While few things about HTC EVO View 4G tablet seemed revolutionary during my first look at it, the View 4G (and it’s WiFi-only equivalent, the Flyer) did have one accessory that caught my interest, the HTC Magic Pen. Last night’s gdgt event here in New York gave me a chance to give this neat little device a spin.
The first thing I noticed was that it felt fairly light. The Magic Pen is clearly meant to be as comfortable as writing with a normal pen (though it is a bit fat for my tastes). There are two buttons on the side, one for highlighting and the other for erasing.
Unlike the stylus on my old Windows Mobile phone or Palm PDA, the Magic Pen is not intended for navigating on the device. In fact, you *can’t* navigate with it. In an interesting twist, unless you are in one of the few apps that support Magic Pen input, tapping on the screen with the stylus gets you a quick screenshot, which you can then draw all over with the Pen. You can also draw on image files on your device’s SD card, which HTC demonstrated last night with a contest, allowing people to draw all over an Android logo to win an HTC Flyer with Magic Pen. Sadly, I don’t think I’ll be winning anything for my artistic talents.
The Magic Pen feature that I found the most useful was the note taking app. One of the features of Windows Mobile that I’ve missed the most since coming to Android has been the ability to take quick, handwritten notes. My Swype keyboard is usually good enough, but when I just want to scribble something down, there’s nothing like a pen and paper. Except, possibly, an HTC Flyer. The 7-inch screen leaves plenty of drawing room, and the Magic Pen is a great substitute for an actual pen. The best part is that when you’re done writing, the Flyer automatically syncs your notes to Evernote, the popular cloud-based note taking app.
I’m not completely sold on the idea that the Magic Pen is an $80 value, but I have no doubt that it’s a well implemented solution. If you have a serious need for drawing or note taking on a mobile device, I certainly recommend this tablet/accessory combination.
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