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Sunday, September 16, 2007

Wacom Introduces Low-Cost Bamboo Tablet in the U.S.

Wacom Technology Corp. introduces Bamboo, an all new family of pen tablets available in the Americas for the first time. This new family of human interface devices includes Bamboo and Bamboo Fun, two distinct pen tablets that provide a natural, personal and creative digital input experience in any home or work environment. See Bamboo and Bamboo highlights at the www.wacom.com/wacombamboo microsite.

Just like the first writing instruments in Asia created from bamboo and fur, Wacom’s new Bamboo and Bamboo Fun reinvent the pen for the 21st century and offer new inking freedoms for our era. “Advances in both software applications and computer operating systems make this an ideal time for us to interact with computers in a more expressive and efficient manner,” said Dennis Hoff, Wacom’s consumer product manager. “Now, you can use a pen to create expressive content, personalize communications and navigate more freely.”

Both Bamboo and Bamboo Fun sport elegant designs with increased functionality and ease of use in mind. Four programmable ExpressKeys™ are situated on the tablet surface to customize commonly used commands, such as “undo” or “copy.” A finger-sensitive Touch Ring has been positioned to allow for quick and easy zooming and scrolling. The textured work surface of the tablet provides an intuitive pen-on-paper feel, while the stylish and ergonomically designed pens allow users to experience seemingly unlimited levels of pressure sensitivity, to create variations of pen strokes, from fine lines to bold brush marks. Additionally, Bamboo and Bamboo Fun work elegantly in both Mac and PC ( including Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista™ ) environments.

Bamboo Fun: Create your World

Available to consumers immediately in two sleek sizes and four cool colors, Bamboo Fun provides all the tools needed to have fun exploring digital creativity. Ideal for digital photo enthusiasts or those just wanting to satiate their creative hunger, Bamboo Fun makes it easy to enhance photos and create artwork for scrapbooks, craft projects and slide shows. Bamboo Fun includes valuable software applications that embrace pen support and deliver greater control when editing photos or creating works of art. These applications include Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 5 ( Elements 4 for Mac users ), which make it possible to quickly and easily edit and organize digital photos. Many of the retouching and brush strokes required in Photoshop are accomplished more accurately and rapidly with the use of a pen. Additionally, Nik®’s Color Efex Pro™ 2 GE filtering software allows one to simply select and apply high-quality photographic enhancements with the stroke of a pen. For those with an artistic flair, the natural feel of the Bamboo Fun pen combined with the capabilities of Corel® Painter™ Essentials 3, also included, makes creating great looking artwork easy and fun. When used with a Bamboo Fun pen, Painter Essentials 3 can take on the look and feel of just about any natural art tool and is perfect for creating original digital artwork from photos.

In addition to Wacom’s patented cordless, battery-free pen, the Bamboo Fun mouse, uses the same electro-magnetic resonance technology as the pen, offering quick response times and accuracy. Because the mouse has no ball, wires or batteries, users discover a virtually maintenance free experience. When used alternately with a mouse, the Bamboo pen can effectively reduce repetitive motion and increase comfort and control.

Bamboo Fun is offered in two sizes (small and medium) each in black, silver, white or blue.

Bamboo: Make your Mark!

Getting the most out of business and communications software is now within easy reach with Bamboo, a rugged and elegant pen tablet designed specifically for the mainstream home or office computer user. Building on Wacom’s extensive experience developing pen-based input devices, the small pen tablet, in black only, provides the same hardware features as Bamboo Fun, except for the pressure-sensitive pen eraser and mouse. A recent winner of the coveted red dot award for product design, Bamboo’s contemporary design elicits an emotional attachment and pride-of-ownership rarely found in the input device category. With a natural pen-on-paper feel, Bamboo makes it easy for users to personalize their workflow and collaborate with others by providing navigation and communication capabilities not available with alternative input devices. Mac OS® and Microsoft Windows Vista™ operating systems introduce significant pen input features to Bamboo users for a faster, easier and more efficient computing experience. For those on a Mac, Inkwell offers a variety of pen input features, allowing one to enter handwritten text anywhere typed text is accepted. Bamboo pen users working on a PC will covet the new Windows Vista-enabled note taking resources, handwriting recognition and time-saving gesture controls. All versions of Windows Vista ( except Home Basic ) provide complete pen functionality with Bamboo.

Pricing and Availability

Available at retail in mid-September, Bamboo is priced at $79.99 (MSRP). Also available in September, Bamboo Fun, offered in two sizes (small, medium) costs $99.99 and $199.99 (MSRP) respectively.

• For more information visit http://www.wacom.com/wacombamboo/