Wacom reveals touchpad designed for sketching

Drawing tablet king Wacom has taken unveiled an intriguing reinvention of its Bamboo touchpad.

The Bamboo Pad is a touchpad that adds multi-touch gestures to your PC or Mac, but it also comes with an onboard stylus so you can use it as a sketch pad.

Sensing the pressure

Cleverly, the pad promises to distinguish between hand and pen input by sensing the pressure applied to interpret hand gestures and handwriting separately.

Designers running Windows 7 and 8 simply need to plug the pad in, while Mac owners (OS 10.7 or later) will need to install a driver first, which can be downloaded from the Wacom support website. There's also a new, free Bamboo Page app for Windows 8 users in the Windows Store, to help you sketch and take notes while on the move.

The Bamboo Pad is available with a wireless or a USB cable connection, in grey, white, blue, light green or purple (wireless connection only). If you already have a Feel-enabled Bamboo Stylus it will work with the Bamboo Pad.

The Bamboo Pad (USB version) is priced at $49/£41.99 whilst the wireless version costs $79/£59.99. Both products are available from today via Wacom eStore.

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