New stylus designed to help you write better on your device

Crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter let you watch a project go from idea to marketplace, like the HAND Stylus with a small 4-mm tip.
By Lillie-Beth Brinkman Published: December 18, 2012

As I hear more about the concept of “crowdfunding” -- asking the public to help fund your idea in small increments of money -- I have found myself wandering onto websites like and that help connect willing donors with these ideas.

It's fun to browse and to see what ideas are popular in various areas -- technology, music and movies, home items, toys, etc., which the sites broadcast in email digests or lists online.

A Kickstarter campaign for a stylus caught my attention a few months ago since I would love to use my iPad for handwritten notes and at the time had not yet found a stylus that worked as well as a pen on paper.

I loved the concept of this thin stylus, called the HAND Stylus, and noticed that its recently ended campaign had received more than $310,000 in funding (well above its $25,000 goal) from 7,511 backers, most who paid $30 for the idea and the promise of receiving a stylus if the project got off the ground.

My interest piqued when I received an emailed press release promoting this new stylus: Even though I missed the chance to contribute to the campaign, I felt like I had inside scoop, having watched the project go from idea to manufacturing to media campaign in just a few months.

“There would be no HAND Stylus without Kickstarter, and I feel like the rest of my life I'm going to be indebted to them,” Alameda, Calif., designer Steve King said in a phone interview. King designed the stylus with a 4-mm tip, the smallest on the market, and founded the company behind it. “I'm still reeling a little bit that this thing happened and that it's real.”

The stylus is the smallest on the market today, King said. Even though it doesn't quite mimic a ballpoint pen, it is as close as possible: Touchscreen technology doesn't yet allow a device like the iPad to read a conductive tip smaller than 4 mm.

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by Lillie-Beth Brinkman
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