This morning, Apple released the long rumored Magic Trackpad for $69. This device is basically the trackpad from their Macbook Pro torn from the machine and attached to a bluetooth receiver, the Magic Trackpad adds all the multitouch gestures that users have come to know from the iPad, iPhone, and Macbook line. Although the Magic Mouse has most of these gestures, the Magic Trackpad  ensures a seamless gesture experience across the Apple platform.

Are trackpads for desktops really what we need? I use the iMac/iPad/iPhone combination, but I know plenty of people who hook their Macbooks up to monitors and mouse for when they are at their desks… Aside from that and the fact that I think that the Magic Trackpad is more of a bridge step between a mouse/keyboard iMac and making the iMac a touch-based device (trust me, this is happening), my real problem with the Magic Trackpad stems from how it “magically makes $69 disappear” to quote someone on twitter via @radiocolin.

I am the proud owner of a Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch. Wacom is the gold standard in the graphics world for drawing tablets and the Bamboo is their more portable, entry level tablet that can double as a multitouch trackpad for normal computing use. Since most people do not need a pen for drawing, they offer a version that is just a multitouch trackpad. Not only is it slightly bigger, offers two customizable buttons, but it costs $35 on Amazon. If you want the pen, for only $20 more than the Magic Trackpad, you can get the Bamboo Pen and Touch if so inclined.

Being a person who has time and time again defended Apple’s pricing, this advice may come as a surprise to hear from me, but that has been when I believed that they were offering a level of quality above their competitors. When entering into the trackpad/tablet realm, their competitor is a company like Wacom, who has virtually destroyed every other company in their space through simply the quality of their products. Try to think of another tablet company… they used to exist, believe me.

I have read about the Pogo Sketch before and on a whim while in the 5th Ave Apple Cube/Store, I decided to look for one. I mentioned the Pogo Sketch to my friend and one of the Apple Store employees overheard and said to me, “You looking for ‘Pogo Sticks?’ they’re in the back, ask a blue shirt.

Looking around, at a sea of “Geniuses” wearing blue shirts, I walked up to a cute brunette and asked her, “I hear you have ‘Pogo sticks’ in the back?”

She looked incredibly confused and I immediately realized what i said could have sounded really wrong, but after a moment  she realized what I was talking about and went to get one. It seemed like I was negotiating some secret backdoor geek deal.

The Pogo Sketch is a $14.99 pocket sized aluminum stylus with a capacitive ball at the tip. This tricks an iPhone, iPod touch, or Macbook trackpad (also any other phone with a capacitive screen like a Droid or Nexus 1) into thinking that it is being touched by a finger. On the newer Macbooks with the larger integrated button trackpads, the Pogo Sketch even gives the user pressure sensitivity.

This means that with the paint program of their choice, an illustrator or designer with an iPhone, iPod Touch, or Macbook Pro (which, lets be serious means practically all illustrators and designers) can never be without a drawing tablet. Since even the smallest Wacom is a little too large and delicate to throw in a laptop bag, the cheap Pogo Sketch is an interesting alternative.

So far, I have found the Pogo Sketch responsive and functional on my iPhone. The little bit of test drawing I have done has felt like magic. Even though I have trained myself to draw with a drawing tablet, there is something to drawing directly on the image. Since my iPhone is with me everywhere I go, I can have a pocket sized digital drawing device on me at all times. Of course, I have always carried a moleskine notebook, so this isn’t a new convenience, but I don’t carry a paint brush, eraser, airbrush and thousands of colors of paint that a digital drawing app emulates.

A friend of mine saw the Pogo Sketch and kidnapped my iPod touch. In a few minutes, they were able to whip out this Carmen Sandiego. Considering they had never touched the Pogo Sketch or Autodesk app before, I think the results speak for themselves.

Credit: Elizabeth Reynolds

Of course, the Pogo sketch is not comparable to a Wacom tablet, which almost perfectly replicates the feeling of drawing on paper. This product was not made to be a competitor to the digital drawing giant, but a portable solution. Once I got used to the smaller screen and zooming in to do detail work more than usual, I found drawing on my iPhone pretty addicting. The Pogo Sketch is constructed of a sturdy feeling, yet light aluminum and has a clip for storing it in pockets.

Even for people who can’t even draw stick figures, the Pogo Sketch can still be a transformative purchase. For the Macbook, the company that makes the Pogo stick gives away a program that allows you to sign forms. On the iPhone, the Pogo Sketch can also be amazing for when it is so cold you don’t want to take off your gloves. In Korea this winter, they discovered a certain kind of sausage could be used to operate an iPhone. Personally, I bought a pair of $4 fingerless gloves at H&M to solve this problem.

Where I think Pogo Sketches will really shine is on the iPad. When I saw the iPad, I immediately thought two things: that thing will be amazing for reading comics and i want to draw on it. During the keynote, Apple featured Brushes for iPad, a fully featured drawing app. Add a Pogo Sketch and Brushes to an iPad and the $499 device becomes  something that could rival the $999 Wacom Cintiq, which may have pressure sensitivity, but needs to be hooked up to a computer and can’t be thrown into a messenger bag.

If you are an illustrator or designer, the Pogo Sketch is a required purchase. It sure beats a sausage.

Rating: ★★★★★