New 'universal' Wacom pen details revealed

Slides from the recent Microsoft WinHEC conference reveal tantalizing new details of Wacom's forthcoming dual protocol pen due out in fourth quarter of 2016.

The next generation G13 pen from Wacom will support both Active ES and Microsoft Pen protocols. According to slides presented by Wacom's Sr. Vice President, Technology Solutions Business Unit Nobutaka Ide, the new pen will support:

• High performance simultaneous Pen & Touch (240Hz Pen, 120Hz Touch)
• 4096 level pen pressure, and
• Tilt detection

These capabilities far outshine both current Microsoft (formerly N-Trig) and Wacom AES pens, which offer 1024 and 2048 pressure levels respectively and do not support tilt. By polling at 240Hz, the new pen should have comparable accuracy and latency to Apple's Pencil.

Because the slides were released without accompanying speaker's notes, some interpretation is required. The next slide seems to indicate that this "Dual Protocol Pen" is part of Wacom's vision for a Universal Pen Framework (UPF) and part of a Digital Stationery Consortium (DSC).

The Wacom slides were part of a larger presentation regarding the significance of Windows Ink to the Microsoft platform presented by David Abzarian, Principal Program Manager.

Highlights of the presentation included a slide touting the explosion of pen-enabled Windows devices, which doubled in 2015 and are projected to reach about 20 million in 2017. Over 50% of all pen enabled devices are running Windows 10 and pen-attached devices generally have higher satisfaction ratings vs. non-pen devices.

The forthcoming Windows 10 Anniversary Update will feature several advances that Microsoft hopes will make ink a "compelling experience out of the box," including Edge annotations and the Ink Workspace, which I reviewed in March.

For developers, Microsoft highlighted low latency delivered by DirectInk and new XAML features that enable an Ink Canvas and Ink Toolbar (including ruler) with only one line of code each. OneNote, Office and a variety of Windows Store apps that have already incorporated the new features were reviewed.

One of the areas that Microsoft is emphasizing is the availability of simultaneous pen and touch. Low level APIs that support Pen + Touch Simultaneous Input are now on by default. The presentation also covered how Windows supplements device palm rejection, but it is unclear what improvements have been made in that area. (Merely distinguishing between pen and touch input and ignoring the latter when inking is a major step forward in my opinion).

With a new Microsoft Pen HLK (Hardware Lab Kit), the company is starting the Microsoft Pen Program which will allow other manufacturers to offer their own pens with Windows Ink compatibility. All devices and pens that "speak the Microsoft Pen protocol" should work together.

At present, it appears that Wacom, Sunwoda and APS Technologies have signed on to become Microsoft Pen Suppliers, with Wacom offering its afore-mentioned Dual Protocol Pen. There is also an extensive set of manufacturers signed on to offer Microsoft Pen compatible touch controllers, led by Elan, Synaptics, Goodix, EETI, SIS and Atmel.

This should mean that worrying about pen compatibility and support should become a thing of the past; however, it remains to be seen whether any of these advances are backwards compatible.

In the case of Wacom's first and second generation AES pens (G11/G12), it appears that "pen & touch simultaneous function" will be enabled by a future firmware update.

Windows 10 Build 14328 previews major ink and tablet mode improvements

Microsoft is planning some major improvements for pen and tablet users as part of the Windows 10 Anniversary update due out this summer and yesterday the company released the first Insider build to showcase some of those changes. Build 14328 is now available for download to Windows Insiders on the Fast Ring. I installed the pre-release on a Surface Pro 3 (N-Trig, active) and on a Lenovo Helix 2 (Wacom, EMR) in order to see the differences between devices with active pens and passive pens.

WINDOWS INK WORKSPACE

In his blog post announcing the build, Microsoft's Gabe Aul wrote, "Windows Ink puts the power of Windows in the tip of your pen, enabling you to write on your device as you do on paper, creating sticky notes, drawing on a whiteboard, and easily sharing your analog thoughts in the digital world. Windows Ink is also integrated into apps like Maps, Microsoft Edge, and Office."

Right clicking on the taskbar tray reveals the Show Windows Ink Workspace toggle

Aul's post also stated that "If you have a device with an active pen like the Surface Pro 4 or Surface Book – Windows Ink Workspace is enabled by default and accessible via the pen button in the notification area of your taskbar. You won’t see this button if your device does not have an active pen paired with it. However, for those of you who don’t have a device with an active pen but want to try out Windows Ink Workspace, you can right-click on the taskbar and choose 'Show Windows Ink Workspace button.'" (see above left)

This wasn't my experience with the Lenovo Helix 2. Although the EMR pen in that device isn't paired, the Windows Ink button still showed up in the taskbar tray.

Tapping the button reveals the Windows Ink Workspace (above, right), which offers quick access to Sticky Notes creation, a new Sketchpad app, a Screen Sketch utility, a summary of recently used applications, suggested Windows Store pen apps and a quick link to new Pen settings.

STICKY NOTES

The Sticky Notes app is a fairly limited tool to create reminders in a variety of colors, either typed or handwritten. The notes remain in the app as far as I could tell, so I don't see them being very useful in this build, at least.

SKETCHPAD

Combining some of the functionality of the venerable Microsoft Paint and OneNote, Sketchpad is a new ink utility for quick sketching, markup and editing.

The pen and pencil tool drop downs offer a pre-set selection of 45 colors and a brush width slider from 1 to 25 pixels.

The highlighter drop down offers five colors and a width range of 15 to 45 pixels.

Sketchpad also features a handy on-screen ruler that can be positioned and rotated with your free hand as you sketch. 

SCREEN SKETCH

Selecting Screen Sketch from the Windows Ink Workspace will grab a screenshot of the current screen and open it up in Sketchpad, ready for annotation or cropping. This is a very handy feature, although it would be better to see this function as a standalone button. 

SUGGESTED APPS

Microsoft is throwing a major lifeline to Windows Store app developers with the Suggested Apps feature. This links directly to a Store page filled with pen-friendly apps like Sketchable and Sketchbook for Tablets (see below). Let's hope this additional promotion encourages more developers to create more sophisticated art-oriented apps.

PEN SETTINGS

The last item in the Windows Ink Workspace is a link that takes you directly to the new Pen settings page. This new control panel incorporates many of the functions previously found in the Surface app (notably missing in the pen pressure curve adjustment). 

A very promising new option tells the OS to ignore touch input when using the pen (below left). This capability has previously been up to the individual application and most, with the notable exception of Sketchable and Clip Studio Paint, don't distinguish between pen down and touch, relying instead on hit and miss palm rejection to avoid stray marks. This approach works very poorly in most tools and it's why I don't use otherwise great software like Sketchbook Pro and Artrage more frequently.

Selecting ignore touch input, I was able to use Autodesk Sketchbook for Tablets on the Surface Pro 3 without risk of stray marks. Unfortunately, the desktop version of Sketchbook Pro 8.1 and Artrage Touch were not affected. On the Helix 2, even Sketchbook for Tablets failed to ignore touch. This utility definitely needs work but it's great to see that the solution is in the works.

Although I was using a new Surface Pen with the Surface Pro 3, I don't believe that tablet can recognize the pen cap button and its assorted shortcuts (below, right). The Fujitsu T-5000 pen I used on the Helix 2 doesn't have a cap button, but I suspect no EMR pens will be able to take advantage of these settings.

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TABLET MODE IMPROVEMENTS

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One of the most irritating design changes in Windows 10 was the loss of the full screen All Apps list introduced in Windows 8. Tablet mode in this new build restores the list (see above) and although it's not quite as touch friendly as the original, it makes it a lot faster for tablet users to find the app they seek.

"We have also made it easier to toggle between your pinned tiles and All Apps list on the Start screen by providing these options in the left rail which is consistent with the UI used throughout Windows," writes Aul.

New tablet mode settings allow you to auto-hide the taskbar in tablet mode, a function I much prefer and which gives you a few rows of additional screen real estate. Swiping up from the bottom edge of the screen will make the taskbar disappear and reappear. Hopefully we'll see more of these edge gestures that were so touch friendly in Windows 8 return as tablets become a larger portion of the Windows ecosystem.

In its quest to promote Windows Ink, Microsoft made the controversial decision to enable inking by default in all Office 2016 applications. This behavior may be "natural," but it's very annoying to those of us accustomed to using the pen as a high precision pointer. Fortunately, the company responded quickly and added an option to each application that restores "pen as mouse" functionality.

All in all, 2016 is shaping up to be the year that Microsoft re-embraces touch, pen and tablet mode and the computing world at large seems to be much more amenable to the prospect than it was when Windows 8 was first released.

Will you give these new features a go or are you content to wait until the official release of Windows 10 Anniversary Update? Or are you still married to Windows 8 (or heaven forbid Windows 7)? Get the conversation started in the comments section below.

Mytrix, Cytrix or Cube: can a $390 tablet deliver the goods?

From the time I first read about the ultra low cost Cube i7 Stylus, I was sorely tempted to pick one up to test. But I never took the plunge because buying one of the Chinese tablets would require purchasing from an unknown overseas store. 

Even when Lisa Gade of MobileTechReview.com posted her favorable review of the Cube and recommended GearBest.com as a trustworthy source for the device, I still balked because of the confusing array of bundles offered there. 

Last week, a TabletPCReview forum member posted an Amazon link to the Mytrix Complex 11t, a Cube i7 Stylus clone being marketed in the US by a New Hampshire-based company. Just as significantly, the device is offered in only one configuration, with Wacom EMR pen and keyboard cover bundled for $390. Comforted by Amazon's return policy, I decided to give it a go and the device arrived in the SurfaceProArtist labs only two days later. 

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I have to admit that alarm bells went off again when the Mytrix box I was expecting was instead labeled Cytrix. Inside, the nice plain packaging revealed a dark blue tablet and keyboard also (too) prominently branded as Cytrix. 

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Both the box and tablet are clearly labeled Cytrix, even though the company name is now Mytrix.

Typing in the CytrixTech.com URL found in the manual redirects to the MytrixTech.com website, where absolutely no mention is made of the former name. The About Us section claims that most of Mytrix's customers are in North America and Europe and that Mytrix is a subsidiary of UShopMall (FY International, LLC), which has been in operation since 2007. 

I can only guess that the software company Citrix, makers of GoToMyPC, challenged the name and the owners hastily rebranded themselves as Mytrix but are still unloading product with the old branding. Although I only heard about it this week, the Complex 11t was first announced in June, 2015 and was slated to sell for $600 at that time. 

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In addition to the pen, the Complex 11t ships with five extra nibs and an extractor ring.

At that price, I would never have bothered, especially given some of the bargain priced devices I've reviewed so far in 2016, such as the HP Spectre x2 and Lenovo Ideapad Miix 700. But for just under $400, the Mytrix bundle is almost impossible to ignore: Intel Core M-5Y10c, 4 GB RAM, 64 GB SSD, 10.6-inch FHD display plus the aforementioned keyboard cover and Wacom EMR pen. 

As tablets with EMR digitizers are becoming increasingly rare, the pen has to be considered the Complex's major selling point. And it's comforting to find the Wacom Feel driver's control panel pre-installed and ready to configure your tip sensitivity and pen buttons.  

Besides the Feel driver, everything else about the installed Windows 10 Home experience is no-frills, which is actually a relief on low-end devices that are generally stocked full of crapware. Updating the 11t to Windows 10 build 1511 took about an hour thanks to the slow SSD, but once the update was done, the tablet has been running flawlessly. 

The 10.6-inch 16:9 display is a bit of a throwback to the Surface Pro 1 and 2. After becoming accustomed to 3:2 12-inch displays, the screen size definitely feels cramped, but it's not unusable by any means.  By default, the Windows UI is magnified to 150% which is unnecessarily large on the 1920x1080 display. Lowering the magnification to 125% is very readable.  

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The Complex 11t is about half the thickness of the Surface Pro 1 and 2 (above top). Even with keyboard attached, 11t is slightly thinner.

The 11t is significantly thinner (.41 inches) than either of the original Microsoft tablets. Sans keyboard, the dense Complex weighs 1.52 lbs. I couldn't find an official weight for the keyboard, but it adds at least another pound.  

The clamshell design of the keyboard creates a nice, secure cover for transporting the Complex. Unfortunately, the clamshell design has the side effect of creating thin extrusions on the corners of the keyboard right where your palms rest as you type. This is mildly irritating while typing long documents (like this review). 

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The connector at the top of the keyboard is difficult to align with the tablet and usually requires a couple of tries to get right.

The keyboard itself lays flat and features miniature keys that are fine except for the tight concentration of the right shift and directional keys. While typing this post, I regularly paged up as I meant to hit the shift key. 

The small trackpad is also very sensitive. I kept accidentally invoking Cortana, though I have no idea what I was doing to do so. The keyboard includes a function-spacebar command to disable the trackpad, which helps a lot. 

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The clamshell fit requires unfortunate extrusions in the lower corners of the keyboard, right where your palms rest as you type. The right shift and Page Up keys are located too close together.

For such a dense device, you might expect the keyboard to work detachably, but that's not the case. The keyboard is powered via a multipin connector to the tablet. Although the keyboard offers only one viewing angle, the connection with the keyboard can be quite fussy, often requiring multiple attempts to seat properly. 

A welcomed feature is a full size pen silo located at the back of the keyboard. At first I thought the keyboard might included a spare, but pulling out what I thought was a pen turned out only to be a dummy pen cap. Next to the pen silo are two USB 2.0 ports. 

On the tablet itself, you'll find one USB 3.0 port, a micro HDMI output, an SD slot and headphone jack. An OTG interface cable is included in the package. The 12V power adapter doesn't fit quite snugly enough into its jack, which may be a cause for concern in the future. 

The tablet ships with a clear screen protector pre-installed that adds quite a bit of tooth. Trying to use the soft grippy nib of the Fujitsu T5000 pen I normally recommend was a non-starter as it grabbed and skipped too frequently on the surface. The Wacom Bamboo Feel pen fared a little better, but it was difficult to get the full range of pressure sensitivity. 

The ingenious full size pen silo in the keyboard cover is a welcomed addition, although the dummy pen cap in place of a spare is disappointing. To the far right of the image is one of two USB ports.

The hard plastic nib of the original Surface Pro pen and the those included with the Complex 11t yielded the broadest pressure curve and most satisfying results. Like that Surface pen, the standard pen includes one barrel button and an eraser tip. 

I haven't installed a lot of software on the 11t yet. I know most of you want to know whether it will run Photoshop. I expect it will, but if you need to run Adobe software, which can be hit or miss on much higher end devices, I recommend you save your money for a higher end device or prepare to accept less than stellar results. If I get around to it, I'll run some benchmark tests and posts those in an update. 

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This quick sketch done in Sketchable was bit of a chore because of the Fujitsu T5000 pen nib. It was very difficult to make continuous strokes with it against the screen protector surface.

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This drawing in Clip Studio Paint has much finer line work thanks to the hard plastic nib of the default pen, which had no difficulty registering through the screen protector.

I installed much lower cost applications like Clip Studio Paint, Sketchable and Sketchbook Pro and all performed as well as can be expected on a 4GB device. Perhaps it's because I've set a low bar for my expectations, but I struggle to find something negative to say about the Mytrix's performance with these apps. As a bargain basement sketchpad, the Complex 11t works quite well. 

It's nice playing with an EMR digitizer again, but I'm reminded that the technology is far from perfect. The Complex was reasonably well calibrated out of the box, but Clip Studio Paint was way off in Wintab mode. TabletPC mode didn't yield as satisfying a pressure range as I expected. After running the calibration tool and restarting CSP, I was able to use Wintab mode. However, returning to the desktop, the pen would no longer access the lowest row of the display, making it impossible to unhide the taskbar. I ran the advanced calibration tool, but I couldn't get the pen to hit the target on the lowest left corner of the display. Ultimately, I deleted the calibration information and the pen is working with the default. Clip Studio Paint is working well too. My fix was relatively painless, but if the dead spot on the digitizer is in a more critical area of the screen, you may be out of luck. And as I've reported in the past, manufacturing tolerances on Wacom EMR devices can vary widely, so whether an individual device calibrates well or not is often the luck of the draw. 

Another cause for concern is that the tablet gets very warm by the power input while connected. Charging is slow, but once disconnected, the fanless tablet cools down. Hopefully this isn't a defect that shortens the tablet's lifespan. 

The Mytrix website claims a battery life of only 4.5 hours of continuous video playback, but with screen brightness set to 50%, I saw about six hours while writing, drawing and surfing the web. 

With Surface Books, Surface Pros and VAIO devices regularly listing for multiple thousands of dollars, it's a relief to find OEMs willing to serve the lower end of the market. So whether you call it a Cube i7 Stylus, Cytrix or Mytrix, the Complex 11t is definitely a viable option for those of you on the tightest budgets. 

I still recommend that you spend a couple hundred dollars more on a device from a better known manufacturer, but that also requires that you go with an active pen which many of you will find an unacceptable option. So long as you've given active pens a fair shot and aren't falling for the EMR vs. ActiveES/N-Trig hype, then the Complex 11t may work for you as well. 

Mytrix Complex 11t 10.6" 1920x1080 FHD Fanless Slim All-Aluminum 2 in 1 Detachable Tablet Touchscreen Laptop Ultrabook Wacom Digitizer Pen Keyboard Dock Intel Core M 4GB 64GB SSD Microsoft Windows 10

$389.99 $599.99

Mytrix Technology

Buy on Amazon

Guy walks into a bar and is blown away by Sketchable art on a Surface Pro 4

This heart-warming tidbit comes to us today courtesy of WinBeta.org who uncovered a video encounter by Scott Cate and artist/instructor Hamilton Cline of the Academy of Art in San Francisco.

Cline was clearly having a good time experimenting with Sketchable (our favorite Windows Store app) on his i7/8 GB Surface Pro 4 when Cate recorded this impromptu 8-minute interview. Although it won't come as a surprise to most of you who use your Windows tablets and apps creatively, it's definitely worth your time to remind yourself just how awesome this platform can be.

The quality of Cline's work, the intuitive design of the app and the responsiveness of the tablet and pen all make a fairly compelling case for the creative user to dive in to the Windows 10 eco-system.

What do you think?

Walking by Hamilton Cline at Soma Eats in San Francisco, I noticed his drawing and I politely broke into his day with a few questions. He kindly agreed to an impromptu video. Enjoy! Cc/ @Bronkula

Thinkpad Yoga 14 and Ideapad Miix 700: Lenovo offers up two price-performance champs

If you’re looking for a way to spend your tax refund wisely, Lenovo has two products that might offer the best price-performance ratio in the industry.

You don’t have to be a US resident to purchase either device (or at least a close approximation), but you won’t likely find as good a deal as you will at Best Buy for the $900 Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga 14 or at Costco.com for the Miix 700 tablet, currently discounted $200 through the end of April.

THINKPAD YOGA 14

I first reviewed the original Best Buy exclusive Thinkpad Yoga 14 in the middle of 2015 and the convertible laptop has been updated several times since then while the price has remained constant. The current version, model 20FY0002US, features a 2.3 GHz 6th Gen Intel Core i5-6200U processor, 8 GB of RAM, 256 GB SSD and NVidia GeForce 940M graphics. An integrated, rechargeable Thinkpad Pen Pro (Wacom ActiveES stylus) is included.

The TPY14 is not sold online at Lenovo.com. Instead, the closest equivalent is known as the Thinkpad Yoga 460 (Black). Configuring that model to match the Best Buy version will cost at least $1449 (currently discounted 10%) but does not include the discrete gpu. For reasons known only to Lenovo, none of its online offerings seems to offer an NVidia option.

The TPY14 is the nearly perfect desktop replacement convertible. You might quibble about the FHD (1920x1080) display which doesn’t boast the widest color gamut or brightest output, but I find the roomy 14-inch screen perfectly acceptable.

The keyboard is typical of Thinkpads: with comfortable spacing and nice key travel. The trackpad is improved over the earlier versions.

The laptop is equipped with 3 x USB 3.0, Mini DisplayPort, HDMI, OneLink+ and 4-in-1 media card slot. Wireless-AC, Bluetooth 4.0, microphone and 720p HD webcam round out the package.

Top to bottom: the integrated rechargeable Lenovo Thinkpad Pen Pro stylus, the Thinkpad Pen Pro active capacitive pen and the recommended Toshiba dynaPad TruPen. Note the very short exposed nib on the middle pen. 

While the integrated stylus is nice in a pinch, serious users will want to purchase a full size pen. The Lenovo Thinkpad Pen Pro active capacitive pen is available for about $40, but I recommend the more expensive Toshiba DynaPad TruPen, which is now available for separate purchase from a variety of online outlets including Amazon and Toshiba.com, whose sales are fulfilled by CDW.

The DynaPad TruPen offers a much better drawing experience, with longer, softer nibs and a much greater hover distance. The nibs seem to deteriorate quickly, but fortunately Toshiba is the first Wacom AES OEM to also offer packs of 5 replacement tips.

The soft TruPen nibs offer significantly more resistance than the standard Pen Pro, but the display is still a little slippery. I haven’t tried one yet, but a screen protector would be advisable if you intend to draw on the TPY14 full time.

Drawing performance is as good as any Wacom ActiveES device, with great accuracy and 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity. The TPY14 is also compatible with the Wacom Feel driver, so you’ll be able to configure the pen buttons and create a radial menu if you like.

System performance is excellent, with the laptop ranking just above last year’s models in various benchmarks.

For its price class, the Best Buy exclusive Thinkpad Yoga 14 is an absolute winner. Highly recommended.

IDEAPAD MIIX 700

Even at its regular retail price of $800, the Ideapad Miix 700 is a lower end Surface Pro 4 clone that is hard to pass up. But at $600 through April 30 for Costco members, it’s an absolute steal.

For $100 less than the regular retail price of the 4GB entry level m3 SP4, the Miix 700 boasts an Intel Core m5-6Y54 and 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB SSD. The onboard Intel HD Graphics 515 powers a 12-inch 2160 x 1440 display, equal to the SP4. A folio keyboard cover is also included but the Wacom Active ES pen is sold separately.

At its sale price, the Miix is about $400 cheaper than the less powerful Surface Pro with keyboard! There’s got to be a catch, right? Fortunately for bargain hunters, there are only a few items of concern.

It would be impossible to tell the Miix 700 apart from the Microsoft tablet except for the gold finish back and watchband hinges. The folio keyboard cover has a faux leather cover. These fashion miscues can easily be overlooked.

Unfortunately, there is one hideous marketing decision that will require significant elbow grease to rectify. The geniuses at Lenovo decided to apply a sticker to the top right and side of the tablet with a strong adhesive that leaves behind a sticky, difficult to remove residue. Prepare to spend a lot of wasted time cleaning up this mess. (Lenovo states on its forum that future Miix tablets won’t have the appliques).

Aesthetics and self-inflicted issues aside, the only real item of concern is the keyboard cover, which is a little flaky despite a firmware fix. Without the patch, the cursor regularly jumps around randomly, making it nearly impossible to type a sentence without multiple errors. After the patch, the keyboard is more accurate, although the touchpad is hyper-sensitive. Throughout a week of use, I’ve accidentally opened or closed multiple items due to errant taps on the trackpad. Clicking and selecting is also challenging. Lastly, the keyboard is not backlit, which is a major limitation if you need to use your tablet in low-lit situations. Consequently, if word processing is your primary activity, you may be out of luck when it comes to the Miix 700.

Unlike the Spartan plain cardboard packaging of Thinkpad products, the Ideapad line is consumer oriented and the Miix 700 ships in the nicest package I’ve seen from Lenovo.

Available ports are a little skimpy: one USB 2.0 that doubles as the power input, one USB 3.0, a microHDMI output and a microSD slot tucked under the kickstand, borrowing again from the Surface Pro design.

A major selling point of the Miix is its user upgradeability. Swapping out the m2 SSD should be very straight forward and Lenovo even has a complete list of how-to videos on its site: https://www.lenovoservicetraining.com/showcase?sid=1114&key=TGVuZw==

Marketed as a relatively low cost retail device, the Ideapad also features a lot of pre-installed crapware like McAfee Internet Security that you will want to wipe off right away. I do appreciate when OEMs provide utilities that phone home and let you know when driver updates are available. The Lenovo Companion app purports to do this, but I still had to visit Lenovo.com support to find the keyboard firmware.

Pen support is also not enabled by default and required installation of another firmware fix. Unfortunately, although the Miix 700 works with a variety of Wacom Active ES pens, it is not supported by the Feel driver, so you won’t be able to configure any pen buttons or run Wintab applications.

As I wrote above, the Lenovo Thinkpad Pen Pro is sold separately for $40. It's not the best Wacom Active ES pen option on the market due to its very short nib and small hover distance. If you decide to stick with the Lenovo brand, packs of pen clips are also available that attach the pen via the USB 3.0 connector (a pretty big waste of a port on an already limited device).

Like the Thinkpad Yoga 14, the Miix’s screen is a little slick and could benefit from a screen protector, but using it with a Toshiba DynaPad TruPen is otherwise very pleasant.

Until Wacom releases its Bamboo Smart pen and we determine its compatibility, the Toshiba DynaPad TruPen is the best choice for Miix users.

The Miix 700’s Core m5 processor offers negligible performance improvements over the Surface Pro 4’s m3, so benchmark results are very close.  But in real world use, you’re likely to see more benefit from the extra 4 GB of RAM.

The Miix runs absolutely silently and battery life is very good. Lenovo claims it will provide 9 hours of video playback, but I got about six hours or typing, browsing and drawing.

If you are looking for a bargain and can overlook the sticker and temperamental folio keyboard, the Miix 700 is the real deal.

UPDATED: Microsoft, Wacom developing universal Windows pen

UPDATE 2 4/1/16 From the Windows Experience blog, posted by Aaron Woodman, Sr. Director of Marketing at Microsoft, comes the company's official take on the Wacom deal:

Another way we’ll deliver that is via a recent partnership with Wacom.

Wacom, a leader in digital pen hardware, has signed an agreement with Microsoft to create and produce Windows Ink capable solutions for the ecosystem. This will help provide customers with the best end-2-end Windows Ink experience. By combining Windows Ink technology, learnings from Surface and Wacom DNA into a high quality writing instrument built for Windows Ink, customers have an easy choice when they need an accessory pen. Customers should expect the pen to be available at retailers like Best Buy this holiday season.

UPDATE 3/31/16 From the official press release, below, Wacom is targeting the 2016 holiday season for the release of the dual protocol pen.

Wacom to broaden digital pen interoperability in the marketplace under Universal Pen Framework (UPF) along with Microsoft

Tokyo, March 31, 2016 ----- Wacom Co., Ltd announced today its Universal Pen Framework (UPF) initiative has entered a new stage with Microsoft Corp. licensing its Microsoft Pen Protocol to Wacom. In the near future Wacom’s digital pen solutions will incorporate both Microsoft Pen and Wacom Active ESTM Pen protocols, helping customers better take advantage of Windows Ink on Windows 10 devices.  Wacom is working to build pens that support both protocols, targeting delivery this holiday season at the end of 2016. 
 
“This is truly groundbreaking: now we have two leading pen protocols—by Microsoft and Wacom—that can be tapped on demand with a single pen,” said Masahiko Yamada, President & CEO of Wacom.  “Supporting multiple protocols makes our pen incredibly fast and easy for people to write intelligent notes, be creative, and get productive when using Windows Ink on their Windows 10 devices.  As well as advocating the digital pen as a primary interface tool for mobile products and services, we also believe in the power of digital ink as a transformational medium. Digital ink can convey people’s creativity by enabling ideas to be captured and shared over the cloud, while sustaining the evolution of those ideas. I’m looking forward to seeing how we can accelerate the emergence of digital stationery in collaboration with valued partners like Microsoft,” he added. 
 
“Windows Ink makes it easy for people to turn their thoughts into actions,” said Kevin Gallo, corporate vice president of Windows Developer Platform, Microsoft, Corp. “People that use pens with their Windows 10 devices are happier, more engaged, more creative, and productive. Today‘s agreement with Wacom will help customers get a great Windows Ink experience on virtually all pen-enabled Windows 10 devices.” 
 
Wacom has been supplying its Active ESTM pen solution to a number of OEM customers since 2014.  In order to ensure interoperability of digital pens among multiple platforms, Wacom has been developing the multi-protocol pen technology in collaboration with key IT industry players such touch controller suppliers, display manufacturers and platform developers, under the name of UPF (version 2.0).   
 
As part of the UPF 2.0 initiative, this agreement between the two companies makes it possible for Wacom to manufacture multi-protocol pen solutions including Microsoft Pen and Active ESTM protocols on demand.  It is hoped that this will help to bolster broad consumer demand for digital pen and ink as enabling tools for communication, expression, business, education and entertainment, covering various aspects of people’s daily activities.  
 
On January 7, 2016, Wacom introduced the Digital Stationery Consortium, which promotes the digital inking experience across multiple mobile ecosystems and solutions through collaboration with companies across a range of sectors, from IT hardware, software and service providers, through to businesses in stationery, publishing and education fields. The agreement on digital pen protocols is a huge step forward toward the era of simple, high quality digital pen and ink experience, and it will form one of the pillars of the Digital Stationery Consortium. 
 
(*) This is translated to English from a Japanese announcement solely for convenience of non-Japanese readers. 

* * *

ORIGINAL POST

Moments after I posted the earlier story about Microsoft touting its upcoming Ink API improvements, I came across a tantalizing Tweet from Bryan Roper.

Forgot something big! We are working with Wacom to create a pen that will work across a huge number of pen enabled devices!!!! #Build2016

— Bryan Roper (@broper00) March 30, 2016

Sounding like hyperbole, I assumed that this would be something similar to Wacom's iPad efforts: a Bluetooth stylus for touch only devices.

Tonight, several tech blogs are reporting that the two companies are indeed working on a much more ambitious collaboration: a dual sensor pen that will work on both Wacom ActiveES and Microsoft N-Trig devices.

This remarkable development will be the first time the pair work together since Microsoft abandoned Wacom's EMR technology used in the Surface Pro 1 and 2 for the thinner N-Trig digitizers found in every tablet released since the Surface Pro 3. 

Microsoft acquired N-Trig's pen technology last year and we all assumed that Wacom fans would have to look at devices from other manufacturers for the foreseeable future.

VAIO is the only other OEM producing devices with N-Trig digitizers. Since the Toshiba Encore 2 Write was released in January, 2014, Wacom has made steady advances, providing digitizers for Lenovo, HP and Dell, to name a few.

While N-Trig pens are interchangeable, Wacom's ActiveES pens have unique IDs and OEMs have chosen to limit compatibility between tablets. Wacom has been promoting a solution with its as-yet-unreleased Bamboo Smart pen for select tablets and 2-in-1 convertible devices.

The active pens from Microsoft and Wacom operate very similarly but they do have some important differences in pressure sensitivity levels, hover distance and button capabilities.

As more details become available, we will make sure to update this post.

Microsoft highlights Windows 10 Ink enhancements

Microsoft put pen computing front and center during its Build 2016 keynote this morning. Showing off the upcoming Windows 10 Anniversary update, Executive Demo Lead Bryan Roper (known in some circles as Fedora Guy) wowed the crowd with several nifty new features made possible by enhancements to Microsoft's Windows Ink API.

In his blog post, Executive Vice President, Windows and Devices Group Terry Myerson described the improvements thusly:

More than 70% of us spend more than one hour a day using a pen. We lose notes in our notebooks, take pictures of whiteboards, and can’t do equations or music composition with a keyboard. Windows Ink is an all-new experience, putting the power of Windows in the tip of your pen, enabling you to write on your device as you do on paper, creating sticky notes, drawing on a whiteboard, and easily sharing your analog thoughts in the digital world. Windows Ink is integrated into apps like Maps, Microsoft Edge, and Office. And today, we demonstrated how developers can incorporate Windows Ink into their apps with as little as 2 lines of code!

None of these are art-specific, but they do point the way to a Windows computing world where the pen is less of an after-thought. You can see the new features for yourself in the video below.

CorelDRAW X8 adds RealTimeStylus support

PRESS RELEASE
OTTAWA, ON – March 15, 2016 – Introducing CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite X8, Corel’s new flagship graphics solution that makes professional design, web graphics and image editing workflows faster and simpler, all while offering more control. The new suite enables designers, artists and business users to transform creative energy into artwork that creates lasting impressions across any medium. 
New functionality speeds and streamlines the creative process – especially when working with fonts, images and objects. CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X8 is the optimal environment for anyone creating graphics on Windows 10, in addition to offering exceptional experiences on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. Whether you’re a new user or have relied on CorelDRAW for years, take advantage of a wide range of learning tools and a customizable environment to get started quickly and make the app uniquely your own. 

A new, open upgrade policy makes it highly affordable to move up to CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X8 from any previous version. 
“With the new X8, we’ve taken away many of the pain points graphics pros face daily by offering a powerful design environment that’s faster and smarter than ever. From big additions, like the all-new Corel Font Manager, to the dramatically evolved Knife tool, the entire suite makes it easier for users to get the professional look and output their clients demand,” said Gérard Métrailler, Vice President of Products, Graphics and Productivity, Corel. 

“Professionals and aspiring professionals can save time and dramatically increase productivity with simplified processes and reduced steps they’ll quickly find they can’t live without. And with ultra-high resolution monitors and extensive pen and touch support, CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X8 is ready for the latest generation of Windows 10 devices. Whether you own X7 or go all the way back to version 1.0, this impressive list of new features comes together with our new open upgrade policy to make the move to X8 an obvious choice,” said Cécile Brosius, Director of Product Marketing, CorelDRAW. 

Save time and create stunning designs and images with the extensive updates and new features in CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X8:

• New compatibility and support: With full optimization for Windows 10, take advantage of new resolution independent multi-monitor viewing, 4K and higher displays support, and work with Windows Real-Time Stylus pen-compatible tablets, such as the Microsoft Surface, in addition to Wacom tablets and devices.

• New Corel Font Manager™: Finally take control of your ever-expanding font collection and make the most of the fonts you already own! Explore, handle, and organize your fonts and typefaces quickly. Ideal for professions that use fonts daily, from graphic design, illustration and publishing, to package design, sign making, advertising and website creation.
Enhanced Font filtering and search: Quickly find a specific font without spending time searching in multiple folders. For example, search for “script fonts” or a specific character-set and the font list will show all the fonts on your machine that match the request. 

• Enhanced Knife Tool: Split any object or group of objects − vector, text and bitmaps – along straight, freehand or Bézier lines. Overlap objects or create a gap between the new objects after splitting them. Choose an outline option, or let the application automatically select the option that best preserves the outline appearance. 

• New design features requested by users: Manage complex projects with ease with the new Hide and Show Objects. Copy, paste, or duplicate pieces of existing curves with Copy Curve and explore the Gaussian Blur to adjust the degree to which the drop shadow feathers at its edges. 

• New and enhanced photo-editing features: Remove imperfections with the Healing Clone tool and use the enhanced Straighten Image to correct perspective distortions. 

• New workspace customization: Be productive immediately with a workspace that matches your workflow. Alter the desktop and window borders color, select a dark or light UI that suits the way you work, customize the size of text and icons, and open desktop windows within a floating window. 

• New learning tools:  Get up and running quickly with a welcoming environment that provides easy setup, in-product learning resources, an improved Hints docker and more. See what’s new with either the complete Startup tour, or special product tour for existing power users of previous versions of CorelDRAW, Corel® PHOTO-PAINT® or other graphics applications. 

• Enhanced support for sharing and output: Rely on a collection of the latest industry-standard file formats and design features to create, prepare and deliver your finished product. Take advantage of expanded compatibility with formats like AI, PSD, PDF, JPG, PNG, SVG, DWG, DXF, EPS, TIFF, DOCX and PPT. The new Border and Grommet dialog box lets you create a banner from a page or selected objects. Whether you work on small-scale projects, such as logos and web graphics, or larger pieces, such as banners and car wraps, CorelDRAW delivers the output you need. 

• New CorelDRAW SDK & Developer Community: Create your own automation tools with support from the new CorelDRAW SDK & Developer Community site: community.coreldraw.com/sdk. 

CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X8 Includes: 

• CorelDRAW X8: Intuitive vector-illustration and page-layout application

• Corel® PHOTO-PAINT® X8: Professional image-editing application

• Corel Font Manager™: Powerful font management

• Corel® PowerTRACE® X8: Bitmap-to-vector tracing utility (included in CorelDRAW X8) 

• Corel® CONNECT™ X8: Access digital content in the Content Exchange and on a local computer

• Corel® Website Creator™: Website-design application

• Corel® CAPTURE™ X8: One-click screen capture utility

• PhotoZoom Pro 4: Plug-in to export and enlarge digital images from Corel PHOTO-PAINT CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X8 also includes 10,000 clipart and digital images; 2,000 high-resolution digital photos; 1,000 OpenType fonts; 350 professionally designed templates; 2,000 vehicle templates; more than 1000 fills, frames and patterns; more than five hours of enhanced training videos; and much more.

For a full list of everything included in CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X8 and to download a free 15-day trial, please visit www.coreldraw.com. 

Customers can choose one of three flexible purchase options: 

• Perpetual License: Make a one-time payment and own the product license permanently; available as a box or download version
Subscription: Pay a monthly or annual fee to use the product; upgrade to the latest version as long as your subscription is active • Upgrade Program: If you buy a perpetual license of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X8, pay one affordable yearly fee, and you’re assured of working with the latest design tools, file compatibility, and the most current technology. As long as your account is active, you’ll automatically receive the latest version when it’s released. Availability and Pricing CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X8 is now available in English, German, Italian, French, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Czech, Russian, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Turkish and Japanese. Download the software now at www.coreldraw.com. Shipping begins April 5, 2016. The full version is priced at $499 USD and the upgrade is $199 USD. Subscription is available for $29.95 USD per month or $198 USD per year. Upgrade Program is available for $99 USD per year. Commercial and educational volume licenses are also available.

Toonz, Studio Ghibli's animation software, goes open source

Toonz, the professional 2D animation software used by Studio Ghibli in revered productions like Princess Mononoke, has been released in a free, open source version for Windows and OSX. OpenToonz was released for download this morning and includes modifications developed specifically for Studio Ghibli's workflow.

I've only had a few minutes to try it out, but it seems to run fine on the Surface Pro 3. If you discover any hiccups, please leave a comment below.

Download OpenToonz here: https://opentoonz.github.io/e/index.html

Below is the press announcement from the software's Italian developer Digital Video and its new Japanese owner, Dwango, which intends to continue to develop a paid version called ToonzPremium.

* * *

PRESS RELEASE

Digital Video, the makers of TOONZ, and DWANGO, a Japanese publisher, announced today they have signed an agreement for the acquisition by Dwango of Toonz, an animation software which was independently developed by Digital Video (Rome, Italy).

Digital Video and Dwango agreed to close the deal under the condition Dwango will publish and develop an Open Source platform based on Toonz (OpenToonz). Effective Saturday March 26, the TOONZ Studio Ghibli Version will be made available to the animation community as a free download.

OpenToonz will include features developed by Studio Ghibli (*Toonz Ghibli Edition) which has been a long time Toonz user. Through OpenToonz, Dwango will create a platform that will aim to have research labs and the animated film industry actively cooperating with each other.

With this agreement in place, Digital Video will move to the open source business model, offering to the industry commissioning, installation & configuration, training, support and customization services while allowing the animators’ community to use a state of the art technology at no cost.

Digital Video will also continue to develop and market a Toonz Premium version at a very competitive price for those companies willing to invest in the customization of Toonz for their projects. A comprehensive list of the new services available can be found at www.toonzpremium.com.

Commenting on this exciting announcement, Mr. Atsushi Okui, Executive Imaging Director at Studio Ghibli said “ During the production of ‘Princess Mononoke’ in 1995, we needed a software enabling us to create a certain section of the animation digitally. We checked for what was available at that time and chose ‘Toonz’. Our requirement was that in order to continue producing theatre-quality animation without additional stress, the software must have the ability to combine the hand-drawn animation with the digitally painted ones seamlessly. From then onwards we continued to use the software while going through major updates to make it easier for us to use. We are happy to hear that this open source version contains the Ghibli Edition. We hope that many people inside and outside of the animation industry will utilize this software for their work. We would like to extend our gratitude to the staff of Digital Video.”

Claudio Mattei, Managing Director at Digital Video, the makers of TOONZ, said:

“ The contract with Dwango, which offers the Toonz open source platform to the animation community, has enabled Digital Video to realize one of its strategies, i.e. to make of Toonz a world standard for 2D animation. This deal will be also the starting point of a new exciting plan to endorse the Open Source business model, by supporting training and customizing Toonz for the old and new users. We are proud to share this path with Dwango and with Studio Ghibli, the renowned Toonz user since 1995.”

Mr Nobuo Kawakami, Chairman and CTO at Dwango, added:

"It is a great honour for us to be able to release OpenToonz as open source software.

We’d like to express our deepest appreciation to Digital Video and Studio Ghibli for their help and support We hope the high-quality software that meets the demands of animation professionals will contribute to revitalizing the animation industry. Dwango will also utilize OpenToonz in order to present its research and development results."

The open source version of TOONZ will be officially presented in Tokyo at Anime Japan (March 26 and 27)