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Home / News / Macworld 08: The touchscreen Mac arrives

Macworld 08: The touchscreen Mac arrives

While we were waiting to hear whether Steve Jobs would announce a touchscreen laptop - he didn't - a little-known company was getting ready to show of

Axiotron announced the Modbook a year ago, but the modified Macbook with pressure sensitive touchscreen is now available – for the not insignificant price of US$2290 (and yes, they’ll ship to the UK). Apparently Axiotron even have Apple approval for their redesign.

The Modbook is aimed at graphics professional – it has no keyboard, so you control it with a stylus. With 16 levels of pressure sensitivity it can be used for sketching, although it’s hardly as the Wacom Cintiq displays, which offer 1,024 levels and start at $999. But then the Cintiq is just a display – while the Modbook is the whole computing shebang. And is the only Mac to have built-in GPS.

At the moment the Modbook relies on Apple’s Ink handwriting recognition, which is pretty awful compared to the technology built into Windows Vista (indeed, Axiotron was displaying a Modbook running Windows under Boot Camp – surely just scouring the dusty shelves and bargain bins of your local Windows tablet retailer would be a cheaper solution?). However, third-party handwriting recognition is currently in development.

Compared to the Macbook Air, the Modbook looks chunky (not to mention expensive). But if Axiotron can do this to a standard MacBook, what’s stopping them from doing it to Apple’s new ultrathin model? Here’s hoping.

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Profile image of Dan Grabham Dan Grabham Editor-in-Chief

About

Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website.  Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.

Areas of expertise

Computing, mobile, audio, smart home