Once upon a time, before there were ball point pens, kids used to get a new pencil box every year when school started (and a new lunch pail too). The pencil box contained a minimum of some wooden, yellow No. 2 lead pencils, a big eraser, and a pencil sharpener. Griffin Technology brings back this nostalgic time with its retro-looking stylus ($19.99) in the form of a No. 2 yellow pencil for capacitive screen devices.
Around the turn of the century, early PDAs or personal digital assistants like Palm Pilot and Microsoft Pocket PCs had styli and a silo to stow them in, but you couldn’t use your finger on those screens. Then came the iPhone with its finger touch screen. Let it be known as the dirty screen era.
But now, there is a rebellion afoot as we witness the resurgence of the stylus. It’s not a sleek little instrument for surgically precise pointing, typing, and drawing. The new styli have a big, old stumpy tip like a pencil eraser, but I believe it beats using your finger.
Let us welcome Griffin’s contribution to the new generation of styli with its No. 2 pencil reproduction. The only problem is that it costs a whopping twenty bucks. For that price, I’d expect it to be a laser pointer, mix your drinks, and have a ball point pen on one end along with a pocket clip.
You can check it out here and see some other Griffin styli while you’re at it. They have one for just three bucks.
Now, if someone could just offer a convenient way to stow the stylus and connect it with digital devices so that they don’t get lost. I have seen one system using a short cord attached to a peg that fits into the 3.5 mm port. But I think there is a better way somehow. Maybe I should start this project on Kickstarter.
