Select Page

I ordered a stylus for my iPad, because I wanted a pen that would allow me sketch on my iPad with an app I’d downloaded. I couldn’t remember the brand of stylus I’d read about, and that was my mistake—because I ordered something different from what I was expecting. It was also a happy accident—because I solved a different problem.

Here is the stylus I ordered. The dark tip looks a little like an eraser. This tip mimics the capacitance of a finger and works on touch screen devices. (This idea is much more appealing to me than using a sausage.) There is a pen clip, and you could put a thin cord through the silver end if you wanted to hang the stylus around your neck.

I tested my new stylus this week while I was waiting for the bus in the cold weather. I wanted to use my iPhone without taking my gloves off. The stylus worked well for turning the pages of a book and for other large gestures like poking the letters on the keyboard. If I concentrate I can even move the cursor within a word to make an edit. It doesn’t work as well for clicking on links in web pages or clicking other small things.

What tools have you found to use with your mobile devices?