Is the wacom e-ink side special?

[arcticmaniac]

Does anyone know why the e-ink side can only use a wacom stylus?
What is so special about it?

I have tons of loose stylus from nintendo ds to palm, etc but none of them work on the e-ink side. i really do not want to pay $20 just for a stylus given that its 1/6 the price of the PE (woot special).

[exscentric]

Just started looking into an extra stylus this morning and finding that it must have circuitry inside as normal ones don't work nor do the capacitive Dagi.

Would never have believed there was something inside :-) though did find a little plug on the side.

Hope someone knows what it is for sure.

[arcticmaniac]

Originally Posted by exscentric

Just started looking into an extra stylus this morning and finding that it must have circuitry inside as normal ones don't work nor do the capacitive Dagi.

Would never have believed there was something inside :-) though did find a little plug on the side.

Hope someone knows what it is for sure.

Actually you are right, never noticed that on the side of the stylus before. hope it does not use batteries or some dumb s**t like that. can't believe entourage would make something like that, it just really killed a half decent machine...man no usb charging, nonstandard stylus, no android marketplace.......

[exscentric]

No battery according to Wacom's site. Just has something that the screen senses. Found a similar sylus on google for 14. still looking around.

Edit: This looks similar though maybe bigger tip.

http://www.amazon.com/Penabled-Table...228312&sr=8-15

[krewskater]

Originally Posted by arcticmaniac

Actually you are right, never noticed that on the side of the stylus before. hope it does not use batteries or some dumb s**t like that. can't believe entourage would make something like that, it just really killed a half decent machine...man no usb charging, nonstandard stylus, no android marketplace.......

It sounds like you didn't read up on the device enough before purchasing it. When you consider the fact that it uses a Wacom digitizer under the e-ink screen you can't really call the stylus "non-standard" unless the standard you are comparing it to is regular touchscreen devices (in which case the comparison makes no sense). USB charging would not have been too hard to integrate, I'm not sure why they didn't do this and I'm not fully up to spec with the eDge's hardware but the DC charger runs 12V/1A and USB outputs 5 V, again they could've made it work and I don't know why they didn't. As for marketplace, I may be wrong because I'm new to the Android scene but when this was originally released Marketplace didn't support tablets (again I could be wrong) and there were some issues between enTourage/Google as far as licensing and fees go, with the influx of new owners from the Woot specials it seems like the dev community is picking up and a custom ROM with market (that doesn't require another account/using an emulator workaround/other droid device) shouldn't be too far off.

[kennyminot]

The digitizer is actually a major advantage because it allows for palm rejection. Note that on a typical touchscreen, when you set your hand on the device, it will recognize it as an input and therefore mess up your writing. With the PE, you can rest your entire hand on the device, just like you would with a piece of paper. Also, the price for a stylus on a comparable device is not cheaper--if you look at the recently released HTC Flyer, the stylus costs almost $70. Trust me - palm rejection is totally worth the $20. I worked for almost 2 years with a tablet that didn't have this feature, and it was endlessly annoying.

[kennyminot]

Originally Posted by krewskater

It sounds like you didn't read up on the device enough before purchasing it. When you consider the fact that it uses a Wacom digitizer under the e-ink screen you can't really call the stylus "non-standard" unless the standard you are comparing it to is regular touchscreen devices (in which case the comparison makes no sense). USB charging would not have been too hard to integrate, I'm not sure why they didn't do this and I'm not fully up to spec with the eDge's hardware but the DC charger runs 12V/1A and USB outputs 5 V, again they could've made it work and I don't know why they didn't. As for marketplace, I may be wrong because I'm new to the Android scene but when this was originally released Marketplace didn't support tablets (again I could be wrong) and there were some issues between enTourage/Google as far as licensing and fees go, with the influx of new owners from the Woot specials it seems like the dev community is picking up and a custom ROM with market (that doesn't require another account/using an emulator workaround/other droid device) shouldn't be too far off.

This is completely right. Actually, this seems to have been part of the motivation for Amazon creating its own marketplace, given that Google has been using access to the Market as leverage for punishing people with certain devices. (You can say they didn't want to "dilute the Android brand" with substandard tablets. But it's hard to be nice here - by limiting market access, Google essentially destroyed an assortment of smaller tablet manufacturers who didn't have the money or the bargaining clout to get the Market on their devices).

[arcticmaniac]

Originally Posted by krewskater

It sounds like you didn't read up on the device enough before purchasing it. When you consider the fact that it uses a Wacom digitizer under the e-ink screen you can't really call the stylus "non-standard" unless the standard you are comparing it to is regular touchscreen devices (in which case the comparison makes no sense). USB charging would not have been too hard to integrate, I'm not sure why they didn't do this and I'm not fully up to spec with the eDge's hardware but the DC charger runs 12V/1A and USB outputs 5 V, again they could've made it work and I don't know why they didn't. As for marketplace, I may be wrong because I'm new to the Android scene but when this was originally released Marketplace didn't support tablets (again I could be wrong) and there were some issues between enTourage/Google as far as licensing and fees go, with the influx of new owners from the Woot specials it seems like the dev community is picking up and a custom ROM with market (that doesn't require another account/using an emulator workaround/other droid device) shouldn't be too far off.

not to sound ungrateful, but i did read up on the device before purchase. i've never had a wacom anything before so i have no clue as to how they operate. now i know. yes, i knew it wouldnt usb charge but has a 12v plug instead. but i figure at $125, i can live with that. its actually not a device except for lack of support in general. hope the folks here and xda-dev will come up with something. i'm actually ok with 2.2, but would like to get marketplace for some apps - not games but just other apps.
angry bird was pathetic on it.

[arcticmaniac]

Originally Posted by exscentric

No battery according to Wacom's site. Just has something that the screen senses. Found a similar sylus on google for 14. still looking around.

Edit: This looks similar though maybe bigger tip.

http://www.amazon.com/Penabled-Table...228312&sr=8-15

thanks, i was looking at that but with shipping its about $20. Was hoping for something cheaper. oh well, let me know if you find something.

[kennyminot]

If you have another Android device, you might be able to get the Market to work. Just check out the "Ermine tweaks" thread. Also, everybody can get the Amazon Appstore to work.

[exscentric]

There are tons of apps on the net without market.

slideme.com for one, Amazon has a market and just google free .apk and you should find others.

[arcticmaniac]

Originally Posted by exscentric

There are tons of apps on the net without market.

slideme.com for one, Amazon has a market and just google free .apk and you should find others.

thanks!
has anyone used slideme before?

[krewskater]

I've been using it to download some apps, so far it works great, so far everything that I need that I couldn't find via Amazon/SlideMe has shown up when searching google for the .apk

[arcticmaniac]

Originally Posted by krewskater

I've been using it to download some apps, so far it works great, so far everything that I need that I couldn't find via Amazon/SlideMe has shown up when searching google for the .apk

thanks

[emusan]

Originally Posted by arcticmaniac

thanks!
has anyone used slideme before?

I use it a lot, and I plan on putting up a few apps there once I'm done making them...