A Revolutionary New Tool
Written: Jul 24 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Very versatile pointing devices
Cons: Feels like learning how to "mouse" all over again
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| Rocketgirl's Full Review: Aiptek Hyperpen 6000 |
I have thought for some time that I wanted to buy some kind of electronic pen. I wasn’t sure how they worked, but I always thought that gripping a regular pen-shaped pointer would not only be easier to handle but easier on my muscles and joints.
The HyperPen 6000U comes with a software CD, a drawing tablet, electronic pen and battery, and cordless mouse and battery. The pen is capable of very high resolution (3048 lpi) and has 512 different levels of sensitivity. This is all you need to have a more comfortable PC experience.
The HyperPen was easy to install. It was just a matter of installing the software from CD and plugging in the tablet. The tablet sends an electronic signal to the pen, so it must be used on the tablet and not on another desk top surface. The tablet uses a USB port, so that it can be plugged in and used immediately, without having to reboot your system. This also enables you to use any of your three devices (regular mouse, cordless mouse, and pen) at any time. The tablet has a 4.5 x 6 drawing space, which may be somewhat limited for professional graphic artists. But it is just fine for me.
Two software packages come with the HyperPen. One is called Art Dabbler. This is a drawing program. It contains several pointer styles (e.g., pencil, chalk, paintbrush, paint can, eraser), with multiple textures and colors. There are also some unique features such as invert, clone, and stencil. This is a great practice program both for getting a feel for how the pen works and practicing with different features. It is not for the professional graphic artist, however; no grids or rulers, alignment tools, etc. It is great for an amateur like me. With the built-in tutorial this was a pretty easy program to learn.
The other program that comes with HyperPen is called PenOffice. The main features of this program include an electronic signature feature. It also has a feature to allow you to mark-up Microsoft Word files as if you were red-lining the hard copy. There is a feature to use an electronic “sticky pad” anywhere on your screen for making notes to yourself. There is a feature that lets you take basically a screen snapshot and save it as an individual picture. There is an upgrade option available on-line that, among other things, has a “calligraphy” feature that translates handwriting into type. This is a program where some kind of booklet with instructions would have been handy. I have read the on-line manual and am still having difficulty figuring out exactly how this works. I have not tried to strenuously however, since this feature is not what I bought the HyperPen for anyway.
The HyperPen can be used in any of your other programs in place of the mouse. One tap is the same as a left button click. A rocker button on the side of the pen acts as a right click and a double left click button. The buttons can be reprogrammed for a left-handed person. Just press the pen on the F1 space on the tablet and away you go. I have used it easily for drawing in Microsoft PowerPoint and Corel Presentations. I have also used it for surfing and viewing e-mail. It is easy to navigate scroll bars, pull-down menus, and icons with the HyperPen. You can use it to select blocks of text or graphic objects. About the only thing I miss is that it doesn’t have a wheel-type feature that my Intellimouse has, so there is no way to do those quick little up and down scrolls. So if I’m doing heavy-duty editing I’ll probably stick with my old mouse.
The cordless mouse is very handy too. It also works from an electronic signal that it receives from the tablet. So it must be used on the tablet surface only and will not work on another surface. However, it is not restricted to the 4.5 x 6 area that the pen is--it will work on the entire tablet surface area, about the size of a regular mouse pad. The bottom has felt feet so it glides smoothly on the tablet. It is VERY light-weight, a feature that I really love. The click of it is a little louder than my Intellimouse but not annoyingly so. In place of a wheel, this mouse has a middle button that can be used for a quick scroller. It is similar to clicking the wheel itself on an Intellimouse to scroll quickly. I have had a little trouble getting the hang of the feature, but it will get easier with practice. Fortunately with the USB hook-up I can always revert back to my Intellimouse when I want with no hassle.
Here is an interesting thing I found out, quite by accident. After installing the tablet everything was fine. But then the next day when I booted my computer, the boot sequence would not start. The BIOS info would appear and then it would stop. I thought oh great, another driver conflict somewhere. Then all of a sudden the boot-up started to continue. I reinstalled my scanner software because it caused a similar problem. When it rebooted, the boot sequence stopped again. I thought, what is going on? Then all of a sudden it started booting again. This time I noticed what was wrong. I had left the cordless mouse sitting on the tablet. It had started booting when I bumped the mouse off the tablet! Now isn’t that a weird thing! There still may be a driver conflict somewhere, but I guess I don’t care as long as I know--don’t leave the cordless mouse on the tablet!
I paid $80 for HyperPen, with a $20 rebate. Considering I have seen cordless mouses for up to $50 I feel like I have gotten a very good deal. The installation was easy, there are plenty of features, and amazingly, batteries WERE included. I have not had any problems that required calling service, but since they are a smaller company, I’ll probably have better luck getting an actual person on the line. I am very happy with this product.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 80
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Epinions.com ID:
Rocketgirl
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 in Books |
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Member: Beth
Location: Tri-Cities, WA
Reviews written: 398
Trusted by: 224 members
About Me:
So many books, so little time.
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