I would still buy one. Aside from the awesome software I really like the small-ish notebook form factor. Many people who worked on courier worked on this app, check out the profiles of the people at the company: http://www.fiftythree.com/paper
Most of the credit for the texture goes to the program I’m using, called Paper. The pencil tool is great!
Honestly struggled with deciding to tag this as pencil or digital since Paper feels so close to real paper.
You're not a potential customer but you don't sound like competition either, so no harm in replying.
You're right about the touchscreen accuracy thing, nobody has really solved it yet. Although I'm surprised at how rigidly people have been thinking about touch interfaces. The only people I know of doing it well right now are FiftyThree. I'll post a link to the video of our solution in a week or two when its made public, but it's best to actually use it, that's what we do.
Whatever way the app market works, the touchscreen/mobile thing is here to stay, that cat is out of the bag. People haven't exploited it properly yet but that will change and IT is right at the start of that process. This app is our entry point, the future plans are even more surprising. I wish I could show people the interface for the iPhone version, its completely different to anything people imagine.
That said, I really don't know if I want to change your mind. You're an expert in hardware, there is plenty of scope for development in that. I'm curious, how did you get into that kind of work and what sort of things you've done that need CAD type accuracy? I spent a while looking into getting some hardware specifically for the app, for demo and shows. The problem is that there seem to be no way to get iOS on a screen bigger than an iPad. The app deliberately avoids using iOS too deeply (to make porting easy) so I could try a device with a minimal unix/linux OS.
It's called Paper by 53. Here's the App Store link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/paper-by-fiftythree/id506003812?mt=8
Here's their website, with an awesome demo video, along with tons of other info about it: http://www.fiftythree.com/paper
Such a huge disappointment when it literally disappeared from the face of the earth after generating unbelievable hype. RIP Courier
The prototype was designed by FiftyThree, who later came out with the equally badass Paper drawing/sketching app for iPad, and the Bluetooth-enabled Pencil stylus to go with it.
Let us know if you find something that works well. I've been looking for the same thing for a long time.
I wish there was something similar to Paper by 53 for android.... It's just SOOO much better than anything on android I've tried.