Discussion on:

The return of the stylus?

It's called Draw Something. And I'm pretty sure "Patrick Gray believes that a exceptional digital notebook and stylus might be what turns tablets in the enterprise from an R&D item to a must-have business tool" isn't even English.

Just, you know, trying to help.

My first tablet was a Motion M1300. It was too big, and too heavy, and after using it for 6yrs I upgraded to the Archos. Lighter and slightly faster. But the pen features on the M1300 with the active digitizer were still the best writing experience I have had on a tablet.
Using my EXOPC now, and while it is the best tablet in terms of speed and performance, I still miss having an active digitizer.
Dual type touch screens that have active digitizer when the pen gets near, and passive touch when there is no pen near, is the way to go.

... is one of the major factors preventing me from buying a tablet... any tablet.

There still doesn't seem to be any handwriting recognition software that provides reliable direct input yet. Most seems to be of the OCR variety. i.e.: Write to an image, then the image is converted using OCR. If you're lucky, and have great handwriting, you get an 80-85% accuracy. And you still spend excess time correcting whatever document you're working on.

The first tablet that provides an interface allowing me to enter numbers directly into a spreadsheet cell on the tablet is going to get my money.

I'd love to have the features that my old Compaq tablet computer had years ago, about 8 to 10 years. I could write something on the system using it's stylus and it would do an excellent job of converting my scrawl into text. It would also store the handwriting as a graphic if I wanted it to. Not exactly a new idea, why was it forgotten in the newest batch of devices?

on my Lenovo Thinkpad tablet. It's pretty cool, but the apps that accept handwriting input are scarce, and there are very few that actually work well with the stylus. I think I've found maybe 2 apps that render the handwriting well or don't have hesitations with the line lagging behind the stylus.

I use mine more as a mouse. In cases where you just need to check boxes, and the app is written well, the stylus would be a great tool.

Stylus with full pressure, tilt and bearing sensitivity like the Wacom tablets. The main thing I want to do with a tablet is drawing and editing photos, and without a "real" stylus, it's not great.

A stylus responding device which otherwise would need 2 handed operation is fine but how do you use it on a mobile when your other hand is occupied, like carrying / holding something.? I also recollect that these stylus operated devices had pressure sensitive touch pads and as a general rule that got damaged / scratched too quickly. I believe Palm Pilot was an exception to the rule.

I am very happy with the capacitive touch pad (actually glass) on my Galaxy. mobile.for single handed operation.
What I would

I only got a "smart phone" a few years ago when the HTC Tilt was able to satisfy my requirement for stylus input. The prior decade was several Palm Pilots The device is used for (in descending priority); writing up my daily log as events happen, a searchable database of previous logs, contacts, email, reference documents, ebooks for the rare "spare" time. Oh, and a couple times a week there may be an actual phone call.