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Comment by satyrnein | Hacker News Reader

I find the current state of the art on stylus text entry so disappointing. I made a hacky prototype 7 years ago (!) and this kind of direct interaction remains a dream: https://youtu.be/So4x3Cu4WI0

I had a glimmer of hope when Apple started selling styluses, that they might succeed where Microsoft failed. But instead, they're putting mouse cursors on iPads, and the stylus is still a niche tool for artists.

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Remarkable 2 is a total breakthrough product. I rarely use my iPad any more. The pen with the friction with the tip that wears down was key—-feels like paper.

I use Paperlike with my iPad Pro for the same reason and must say that it's really hard to switch back!

I'd use Remarkable if: it was cheaper and supported a full colour display/Procreate. But, obv. that's not what the device was designed for and that's ok.

That's exactly what the iPad supports now. So not a dream anymore.

And I'm still not sure what the point is, its still easier for me to type using the magic keyboard. Maybe for some people its easier to write with the pencil than to use the touch keyboard.

It's easier to type pure text, but I'd bet taking notes in a math or physics or biology class would be way faster using a pencil than a keyboard (even more so when excercising your math) - you often need to jot down diagrams and complex multi-line equations. The 2d nature of real paper is completely lost with the 1d abstractions of the keyboard.

It’s an easier mode for me when standing and holding the iPad with one hand and the stylus in the other. The keyboard is nice when sitting and using both hands for sure. Same was true when using my old thinkpad tablet in the same way.

It depends, for short input you're right. But if you're filling a whole form with multiple inputs the pen definitely helps.

> But instead, they're putting mouse cursors on iPads, and the stylus is still a niche tool for artists.

Have you tried it recently? Pencil is surprisingly well supported across Apple’s apps.

Windows 10 can do that really well too

That is great prototype. iPadOS 14 has the same feature called Scribble. I bet your work found a way to the people that made Scribble.

> I find the current state of the art on stylus text entry so disappointing.

I think your idea of the state of the art may be several years out of date.

I do this on the iPad. And it works way better than on the video (latency, hand-resting, ...).

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