The Pen Addict 183/transcript
| The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript | |
|---|---|
| Episode: | 183 |
| Title: | OMG Star Wars |
| Release Date: | November 30th, 2015 |
| Hosts: | Brad Dowdy |
| Guests: | No guests this episode |
| Additional Information | |
| Official page: | Episode 183 |
| Audio File: | Audio Episode 183 |
| Podcast page: | The Pen Addict 183 |
| Length: | 6969 min <br />1.15 h <br /> minutes |
| Previous Transcript | Next Transcript |
Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict episode 183. Today's show is brought to you by lynda.com, uni, and making light. We'll tell you about those great sponsors a little later on in today's episode. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined by the wonderful Mr. Brad Dowdy.
Brad Dowdy: What's up, buddy?
Myke Hurley: How you doing, mate? You alright?
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah, real good. Long time no talk, for sure.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, so, you know, peeling back the curtain, as we like to do, we are recording this episode immediately after we ended our gift guide episode last time, because as this episode will go out, as it goes out, and you're hearing it, I am currently in New York City. I'm taking a little break in New York, so we don't want to miss a week. Not at all. So, make sure that we got a little episode in advance for you, and you're going to kind of be able to tell that this is in advance because of our first topic this week, which is the new Field Notes edition.
Colors Edition[edit]
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'm really kind of excited to talk about this one. So, it's Colors Edition number 29. It's called the Snowblind Edition. I was pretty shocked when this came out. Very surprised. It's one of those more technical releases that Field Notes kind of does. You know, maybe once a year, they'll do something kind of really off the beaten path that you didn't see coming. You know, and what were your first thoughts when you saw this email come in, and you started looking through what this edition was?
Myke Hurley: I was looking at it initially, and then I kind of looked at the video, like I saw the big screen, and it's just a white pack. I was like, ooh, like it's like northerly. And then I went down, and I saw white and blue, and I was like, oh, there's two different colors, maybe? And then like I kind of started looking through, I was like, oh, hang on a minute. What's going on here?
Myke Hurley: And I like these. And, you know, see, I agree with you. They like to do something technical. But this isn't necessarily technical at the expense of something else, you know, if that makes sense. Like this is technical. Like it's not technical like the Expedition Edition was.
Brad Dowdy: Right.
Myke Hurley: Where it was like we're just going to upend everything. And they made something super cool, but for a specific purpose, right?
Brad Dowdy: Right. So this, to be specific, the covers of this book are made with photochromic ink. So what that does is it changes with sunlight. Yeah, UV rays, right? So the paper, the cover stock is white, but the photochromic ink, when it goes outside in the sunlight, changes to kind of like this powdery blue, I guess you would call it. And then you can, it kind of changes, you know, as you move it in and out of the sunlight. You know, if you're blocking some of the sun rays from it, you know, like in the pictures they show, you can leave, like you can see your fingerprints from where you block the sun. I've also already seen people who have these, mine haven't arrived just yet, but people who have these are using things like the ghost ink, the ultraviolet ink. Have you seen that, Myke? Like, so you can use ink, you know, like spy ink, like if you write it on a piece of paper and you need an ultraviolet light to see it, it actually reverses the photochromic ink. So the, when the cover's white, your ghost ink will show up blue. And when the cover's blue, your ghost ink shows up white, I think is how I have this. So people are playing around with the colors. I think it's kind of cool. I mean, I'm not like super jacked up woohoo about it, but I also don't have them in my hands yet. I think it's going to be pretty cool. But, you know, they're either going to be in my desk, my backpack or my back pocket. So I don't know that I'm going to get the effects, you know, that they spent a lot of time, I'm sure, and resources in getting this just right, right?
Brad Dowdy: Like how much benefit are you going to get from the color changing, right? It's basically going to be a white edition for the most part.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, but white editions look great though.
Brad Dowdy: Well, I was going to say, which I'm good with, like the best picture that they have in this whole thing is the binding with the white staples, the white covers and the white staples. It just looks, that was my favorite picture of the whole thing, not necessarily the photochromatic part and things like that. And I'm interested to see the cover type. It's got like that, it's like a roughed up, it's a powder pearlescent pigments for the, like the field notes type and logo and things like that on there. That should be pretty cool, but I mean, I think it's going to be good. I'm anxious to get it and try it, but like I said, how much color variation am I going to be getting? You know, am I going to be playing around with the ultraviolet part of this, or am I just going to be writing in the notebook and, you know, and not getting the benefits of, you know, the color variation? You know, like when they did something like Night Sky, which is, you know, yours and I's probably one of our favorite edition. You know, they did something really cool with the foil stamping and the holographic stamping and things like that. You get that benefit constantly, right? Every time you use the book, you get the benefit of the work that they put into the book. With this one, with this cover, you don't get the benefit of all the work they put into the book every time. You know it's there, but you're not getting that benefit. Does that make sense?
Myke Hurley: Yeah, but I don't know if that's a bad thing. I think that might be a more fun thing because every now and then it will surprise you. Like, I think that's more exciting. Like, because if they just came out with a new white book, people would probably be pretty happy with that, right? Yeah, I'd be stoked.
Brad Dowdy: You know, my day game one is the day game white is one of the best editions ever. Exactly. In my opinion.
Myke Hurley: And it was better than the northerly because the northerly had that crazy paper inside.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it had the reverse printed paper. I forget there's a name for that, but basically the paper was gray and the grid lines were white, so it was like inverted.
Myke Hurley: But it had like an inky covering, didn't it? Like, it wasn't that great. They weren't that great to write in.
Brad Dowdy: People loved the style of that one, but it was one of the worst performers of just actually the physical writing in the books were not a great addition for that. But yes, just the white covers were pretty impressive for everyone. Everyone loves the white covers, including myself. I'm a huge fan. So yeah, I'll be anxious to get it and put it to use, and I'm sure it's going to be cool as heck. But, you know, I think it's great. I got no problems with it.
Myke Hurley: No, I'm a big fan. And, like, you know, I've been talking about, like, when the Shenandoahs came out, that I love Field Notes when they do something crazy. And this is something crazy. Yeah. So I bought three additional packs of these. Oh, wow. Yeah, I went all in. I went all in.
Brad Dowdy: Nice. See, if my only choices, if Field Notes only existed from Shenandoah to Snowblind, just those two additions, I would pick Shenandoah every time. But I don't have the Snowblind in hand yet either, but just looking at it, I'm going to totally enjoy it. I will prefer Shenandoah over it, I would say, probably nine times out of ten.
Addition Size[edit]
Myke Hurley: All right, so let's go in and do our usual now. So the addition size on this one is 25,000 packs we have here. So therefore proving our theory from last time that the Shenandoah was something to do with the way that they were having the books made, which is why they have 40,000 of them. And it must have been because they got those covers made themselves, like the paper was made for them. Right. So that kind of lends to our theories from last time. Because I know that you were saying that potentially it might be that the retail is hotter, which is definitely true, which is why they're up to 25,000. But 40 to 25 shows a huge, huge difference.
Brad Dowdy: That's a big, big difference. Yeah, for sure.
Myke Hurley: And 25 falls back in line with like Two Rivers, which is at 25,000. Ambition at 30,000. Unexposed at 20,000. Workshop Companion was only 17, which is interesting.
Brad Dowdy: Well, it's 17 times six, not times three.
Myke Hurley: Good point. Good point. So it's like twice that size, right? It's like that is also, you know, 30,000. So, yeah, that's kind of, yeah, that kind of fits in, I think. Yep. Back to normal again. I mean, there are these weird ones that pop out every time. Like Shelterwood was, I always forget this now looking back, was 75,000.
Brad Dowdy: 75,000 units or three packs. Oh, that's books.
Myke Hurley: See, they changed at one point from books to packs, didn't they?
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, like in the past year or so, they changed it to packs, to three packs. So, yeah. But that's still right in the range, the 75,000. So that's 25,000 three packs, right? Yep. Or did I do that right? Yep. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Woo, math.
Myke Hurley: It's overrated. Math is hard. But yeah, I'm looking forward to getting mine whenever they'll come in. Who knows when they will? It feels like it's going to be forever.
Brad Dowdy: And this will be fun to play with with the kids. The kids will be all about this. I'll get these in and we'll go outside and mess around with them and see what we can do with them. And tear them up, give them each one of these and let them have at it and go play around outside. It'll be fun.
Myke Hurley: So I sent you this link that I found over at Tools and Toys where Myke Bates wrote a post for Tools and Toys, which I just really liked the idea of this, which is a review of the Field Notes Color Subscription. So reviewing a year. I really like this idea. It was a great idea. I haven't actually read the post myself. I've looked at the photography because that's what I'm more interested in. Like, I don't, I know what these are, you know? Yeah. But I really like looking through because Myke, when he even, like, you know, he took a picture of the graph paper and the mix pack that you get with it. Like, really showed you, like, if you subscribe to this, like, what is the type of stuff you can expect to get? I think this is a really, really smart and cool thing to do. I liked it a lot.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I actually did read the entire post because I do like Myke's work. And we featured him, you know, a couple weeks ago or maybe a month or so ago on his blog. He had done a post and I just really somehow stumbled on it and really enjoyed it. And then, boom, he's writing on Tools and Toys. And what he did is he broke it down, what, from, I guess is it from Ambition to Shenandoah, that year worth of subscription. And he breaks it down, like you said, each edition, the inside covers, the paper styles, the bonus items that you get when you're a subscriber that came with each, the different variations when you get to something like a Two Rivers. Like, we've all had the Two Rivers where all of our covers are different, you know? And then, you know, right on through the Workshop Companion, which he praised for the paper, which is definitely awesome fountain pen paper. He even used in his pictures, he uses the Brass Wave Kaweco Lilliput, which you will have heard me mention on our Give God episode. And then up into the Shenandoah edition. And he just did a really good job pointing out not just the singularity of a Field Notes release, but a subscription as a whole with all the add-ons and extras. And then right down to his usage, like when you get down to his usage image, he's got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Oh, he used 11 out of those additions that he's got. So that's like one a month. That's a pretty good pace. I think I'm about one every two months or so. So, and then he breaks it all down into, you know, what's the value proposition? And when you break it all down like that, it's a great deal. I mean, for people like us that use these things and, you know, want to keep writing and, you know, keep getting their minds blown with their new additions.
Brad Dowdy: It's cool to see this post. I really enjoyed it.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, I liked it a lot. It's a real nice way of looking at the year and especially kind of the last pictures at the bottom showing, like, this is what you get for $97 and it ends up being quite good value for money, I think. You got a lot of stuff, like when you look at what you end up with.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and it's a good, it was nice to see that review because it's basically the after picture, right? You know, he's gone through the year. He's been able to use the additions and, you know, those are, you know, my favorite types of reviews. You know, the after effects of going through this and then, you know, what instead of the initial like we just did on the snow blind, like we're waiting to receive these additions and, you know, talking about them, that's all great and good. But, you know, a year later, you know, how does it hold up and things like that? So it was a good, he painted a great picture, I think, with that post and I really, really enjoyed it. And he did something else for them too. In conjunction with that post, he made a visit to the Field Notes brand HQ, which we also have a link to that in the show notes. This is mostly a photography-based post. You know, he's just got a little bit about, you know, meeting a couple different people in there. And, you know, he's, you know, the article's pretty short, but he's got probably, I don't know, two dozen pictures of Field Notes HQ. So if you haven't seen some of the guided tours that some people have done that have visited the shop before, checking out what Myke did, visiting the shop and talking with Brian, getting to the tour, it was pretty cool to see. I love behind-the-scenes stuff, you know, as a business person, you want to see, you know, what does their packing room look like? You know, how is their shipping set up? You know, that's the kind of stuff I care about. I don't need to see the Field Notes editions. I want to see, hmm, how can we set up our shipping table differently? That's the kind of things I get out of posts like this. So I was certainly all about it. Did you catch this post?
Myke Hurley: Yeah, I'm all about the photo of the display, which looks like it has one of everything.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it does. But what you don't see, maybe there's a Butcher Blue hidden in there. I know they finally got one. I know Brian talked about it. They finally got one to put on display because they didn't have one for the longest time. I'm not sure I see it in there unless it's kind of behind. I think it's kind of behind in the angle of the picture. I think it's in there because grass stains in there, too, and it's kind of behind the thing. So, yeah, they have a, like, it looks probably like right when you walk in a display cabinet with all the colors editions that they released. And so 29 have been released. So 30 will be in the spring. I guess I'll probably need to update my rankings list probably by the time number 30 comes out. We'll see where we're at with a lot of these new additions. Where do they rank amongst my top all time field notes rankings? So that's very cool.
Brad Dowdy: All right. So we got some weird stuff to talk about on this episode, don't you think? This is like a crazy episode, but it's good. This is a really neat episode. We're going to talk about some good and some bad stuff coming up next. But we got some really good stuff first, and that's our first sponsor, which is lynda.com.
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Brad Dowdy: So we talk a lot about Kickstarter pens and projects. And, you know, most of them are good. You know, we talk about mostly good. Then we have some, you know, kinks in the armor like the Visionaire and the Scribble Pen. And one of the not-so-good ones that's actually gone really, really sideways of late is the Apollo Pen.
Apollo Pen[edit]
Myke Hurley: What is the Apollo Pen?
Brad Dowdy: So the Apollo Pen was a really nice rotary-style-looking barrel. Knurled grip, you know, faceted barrel. Really nice-looking. And they had a tri-scale, you know, like a ruler, like a draftsman architect engineering type ruler with it that you could add on. But, you know, to me it was about the pen. It fit the high-tech C refill. It looked like a rotary.
Brad Dowdy: And I thought it was a great design. I was a backer.
Brad Dowdy: And...
Myke Hurley: The funding period for these ended in December 13th, 2013. With the estimated delivery for the pencils in February of 2014.
Brad Dowdy: Right. So in late 2013, this project funded 1188 backers, $141,000 worth of Apollo Pen in drafting scales. So they started production, I think, pretty quickly after this. And immediately started running into problems.
Brad Dowdy: With fit, finish, style. Kind of everything was going wrong production-wise. There's lots of... There's lots of... Updates at the time. In the update section for backers. You know, talking about how...
Brad Dowdy: You know, what's gone wrong. You know, people are... A lot of people have... Experience with Kickstarter. And there's delays. And there's problems. And, you know, as long as the founders are communicative and, you know, laying it on the line. What's going good? What's going bad? You know, people generally cut them some slack. But this one just kept going bad. And... They got to the point... This is one of the weirdest ones because it got partially filled.
Brad Dowdy: So, like, a lot of the backers got their products. A lot of the backers still have not gotten their products. We're going on two years later. So, it's very odd in that aspect. And what they ended up doing was, like... Okay, they finalized, like, the black ones. The black finish pens. Those finish. So, anyone with the black pen got that shipped. But if you had the black pen and the triscale... Well, we still have triscale problems. That didn't ship. And with all the manufacturing problems that they had... And then they had, I think, shipping problems on top of that... They ended up running out of money. Before they were able to manufacture everybody's pens.
Brad Dowdy: And so, like, I have mine. I got my...
Brad Dowdy: Pen that I pledged for. Like, I was made whole by this. But there's so many people out there that have not. And...
Myke Hurley: How does this happen?
Brad Dowdy: Mismanagement and poor planning up front is the only thing I can tell.
Myke Hurley: So, what is it? Like, maybe there were costs that they didn't anticipate. And they ended up not being able to fulfill based on the fact they ran out of money. Like, maybe they didn't sell enough afterwards. Maybe they kind of got in the hole or something.
Brad Dowdy: No, I think they made a bad choice for a manufacturing partner. If they didn't have their design locked down and perfected before they launched this, that's on them. Right? They should be able to say, you know, going through the prototypes phase with their manufacturing partner, it should have been done. And then at that point, they go, well, now we have 2,000 pins instead of 1,000 pins. Okay, let's ramp it up. Not, this design's broken. This finish isn't working. And having to continually rebuild and scrap and rebuild again. And then they're just gone. Then the money's just vanished by that point. And they only have partial fulfillment to show for it. This was the way not to run a Kickstarter. I mean, the problem now is they keep poking their heads out every now and then to say there's an update coming and not delivering that. Like, Mary Collis tweeted me what made me put this in the show notes. And people have asked me to speak about it before, and I just never have. I never have.
Brad Dowdy: Mary copied me in a tweet saying how, you know, I guess this pin, I guess we're going to write this off, you know, completely. And they actually replied to her, and they hadn't tweeted in weeks and weeks and months and months and saying there's an update coming soon. Well, people are sick of hearing there's an update coming soon when basically their credit cards have been charged for, you know, in some cases, this was not a cheap. A cheap campaign. When you look at the products, like when you're adding the tri scale, some people have pledged, you know, over $200 to get, you know, a pin and a tri scale set. And they're sitting there with a, you know, $200, $250 hole in their credit card and nothing to show for it. Right. And I don't know what the resolution is going to be. They're absolutely out of money. There's no way they are not just dead broke. So I don't know if they're just going to run from this, if they're going to continue to try to fulfill it. I don't know what the resolution is for these guys. I do know that they're out of money. I mean, there's or else this would have shipped already. You know, people would people would have been made whole by now. There's 2342 comments.
Brad Dowdy: On this Kickstarter project, I've never seen so many comments in a Kickstarter project. People are begging them for answers. People are taking lists of everyone who are missing orders. I mean, there's a list of, you know, probably, you know, 100 and something more people that need their orders filled.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, that's the crazy part of this, right? Like to dig into that a little bit deeper. So other backers are taking like a community sourced list of people who have not yet received their orders. Like that's crazy, right? Like that's right that you have a group of people mobilizing. Right.
Brad Dowdy: I've never seen a project like this that's been partially filled. And then the guys vanish, you know, either it's 100% filled successfully. 100% filled successfully in a crappy product like the Visionaire. Or they vanish. Or they vanish. Or 0% and they take in all your money, right? This one, they've delivered some products. But they owe people a lot of products still. And they've kind of vanished. It's the weirdest thing. And this is going on two years now. And it's pretty much just a full-on train wreck at this point. And I feel bad because some people have received their products and some haven't. So how did they get, you know, how did some people get them and some people not? You know, and they ended up having specific problems with specific finishes and coatings. And things like that in the tri-scale. You know, they were trying to, you know, get the engineering right. And just everything was just really, really a mess. You know? And it's all on the manufacturing and planning side of it, I believe. You know, they just failed miserably in that piece of it. And I can't imagine if you haven't seen your pen by now that you're going to see it. Because they don't have the money. I mean, I don't know what they're going to do. We'll have to see. You know, they say there's an update soon. But it's laughable at this point to keep hearing updates soon when you haven't spoken for months. And you have, you know, people's money that aren't going to get a product. So it's a crazy, crazy mess of a project. And I don't recall seeing one quite like this one.
Myke Hurley: So if you haven't got the product, your money is just gone, right? There's nothing you can do.
Brad Dowdy: There's nothing you can do. There's nothing you can do. You know, there is a risk in using Kickstarter. And, you know, you're taking the project creators at their word that they're going to deliver these things. And there's cases now that you're starting to see where the 0% fulfilled projects are getting lawsuits taken out. You know, people that have not delivered any product and have gone, vanished with the money, essentially. You're starting to see some lawsuits creep up out there. No PIN project has been involved in anything like that, to the best of my knowledge. But you are starting to see that. I don't know what recourse you have for a project like this. You know, it's inherent, the risk. But it still stings. And it sucks for the community as a whole because it gets people off of backing other products, too. You know, you don't want to see these guys fail. But it looks like that's what's going to be happening in this case.
Myke Hurley: Because, like, everybody knows that the risk is there. Like, I'm not dumb. I know the risk is there. But whenever I back a Kickstarter project, I always expect to receive the product. It may just be not and usually isn't when it was expected to be received. But I always expect that I will get it eventually.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I'm trying to think if I've ever backed one that has completely just vaporized. And I don't think I have.
Myke Hurley: Like, I've backed things that didn't make their goal. But I've never. Sure. I have yet to back something that hasn't been delivered to me. Who knows? I might have currently, you know, I may have already. I may be in one of those scenarios and don't know it yet. Mm-hmm. Right. Like, there could be one of the projects that I'm currently waiting for which could fail. But as it currently stands, like, that's not been the case.
Kickstarter Risks[edit]
Brad Dowdy: Right. Right. So, anyway, I thought I'd mention that. Shines a little bit of light on it. I don't know if it's going to help out with anything. Probably not. You know, I just don't know what's going to be done at this point because I think they're just flat broke. You know, I mean, the way they were going through money, redoing all this stuff, I don't see how they have any money left. And if they did, the products would have been delivered already. Because I don't believe they're attempting to. They're not trying to take people's money. I mean, I think they've made a valiant effort at this. Because it's just gone south on them, like, in a really, really bad way.
Myke Hurley: Yeah. It's a shame for everyone involved, really. But they need to be doing a better job at communicating what is going on here.
Brad Dowdy: Right.
Myke Hurley: Because, you know, to send a tweet to you to say we're working on an update rather than actually saying that in the comments of their own Kickstarter project. Right. It's a bit weird, especially when that update that they've been working on was promised, like, on November 18th. And as of recording today, of course, we're recording this one in a bit of advance. This will come back to Tobias, Brad, I'm sure. I'm sure. Today, which is the 23rd of November. Like, so, you know, I know it's only, like, five days or whatever. But you've got people's money in your pockets, like, or in the pockets of people that you couldn't trust. Like, you need to, even if, you know, even if it's going to be like, look, I'm sorry, but it's gone.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's what, that was my question to you. So, if you're a project creator and you're completely upside down and you're not going to be able to deliver any more products, you need to come on there and say it. You know, you need to come to your backers and say, we failed you. We're out of money. We made this mistake, this mistake, that mistake. And own up to that and say, you're not going to get your, you're not going to get your product. You know, I think you owe that to the backers. You know, in this case, I don't feel like, you know, there's been, you know, whatever rogue cases, you know, where people have made like phony Kickstarters and run off with people's money. That's not the case in this one. This one, they're out of money. And I don't know how they're going to fulfill the rest of it. So, it's like they need to come out and say it. You know, you, at some point, you just got to put it on the table and, and take the heat for it. Right? That's what I would think. But, you know, I'm not in that situation. But at some point, you're just going to have to take the heat and end it. Because dragging this on forever, it doesn't do anybody any good.
Brad Dowdy: Kickstarter, man.
Myke Hurley: I know. I know. It really sucks.
Brad Dowdy: It's mostly good. I mean, we do the best we can to vet things as much as possible. You know, I'm not saying us, you know, we're not responsible us as a, as a show, but just as a, in general, people who are on Kickstarter, you know, generally know, are coming at it from an angle where, you know, they need to be shown, you know, that it's going to be legit. And, you know, there's people don't hesitate to question sketchy product projects. And this one didn't seem like one in the beginning and it just failed on the manufacturing side of things.
Myke Hurley: It's a shame.
Brad Dowdy: It's a shame.
Myke Hurley: Let's talk about a great product.
Brad Dowdy: Let's do it.
Myke Hurley: This week's episode of the Pen Addict is brought to you by Uni, a wood-fired oven that is fast, portable, and affordable. Uni takes only 10 minutes to heat up and just two minutes to cook a fantastic pizza. You can just about use the time in between pizzas to get the next one ready, but you have to stay on it as the Uni is fast. Uni makes fantastic pizzas. I have eaten pizza cooked in an Uni. Christian and Darina who make the Uni, I've been to their home some time ago now when they were in London. And I was able to, we had a great lunch and a great, a great dinner from pizza cooked in the Uni. Just absolutely fantastic. It is a tiny little thing. It weighs only 22 pounds. So not only can you easily find space for it in just about any garden or outside space, you can also take it with you on a camping trip or to a park. And coming in December is a new cover bag for the Uni. So it's easier than ever to transport this thing wherever you want to take it. Uni is really affordable. So if you wanted to cook a pizza in a wood-fired oven, you would be used to the cost of upwards of $1,000 to get it installed and everything like that. But the Uni is less than $300. This is actually a key factor in Uni's design. They wanted to be able to give wood-fired pizza to be cooked in a wood-fired oven. They wanted to make that available to everybody. And they really do a fantastic job. I can't remember a pizza cooked at home that I've ever had that has tasted better than the ones I've ever had from the Uni. It's good as restaurant pizza. And I'm being totally serious. I think about that thing and I'm like, oh man, I can't wait until I have my own garden. I'm just totally getting an Uni immediately. The best thing about the Uni is it makes fantastic pizza. That's what it's all about. It's all you need for getting into wood-fired cooking. To find out more, go to uni.net. That's U-U-N-I dot net. And if you use the code PENADDICT to check out when you buy your Uni 2 wood-fired oven, you'll get the Uni cover bag for free, which is really awesome. Thank you so much to Uni for their support of this show and Relay FM.
Brad Dowdy: Well, just as good as pizza is, I think we love pizza and this next product we love pretty much, I think is on par with pizza and that would be Star Wars and the particular notebooks we got.
Brad Dowdy: From our good friend Mel hooked us up in one of her grand tours of Japan. And she's a great listener and a great supporter of the site and the podcast. And every now and then we get a little package from Mel. And this time was quite the find. So why don't you tell us, you got yours first. So when you opened up your latest package from Mel, what did you discover?
Myke Hurley: So I've actually got them right here, right? So I've got this like a manila envelope. And I open it up and like, oh, there's some notebooks in here, right? So I started to pull them out and I was like, oh, these look nice. Oh, there's nice looking notebooks. Oh, what?
Myke Hurley: So these are like, I don't even know what these notebooks are.
Brad Dowdy: So I have asked her, I have emailed her to give me the details. And it's by a company named Subame, which is a Japanese brand. She says it's a very, so a lot of people have compared these, like I put a picture on Instagram with one of the notebooks, the Captain Phasma cover of these Subame Star Wars notebooks. And a lot of people have likened them to the brand Life notebooks because they look very similar in design on the exterior. And so Mel sent me this great email explaining the differences between Subame and Life as a brand. Subame is more of like a mainline brand. She says that, you know, a lot of the youth over there, it's kind of like a main store brand for like stationary, for like school, high schools, college, younger crowd, and where Life is a more sophisticated adult brand. Like I think of Subame like probably like Mead is over in the US. Do you have Mead in the UK, Myke? Just kind of like a mainline stationary brand. Like if you go to a big retailer and that's what all the notebooks are and things like that.
Myke Hurley: I don't recall that brand, but I know the kind of thing you mean.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's where like the Subame brand fits in. And then Life would be your upscale adult, you know, I've got extra money to spend on things brand. So that's kind of where this falls in. So these were just made for a specific store in Japan called Loft. And she likens Loft to like what a Target would be here in the US.
Myke Hurley: I love that they're made for something like a Target and they look the way that they do.
Brad Dowdy: They're fantastic, aren't they?
Myke Hurley: So they look like, they kind of look like if Star Wars was based in feudal Japan.
Star Wars Notebooks[edit]
Brad Dowdy: Right.
Myke Hurley: Right. And it's like this intricate old style. And one of them has one of the new characters from Force Awakens, Phasma, who appears to be, I haven't done a lot of digging here purposefully, but like the leader of the Stormtroopers. Yeah, I'm guessing.
Brad Dowdy: I don't know the storyline yet, but yeah.
Myke Hurley: Purposefully, I don't know it. Same as you, I assume. And then the other is the droids. So C-3PO, R2-D2 and BB-8. So there's two different notebooks. And they're just, they're really intricate. Like they've got these beautiful borders around them. And it just says notebook. And it's got a Star Wars 4 stamp on the side. And it has the characters in the middle. And just like, they just look really fantastic. I love these things. I really love these things.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so I don't have a shot of the back cover, but I thought the back color was the coolest thing. Like on the Phasma one, it's got a row of Stormtroopers on the back. And on the droid one, it's got the Millennium Falcon on the back. And it's just so cool. I was just like, I kept looking at it going, this is so cool. This is so cool. And so once she told me it was at this Loft store, she sent me a link saying that they have, you know, Japan is eat up with Star Wars as everyone in the world is. And, you know, I went looking through everything that Loft had. And I stumbled on, I was seeing what pins they had. And they have like the classic BitClick, you know, the one you get with your field notes. Yeah. That basic black one. And they have like three versions of that one with like Kylo Ren, Phasma, and BB-8. I would love to see this orange BB-8 BitClick one day. It's just so cool. Oh, yeah.
Myke Hurley: I want that orange guy.
Brad Dowdy: I mean, these are like super simple, like dollar pins, but it's like, I got to have that. But it would be pretty cool. So thank you so much, Mel, for doing this. It was, this is like a mind blower to get, this is, you know, when you open this envelope, I did the exact same as you. I was like, oh, look, these cool notebooks. I'm probably sure some, you know, sweet Japanese notebooks that I haven't seen before. Oh my God, Star Wars.
Myke Hurley: I assumed it was just like Tomo River paper or something, you know, like I just assumed it was just some blank ones of those. So yeah, that was a real awesome surprise.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it was. So yeah, and she was yelling at me, you know, not in a mean way, but in the way that I would yell at other people, use the notebooks, right? She was telling me, you know, make sure you use them. I was like, I will. I've already got this one open and I'm going to start using it. So I can't wait. They're super, super cool. So thank you so much, Mel.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, totally. Thank you, Mel.
Brad Dowdy: All right. Before we get onto our main topic, I got one little article I want to share that I missed earlier last week that a couple of people emailed me and linked to me. And it's from the site Art of Manualiness, which often does writing and notebook and pen stuff. You know, a few times a year, you'll see some cool stuff come through there. And they did an article recently about collecting and buying vintage fountain pens. And I get that question a lot on Twitter. And an email is, you know, how do I get into vintage fountain pens? How do I buy a vintage fountain pen? And this article, I just wanted to link it. I'm not going to talk about it too much, but you should definitely read it if you're interested, because it goes into some history of some of the major brands that are popular in vintage circles. For some reason, they left out Estherbrook, which was kind of surprised me with all the millions of pens that they've made. But, you know, they have like Schaefer's, Parker's, Waterman's, Conklins, things like that. They talk about, you know, different things about the brands and the brand history. And then they give some kind of high level tips about purchasing, especially when you can't. I always tell people, you know, that can't get to a pen show. You know, that would be your number one thing is to get to a pen show if you're interested in vintage pens. Somehow get to a pen show, because you want to be able to use vintage pens. That's the most important thing. You want to be able to try them before you buy them. You want to know if they've been restored. You know, how does the nib field? Is there any like microfractors or cracks? You can see all kinds of things in person that you're never going to see on like an eBay listing. But, you know, if you want to go the eBay route, and that's totally legitimate, just make sure you buy it from someone who's got like a long history of selling vintage pens, and that you can ask questions to about the restoration process of the pen. And, you know, you start to feel comfortable with that communication you're getting from those vintage pen dealers on eBay and things like that. So it's just kind of a be careful thing when you get online. But this is a really good, you know, kind of beginner's article to getting into the different things that you're looking for in a vintage fountain pen. And they did a really good job putting this article together. They have lots of tips on the nib and the filling mechanisms and, you know, the caps and cracking and all kinds of different things. So I thought it was a good article to link because I get this question a lot. And I thought they did a really good job in summarizing, you know, a lot of the things that I talk about with different people, you know, in email or on Twitter and things like that. So definitely check that out.
Myke Hurley: For sure. Yeah. Really, really cool. Yep. All right. Shall we take our final break for this week's episode and then start talking about the Apple Pencil?
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'm excited.
Myke Hurley: This week's episode is also brought to you by Making Light. Making Light is all about helping you focus on being able to do your best work. When you sign up for a subscription to Making Light every month, you're going to receive a lovely little box that will contain two handmade botanical soy wax candles. Yes, everyone, this is a fantastic little thing. They are infused. These candles, they come to you. They're infused with essential oils and they come in recyclable tins. And what you'll get, that box that I mentioned, that box of two handmade botanical soy wax candles, those candles, when you light them, you could light them for two hours. Listen to that. That is Brad right there lighting a Making Light candle. You're going to get two hours of focus every day, each day for 20 days of these things, right? So you get 10 days from each of them. You'll light this candle and you need to get some work done. And you can let the fantastic fragrance, these beautiful aromas fill the room and the sight of the flickering flame help you concentrate. So you'll be able to see this stuff and you'll be like, right, okay, it's time to concentrate, light the candle, head down, get the work done. This is a really interesting thing that has made, a real interesting difference in my life. Like I remember when I was working on the Inquisitive show that I was doing and I was doing script writing, which was really tough for me to do. And Making Light actually helped me get through some of that process. Like I'd be like, right, I need to spend a couple of hours on writing this script. I'd light a candle and I would spend a couple of hours just getting it done. These types of daily rituals become really important to a lot of us. Like making coffee in the morning is one for me. And lighting these candles is another one that can fit so easily. So I want to add something new to your life like this and sign up for Making Light. With the holidays coming up as well, a Making Light subscription would be a fantastic gift for a friend or family member too. Each month they'll receive a little box in the mail that is designed to help them focus on the things that they care about. Making Light costs $24 per month with free shipping anywhere in the USA. They have Canadian shipping for an extra $5 a month and UK shipping for an extra $10 a month. These candles are way better than what you're going to find in your local mall. They're all poured by hand by a family business based in Indiana who have over 40 years of history in candle making. And Making Light is offering listeners of this show $5 off their first order with the promo code PENADDICT. You can find out more for yourself at makinglight.us. They also have a really great video on their site that shows you just how people use Making Light candles in their daily life. I know that we got our Making Light subscription box in today actually. And I was having a pretty stressed afternoon and then Adina came home and she always likes to smell them and see what the fragrances are. And she lit one and it filled the room with this beautiful aroma and it kind of calmed me down which is exactly what they're intended to do. So thank you so much to Making Light for sponsoring this week's show at RelayFM.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, the fragrances that they do are legitimately awesome. Like I just lit frankincense and myrrh. That was the November flavor.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, it's kind of the Christmassy theme right now.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and then December is chestnuts and cider and he sent me a sample of that. I haven't lit that one yet. But it's awesome. It's one of the best smelling candles that I've ever used. And I love, we always have candles burning in the house. So this is like one of the biggest no-brainer things for me to get this Christmas. You know, for my wife or for my in-laws or for anyone like that. It's just, they're awesome. I just love the fragrances. They're really, really strong but not overpowering. And they're just nice and clean and beautiful. So yes, thank you so much Making Light for doing this, for sponsoring our show. Love the products.
Apple Pencil[edit]
Myke Hurley: So the Apple Pencil. Yeah! So I got one a few days ago as we're recording. Couldn't get one from the UK still. So this pencil was actually shipped to me from New York. Wow. Yeah, Marco Arment picked up two and he shipped me one because he knew how important it was for me to have one. And he was interested to see what I was going to talk about and what I was going to write about with this. So I decided that what might be quite cool and I asked you if you would like me to do it is for me to actually write a review of this when it came in. And the reason I wanted to do that was because every review that I was seeing about this and everyone that was talking about the Apple Pencil were talking about it from the perspective of artists. And drawing. But I wanted to find something that I could use to write with. I mean, we've wanted this for so long. In the review that I wrote, I had a little link which links to episode number... What is this? Episode number? 11, I believe. Yeah, 11 at the Pen Addict. Analog vs. Digital on April 24th, 2012. 30 minutes that episode was back in those days. And we were talking about... He says, In this episode, Brad and Myke take a look at the digital applications that complement their analog workflows. Can pen and paper be fully replaced by technology? Not for these pen addicts. And we were talking about a bunch of different statuses in that episode and some of the stuff that we tried and basically came to the conclusion that nothing could give us the kind of precision and the experience that we needed, right? With any of the statuses that were available. Well, so this is what I was interested in seeing is what was this device going to give me? Like, was I going to get anything that was kind of close to the experiences that I'm used to with pen and paper? So there's one thing that I wanted to point out in the review that I thought was quite important to mention in that I'm not going to, you know, I'm not going to lie to myself, right? I'm not going to be stupid about this. I don't believe that any technology company will ever be able to produce an experience which will be like the way that I use my devices and the joy and care and the love that I get from my favorite pens and paper. Partly because it feels like it would be impossible to replicate that, right? Right. And the other thing is none of them are going to care enough, right? The market to create an experience that feels like you're writing with a nice pen on a piece of paper is slim. You actually don't need that. Right. Right. So it's extremely unlikely that any technology company is ever going to put the incredible amount of work and, you know, defying what we know about physics to create a device that would be able to give you an experience that feels like you're writing of a Sailor Pro gear on Hobonichi Tetra paper. You know, it's never going to happen, right? And I'm not fooling myself here. But all I've really wanted from this whole experience is can I pick up a stylus, put it on an iPad and write like a regular person, right? Like I'm not writing with huge letters or having to zoom in to a page so I can write at my regular size and then zoom out again. All I wanted to do was to be able to pick up an iPad. I mean, the iPad that I have here, right? The iPad Pro, the only one that the pencil works with currently. It's a 12-inch iPad, right? It's about the size of an A4 piece of paper. I've always wanted to be able to just pick up a stylus and an A4 piece of paper and start writing. Then if I, sorry, pick up a stylus and the iPad and start writing. Then if I wrote on the piece of paper next to it, I just want them to look the same. That's all I've ever wanted. That's what this one does. Nice. So that is the real key thing here is that I am able to draw and write and scribble and it look exactly as I would want it to. It's incredibly precise, more precise than makes sense at certain points. So you see in the review, I wrote out a paragraph in pen addict style and then there's that little purple box, right? Mm-hmm. And that little purple box is me testing how small I can write. And the weird thing about the small writing is I'm moving my hand in the movements that I would usually move with a really tiny pen to get really small writing in, right? Like I'm making all the movements. But like the tip of this pencil is way thicker than a fine fountain pen, but it's still able to give the same result and I can't work out how it does that.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I was noticing the tip of the pen, you know, it's the pencil, I should say. It's actually reasonably fine, especially if you're thinking it from a stylist perspective. But from a handwriting perspective, you're like, wow, this is, it's practically like marker size, but that's not what the output's like, right?
Myke Hurley: No, you can like super tiny when you're kind of being silly kind of writing, right? You know, like when you get like an extra fine and you write something super tiny just to be funny. You can get that kind of size here. It's astounding to me. I don't know, and Apple are being kind of cagey about the exact technology that they're using with this, but they have created something marvelous, right? Like it is a marvel of technology, what they have been able to do here. Like flat out, like I am blown away by just the responsiveness of this thing. And, you know, saying about the responsiveness is an important point because a lot of the reviews that I had read were saying people saying there's no lag. And I knew that that was impossible, right? Right. I mean, because it's about what's perceptible and lag to me and you is way more perceptible than to people that don't use pens and paper every day. Right. So like the thing is, is there may as well be no lag for as much lag as there is because there is some, but it's not an issue. So like if I'm writing super quickly, like the thing is like a few milliseconds behind me or whatever, but it's not a problem at that, right? Yeah, exactly. And because it keeps up and it doesn't drop anything and I'm able to just carry on going and the thing will keep up with me. But, you know, as I said, and I keep reiterating this, I keep trying to underscore this point. The big thing is that I'm able to make movements that are regular. Like I'm not making overly complicated, sorry, like overly exaggerated gestures to try and draw what I want to draw like you would do previously because you effectively were just using these big rubber fingers.
Brad Dowdy: Right. Right. So I think the primary question I have for you in using the pencil with the iPad is, is this going to change anything for you in how you're capturing ideas, writing notes, planning for articles? Are you going to move some of the notes you've taken, you know, like in your field notes as you're sitting there, you know, recording this podcast and marking down editing points? Are those things going to change? Are they going to jump over into the notes app on the iPad because the pencil has given you such a good feedback, you can quickly fly through there? Or is this going to change anything? Have you figured that out yet?
Myke Hurley: So it could, but I'm not yet sure if it will for a few reasons. One, the iPad Pro takes up significantly more desk space than my field notes. And with the way that my setup currently is, like it ends up that I, it doesn't really make sense to have like my, because I'm currently using like a wrist guard, then the iPad, then my keyboard, and then my Mac. Like it doesn't always, always fit very comfortably. Sure. The other problem is this sound. Hang on. Okay.
Myke Hurley: Can you hear that?
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So it's like a firm tip almost. It's a plastic tip. So it's a plastic tip.
Myke Hurley: On glass. Yeah. Now, if I'm writing quickly with it on my desk, you can kind of hear it.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah.
Myke Hurley: Right? But not always. But that is enough for me to think like, when I'm recording, I probably won't take my general notes on here. What I will do is some shows, like when I record Cortex, I don't take any of those editing notes because I do a listen through edit. But what I do like to do when I'm recording Cortex is to doodle. So I will probably do my doodling on this because I won't be hitting the thing so quickly because I'm not taking a quick note. I'm just like scribbling or whatever. Right. So I'll do stuff like that. But sort of outside of show note taking, I can definitely see the iPad Pro taking a bigger role in my digital note taking because so there are some apps that are doing this. Like I'm waiting for Microsoft's OneNote to get a full on update for the Apple Pencil because apps that aren't updated to support the Pencil, they work fine because it just works like a really good stylus. But Apple's created some new APIs and technologies that allow people to do all of the absolutely flawless palm rejection. Yeah, that's hugely important. It's incredible. I can, I'm not kidding you, put my arm, my wrist, my other hand on there. So right now I'm drawing a line and moving my finger around and it's tracking the pencil only. Wow. So, you know, the palm rejection is just, it's next to none. And it's because Apple control everything about it, right? Software and the hardware, so they can do all of this. That's what makes this thing so good. So yeah, I'm waiting for Microsoft to build that into OneNote because OneNote does real good OCR stuff and my thinking of like every handwritten note that I take being searchable.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's a big deal.
Myke Hurley: You know? And then it's like, but like I fall into this big problem with this, which is where I think maybe for me more than you, like my technological side can really battle with my analog side because it's like I really get that and I really want that. But then it's like, oh, but I, you know, I love my pens and I love my paper. Right. So it's like I don't want to, I don't want to replace that experience because it's not what, the thing that I love isn't handwriting.
Myke Hurley: I don't love getting a piece of paper and writing on that piece of paper. What I love is the feeling of the tools when I do use them. That's what I love. Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah, totally makes sense. Because otherwise I'll just write letters to people all the time, but I don't do that. Right, right. But like I like to, but when I do write, I like to have all the stuff that I like and I like collecting pens and I enjoy it, right? Like it's a collection thing as well.
Myke Hurley: You know, I'm not saying nothing that people don't already know listening to this show, right? We are all the same, I think, in this regard. So like I can't imagine myself wanting to replace all of this stuff. But what I really wanted though was that whenever I do want to do this, I have a tool that makes sense. So like for example, we were making some like mock-up designs or some changes we want to make to the website or some stuff that we have coming up. And I was able to take a screenshot of the website and draw on the page, right? And say like, I want this to be here and I want this button to be here and I want it to look like this and I want it to say this inside. Like that is what makes sense to me. That is the combination of taking my digital stuff and the method that I like to express myself the most, which is to take the thing and draw on it.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that makes complete sense. I could see myself doing that like quite a bit, you know, for that type, using it for that type of work. Yeah, that's exactly right. Instead of what I will do is I will resketch, you know, say if I'm looking at the website, I'll resketch it on a piece of paper and then say this here, this here, this here, you know, and it would be a lot more effective if I, you know, to do something like you're talking about. That would be highly useful.
Myke Hurley: And someone like yourself who does product design and like sketching out of ideas of products feels kind of perfect for that, Brad, if in all honesty, mate, I'm going to tell you.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, no, I've actually been using paper a little bit for that by 53 and the pencil. So, you know, and, you know, laying out some new products and just, you know, to where I can just kind of keep them all in like little journal or whatever they call the things you hold things in now. Yeah, that would be super useful. So I think the pencil is like a super neat, neat device. And technically, it seems like what I'd be looking for and that type of input, especially with my handwriting, you know, being smaller and to be able to, you know, transfer that almost one for one, if you will, as opposed to having, you know, like a huge, you know, huge handwriting, huge output for small input type of things, you know, which, you know, a lot of stylists give you, you know, although there are some that will do a very fine line, but it's interesting. You know, I'm really glad you wrote this article and allowed me to publish it. I really appreciate that. And I've read it a couple of times now and I was like, I could get behind this, you know, I'm trying to figure out ways, you know, would this be useful? Would it not? Things like that. But it's, the pencil looks promising and I'm still surprised that Apple did it, but it looks like they did it extremely well.
Apple Product[edit]
Myke Hurley: Yeah, that goes about saying. I mean, so this is one of the best 1.0 products that I've used from Apple in a long time, right? Because they nailed it. Like, so the actual hardware of the pencil, there are some things that I don't think that they did as good as they could have done. But in all honesty, it's not about this thing. It's about what this thing does. That's the important part of this. So like, you know, I talk about this in the review, like it's a cylinder. It's a perfect cylinder of plastic, which some people said to me they think is not very nice to hold. I think it is fantastic. I can grip it really, really well in my hands. It's weighted fantastically. It's got a real great weight to it. It is substantial. Okay. It's not just a piece of plastic. Yeah. Okay. It's heavy.
Brad Dowdy: Okay. That's good. Yeah. I would prefer that.
Myke Hurley: Yeah. This thing may as well be made of metal, right? It looks like that. It actually isn't, it doesn't feel massively different to my roturing in weight. Interesting. I want to see if I can find out what the weight is of it now, actually. See if I can Google that.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, because I think the roturing is a good feel because it looks, it honestly looks heavier than it really is, but it's like just the right weight and balance.
Myke Hurley: Yeah. So the whole thing is balanced really well in it. They've got weights in it and these weights are magnetic. So you can kind of like rest it on your, the magnets in the iPad, you know, because they're the magnetic cover. So you can kind of rest it there. It gives it a good place to rest because there's nowhere to store it. Yeah. Can't store it anywhere, which is frustrating. Right.
Myke Hurley: But the other part of it is that it is weighted so it doesn't roll away. So if you place it down, it kind of just like rocks and then finds its place and it stops. Right. And everybody that I know, you know, that have one of these was writing about that and saying was how awesome it was. And there was like, I saw some videos of like people like pushing it a little bit and then it would like rock back into place. But I immediately saw a different side of this, which is while that's good, people don't treat this product the way that I treat it. Like I'm throwing this thing around.
Brad Dowdy: Right.
Myke Hurley: Like I'm writing with it and I'm letting it drop. Right. Because that's what I do. But when you do that, the weights inside kind of propel the thing forward. Right. It makes it roll around faster. Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: I've got some pins. I've got some pins like that. If you put it down and they get a little bit going, they get a life of their own and they're gone.
Myke Hurley: Yeah. And it has actually rolled further and faster than if it would have had nothing in it at all.
Brad Dowdy: Right.
Myke Hurley: But, you know, this is, these are nitpicks because of the type of person that I am. And I said in the article, like, I wish they would have put a clip on this and I'm keeping my eye out for a third party clip. Someone's going to make one. Although I could probably get something like a Fisher Spacebank clip and put it on. Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: That was about to come out of my mouth. I wonder what the diameter is and if you could adjust it into fitting that. I bet you could.
Myke Hurley: Yeah. But I want something that looks like it was made to go with it. Sure. You know, apparently there are already a bunch of kickstarters. The other thing is the way that this charges is very, very inelegant.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I've actually heard a couple of things about that and I was kind of cringing actually when I was hearing people talk about that.
Myke Hurley: So there is a little cap which is magnetic which comes off the end and it has a lightning port. But like, like the male part of the lightning connector. Right. So you can plug it into the bottom of your iPad and it will charge. Right? Yeah. Now,
Brad Dowdy: that gives me the willies like something fierce.
Myke Hurley: Yeah. And my main issue with this is not so much that you have to do that but it's like it doesn't sit flush in there either. Right. Like a little bit of it sticks out. It's like, what are you doing? But when you use it you realize that this is actually the best possible way of charging this thing because when you're using it and you need to charge it you want to charge it quickly and so what you do is it's like dipping it in ink. Right? I think that's where I genuinely believe that's where some of the thinking behind this came from because you just stick it in the lightning port and after 15 seconds of charging it's ready for another 30 minutes of use.
Brad Dowdy: Oh, okay. Well, that's more that's reasonable. Yeah. I could see I could see you know plugging it into the to the iPad connector for that short of a period of time. Yeah, but if you're going on like 5-10 minutes then you're getting like really that's yeah, okay. That makes more sense. I didn't understand that.
Myke Hurley: But like I was watching a video earlier and I realized it was 11% battery life so I plugged it in for like 20 or 30 minutes and it went up to like 80% from 10%. So it's still fine but like that so is that 15 seconds for 30 minutes you can just keep doing that as well. So like 15 seconds you do 30 minutes plug it back in 15 seconds 30 minutes and then also in the box they include a female to female lightning adapter. Yeah. So you can plug that into the thing and then plug a cable into the end of it if you want to charge it for a longer period of time and you don't want it sticking out of the iPad. So the thing is they didn't really do a good enough job with the marketing of it I don't think because you can charge it that way but you should only ever really be charging it for that period of time for quick use.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Okay. I'm with you there. Okay. That makes a lot more sense.
Myke Hurley: So that it works really well for that. I mean look fundamentally I am super impressed with this project with this product. I love actually using iOS with a pen input. Like I use I navigate iOS sometimes now with the pen in hand so like I'm you know I've just opened up Tweetbot and I can scroll lists with using the pen tip. It's way easier and more precise to select text. Right. Because you've got a real thin fine precise tip as opposed to your like fat fingers you know.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. I can see that for sure because I do that a lot actually and that's always a challenge.
iOS Interface[edit]
Myke Hurley: So that sort of stuff is really good and it's real easy to hit small buttons and I like to be able to like you know people call this and Microsoft call their products like of these sizes digital clipboards because like of this kind of the size of them these like 12 13 inch devices I totally get that metaphor. That is exactly what this is like.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's perfect.
Myke Hurley: So all around man I am I'm chuffed. I am really really thrilled with this product.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I'm interested to I'll be interested to see the the continuation of usage of this and you know how it continues to integrate like our friend Serenity Caldwell you know did an article that we'll link in the show notes more from the artistic side of things you know from you know drawing sketching things like that because that's a lot of her background and it's going to be interesting to follow what the use cases are going to be it's going to be interesting to follow your usage of it how it grows and changes you know over like the next six or nine months or so just kind of see you know what your feelings are then so I definitely want to want to check back in on this you know as it as it moves forward and the ecosystem around it continues to grow.
Myke Hurley: For sure and thank you for giving me some of your callum inches today.
Brad Dowdy: Hey man I appreciate it it was nice to have that perspective you know and get get a little bit of the digital world into the analog crossover and I thought it was perfect you did a wonderful job and you can write for me anytime buddy.
Myke Hurley: You get one piece a year at best.
Brad Dowdy: I'll take it I'll take it.
Myke Hurley: If somebody said today that they're looking forward to the Syracusa levels of Apple Pencil review from me every year.
Brad Dowdy: Okay well we'll work on that. Well you have a home for them now. Yep. I'll be your Ars Technica.
Myke Hurley: It's the only place I'd want to put them. I'll put links in the show notes to all that stuff. If you want to find them you can head on over to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 183. Thanks again to our lovely sponsors this week the great people over at makinglightuni and linda.com Thank you as always for listening. If you want to find Brad's work head on over to penaddict.com and also of course knock.co to find these great products. You can find Brad on Twitter. He is at dowdyism d-o-w-d-y-i-s-m and he is penaddict over at Instagram. I am at imike i-m-y-k-e on Twitter and Instagram too. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next time. Until then. Say goodbye Brad.
Brad Dowdy: Goodbye Brad.