Way back on 4/20 I told you about EPOS and their digital pen and USB drive, which should have hit retailers during the summer but didn’t and for good reason. The original design was pretty fugly and it never hurts to wait a bit to work out the bugs and design flaws. Well, I got my mitts on the final version last week and the results are in. Totally worth the wait. I haven’t had a chance to play with mine so far because Boot Camp is being a royal pain in my ass, but I did get to tinker with a demo model. Being Vista-compatible may sound like a downfall, but EPOS did a damn good job with the software and Windows didn’t crash or anything. Just make sure the pen’s receiver is in clear view of the receiver and you needn’t worry at all. You don’t need a special tablet or paper for the pen to work. Hell, you can even use your thigh to write on by switching out the ink cartridge for a stylus tip. The pen is actually comfortable to use, too. Everything worked great and transferred over to Word without any problems. Mac users will have to deal with just images until software is released for OS X, which should be some time soon, I’m told.
Look for different models (executive, etc) to come out in the next few months using EPOS technology. The combo pen and USB drive will slowly trickle to online retailers next month with a big announcement coming in January at CES.