Wacom presents state-of-the-art digital pens at GITEX 2007

These innovative products include Bamboo, the newly-launched consumer pen tablet for freehand writing, annotating, and navigating in computer applications.

Bamboo, which entered the Middle East markets last month, is attracting a lot of interest from consumers in different sectors due to the many features it has. It is a consumer pen tablet for personalised communication, easy navigation and enhanced functionality.

Like its namesake, Bamboo is flexible and has an almost infinite number of uses: from simple things like making notes on documents, to the most sophisticated applications like retouching photos.

"Bamboo today reinvents the pen for the 21st century. It unlocks enhanced pen-based features in Microsoft Vista, Office 2007 or Mac OS offering a new way to interact with the computer," says Giri Rajan, Wacom's Channel Development Manager in the Middle East.
"Bamboo provides a simpler, more natural way to navigate through information or create documents with greater impact."

The wide-format size of the tablet (active area: 147.6 x 92.3mm) reflects the trend towards widescreen PCs and laptops in the marketplace today. Its sleek, contemporary product design allows a more easy and versatile way of working with a pen on the computer. It is targeted at PC and Mac users in non-graphics markets such as home users, office workers and business professionals.

The stylish, ergonomically-designed pen provides 512 levels of pressure sensitivity and has a programmable double side-switch and eraser. Wacom's patented cordless and battery-free pen technology offers a natural tool for freehand writing, annotating and navigating.

Also on show are Wacom's state-of-the-art interactive pen display - the Cintiq 21UX, and the Intuos3 pen tablet system for professionals in design, digital art and photography.

Aimed at digital imaging professionals, the Cintiq 21UX enables users to work directly on a screen with a pressure sensitive pen.

The Cintiq 21UX Interactive Pen Display combines a large 21.3-inch flat screen with high UXGA resolution, a stylish and ergonomic design and incorporates full Intuos3 functionality to enhance efficiency and productivity.

The Cintiq 21UX's product design and aesthetics combine an impressive 21.3-inch drawing area with a flat bezel. This is ideal for graphic artists because their strokes are not limited while sketching across the surface. The graphic capabilities of the screen have been improved to offer a UXGA resolution of 1,600x1,200 pixels with 24-bit colour depth.

Intuos3 and Cintiq 21UX provide extended functionality through the ExpressKeys and Touch Strips. The ExpressKeys are four-button keypads that can be pre-configured with frequently used modifier keys and the Touch Strip acts like a scroll bar with presets to allow zooming and scrolling. Situated on the left and right hand side of the tactive area, users can directly access functions such as pan and zoom, cut, copy, paste and undo at the touch of a fingertip.

For high precision work, Intuos3 and Cintiq 21UX also offers a resolution of 5,080 dpi and 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity in both the pen tip and eraser. Both are able to recognise the tilt angle of a Grip Pen of up to 60 degrees. Each input device also offers Tool ID. In supported applications, the tablet automatically recognises the relevant tool with its individual settings when the device is brought into contact with the tablet.

"Intuos3 and Cintiq 21UX offer creative freedom and increased efficiency to professional users and with Bamboo Wacom's advanced interface technology is no longer an exclusive tool for creative professionals. We are targeting the consumer markets heavily by displaying the latest state-of-the-art technologies during Gitex Dubai, which we consider as the ideal venue to launch and display new innovative products," concluded Rajan.