Capacitive sylus on surface?

[nasellok]

Anyone try to use one? I am having some difficulty using it with the handwrite keyboard. When i try to handwrite notes it skips, almost like im picking it up off of the screen. It seems to work just fine with my finger though. Any thoughts?

 

[Sam Sabri]

I'd just use it with a finger. Most capacitive styli I've tried kind of suck and don't really work like a real pen would. The problem is fundamental as a capacitive stylus is no better than your finger and will stick detect your hand on the screen.

For taking notes on a tablet with a pen, you should look into ones that implement technology from N-trig or Wacom.

 

[Flagz]

Anyone try to use one? I am having some difficulty using it with the handwrite keyboard. When i try to handwrite notes it skips, almost like im picking it up off of the screen. It seems to work just fine with my finger though. Any thoughts?

 

[vdek]

What type are you using? I'm going to try a jot pro this week and see how that goes... however with my basic stylus it kinda sucks... It feels like you're writing on crayon for the most part and it's only good for writing large text, nothing small. I made a howto video here: [HowTo] Using a Stylus on a Microsoft Surface Tablet with OneNote [wrtapps.com] - YouTube

 

[mparker]

I tried a Wacom Bamboo capacitive stylus with poor results, it skipped badly.

 

[nasellok]

This is rather disappointing - I was not expecting wacom digital inking esche, but was at least hoping that it would be at least as good as the ipad for doing this. I often mark up pdf's, and I use a stylus to do so, hopefully the hardware can be tweaked to better work.

Anyone know if there is a way to tell MS about this?

 

[Jubei700]

I used a rubber tip one and like others say, it skipped quite a lot. However I also bought one on ebay with the metal mesh type tip. That worked much more reliably for me. See the two types here: http://www.iphonejd.com/.a/6a010535fde333970c01676649916a970b-500wi

the stylus was really cheap on ebay, and at first I regretted it, but it works well, and once I realised that there was a piece of protective plastic that needed to be removed it functioned much better (doh!)

 

[johnbash612]

I used the alupen which is like a huge heavy crayon, but thats okay because thats all you can really do with capacitive. I tried it on onenote and it was awful. This is actually onenotes fault. It has no smoothing function and its super pixelated writing. Really the issue is the surface needs something similar to penultimate on the ipad. That had different thicknesses, different colors and a quick interface to organize notebooks. If that technology was transfered to onenote, I would be one EXTREMELY happy surface owner, kind of PITA to swap from on program to the other to take notes, and an even bigger PITA to read notes that way. I don't really remember well but I think it felt like I had to use a bit more force on onenote, but then again that could be the program. I did try one program that did smooth the pixels out, but it would only do it after you wrote and not during, so you would see the awful pixely capacitive running, lift the pen, then the text would smooth. Not bad for a first app though, so the technology is there for a penultimate esque program, maybe it exists already? Speak up productivity nerds!


EDIT: ps I don't remember the name of the app, sorry. I deleted it right away. And for a capacitive stylus, if you have bigger hands, the alupen is the way to go, it feels really solid. Good for graphs, organic chemistry equations, sometimes math equations, and that really goes for most capacitive styluses. You won't get any fine writing obviously, that also comes with capacitive styluses. Because of alupens massive head, it picks up pretty easily, and its weight helps with giving enough force on the screen to respond.

 

[vdek]

So I got my Jot Pro in on Sunday of all days. It works really well! I like it a lot more than the Salami Stylus and I did a write up for it along with a video comparing the two types of stylus. It's not perfect, but it's definitely the best capacitive stylus you can get for Windows RT IMO.

Using a Jot Pro Stylus with Windows RT on a Surface Tablet | Windows RT App Review

Adonit Jot Pro Review with Microsoft Surface Tablet and Windows RT - YouTube

 

[loribinca]

I used the alupen which is like a huge heavy crayon, but thats okay because thats all you can really do with capacitive. I tried it on onenote and it was awful. This is actually onenotes fault. It has no smoothing function and its super pixelated writing. Really the issue is the surface needs something similar to penultimate on the ipad. That had different thicknesses, different colors and a quick interface to organize notebooks. If that technology was transfered to onenote, I would be one EXTREMELY happy surface owner, kind of PITA to swap from on program to the other to take notes, and an even bigger PITA to read notes that way. I don't really remember well but I think it felt like I had to use a bit more force on onenote, but then again that could be the program. I did try one program that did smooth the pixels out, but it would only do it after you wrote and not during, so you would see the awful pixely capacitive running, lift the pen, then the text would smooth. Not bad for a first app though, so the technology is there for a penultimate esque program, maybe it exists already? Speak up productivity nerds!


EDIT: ps I don't remember the name of the app, sorry. I deleted it right away. And for a capacitive stylus, if you have bigger hands, the alupen is the way to go, it feels really solid. Good for graphs, organic chemistry equations, sometimes math equations, and that really goes for most capacitive styluses. You won't get any fine writing obviously, that also comes with capacitive styluses. Because of alupens massive head, it picks up pretty easily, and its weight helps with giving enough force on the screen to respond.

It really does blow my mind that my gen1 iPad is far, far better than my surface when it comes to using a capacitive pen to take handwritten notes - I don't know if this is a limitation of the hardware itself, the OS or the application. i've tried OneNote - horrible - and NoteAnywhere is a little bit too over-complex for my needs

I was using the alupen - the pink limited edition swarovski version with my iPad and it worked a charm. I just can't fathom why it does not at least work comparatively on the Surface, which is a newer device by a few years to my gen1 iPad

The two apps I miss most on the surface are Penultimate and Paper53

 

[johnbash612]

It really does blow my mind that my gen1 iPad is far, far better than my surface when it comes to using a capacitive pen to take handwritten notes - I don't know if this is a limitation of the hardware itself, the OS or the application. i've tried OneNote - horrible - and NoteAnywhere is a little bit too over-complex for my needs

I was using the alupen - the pink limited edition swarovski version with my iPad and it worked a charm. I just can't fathom why it does not at least work comparatively on the Surface, which is a newer device by a few years to my gen1 iPad

The two apps I miss most on the surface are Penultimate and Paper53

Yep couldn't agree more. I think (hope) something like penultimate will be out soon, or onenote mx has better stylus support. I used penultimate a lot too, especially for science classes. I'm getting used to typing notes over onenote pdfs i upload, but sometimes you need to draw something and thats when i miss my ipad gen 1 haha. Still i find the surface better overall. Even the fact that there is a desktop that hosts files you download/transfer is miles ahead of the ipad. I also appreciate the touch keyboard as most of the notes i do take are typing notes, much faster than the ipad in that respect. You win some you lose some ��