Are saying your finger won't work well enough? It would seem like you would want to be careful not to scratch the actual display but the new generation TouchSmart is using a different touch technology I think which should make it easier to find a wider variety of pointing devices for more accuracy.

Without seeing the stylus in person, I could only guess what it's made of. However, the plastic stylus on my PDA doesn't seem to hurt my TouchSmart. I'd say just about any stylus would probably do.

Mind Over Matt'er - Technology musings, opinion, and more straight from TechLore's head geek.

I have a digitzer stylsit from tablet kiosk and it writes for a short line then it quits??

I'm interested in a Touchsmart and have been trying to find out about the stylus issue.  There are really two parts to the question:

1. Stylus and Screen
a. In terms of a stylus, why not use the same stylus used for the HP tablet notebooks (TX2500 series)?
b. The question behind 1 really is, what is the screen made of and what will it accept without scratching the screen?
c. I called HP and after 3 tries I got the response that while a screen may scratch it may be okay to use a stylus - but why not buy the HP extended warantee which will cover damage to the screen - so does any have the real info?

2. Does the Touchsmart come with the HP Tablet software? I saw one in Best Buy with the software loaded on it and the salesperson said it comes with it, but when I called HP, they said it was NOT bundled with it.  So does anyone know the real answer to this one too?

Hi - thanks for your responses.
1. It might be good to know if the screen material is similar to or better or not as good as the HP TX2500 series.  I have one of those and there is no problem with scratching the screen using the supplied stylus.  In fact it works great.  So if the Touchsmart has a similar or better screen material, then we would be all set and not have to worry about damage.  If it's not as good, then it would be useful to be told that up front.  With respect to 'no data' - it's my understanding that the Touchsmart 500 series was shipped with a stylus (that's what the HP Sales rep told me - and what I saw in Best Buy), so unless the 800 series is made of different material, there ought to be data.  I wonder if anyone knows whether the 800 series screen is good for using a stylus compared to the Tx2500 series or the Touchsmart 500 series?

2. I didn't realize that the Tablet PC software with handwriting recognition (Google HP Tablet PC and Handwriting Recognition) was a VISTA feature.  Is that correct?   Again, I'm comparing to the HP TX2500 series which has input that is linked to Office products and does a great job of handwriting recognition, or just allows you to save written/drawn input in Office documents.  So did you mean that this software (the one shipped with the Tx2500 or Touchsmart 500 series) is standard VISTA software - if so that would be great.

You're right. While I guess the 700 series shipped with a stylus, they were using the back of a pen at the store that I saw (they just told me they couldn't find the stylus - maybe they didn't know). In any case, now I see that the tablet SW was the VISTA tablet software.

So now I'm trying to figure out how to link the VISTA tablet software to work with Office 2007 as a 'full page' tool. There used to be a button for this in Office 2003 (I've seen), but I can't find it in 2007. I think it must exist, because that functionality exists in my son's TX2500 with Vista and Office 2007.

Note that the TouchSmart screen is not a stylus-type digitizer as found on many tablet PCs. The TouchSmart screen uses infrared cameras and LEDs to detect objects. If your stylus has a long, narrow tip, that produces a smaller shadow for the cameras to detect.

That's why the IQ770 shipped with a relatively thick stylus that had a pretty blunt end to it.

I have experience some problems while drawing in Photoshop 7.0. The moment I start drawing TouchSmart create some king of jump line from a random place to the place where the stylus actually is.

Have anybody any idea what can be?

P.S. When I try to start the training for Pen Tablet is mentioning

I have a TS IQ804 it came with tablet pc solftware installed. It has pen traning.But of corse it had no pen or stylus.I went to Staples office store and asked if they sold the pens or stylus. The clurk said no but we have stylus for nento game. I had a look and there were three six inch stylus in a pack. they were $7.00 the stylus's have a slit in the end. I took a black shoe lace and threaded it through the slit. and tyed it to the front leg.when not in use it pushes to the back with the keyboard.But it is never lost. I find writing skips some,I have not done any training yet. But the stylus works grate on small buttons,and yes the screen is glass.

OK, I did a little experiment. I'm a "Tablet PC Enthusiast" and have a whole arsenal of different stylus's (Styli?). I found that using a stylus with a standard 2mm tip resulted in good recognition near the sides, top and bottom of the screen but poor recognition in the cneter of the screen. My guess is because the pattern of emitters and sensors loses some definition the closer you get to the screen. However, if I turned my stylus upside down and used the eraser head which is about 5mm, I got much better recognition in all areas of the screen, and of course, if I used my fat little pointer finger, I got great recognition everywhere.

Since the technologies between teh TS and tablets differ in how the pen works, my guess is that you will get better accuracy using something wider than just a couple milimeters.

Before you go plunk down a few bens on the latest version of photoshop, experiment with pen size and see if your recognition and tracking works better.

I also did an experiment with a paintbrush with a brush end about the width of a dime and it worked just like a standard stylus tip. Did not yield "brush strokes". However, the program I was inking in was Windows Journal. Another disadvantage is that the TS screen lacks multilevel touch sensitivity/pressure sensitivity. If you draw on a wacom type screen, the harder you press, the darker the line, the lighter you press, the thinner the line and so on.

So, at the moment, the best input method is to give it the finger...

David

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l299/xz550rj/HPMagicGiveaway.jpg

Woohoo! I won my Touchsmart!