Apple Thoughts: Pen Developed For Capacitive Touch Screens

"InPlay Technologies has announced their new WriteSense digital pen technology which eliminates the need for a separate electromagnetic digitizer. InPlay's RF pen communicates directly with the capacitive touch sensors rather than requiring a digitizer. The immediate benefits result in much smaller form factor slate and convertible tablet pcs, as well as reduce costs for bringing tablet pcs to market. As more OEMs begin to integrate capacitive touch sensors in to their screens (think Windows 7), InPlay's solution could bust the gate wide open for Tablet PC technologies. Look for the WriteSense pen technology to come to market in mid 2009."

My immediate thought when I read this was how cool it would be to have a pen option for the iPhone for note taking and drawing apps. I'm perfectly happy not needing a stylus anymore, but there are occasions where it would be useful. This may work out to be a pretty cool idea.