Way back when, touch screen devices, like the various versions of the Palm, always had a stylus. I think even the Newton, Apple’s first attempt at a touch-screen PDA, had a stylus.

But Steve Jobs, when he returned to Apple, saw the stylus and he saw that it was not good, according to him. So, more recent devices, both those from Apple and others, mostly don’t have styluses (stylii?).

Recently, on an impulse, I bought a stylus for my tablet. Until then, I’d never had much luck with handwriting on the screen, or with swyping (swooshing my fingertip around the onscreen keyboard to form words).

But then, with the stylus, both suddenly became feasible — and more than feasible. So, now I had four different ways to input text into my tablet, including voice input which I’m using to write this sentence. (Which did not require any editing.)

I like having options.

 
Oh, and here’s a little more about David Bowie: ” David Bowie Bassist Gail Ann Dorsey: ‘He Altered the Course of My Life’“

Or, you can just watch them here: