Wacom's "Bamboo" tablets get a bunch of new features
Wacom has just announced a whole host of new applications for their “Bamboo” range of consumer input tablets. There’s Bamboo Scribe, Bamboo Link, Bamboo Space, Bamboo Dock and Bamboo Minis.
“But what on earth are they?”, I hear you cry. Well, let’s start at the top. Bamboo scribe is a handwriting-to-text converter, so you can handwrite on your tablet and it’ll convert it to text input. A bit novelty, perhaps. Bamboo link is less novelty – it’s a search tool that lets you interact a bit more with the results, sending, storing, marking or annotating them using the pen. Sounds quite nifty.
Bamboo Space is an online application that lets you arrange photos, notes and sketches across a virtual desk. It’s currently just in beta. Lastly, Bamboo dock is how you access the new applications, but it’ll also incorporate Bamboo Minis, which are essentially just widgets that sit on the dock and do stuff. What stuff depends on the application, but include games, and the ability to add directions to a map.
Initially, this stuff will all just be rolled out for Windows users, but a Mac version should follow soon. If you’ve bought a Bamboo tablet since 16th September, then you get Link and Scribe, but I’m afraid that anyone who bought one before that misses out. You do get access to Space, Dock and Minis, however – because they’re free downloads from the Bamboo website.
I’ve asked Wacom very nicely if they’ll send me a tablet to have a play with, and they’ve kindly agreed, so look for a video review next week of how well this technology works. Would any of these things make you buy a tablet? Let us know in the comments.
Wacom Bamboo Tablets
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