In the rush to create high-markup accessories for the iPhone, one company is hawking the Pogo Stylus: a pointing device for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch — two products expressly designed to be used without a stylus.
Is there really a market for this? I imagine the pudgy fingered might take a look, as might people who have become accustomed to poking around their smartphone with a little pen. But the whole point of Apple’s multitouch is doing away with pointing devices. But the market for iPod accessories is worth more than $1 billion annually, so companies are taking a throw-it-out-and-fingers-crossed approach.
Available now from the company’s website for $25.
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander is an expert on:
Apple and Apple history
Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Tim Cook and Apple leadership
Apple community
iPhone and iOS
iPad and iPadOS
Mac and macOS
Apple Watch and watchOS
Apple TV and tvOS
AirPods
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
36 responses to “Pointless Product Alert: $25 Stylus for iPhone”
Well, for those of us who don’t live in sunny San Francisco, it would be handy to not have to take our gloves off to work the phone during the winter months. That’s one problem with “Designed in California” stuff.
This might not be such a bad idea when it’s 0 degrees outside and you don’t want to take your gloves off to operate your iPhone/iPod touch.
This is great… I know everyone thinks Jobs and the Apple crew thought of everything, but they didn’t think of us Northerners in NYC and other respectable northern cities that have freezing weather and have to wear gloves. Gloves render the amazing iPhone useless from making calls, sending texts or even sliding the “open” bar to do anything in the phone.
Great idea just in the nick-of-time for the iPhone’s first winter season.
The problem with the iphone is that it has to be used with a BARE finger, which even in the era of global warming is a pain in the winter in Chicago! I do hate having to take a glove off every time I use the phone. So although seemingly useless, I’d love one of these in my stocking!
Wait a second… I thought the iPhone/iPod touchscreen ONLY registers finger touches. Do you think the stylus even works???
What’s so cool is you get to give them your money and then you get something that could be worth $25!
I’m in Colorado, and so we enjoy 300+ days of sunshine every year (!), but I would think you Northerners would rather simply have GLOVES made with this stylus’s “secret sauce”, so you could just still use your fingers and not need a stylus at all…
Marmot made (makes?) some gloves that are supposed to be iPod compatible, but I don’t know if that means iPhone/iPod Touch compatible.
I tried using my nose to unlock my phone this morning, but my aim was off.
Bah – just try using a Newton stylus. When I do get my iPhone, I’m going to give it a try.
I’d opt for iPhone compatible gloves over a stylus anyday. But, living in California, I guess I’ll never worry about that.
Designed in California, with me in mind :)
Cheers
A stylus a ripoff, and especially for that price!! Jobs said the iPhone was designed precisely to avoid this (i.e., a stylus) and some company decides to ripoff the public for exactly what the iPhone was designed to avoid. LOL!!
wet the end of a “Q” tip,
with the end of your finger
JUST touching the base of the
wet Q tip, the tip will
activate iPhone functions.
Gives BIG fingers help.
Just don’t put your lips on it.
Has anyone been able to use ANY cell phone with gloves/mittens on? I live in Ontario, Canada and I can’t remember ever being able to dial a phone with mits on. So to blame Apple for not making a device so you can use it in the cold weather without taking off your gloves seems a little unfair.
That being said… I still don’t think I’ll use a stylus.
iDave, that will not work – the screen is not pressure sensitive but touch sensitive – it requires certain galvanic skin response, not the simple pressure of a stylus.
Reminded me of one of my favorite Simpsons moments:
“The fingers you have used to dial are too fat. To obtain a special dialing wand, please mash the keypad with your palm now.”
Actually, there is a market, albeit small. I was at a conference and met someone who had hands that were damaged and she could not get my iPhone to recognize her hands. A stylus would be perfect for her, as she could hold it and use the product.
Too bad none of you has heard of Dial-It ( patent pending). I’ve developed a glove stylus that actually works. I haven’t gone into production yet, but I expect to bring it to market by this winter so that people can dial their cell phones, Blackberries, etc. without taking off their gloves. All I need is some forward looking investor to license my product and we’ll all be dialing without frostbite. Check out Dial-It on the net.