4 ms·

The idea is solid, but the technology to get there is crap. People who have used a wacom or ntrig based tablet can tell you drawing and writing with anything el

The idea is solid, but the technology to get there is crap. People who have used a wacom or ntrig based tablet can tell you drawing and writing with anything else is, to put it bluntly, complete shit. Drawing and writing on capacitive screens is a horrible experience; No palm rejection, no pressure sensitivity, and accuracy is problematic. There is a reason why note takers, artists and others are pursuing options for tablets and PC's that have digitizer technology baked in. Look at Crabfu, Gabe of penny arcade and the hundreds of iPad vs. Galaxy Note vs Surface Pro youtube videos. The Surface Pro is a very compelling device if you strip away the emotional baggage related to MSFT.

kenferry 13y ago
This is neither art nor note taking, it's communication. :-) It's visual anchoring and gesturing - after the call's over you don't end up looking back at what you did almost at all. We didn't know if the tech would work, but we have enough beta testers at this point that I'm pretty sure that it does. Here's a video of a couple people talking some SICP. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrdjKvka558 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrdjKvka558
- monkmartinez 13y ago
  The video is great! One, Is it possible for a user to "save" the session? After all, it may be some time before they get back together. Two, the quality of written aspect, which is central to the "communication" idea is very poor in comparison to what I can achieve on my Galaxy Note 3 with wacom digitizer. I am a lefty with very small handwriting and its still very legible on the GN3... I can't wait to get a bigger tablet with the digitizer baked in. I think the idea could be useful for much more than SICP, however the ability to save and actually read what you have written would be killer features.
  - kenferry 13y ago
    > One, Is it possible for a user to "save" the session? Yup! Old sessions are basically saved as documents. > Two, the quality of written aspect, which is central to the "communication" idea is very poor in comparison to what I can achieve on my Galaxy Note 3 with wacom digitizer. You didn't quite state the question there. :-) If things work out, we'll definitely want to do Android too. > I think the idea could be useful for much more than SICP, however the ability to save and actually read what you have written would be killer features. Hope so! We're starting with SICP and Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain[1], but it's really easy for us to add other courses. We really have something like Coursera in mind. [1] Note: For the drawing book, you're not doing the drawing exercises _in_ the app, you're doing them on paper and then talking them over. https://www.dropbox.com/s/bkjrbclpda8fg5y/Drawing%20Final.png https://www.dropbox.com/s/bkjrbclpda8fg5y/Drawing%20Final.pn...
zenbowman 13y ago
I think this is a great point, one of the reasons that tablet and smartphone software is doing well is because the standards for the web and native software is so astonishingly low. But when it comes down to it, we already have better interfaces for computer interaction than using our fingers. I can see the reasoning behind this product though, the iPad has a huge base of customers, and there aren't enough Surface Pro users out there.

kenferry 13y ago

This is neither art nor note taking, it's communication. :-) It's visual anchoring and gesturing - after the call's over you don't end up looking back at what you did almost at all. We didn't know if the tech would work, but we have enough beta testers at this point that I'm pretty sure that it does. Here's a video of a couple people talking some SICP. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrdjKvka558 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrdjKvka558

monkmartinez 13y ago
The video is great! One, Is it possible for a user to "save" the session? After all, it may be some time before they get back together. Two, the quality of written aspect, which is central to the "communication" idea is very poor in comparison to what I can achieve on my Galaxy Note 3 with wacom digitizer. I am a lefty with very small handwriting and its still very legible on the GN3... I can't wait to get a bigger tablet with the digitizer baked in. I think the idea could be useful for much more than SICP, however the ability to save and actually read what you have written would be killer features.
- kenferry 13y ago
  > One, Is it possible for a user to "save" the session? Yup! Old sessions are basically saved as documents. > Two, the quality of written aspect, which is central to the "communication" idea is very poor in comparison to what I can achieve on my Galaxy Note 3 with wacom digitizer. You didn't quite state the question there. :-) If things work out, we'll definitely want to do Android too. > I think the idea could be useful for much more than SICP, however the ability to save and actually read what you have written would be killer features. Hope so! We're starting with SICP and Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain[1], but it's really easy for us to add other courses. We really have something like Coursera in mind. [1] Note: For the drawing book, you're not doing the drawing exercises _in_ the app, you're doing them on paper and then talking them over. https://www.dropbox.com/s/bkjrbclpda8fg5y/Drawing%20Final.png https://www.dropbox.com/s/bkjrbclpda8fg5y/Drawing%20Final.pn...

zenbowman 13y ago

I think this is a great point, one of the reasons that tablet and smartphone software is doing well is because the standards for the web and native software is so astonishingly low. But when it comes down to it, we already have better interfaces for computer interaction than using our fingers. I can see the reasoning behind this product though, the iPad has a huge base of customers, and there aren't enough Surface Pro users out there.