Magnetic Stylus Anyone?

andrewshawire

Hey Guys,

I have submitted my magnetic stylus for funding through fund:it.
Irelands only crowd funding website.

My product was born out of the need for a better stylus , and not loosing it every time it went out of my sight.
I know here that a lot of us use iPads every day. And a lot of us have got our hands on the iPad2. This stylus is the first of its kind for the iPad2 utilizing the magnets provided in the iPad2 along with the partly magnetic body of my capacitive touch stylus.
This Product was designed in Ireland and hopefully will be the first product funded through a crowd funding site in Ireland.

Have a look and let me know what you think?

Also note the video shows a prototype, Final design will be more like the rendered image shown.

http://bit.ly/e3LyHr

Andy.

JAMM222

Well done hope it works out for you

andrewshawire

Thanks JAMM222
Are you a stylus user? I would like to hear what your thoughts on the product?

Oafley Jones

Great idea. Although I'd remove the case from the video. The thought occurs to me as to why the user is not just keeping the stylus in the case? You need to be selling a scenario where your product is demonstrated to be most in need and the case takes from that. If the video started with the iPad w/ smart cover facing the camera and then turned over to reveal the stylus it'd be better. I believe this would have a bigger impact and enforce the idea of necessity/usefulness for the user. Not the most practical position that you'd keep it in but it would sell the idea instantly.

andrewshawire

Thanks for your views. We will soon have a new revised version of the prototype, and with that possibly a new video.
Our project has only been live on fundit.it for 24hrs and we welcome your feedback and support.

You can keep up to date with the project by following @applydea

I will try and keep this post also updated with progress.

Andy

T83

I'm a stylus user, in fact I bought my ipad on the strength of apps like Brushes and Sketchbook pro. At the moment I'm using a Boxwave stylus because of the rubber tipped end, it's far better to use than the likes of a Pogo Sketch.

On your design, first the pro's: I love the length and diameter, my biggest complaint with any other stylus I've used is the size, it doesn't feel like a pen and doesn't rest between my thumb and finger when I draw.
Also the idea of my iPad keeping the stylus in place while it's in a case is also a draw, I stuff the Boxwave to the bottom of the case and just hope it doesn't slide about while it's in my bag. I also love the idea of it staying inside the folds of the smart cover since I never take that off.

On the con side, just 2 things; the shape looks a little awkward to hold like a real marker or pen, if the part near the tip (say from the black portion, of your render, down) could be tapered off without edges so it was cylindrical it'd much more ergonomic. I'm sure you've seen the more:real stylus cap on kickstarter, that's what I mean by tapered/cylindrical.

And the second one isn't really a con, more of a worry... how strong is the magnet? As in, if I loosened my grip while the screen was exposed would it be pulled towards the bare glass?

andrewshawire

Hi, T38

Thank you for your reply.
I would like to assure you the strength of the magnetic area will not be as strong to pull the stylus from your hand and jump to the glass.
We have kept this in mind during development. We have selected a strength to ensure the stylus will attach to the iPad2 or smart cover and keep it in place.

The tip used in our stylus will not be the same as the pogo, which use a conductive foam, we to found that material to be to soft and not always responsive. What we will use is a soft rubber tip similar to the griffin stylus out at the moment. In fact friday we received a selection of conductive rubbers . I will try and post a photo of the tip we find most useful.

Thank you again for your views as a stylus user and we will keep your views as development continues, Eg. The taper close the tip. The narrow side if our our stylus come in at about 8mm,

Your support on or fundit project would be great, As we will only get funded if we reach out goal, and if we don't meet the goal. Nobody will be charged.

Thanks again.

Any other thoughts are welcome.

Andy.

andrewshawire

We have posted a photo of the tip we will use in our stylus,

You can see it here. http://applydea.com/?p=79


Andy.

Oafley Jones

andrewshawire wrote: »

We have posted a photo of the tip we will use in our stylus,

You can see it here. http://applydea.com/?p=79


Andy.

I'm not a grammar/spelling nazi on boards, but when it comes to promotional material etc. you need to know the difference between to and too ... e.g. to soft instead of too soft. It may be pedantry, but it's one of the small things that makes a difference to some people (me included) and just raises question marks on your overall attention to detail. Again, I think your product is a great idea.

andrewshawire

Oafley Jones wrote: »

I'm not a grammar/spelling nazi on boards, but when it comes to promotional material etc. you need to know the difference between to and too ... e.g. to soft instead of too soft. It may be pedantry, but it's one of the small things that makes a difference to some people (me included) and just raises question marks on your overall attention to detail. Again, I think your product is a great idea.

Thank you for pointing that out.

My grammar sometimes let's me down, I will fix my mistakes.
I know its no excuse.

Andy.

freeze4real

In my opinion 24.99 is too much. The Chinese could replicate that and some it cheaper and sell it for at least 4euro.

what comparative advantage does your product have against other products making this stylus pens for touchscreen devices.

I'm sure you must know that there others stylus pens out there and there much cheaper.

andrewshawire

I understand there are other styli on the market.
And that China is a huge manufacturing nation, it would be easy for them to replicate products and spit them out at a lower price than others.

However our stylus is a premium product and is designed to match the device it is used with.

We have designed this from scratch and have put it up for funding on fundit.ie to raise the capital needed to setup the moulds and production of a limited run. Anyone who pledges in the reward categories will receive a Maglus stylus that is if we reach our target, if not pledgers will not be charged. The cost involved does include us assembling and packaging the product. Along with shipping the product worldwide. There is little or no profit being made from this first production run and anything that is will be put into covering costs incurred so far. This all of course depends on our success in receiving enough pledges or not.
*
The RRP of €24.99 is based on a limited number run as we do not know the size of the market yet it is impossible for us to get really large runs which will drive down cost and the retailers will need to get their cut also.
*
Our asking price at the moment is only €15 through the Fundit site which as I said above just about covers all costs involved for the minimum run we can make.
*
For now our asking price for the Maglus is comparable to other styli on the market*and it is a better quality premium product that offers more than what is currently available. We also see this as an opportunity to ascertain if it is possible to develop a product that has international appeal through a crowd sourcing site here in Ireland*and perhaps start a business from it. We can help others with ideas with the knowledge we gain from the process if we are successful. Again it will depend on you guys and others and if you can help us at this early stage. Your feedback will help us design a better product and pledging will help fund it. People will receive the product if we are successful and will lose nothing if we are not.*

Andy.

andrewshawire

Check out the Maglus preview on MacTrast.com

We are moving froward steady with our project. We are still less than a week live and last night we reached over €1000 and got a feature on mactrast.com

You can follow along on fund:it to get involved.

Maglus: the magnetic iPad 2 stylus | MacTrast http://bit.ly/gKJUlI

@applydea on Twitter.

Andy.

floggg

How long do you reckon before i would have this in my hands if i was to contribute now (assuming you get funded)?

andrewshawire

@floggg If we are successful in our funding. There will be a 21day period from the end of the funding for fund:it to verify funders cards and billing addresses.

In saying that we have manufactures on standby ready to produce and if we see our goal is reached. So give the time for the parts to packaged and shipped.
We will be updating funders as the progress continues in relation to the times and dates of shipping.

So the faster this is funded the quicker we can make it.

CultOfMac.com have picked up our story this morining. Here


Andy.

Wossack

spotted the article on wired.com

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/04/magnetic-stylus-sticks-to-your-ipad/

fair play

andrewshawire

Hi Guys, We have got off to a fantastic first week with our stylus.
We are close to 14% today.
Yesterday Noel got the opertuinity to talk with George Lee in a pre-recording off The Bussines Show on RTE Rradio 1 it will be used on the show saterday morning.

We met yesterday with @jamesbritton who was the first to pick up on our story and posted it on mactrast. His story was reposted all around the gadget and tech world, and continues to pop up on new sites.

We have took on board some suggestions, and will have a revised product display and video in the coming days.

As our project continues I will update this thread.

Andy.

@applydea

DeNeucker

best of luck with it