Abstract: In this final draft of my technical description, I wrote the complete essay of this assignment. In this essay I used the feedback from the peer review and wrote much more information than the first draft. The significance in this essay is that I learned how revise and edit my work here, as well as articulating a stance through my writing. In this final draft, I wrote every single information where it belongs in each section including its images. In terms of my writing, I describe my technological item the way it should be, which is by order and describing it in terms of its innovation and functionality. My development as a writer is that I can describe a technological object with every section and even include pictures and graphs for the item.
Outline of the contents:
Introduction Page – 3
Design Page – 4
Object functionality Page – 7
Conclusion Page – 8
Introduction:
The Apple Pencil 2nd generation is the latest generation model of the Apple Pencil, created by Apple, Inc. The Apple Pencil was first invented by Apple, Inc. in 2015, it was the first stylus to work with the original iPad Pro. The innovators who worked behind the Apple Pencil were a group of experts from Apple who created this technological item and so it is not known whether it was a group who created it or if it was the company itself. The first Apple Pencil was designed to be an additional technological item for the iPad Pro, similarly to the iPad keyboard. The Apple Pencil is meant to work as a traditional pencil, but instead of writing on paper, it is written only on the iPad’s display. This technological item has many functions, The Apple Pencil is used in lieu of a finger for precision tasks like writing and sketching, and it can also be used for navigating through the operating system. It’s excellent for drawings, art creation, note taking, and similar tasks because it’s precise, has palm rejection, and offers pressure and tilt sensitivity.
Following the success of the first Apple Pencil, in 2018, Apple released the Apple Pencil 2nd generation, which was also invented by Apple, inc. It’s specs and features were very similar to that of the first Apple Pencil, but the only difference is that it is compatible with newer models of iPad, such as the iPad Air (4th generation), iPad Pro 11inch, iPad mini (6th generation) and more. Other differences in terms of design are that it is sleeker, smaller, and more compact than the original Apple Pencil. In terms of functionality in the iPad, it supports touch gestures for swapping between tools, something not possible with the original Apple Pencil.
Though they have different mechanisms, designs and compatibilities, Apple Pencil 1 and 2 fundamentally work in the same way and have the same general feature set. Both technological items were innovative and fundamental for the iPad, because not only did it introduce a new item that works perfectly with some iPad models, but also had some mechanisms that were not possible with other devices at the time.
In this technical description, I would describe the Apple Pencil 2nd generation and explain its design, interior, exterior parts and talk about how it works as a technological item when used in an iPad.
Design:
The Apple Pencil 2 only comes in a white color and a matte finish. Its design is more pencil-like design, on the top, it has a rounded design and has nothing in it (Figure 1). The pencil is much flatter, and it has a small plastic tip (which can be replaced) (Figure 2). The pencil can charge inductively through the iPad Pro on the right side of the iPad (Figure 3).
Figure 1: https://www.amazon.com/Apple-MU8F2AM-A-Pencil-Generation/dp/B07K1WWBJK
Figure 2: https://www.amazon.com/Replacement-Tips-Compatible-Apple-Pencil/dp/B09BBPLMJL
Figure 3: https://www.neowin.net/news/you-wont-be-able-to-charge-the-new-apple-pencil-via-qi-technology/
The Apple Pencil 2 is made of wood, graphite, a little metal and a bit of synthetic rubber. The interior parts that are in the Apple Pencil are protected by a metal shell, which are: (Figures 5 and 6)
- 32-bit RISC ARM-based Cortex-M3 MCU, CPU STM32L151UCY6 Ultra-low-power MCU 32 MHz
- 64-kilobyte flash memory chip
- Bosch Sensortec BMA282 accelerometer
The Apple Pencil 2 does not use a Bluetooth chip, but instead uses a W1 chip, which improves the Pencil’s battery life, range and pairing. (Figure 7)
Inside the tip of the Apple Pencil, there is a tiny spring-load, and two emitters buried within a shaft. These components help when writing with the Pencil on an iPad screen (Figures 8 and 9)
Object Functionality
The Apple Pencil 2 has more functions than just a pen. Some of the features include that the Pencil can attach to the side of the iPad Pro magnetically. What’s more, the stylus can automatically pair with the iPad and begin charging wirelessly (Figure 10). The stylus doesn’t have a Bluetooth chip and instead uses a W1 chip, which can automatically pair to any iPad that is compatible with.
The small plastic tip can connect with the iPad’s display when writing with it, and it also includes features such as:
- Palm rejection: When the Apple Pencil is connected to the iPad, it only recognizes the Apple Pencil tip and not your hand or your finger, allowing you to write or sketch comfortably.
- Pressure sensitivity: Depending on how much pressure is placed on the iPad while writing or drawing, a line can be thicker or thinner. Apple doesn’t provide a specific pressure sensitivity level for the Apple Pencil.
- Tilt sensitivity: Apple Pencil is designed to work like a regular pencil, so if you hold it at an angle and press the side of the tip alongside the iPad for something like shading, it works. The Apple Pencil knows its general orientation and how it’s being tilted.
- Low Latency: Apple Pencil has super low latency, which means that when you write on the iPad, there’s no delay between the movement of the pencil and what appears on the display. Apple Pencil latency is as low as 9ms on iPads with 120Hz displays (the iPad Pro models from 2017 and later).
- Precision: Apple Pencil is precise, so it is accurate down to the pixel. That means there’s no offsetting between where the pencil is located and what’s shown on the screen.
- Touch gestures: The second-generation version of the Apple Pencil supports touch gestures. With a double tap, the Apple Pencil 2 can swap between tools in apps, useful because it allows for quick switching between a pen tool and eraser tool, as an example.
Other extra features that are worth mentioning are:
Screenshots: If you take a screenshot on your iPad and then tap it when a preview appears in the corner, you can draw and write on it using the Apple Pencil through a feature called Markup.
Markup: Markup is the Apple feature that lets you write on screenshots, but it also works across the operating system in various apps. In Mail, you can edit photos or PDFs (it’s great for signing documents), in Messages, you can draw photos, in the Photos app, you can add captions and drawings to images, and in Books, you can edit PDFs.
The Apple Pencil also works with tons of third-party apps for note taking, drawing, sketching, and more. These apps can be found in the App Store on the iPad, these include:
- Procreate
- Notability
- Pigment
- Adobe Fresco
- Linea Sketch
Conclusion
The Apple Pencil 2 is a technological item that was simple to describe, because it had fewer components inside and a simple design like a pen. Its functionality and features are related to the technological device which can be used in an iPad. In the “Introduction” section I also included the Apple Pencil 1, because since this and the 2nd generation are alike, they are related to each other. By the way, both versions of the Apple Pencil are not designed to be disassembled according to Apple, because it can be fixed with their exterior parts and not their interior parts, since those parts cannot be reassembled.
Self-Reflection:
What I learned from this assignment is to describe a technological item in terms of its design, interior and exterior items. I also learned how to describe its functionality and compatibility with other technological items. In my opinion, this is one of the best assignments I ever did, because not only did I describe a technological item, but also make an informative description of this item for people who are looking to buy this item for the first time.
During the process of coming up about which technological item I want to describe, I was thinking about one that is simple to describe and doesn’t have a lot of components to talk about. That’s where I chose that Apple Pencil 2, because it was an item from Apple that I never used, and I want to know what its components were and how do they work. This technological item, along with its components, made my work easier since it doesn’t have lots of components and most of them are very similar to the ones from the Apple Pencil 1 with minor modifications.
The only hard part of this assignment was trying to research the interior parts of the Apple Pencil 2. Since I never used one, it was hard for me to know what parts were inside, but there were some sources that have disassembled the Apple Pencil. In one of those sources, this technological item cannot be repaired once its parts are disassembled, and it is also harder to tear it apart and a few special tools are needed to do it. Each interior part of the technological item comes from a source that I found with their name.
One of my favorite parts of this assignment is the Apple Pencil’s functionality and it works more than just a regular pencil. The Apple Pencil works with any kind of drawing, sketching and note taking, and it also works as an additional Bluetooth item for certain iPad models. Most people still use this technological item nowadays and it works well as a replacement for paper and pencil. After completing this assignment, it made me kind of want to try this technological item, but I don’t think I could use it because I never bought an iPad before, and I’m not interested in buying one.
In conclusion, this assignment was very interesting to do, and the choice of my technological item was perfect because it was a simple item to make a description of. If I could pick another technological item, I think it would be no other item than this one which in my opinion is my preferred item for this assignment.
