Vancouver, Wa. - Wacom has
introduced its Multi-Touch input solution to the company’s new family
of Bamboo tablets. Bamboo tablets are USB peripherals designed to
deliver natural, intuitive input to desktop or laptop computer users.
With the ultimate goal of creating harmony between humans and
technology, Wacom combines Multi-Touch (finger-based input) with pen
input to deliver a new standard in human-computer interaction, says a
representative.
“Multi-Touch provides a very natural and intuitive way for users to navigate and interact with applications,” says Dennis Hoff, senior consumer product manager for Wacom. “By combining Multi-Touch with our renowned pen technology, Bamboo provides users with a new computer input approach that is not only extremely flexible, but friendly, fresh, and fun.”
Bamboo includes a family of five tablets: touch-only, pen-only, and three versions of the pen and Multi-Touch combination.
Bamboo adds the power of Multi-Touch gestures, such as zoom, scroll, pan, and rotate. Compatible with Windows or Mac operating systems, Bamboo is easy to use.
The new Bamboo family is comprised of three core products: Bamboo Touch; Bamboo Pen; and Bamboo Pen and Touch. Two additional tablets, Bamboo Craft and Bamboo Fun form the rest of the lineup.
Bamboo Touch ($69 USD) plugs into a computer with the attached USB cable. A complete tutorial on all touch gestures is included in the box.
Bamboo Pen ($69 USD) is a pen-only tablet and well suited to end-users who would like to employ the pen for digital ink and creativity. The pen delivers accuracy and pressure-sensitive control and allows the user to customize two side buttons within the Wacom Tablet driver software. Bamboo Pen comes with Corel Painter Essentials, a creative software application with realistic tools for sketching and painting.
Bamboo Pen and Touch ($99 USD) offers pen and Multi-Touch input in a single device. This tablet is geared to users seeking an input device for the office or home that allows them to navigate with their fingers or use Bamboo’s patented battery-free and cordless pen technology for pen-specific work. Users can alternate between the two input methods easily and quickly. Bamboo Pen and Touch comes with Adobe Photoshop Elements for photo editing and retouching as well as Nik software’s filters for photo enhancement.
Bamboo Craft users will enjoy using the pen to retouch and edit photos as well as create and embellish designs. Bamboo Craft ($129 USD) ships with an array of software and valuable items, including Adobe Photoshop Elements, Corel Painter Essentials, Nik filters, 26 digital scrapbooking lessons from renowned designer Jane Conner-ziser, a free scrapbooking album from Shutterfly, digital craft embellishments, a coupon from Digital Scrapbook University for a free online class, a free one-year subscription to the popular magazine, Scrapbooking and Beyond and a gift certificate from the e-store at CafePress.
Bamboo Fun ($199 USD), in silver, combines pen and Multi-Touch in a larger-sized tablet than Bamboo Craft or the other Bamboo solutions. It is ideal for home creatives or photo enthusiasts looking for more control and freedom of movement when their fingers or pen are positioned on the tablet surface. Bamboo Fun ships with Adobe Photoshop Elements, Corel Painter Essentials, and Nik photographic filters.
Bamboo will work with current and next-generation operating systems such as Microsoft Windows 7. In fact, Bamboo supports Windows 7 out-of-the-box along with Windows XP, Vista, and Mac OS 10.4 and 10.5. Additionally, Bamboo supports Multi-Touch gestures such as pan, scroll, zoom, rotate, and forwards/backwards.
“By combining touch and pen input, Wacom continues its tradition of providing human interface solutions that embrace and support the creativity and personality of the user,” says Masahiko Yamada, president and CEO of Wacom. “As our relationship with computers evolve, so does Wacom’s quest to make certain that the very characteristics that make us human find their way into our technology and that users discover a whole new world of digital exploration and freedom.”