Tag Archives: Apple Pencil

An S-Pen for the iPhone Duo? Yes please!

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I’ll give Apple its props by saying that it’s genuinely remarkable they built Apple Pencil compatibility into the iPhone Duo. Yes, it’s a welcome move because it’s a step above what Samsung did by nuking S-Pen support for their Galaxy Z Fold8 series, but it’s also sort of stupid that they didn’t build the compatibility in right away. The iPhone Duo is announced to be compatible with the Pencil on a future date. It’s something Apple announced you’ll get, but in the words of MKBHD, don’t ever buy a product on a promise of future upgrades.

I appreciate Apple trying though, but there’s one problem Apple never accounted for – the Apple Pencil is longer than the iPhone Duo. Unlike the S-Pen, which is mobile-sized, the Apple Pencil measures 6.43″ long. That’s almost 2 inches taller than the iPhone Duo which sits at 4.64″ in height. There’s no realistic universe in which anybody is carrying an Apple Pencil along with the iPhone Duo – they might be compatible but they’re not built to be a cohesive design solution… so Eslam Mohammed invented one. Meet the Pencil Duo – a stylus specially designed to be the iPhone Duo’s loyal sidekick.

Designer: Eslam Mohammed

The regular Apple Pencil’s design was informed by the device it was supposed to pair with. A simple all-white design, a circular grip, and one single chamfered edge to let the Pencil snap to the edge of the iPad to charge. The Pencil was also sized to just about fit the iPad mini, showing how much Apple had thought about the integration between the two products. So when Mohammed built the Duo, he basically approached it from the ground-up. No chamfer, no awkwardly long stylus.

The Pencil Duo is a perfectly cylindrical stylus, albeit with a silver detail running along its edge. Inspired by the iPhone Duo’s silver hinge which punctuates its design, the Pencil Duo sports that running metallic detail too, paired with a button that works just the way the button on the S-Pen does with Samsung’s phones. Mohammed doesn’t explicitly detail what the button does, but one can assume it helps with highlighting text, opening shortcuts, working as a shutter button, etc.

No snapping to the iPhone’s edge means there’s no chamfer. This gives the Pencil Duo a design that feels a lot cleaner in my opinion. The reason why snapping wouldn’t work is because it would prevent you from being able to open your phone. Instead, the Pencil Duo sits at the back of the phone, thanks to a special case that lets you dock the pencil.

The pencil neatly tucks into the back, occupying the empty space left behind by the camera bump, which doesn’t extend all the way to the end (the way the Pixel Fold did in the past). It’s a neat arrangement, and I’m sure Molly Anderson would approve. Who’s Molly Anderson, you ask? Well just the VP of Industrial Design, but Apple’s never really had a design lead in the limelight after Jony I’ve left.

The Pencil Duo measures roughly 4.3 inches in length, and a tad bit narrower than its predecessor. Sort of just like how the iPhone Duo is so much slimmer than its other counterparts. There’s no mention of how this pencil would charge, although I’m sure wireless charging is on the table. You’d probably need a special cradle to charge the device, but I wouldn’t put it past Apple to invent one.

Mohammed has, however, detailed a few other things, like the Pencil Duo having haptic feedback, the Hover Preview feature, and obviously angle and pressure sensitivity. The only real problem here is that this entire stylus is conceptual… but I wouldn’t put it past third party designers from making iPhone Duo styluses that work using capacitive touch and have Bluetooth pairing so that the button on the stylus actually packs a few features. Maybe long-press for Apple Intelligence too!

The post An S-Pen for the iPhone Duo? Yes please! first appeared on Yanko Design.

Rock Paper Pencil 4.0 Adds the Paper Feel the Apple Pencil Never Had

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The Apple Pencil on a standard iPad screen is a competent stylus. It isn’t, however, anything like writing on paper, and for a lot of artists and note-takers, that distinction matters enough to do something about it. Rock Paper Pencil has been the go-to solution for this since version one, and version 4.0, at $49.99, adds something earlier versions couldn’t offer: a choice of how drawing actually feels.

The setup is a two-part system. A removable screen protector attaches to the iPad’s display without adhesive, using NanoCling technology that leaves no residue when peeled off. Its microscopic texture adds enough controlled friction to the surface that the Apple Pencil moves across it the way a pencil moves across paper, with resistance that makes strokes feel intentional rather than frictionless.

Designer: Astropad

The four included tips are the version 4.0 update. Two are ballpoint, the same smooth steel-tip design from previous versions, and two are graphite, a new addition made from POM material and modeled after a 2B pencil. The graphite tips have a softer, toothier drag that catches the screen protector’s texture more noticeably, delivering the kind of feedback artists reach for when sketching, shading, or building up layered strokes.

Switching between the two feels like the difference between reaching for a pen and reaching for a pencil, which is precisely the point. Writers and quick note-takers tend to prefer the ballpoint’s smoother glide. Illustrators working on expressive, pressure-sensitive line work often want more grip. Neither one is wrong, and having both in the same kit means you don’t have to commit to one style of input permanently.

What makes this system work as well as it does is that the tips and the protector are engineered together rather than as separate products. The custom tips are designed specifically to interact with the nano-texture protector surface, so the friction you feel isn’t random. It’s calibrated. The tips work with every Apple Pencil model, including the Apple Pencil Pro, so upgrading your stylus doesn’t require replacing the tips you’re used to.

The screen protector itself attaches in seconds and stores in an included protective sleeve when it’s not on the iPad. The removable design is one of the things that separates Rock Paper Pencil from Apple’s own nano-texture glass option, which is a permanent surface applied at purchase on select high-end iPad Pro configurations. Rock Paper Pencil achieves a comparable paper-like feel without locking you into it, and without the price premium that comes with Apple’s version.

Compatibility covers most iPads in active circulation, from the iPad mini to the full-size iPad Pro, with model-specific screen protectors ordered for the right fit. The tips, by contrast, are universal across Apple Pencil generations. Each Rock Paper Pencil 4.0 kit ships with the screen protector, the protective sleeve, and all four tips: two ballpoint and two graphite.

The $49.99 price keeps the entry point low enough that it doesn’t feel like a commitment. The protector comes off clean, the tips swap in seconds, and the graphite option adds a dimension to iPad drawing that wasn’t there before. It’s a small change to the physical layer that produces a noticeably different experience.

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Apple Pencil 3 might come with important usability improvements

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The late Steve Jobs might have ridiculed the stylus of old, but it’s arguable that we would have approved of the Apple Pencil, or at least its second generation. It’s minimalist to a fault and, as of the current models, finally has a reasonable and not unattractive charging method. That simplicity, however, may have come at the cost of some features that many people have come to expect from digital pens in this industry, especially when it comes to buttons that can trigger different functions. The 2nd-gen Apple Pencil remedied that with a double tap gesture and rumors claim that the 3rd-gen model will expand that with a new gesture, among the other expected upgrades that will help give Apple’s creativity and productivity tool an even bigger edge.

Designer: Apple (via 9to5Mac)

The original Apple Pencil arrived with a smooth and completely circular barrel and a cap that hid its awkward Lightning charging connector. The 2nd iteration added a flat edge for a better grip and switched to wireless magnetic charging for a unibody design. Neither model, however, had the traditional buttons you’d see on styluses like those from Wacom and Samsung, which meant you couldn’t execute some special action instantly without having to dig through an app’s menus and options.

The Apple Pencil 2 does have a touch-sensitive area that you can double tap to the same effect. For many people who use iPads for creative work, however, that single gesture is hardly enough. According to the latest unofficial information, however, the next Apple Pencil will add another action to that list, allowing you to squeeze a section of the barrel to trigger a different action. Depending on how it’s implemented and how sensitive the pressure sensor might be, the feature could turn out to be very useful or very annoying.

Image courtesy of Majin Bu

Another major change expected for the Apple Pencil 3 is an interchangeable nib system using magnets. According to the information, users will be able to switch between different nibs with different shapes for points, and they will be able to do so using simple yet strong magnets instead of the screw mechanism available today. It’s still unknown what practical benefits this new system might bring, but it could make the Apple Pencil feel a little bit more natural for different digital brushes that might require broader or finer tips.

The Apple Pencil 3 is also expected or at least hoped to finally support Apple’s Find My network, a long overdue feature that would have saved many Pencils from being lost permanently. Most of Apple’s wireless devices already support this feature, so it’s unthinkable if the Apple Pencil 3, which is probably going to cost more than the current $129, would still be left out of this tracking capability. The new Apple Pencil is expected to be revealed next month alongside a new iPad Air and iPad Pro.

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Apple Pencil Number 2 skin is a perfect homage with a big caveat

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Despite what its founder once said, Apple has wholeheartedly embraced the stylus, at least for its iPads. In fact, you could even say it innovated an accessory that hasn’t seen much change in years, introducing magnetic charging and invisible touch-sensitive buttons to the design. Its minimalist aesthetic and familiar shape have also made it more open to custom designs and skins that allow owners to express themselves beyond a simple white or black stick. Of course, this also presented an opportunity for accessory makers to establish a new market segment made especially just for this Apple stylus. Skin manufacturer Colorware is just the latest to jump on that bandwagon, but its Apple Number 2 Pencil is quite unique in more ways than one.

Designer: Colorware

The first Apple Pencil was pretty much a smooth and slippery cylinder that forced some people to put on grips or skins just to be able to securely hold the stylus. The second-gen Pencil improved the design with a somewhat hexagonal body that gave it a better grip but also inspired even more skins to embellish the Apple Pencil’s appearance. After all, with that familiar shape and generic name, it’s almost a dead knocker for the iconic Number 2 pencil known by people of all ages throughout the world.

The Colorware Apple Number 2 Pencil is one such makeover for Apple’s current stylus, but it takes the modification to the extreme. It definitely looks like the Number 2 or HB pencil with its glossy yellow body, orange eraser, and silver band that connects these two parts. Colorware, however, takes the homage one step further: even the tip is black, like a typical graphite pencil.

The nib of the Apple Pencil is, of course, white, and almost all skins stop at covering the barrel only. That’s because you can’t really cover the nib and expect its performance to be unaffected. The manufacturer naturally doesn’t divulge what it used to coat the nib, so you’ll have to trust that the Apple Number 2 Pencil will still remain as functional as a regular Apple Pencil.

The catch to this almost faithful recreation of the classic HB pencil is that it costs a whopping $215. Considering the 2nd-gen Apple Pencil retails for $129, that’s not a small cost added on top. A regular skin would only set you back $13 or so, though you’d also have to look for unofficial black nibs if you want to get the complete look. It also doesn’t indicate if that price includes extra nibs, so you might find yourself at a loss when this special black tip needs to be replaced.

The post Apple Pencil Number 2 skin is a perfect homage with a big caveat first appeared on Yanko Design.

Astropad Slate turns your iPad into a no-screen Mac drawing tablet

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Apple has been pushing the iPads, particularly the iPad Pros, as the next wave of computing, practically replacing laptops for some of the common computing tasks, including content creation. Despite the rich variety of apps for these slates, however, there are still some software and work that can only be done on more powerful computers like Macs and MacBooks. And despite how Apple’s computers have long been loved by designers and artists, the company itself has made no tools to support these use cases, such as drawing tablets or even specialized controllers. That does leave the market wide open for manufacturers like Wacom and its drawing tables, but it also forces people to buy these products when they have a perfectly capable iPad with an Apple Pencil. That’s where Astropad’s latest product comes in, bridging the divide between Macs and iPads once again, but with a curious twist.

Designer: Astropad

In a nutshell, Astropad Slate is an app that lets you remotely control a Mac using an iPad, Pro or otherwise. You can connect using Wi-Fi, a USB cable, or even Peer-to-Peer networking. Although an Apple Pencil would be nice, it isn’t exactly a requirement. With just your fingers, you can already control the Mac as if you were using a gigantic touchpad. That includes supporting gestures like pinching or two-finger scroll.

The Slate app really shines, however, when you involve an Apple Pencil, which is supported by most iPads nowadays. With this precise tool, you can not only hover over the user interface on the Mac, you can also turn handwritten scribbles into text, practically replacing the keyboard. Of course, creators, designers, and artists are more likely to utilize the app’s ability to turn the iPad into a drawing tablet, but one without a screen.

This would be similar to the older and cheaper drawing slates that some artists prefer for their distraction-free experience. It does, however, take a bit of getting used to because you won’t be looking at where your hand is going, unlike the analog pen and paper experience. That does help you focus more on what’s happening on screen and, at least for some, offers a more ergonomic position since you won’t be craning your neck downward.

For those that prefer a more “conventional” display tablet experience, Astropad does have its Studio that turns the iPad into something like a Wacom Cintiq and even has compatibility with Windows PCs. For all that power, however, Astropad Studio requires a $79.99 annual subscription, while this simpler Astropad Slate is a one-time $19.99 purchase only.

The post Astropad Slate turns your iPad into a no-screen Mac drawing tablet first appeared on Yanko Design.