For all those of you who think of the Apple pencil as an extension of your hands, Apple might have something amazing in the works for you- an Apple Paintbrush. Yup, Apple just recently received a patent for a “stylus with multiple inputs.” Sounds complex, right? Well, if your answer to that was a ‘no,’ congratulations, genius, cause stuff’s about to get a lot more jargon-y.
The Patent
So, as most patent documents go, this one too is full of stilted language that goes right over the head. The reason why people do this is two-pronged (in my not so humble opinion). Firstly, you don’t want to leave any loopholes for anyone to exploit and steal your idea. And secondly, to pretty much sound fancy and self-important. Hey, I did warn you my opinion wasn’t all that humble! But, I digress, so let us steer this ship back to the patent in question.
According to the patent it “describes various embodiments related to a portable electronic device having flexible contact members. More specifically, each of the flexible contact members is capable of independently flexing relative to one another, and the touch sensitive device can generate a feedback response that is based on a change in flexure of the flexible contact members.”
Sounds science AF, doesn’t it? Almost like we could be talking about some space-friendly writing tool or one that works underwater. But well, what it essentially means is that it’s an electronic paintbrush. Um, kind of awkward after that build up, but hey, it might be just as fun! Maybe.
Do we need this, Apple? Do we really?
Artists since time immemorial (read 2015) have been using the Apple Pencil to create artwork on their iPads. And no one has ever complained, at least not to the best of my memory. So, why exactly is Apple patenting this, when they’re so many better things that they could be working on? Like, I don’t know, a punch hole camera, an AirPower Mat, an actual set of AirPods 2 instead of just giving us upgraded AirPods that, well, don’t have much to offer.
Anyhoo, Apple has their reasoning, and we’ll let you judge its validity on your own-
“Despite advancements in software to render the user’s inputs and commands more accurately at the touch screen, the touch screen is unable to fully render the user’s inputs due to limitations in the hardware of the electronic stylus. Accordingly, there is a need to improve upon the user’s multimedia experience by implementing flexible contact members at the electronic stylus.“
So, what do you all think? Do these problems exist with the Apple Pencil or is Mr. Cook trying way too hard to justify the Apple Paintbrush?
