Apple Might Bring Back Something Steve Jobs Hated: The Stylus.
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Steve Jobs famously snubbed the lowly stylus. He was a fingers man.
âWho wants a stylus?â Jobs asked sarcastically when he introduced the worldâs first iPhone at Macworld 2007. âYou have to get âem and put âem away and you lose âem and â yech!â Nobody wants a stylus. So, letâs not use a stylus.â
Related: Could Appleâs Rumored iWatch Be an iPhone Killer?
Some 50 million Samsung Galaxy Note users rock a stylus. Weâre just saying.
Instead, the first generation âmulti-touchâ iPhone and its successors would be controlled by what Jobs called âthe best pointing device in the worldâ â your fingers.
But maybe not everyone at Apple was so finger-happy.
An official Apple patent for what could be an incredibly cool stylus (we know, cool and stylus donât typically pair well together) recently caught the eye of AppleInsiderâs Mikey Campbell.
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The patent, originally filed back in September 2012 â notably not quite yesterday â reimagines the humble stylus as âan input device having an extended nibâ equipped with an orientation sensor.
Letâs strip away the techie jargon. Basically, Appleâs stylus vision, predictably nicknamed âiPenâ by speculators, would allow users to scrawl thicker or thinner lines on device displays, depending on how they angle it, similar to a calligraphy pen.
The tip, which on most standard styluses today is a chunky, clunky rubber tip, would be a flexible, extendable touch-sensitive nib that could perform like a pen or a paintbrush, depending on the usersâ whim.
Appleâs multitasking mini wand concept is also decked out with motion sensors and lights. Fancy.
We can think of some Apple loyal VFX artists, graphic designers and other creative types who would love to see a dream iPen like this hit store shelves.
They shouldnât get too excited, though. Remember, each year Apple files for hundreds of patents and not many of them ever result in anything. And this certainly isnât its first time at the stylus patent races. It could mean nothing.
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How awesome would it be, though, if a slick new iPen came packed alongside Appleâs iPhone 6 phablet? They (there could be two versions) might hit store shelves as early as May or as late as the fall. Or who knows because Apple release dates are impossible to nail down. Weâd stand in line for either one whenever.

Steve Jobs famously snubbed the lowly stylus. He was a fingers man.
âWho wants a stylus?â Jobs asked sarcastically when he introduced the worldâs first iPhone at Macworld 2007. âYou have to get âem and put âem away and you lose âem and â yech!â Nobody wants a stylus. So, letâs not use a stylus.â
Related: Could Appleâs Rumored iWatch Be an iPhone Killer?