Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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69 of 69 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great product! Somebody should have thought of this sooner., October 8, 2003
I bought the I-Pen hoping it would help with my aching wrist from grabbing a mouse all day; I was looking at graphics tablets, but I use dual monitors at work, so that was not an option. I tripped across this little doo-hickey, and thought I'd give it a shot.First of all, the mouse works great; it can be used on almost any surface (except clear glass or white paper). The pen's a little "full-bodied", which makes it difficult to grab, at times, but other than that, it's a nice tool to have. I can hardly wait until they release the wireless version(s), but the cord dangling off it is not too bad. Second, their customer support is GREAT!!!!! When my I-Pen arrived, I noticed that the right mouse button was sticking, and I could only get it to work about half of the time. I went to their web page and got a response back within a few hours indicating that my unit was defective, and another one was on the way. The second unit works great, and thus my faith in capitalism was restored :) As for the carpal tunnel, I'll keep you posted.... UPDATE: Just wanted to let you know about the carpal tunnel issue; this thing has really helped me. I now have writer's cramp, but that's another story (j/k). Seriously, I love this product. I'm still waiting for the wireless version, but I have found that this simple tool has really helped me be more productive for longer periods of time.
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50 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good idea, faulty implementation., August 23, 2006
[...]
There are very few standalone "digital pen" mice available; people who wish to use the ergonomic pen design often have to cough up additional funds for a digitizer tablet [...] that is bulky. This particular model has been around for several years, apparently, but they have not updated it.
I bought this specifically for ergonomic reasons and because I did not want a bulky tablet component (though I do own a Wacom for special uses). It's a bit chunky; while it was uncomfortable for me to use, it's probably fine for others. It feels light, and while this is could be a good thing if you tend to get finger-fatigued, the cord hanging off the end unfortunately seems to weigh all that much more.
The most important problem for me, however, was that this digital pen-mouse doesn't seem to be calibrated correctly. A 2003 review article elsewhere also pointed out this problem: Assuming the mouse button is supposed to be positioned at the top of the pen where your index finder rests, you cannot write or draw in a straight line across the screen. The cursor will slant upwards from left to right, effectively rendering any drawing potential useless; the other article also commented that the handwriting recognition suffers from this weirdness. You can try to hold the pen at a different rotation, but it's not perfectly round, so it will end up being more uncomfortable.
For average mousing, I suppose people can get used to the quirk, but for uses that require a bit more accuracy, look elsewhere. It's a good idea, and I really hope someone will finally deliver a good pen-mouse that doesn't use ink or special paper or pad.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Varied Uses-Digital Art, A Mouse, and PC Games, July 21, 2009
I've used this 3 ways.
As a digital artist: I absolutely HATED it the first time. I do my drawing via scans and mouse, combining old school pencil media with Photoshop. It grew on me.
Drawing with this was best described by a friend. It's a lot like trying to use the pens you sign your name digitally on the pads for credit cards for the store. You know, the ones where you try to write something legible and it comes out looking like a drunk monkey did it.
Within 20 minutes, however, I was able to do basic and familiar shapes freehand in Photoshop. They looked no better nor worse than a mouse. With practice, I've begun to like the infernal thing. Although our "relationship" in the first hour started with me wanting to rip it out of the PC and boil it in hot lava from frustration, I've come to find if very useful in several ways.
My advice is to understand it may take patience and practice to get used to it if you're using it for art. If you're an artist, you probably aren't a stranger to either.
It worked fine in Win XP, Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop without any special software except what came with it. It was fast and easy to install. Put in the CD, install, plug in the pen and it worked.
My signature looks slightly less like a drunk monkey did it and is almost legible now...
Replacing your mouse for common tasks: For simple PC use it's great. When it's plugged in I use it as my mouse as well as a digital drawing device.
If you're picking this up to replace a mouse because you need something which won't hurt your hand, have disability, etc. I'd highly recommend it. I have no real trouble using it for basic point/click. It does seem to need a fairly smooth surface, but comes with a small pad.
For Video Games: I've been a long time fan of 3rd person PC games where you use a mouse to point to an area on the screen, click, and the character walks. I liked the I-Pen better than my mouse and it was much easier and faster to maneuver my people with it. It also worked well on Java applet based games like Yahoo and Pogo because it was a little faster.
For marking pages in IE I don't know. I seldom use Internet Explorer, and didn't buy it for that, so I've never actually tried it.
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