is NOT 'more features=better product', it's 'Too many features in a v1.0 product = not a good thing', or 'limited good to great features=better product'. Read Paul Buchheit's great blog post on this: http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2010/02/if-your-product-is-great-it-doesnt-need.html

I just need the iPad to be a great browsing experience, good to great video and audio, and good to great ereader. A casual appliance that I keep around the living room or bedroom, so that I don't have to haul around my laptop but a far better viewing experience than the iPhone.

Actually, I'm waiting for system-wide stylus support for the iPad so that I can take notes. (No, using my finger is not a natural solution.) When I started hearing about an Apple tablet, I figured this would be something built-in...i"pad" as in notepad. But I'd like to see system software that will actually convert my handwriting to text. That tech exists in interactive whiteboards, and I'm sure Apple could make a million times better. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUQKhV96wTk) Speaking of interactive whiteboards, as a public school teacher myself who's school can't afford one of those, It'd be great to mimic the functionality by connecting an iPad to a projector and using the stylus to write notes.

And it doesn't stop at written notes. Imagine drawing a flowchart in a brainstorm session and having that instantly translate into an editable vector-based / text box-based version. Or to edit a word-processed manuscript by scribbling notes on the side that could then transform into Word-esque comments where you could track changes.

I'm drooling just thinking about it.

As for Bill Gates...whatever.

If the iPad 'needed' a stylus it would have one. It doesn't so it hasn't. iPad has a keyboard that appears when you need it. Simple and perfect design. No extraneous bits added on.

Microsoft is chaos. Apple is Zen.

If the future of computing is a netbook then you might as well kill me now because that thought is so depressing. Bill has been wrong about things in the future and, in my opinion, he is way off base on this one too. Personally, I think the iPad is a brilliant concept that I'm getting increasingly excited about despite the fact that it won't do anything that I can't already do today. Rather, I'm excited at the prospect of how well this device will do things and how convenient it will be. Whether it will justify the price in the international markets, however, remains to be seen.

I think Apple picked the right route with the iPad. I don't think a tablet is ever going to be the best device for serious work (I think a laptop or a desktop are better options where you'll constantly need a keyboard or mouse). The PC tablets made the mistake of thinking every computer needs to be able to be your sole computer (no matter what your usage habits). So Apple made the best device for casual and personal use: surfing, e-reading, casual games, apps, listening to music with electronic liner notes bigger, standing up or lying down. The fact you can use iWork on it shows the possibilities in making applications far more complex than on an iPhone. This is definitely the best bet, as far as the slate form factor goes. I'll be buying one.

Stylus input and finger input are two entirely different beasts, both from a usability standpoint, and technology. Yes, you can buy a stylus that works with the iPhone/Touch/Pad, but it's just a very thin finger. It doesn't support any of the input features that even the lamest stylus-based TabletPC does, such as pressure sensitivity and right-clicking.

I've seen a Windows Mobile smartphone that had both technologies on its screen: it would respond to a finger touch or pressure from a blunt stylus. Clever.... but it was a usability clusterfuck. If you brush against the screen with your finger while tapping with the stylus, it registers the finger-touch as if it were a tap. Trying to actually draw on a tablet without ever touching the screen surface with another finger or the palm of your hand would be an exercise in frustration. They are functionally incompatible. I have an old TabletPC slate that I use for drawing on; I am SO glad the screen doesn't respond when I touch it with my fingers. (If I could afford it, I'd have - and say the same thing - about a ModBook.) I have an iPod Touch that use for all the obvious stuff; I am SO glad I don't need a stylus for it (and I'd probably feel the same way if I had an iPad). A dual finger/stylus input is neither fish nor fowl. It'd be like a "convertible" TabletPC that sucks as a laptop and sucks as a slate, and that ultimately hardly anyone is buying.

Apple made some bizarre choices with the iPad, but their decision to leave out the stylus (and not try to support a "real" Wacom-type stylus) was the correct one.