The Pogo Sketch: does your iPhone need a stylus?

By Ben Kuchera

Both the iPhone and Macbooks use capacitance technology for their touchscreens and trackpads, respectively. This means that, for an item to be used to control the device, it has to be a conductor; your finger will work, but a normal plastic stylus won't. If you're tired of using your fingers to select apps or draw on your trackpad, Ten One design has just the product for you: the Pogo Sketch.

The product is shaped actually like a thin pen, although instead of a writing tip, it has a soft foam pad that conducts electricity. That means that you can use the large trackpads in the new Macbooks almost like a tablet, doodling on the screen or manipulating images. It's great in theory, but how does it work in practice? We find out.
Admittedly, part of the reason for this review was to see if the stylus worked on Crayon Physics Deluxe, a PC game where you draw images and then interact with them to solve puzzles. This also required more work than most people would be willing to put in: we had a Macbook Pro running Windows, the game software, and a $15 stylus. The results were less than astounding.

Part of the issue is that, for the game to recognize when you're doodling, you have to hold down the mouse button—almost all conventional drawing or sketch programs require this. With the Pogo Sketch stylus, the foam at the tip scrunches down alarmingly when you push it down hard enough to activate the track pad. It fluffed back up, but this is clearly not an ideal solution. The stylus also doesn't change the fact that a trackpad, unlike a tablet that mirrors the screen, is a zero-point device. That means you can't touch the corner and have the cursor zip to the corner... you're still basically mousing.

The drawing itself felt natural, but the arrangement was too much of a hassle for it to be worth your time. If you're considering a $15 stylus to do serious drawing or image work, you won't be happy.

Performance on the iPhone was much better, with faster typing on the virtual keyboard, and it was fun to use on all the free photo manipulation and sketch programs we found on the App Store. Using a stylus on the iPhone is a joy, and I found it much more liberating than I expected. If you've ever felt like your fingers got in the way of some of the work you do on your iPhone, this is an elegant solution. Input lag was more pronounced with the stylus, however, since you tend to move it more quickly than your digits.

Still, $15? It's a neat idea and makes some tasks on the iPhone easier to accomplish but, when your finger is a worthy, and free, competitor for a product, it might be better to save your money.
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