Wacom joins the iPad pen party

Turns your fondleslab into a scribble pad thing

Not everyone wants to prod 'Pad with pinky, as various stylii have surface to enable drawing and note taking on Apple’s popular fondleslab. It's an approach that Steve Jobs presumably wanted to avoid given his view of the Newton as "that scribble thing". Yet a new arrival to the iPad's stationery cupboard is graphics tablet maker Wacom, with its announcement of the Bamboo Stylus.

The company stresses the 6mm Stylus is a good deal slimmer than its porky competitors, such as the 8mm or more. The balanced weighting of the 20g pen is designed to offer better ergonomics and its soft rubber nibs are replaceable too.

At 120mm long, it has a robust satin-textured metal body with a pocket clip at the end. If you’re hoping to find any nifty function buttons or pressure sensitivity, you’ll be disappointed. This really is just a scribble stick, albeit a rather stylish one, that not only works on the iPad but is compatible with other capacitive touchscreens too.

The Wacom Bamboo Stylus for iPad will be available in mid-May 2011 for £25. ®