Monday, October 3, 2022

Darkboard

Matt Ronge (last October):

We launched Astropad in 2015, and rapidly bootstrapped the business to just shy of 20 people. In 2017 we launched our first hardware product Luna Display.

Things were going well. Sales were strong. We made more in a month than we made in our first year alone!

Then Apple noticed us. They had us fly out to present our products to some senior execs.

[…]

Time passes, until WWDC 2019... At that event Apple revealed Sidecar, which was clearly inspired by our products. On top of that they created private APIs that Sidecar used which are eerily similar to our suggestions.

[…]

For over two years we worked on rewriting and designing for the PC. It was an incredibly complex and difficult project.

Juli Clover (Giovanni Donelli):

Astropad, known for Astropad Studio software and the Luna Display dongle, today announced the launch of its latest project, called Darkboard. The Darkboard is a lightweight drawing surface designed to be used with the iPad, providing a more ergonomic way to sketch and draw wherever you are.

Weighing in at 1.4 pounds, the Darkboard is made from a rigid foam material that cushions the arm and wrist while still providing comfort and support. Astropad says that the Darkboard is ideal for using on the couch, in bed, and in other situations where you don’t have the best ergonomic setup.

I don’t think this product will get Sherlocked.

Previously:

2 Comments RSS · Twitter

Something similar has been around for a few years now: Sketchboard Pro from Paperlike. It uses your iPad. i got one back on their Kickstarter and it's very nice. https://paperlike.com/products/sketchboard-pro-for-ipad

As a steward of the ecosystem, and wealthy, wouldnt it be in apples interest to build an investment / grant fund for app makers to take advantage of instead of the current Sherlocking?

Leave a Comment