» Genius MousePen 8 x 6-Inch Graphic Tablet for Home and Office

Genius MousePen 8 x 6-Inch Graphic Tablet for Home and Office Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: Not the Best, but still good
Comment: Here are some things I'd like to say regarding...

It's compatibility with Vista: The tablet works with Vista, but take note that the programs in the CD do not ALL work with Vista. There's this program where you can write directly onto word documents. However, this does not work on Vista. So you're pretty much stuck with programs where it "freezes" the whole screen for you to write on.
Also, for some reason the handwriting recognition aspect of the tablet is a bit glitchy. When my friend plugs the tablet into her pc (Vista), the program appears at the left hand side of the screen. However for my Vista PC, the program NEVER appears.

The actual Hardware: I actually had to returned my first purchase for a replacement because the first one I got was highly defective. The mouse did not work, the CD was scratched, and eventually my tablet became a foreign device on my PC. Luckily, Amazon was a great sport when I asked for a replacement despite the fact that I've thrown the original box away already (I was hoping these problems will eventually fix themselves--bad decision).
By the way, if your tablet gets glitchy, sometimes reinstalling the driver can help.

Using it: It's fairly easy to use, and the short-cut "keys" on the tablet are pretty convenient sometimes. Especially since I like to use Photoshop a lot, I program the keys to summon up common demands like 'image size,' 'deselect,' etc.
The only thing I really have to complain about using it is the fact that if I'm sketching something, there's this annoying scratching noise. Also, sometimes the little narrow button on the pen can get annoying, but it's tolerable and it's something to get use to.

Overall, it's a pretty good deal compare to the bigger brands that offer a tablet this size at more than twice the price. Also, since it's my first tablet, I really don't mind the cons too much. But if you're looking for the best and are willing to pay more for it, then getting a Wacom is probably a better idea.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Wacom at a fourth of its cost
Comment: I am studying to be in Graphic Design, and Visual Marketing. I needed a Graphic Tablet fast and like every other college student, struggling and poor. If I got a WACOM it would mean water and ramen for 3 months straight. I came across this with its outstanding reviews and the price. There was no way nearly 170 ppl were wrong. I decided to take my chances and very happy I did. It came quick and impress how nice and big the tablet was with Pen, and mouse. I don't use the mouse but definitely the pen. I put a fully charged AAA battery in the pen and immediately impressed. Vista recognized it and installed the driver. I installed the Install CD, but wasn't really necessary. Their software is out of date so you need to go to their homepage and find this model and download from there. Works great with Adobe Illustrator, Autodesk Sketchbook Pro 2009, and Paint. Trust me if you are looking in the market for a cheap graphic tablet than this is the product for you. You cannot go wrong with this

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Mac users, beware
Comment: Notice that the good reviews come from windows users.

I got this as a birthday present. Unfortunately, even though the product claims to support Mac OSX, it really doesn't. Here is my list of problems:

* The CD included is ANCIENT. Forget the free software, the CD does not contain the mac versions.

* Even the most recent drivers from their website are bad. They mess up some permissions and upon installation and reboot, you need another reboot to fix them.

* It is NOT compatible with INK. That means, forget the handwriting recognition, unless you have some other program of your own.

* The pen works as a mouse (after the painful driver installation), but the pressure sensitivity feature does not work in photoshop. This is quite possibly due to the inability to install elements and the other software from the CD, since they don't have the MAC versions.

* Also it frequently causes photoshop to hang for possibly ~30sec at a time. You do a couple of brushstrokes and then the program just freezes for what seems FOREVER.

* If you decide to unplug the tablet from your computer, something that you NEED to do all the time if you have a laptop, it will only work again upon plugin 1 in 30 times. The rest of the times, the only solution was to RE-install the drivers and reboot twice (because of the permissions problem).

I just got today a bamboo fun from wacom, and it works SO seamlessly. It was more expensive, but I'm sure that the simple bamboo (the non-"fun" version), works equally well, it's just less fancy looking, and it seems to cost more or less the same as this product.
I'm returning the genius. I really consider the mac compatibility false advertisement.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Genius MousePen
Comment: I bought this as a gift for my adult son whose hobbies are sketching and photography. He said it will be useful both at work and home. Its an amazing tool and I'm thinking about getting one for myself.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: This is great
Comment: I bought this for my son becasue he is now into Manga. He loves the product. He loves the fact that it is so slim and i think it is a great prodcut for a wonderful price. I would reccommend this product to anyone.

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