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I haven't had the major issues that some have experienced using the interface inherent with the Touch. Some have however, finding that their fat fingers, or long nails, are prohibiting them from doing what they need to do effectively.
With the plethora of install options available post-jailbreak, (including games whose buttons are teeny-tiny remakes of their originals...) it's a wonder more aren't bringing this issue to light.
In researching 'Stylus' for the touch, I found the solutions out there to be very expensive, and equally unattractive. While my solution isn't the prettiest in the world, it does work quite effectively. It can also be made from common household items. Here's what you'll need.
1.) A pencil.
2.) Two to Three Gum Wrappers.
3.) A sharp knife (Optional)
First, you'll need to trim the pencil down to size. You could run it through a sharpener for a while, or simply snap it in half. Whichever works for you. You could also leave it full sized, it's totally up to you. If you leave it, you won't need the knife. (Which is good, because knives can be dangerous.)
Next, you'll want to peel your gum wrappers. Your level of skill at this endeavor may very well up the number of wrappers required, however for me, I only needed two. The process is simple, with any gum wrapper, there's a foil side, and a paper side. These two sides can be separated. Peeling isn't required, but it will make your home-made stylus last a bit longer, as the mild adhesive used to stick the foil to the paper will make it stick to the pencil.
Either way, the next step varies depending on your method. If you're handy with a knife, you can shear one edge of the pencil such that the 'lead' end has a flat surface at a slight angle. (Such that when the pencil is held in the 'writing position,' nearly all of its width is flat on the table surface) That may or may not make sense... so think of a ball of clay. if you drop it, it creates a flat imprint on the impacted side. that's basically what we want to do to the pencil, make it so that if it were made of clay, and landed at an angle, the impacted surface would be flat.
Or, you can skip the knife and just use the eraser. The Eraser has a little 'give' to it, so it may work better for this anyway.
Once you've prepared (or not) the 'stylus end', take your peeled or unpeeled gum wrappers, and wrap them from the tip all the way to where your hand will grasp the 'stylus'. The foil must cover the entire length of the pencil from the very end, to approximately three inches from the end.
Note that this stylus must be held fairly close to the tip to work most effectively.
If unpeeled, you may tape your wrappers, but only using TINY amounts of tape. It's IMPERATIVE that as much of your skin actually contacts the foil as possible. Since most tapes do not conduct the inherent electrical properties that are required to make this stylus work, tape can be a bad idea.
How this type of stylus works:
The touch screen in the Ipod Touch uses a discharge method to determine where on the screen your finger is located. By wrapping the pencil in foil, you're extending your body's inherent elecrtical properties to the foil itself, thus enabling it as a stylus for the Ipod touch.
Keep in mind that the more distance you place between the fingers holding the stylus, and the tip of the stylus itself, the less 'reactive' the touch is going to be to it. So, for best results, hold the stylus as close as possible to the tip.
You might not use the end result for much more than the occasional email, if at all, but for me, it beats spending $20 on something I'd rarely use anyways.
I hope this helps! If anyone comes up with a better design, please post it!
Cheers,
K
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01-14-2008, 05:24 PM
Linear Mode
