After all this time... ever since my favorite Asus Vivotab Note 8 days, I still have the original version of Autodesk's Sketchbook Pro software that has the Copic palette built-in.

Having tried all sorts of pen enabled drawing programs like Clip Studio or ProCreate, Sketchbook still manages to pull me back in. I love the minimalist interface, and I can still say it's the only piece of creative software, where I feel like I use every single tool and feature... it's my goto whenever I need to quickly sketch, modify images, turn a background transparent, warp an image, do quick compositions, and do a quick Copic rendering without having to waste the actual costly markers. It just about feels like whoever designed it made it for me in mind. Basically every pen-enabled device I own, from Samsung Note to Dell Canvas has paired up with my Sketchbook scribblings, and it…

in Graphite, w/ a 3rd-party (Cobak) case which was on sale. Not that wild about the case (debating on getting an "origami" case off eBay which is far more affordable than the equivalent Amazon listing.

Sans case it is remarkably lighter than my original. The case is ~260grams and brings the heft back to something like the original. (If someone has a recommendation for a case which is: lightweight, easy in/out, subdued appearance w/ minimal branding, I'd be interested in recommendations.)

Am I the only person who doesn't like the new pen? Swapped it to my O.G. Scribe --- hopefully whoever ends up w/ it won't mind the grippy/rubbery eraser --- it being a featureless cylinder save for the button (and Kindle logo which is high up and visible, not palpable) is annoying as well.

The UI really needs an option where the colours which are on the device are…

Just saw Costco has the Surface Pro 11 X-Elite 16gb 1tb OLED screen model with standard (not Flex) keyboard and slim pen for $999. With prices going through the roof right now this is an amazing bargain BUT it also portends new incoming 2026 models and they are dumping inventory.

Looks like a quick return is coming for the just received Surface Pro 12 - refurb plus key board and pencil cost me just as much as a new X Elite and oh by the way SP12 will not drive 2 external monitors with their dock or my OWC Thunderbolt 4 dock.

AND YES, dstrauss and dstraussing are back!!!!!!!!

I've typically turned my nose up at all things Walled Garden (tm), but I've had the need to deploy software via XCode recently and broke down and bought a Mac Air M4 at the risk of @dstraussing myself.

I have to say, it's pretty impressive hardware, very lightweight, long battery life, I charge it with the same 30W charger block for my Fold. It's, shall I even say, a delight to use?!

I still hate Finder though... and there some things I still mechanically fumble with on the OS (i.e. "why can't I figure out how to copy this screenshot image and paste it into my presentation??!!??")

Still using a Fold 5, but this makes me go hmm...

Like every year, there's rumors of S-pen, but at this point, I only believe it when I see it.

Yup, that's a surface go 2 running the ubuntu installer. I'm typing this post from this machine. I went down a bit of a rabbit hole when a very well priced Surface Pro 5th gen showed up on my local Marketplace. I wasn't able to get that one, but it sent me searching, since I really like the hardware of my Surface Pro X but I'm trying to get away from Windows. The Pro 5th gen is one of the most well supported according to the feature matrix, but it lacks usb c. On closer inspection, the Go 2 is probably the best supported and it was available with LTE. Off to ebay I went.

After an adventure in FedEx's "care" it arrived several days late with the tape cut on one side and a corner of the box torn and peeled back. Apparently they didn't like what they saw…

For some reason, I just signed up for Robert Braxman's Open Slate crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. Maybe it's my long standing reservations about the path that Windows is on (and the annoying features that simply don't work... looking directly at you, Outlook...) or maybe it's my curiosity about whether Linux or Android would serve my purposes better, but for whatever reason, I've decided to take a genuine look at replacing Windows. The Open Slate Pro is not a powerhouse design, but it appears to have adequate features at a reasonable price. The feature that really appeals to me is that you can load Android or Linux in (apparently) multiple flavors of each. Open Slate seems to have a source where the OS loads will be available with support. The campaign is fairly new, and at least for me there are still a lot of unanswered questions. But if this…

... and how did you like it?

I'll go first: late November I got myself a black 16GB/256GB Surface Pro 11 with OLED and SDX Elite for $900, thinking that my old SPX was too slow for a good PDF markup experience. I loved the deep blacks of the OLED screen, but I wish it was as thin as the old Surface Pro X. In the end I returned it because the digitizer was acting up, showing an entire horizontal unresponsive section.

I'll keep an eye out for bundle deals on the SP12" (..but why no OLED, why no SSD, why no SSD hatch!) or the SP11, because I did like the speed.

I've just stumbled across this YouTube channel that compares E-Ink displays.

https://youtube.com/@theinktelligent

He's not the most scientific about it, but he does just show the devices with consideration for balance (adjusting frontlights, etc.), and it's clearly not 'AI' nonsense.