Wacom Technology Corp. has posted a new driver for professional pen tablets running on Mac OS X v.10.2.6 & later. This driver works in both the native and classic environment of OS X. For this driver release, Wacom added support for the Intuos and Intuos2 tablets and the older Cintiq models to the existing driver for Intuos3 and Cintiq.
The driver supports the USB versions of all Intuos3 (PTZ), Intuos2 (XD), Intuos (GD) and CintiqPartner pen tablets and the Cintiq 21UX, 18SX, Cintiq 15X, PL-600 and PL-500 pen displays. It can be downloaded from WTC’s website at http://www.wacom.com/productsupport.
Intuos3 and Cintiq 21UX users will find the following improvements:
• A problem with mouse wheel scrolling was resolved.
• The Cintiq calibration reminder dialog correctly links to the preference pane.
• The Cintiq 21UX now supports monitor rotation.
• Numerous localization problems were fixed.
Intuos, Intuos2, Cintiq 18SX & 15X, PL-600 & 500 users will notice the following improvements:
• This driver uses the new OS X preference pane that was first introduced for Intuos3. The preference pane was designed in response to customer feedback to the previous control panel and preserves all of its frequently used features. Some of the settings were moved to different locations to better match the way customers work with the control panel, and all items were designed to be as intuitive as possible. If you have difficulties using the preference pane, please download the Intuos3 User’s Manual (available at http://www.wacom.com/productsupport/manuals.cfm) and read the “Customizing” section.
• The data transfer between the OS and the driver was streamlined and improved to make use of new API interfaces available in OS X v.10.2.6 and to make the driver more reliable.
• The preference pane allows easy recalibration of any tablet that may need this procedure.
• The default settings for the pen side switch were changed. The lower side switch will default to right click, and the upper side switch to double-click. (Note: this will show on a fresh install of this driver, or after you delete the preferences and restart. If you set up custom settings before and now over-install this driver over the earlier versions, your custom settings will be maintained.)
• The driver now supports fast user switching to a FileVault account and for networked home folders.
• The driver supports network log-in.
• A driver start-up issue on some systems was resolved.
• Support of special keystroke combinations (Cmd-Tab, Cmd-Click, etc.) was improved.
• Color picking with the OS X color picker is now supported.
• Swedish language support was added.
The release candidate (RC) has passed the Wacom-internal QA cycle and is scheduled for release to manufacturing on July 1. If users of this driver find significant issues, Wacom will seek to fix them and post a revised release candidate for this driver version.
from ThinkSecret:
“Apple typically moves inventory from its own warehouses to distributors towards the end of the quarter, generally as a means to report lower inventory numbers on its financial statement, although the company is not allowed to reflect positive revenue from such transactions.
…
[I]inventory checks at Apple distributors Ingram Micro and Tech Data show plentiful quantities of Apple products across the board, although sources note a curious downtick in the number of new orders for Apple hardware…”
Perhaps the dreaded Osborne Effect is beginning…
And that affects Wacom drivers how?
I wish they would release a new OS X driver for the Graphire tablet. On Tiger, the mouse stops working two or three times a day (I have a hot-key assigned to restart the tablet background app). Also I get kernel panics all the time and the bactrace reports a problem in the USB drivers which I am betting are due to the Wacom tablet (since Apple hasn’t made any changes in their code, which I think they would have done by now if it were their fault). I also get occassional problems when using Fast User Swtiching where the tablet reports that it can’t load the driver for the new user switched in. They could really use a UI refresh too – the Tablet Control application still uses an OS 8-ish Platinum look and feel.
Overall, I like the tablet and its features. But it seems Wacom is just not aggresive enough on making it a ‘great’ OS X experience.
much better
This new Driver Seems to support my Graphire 1 and 2.
Unfortunately while it will recognise them both simultaneously, there no longer seems to be a an option to have each tablet mapped to a a separate screen.
Still it was easy to un-install.
I wish that the serial to USB adapter was supported under OS X…
I’ve got a 12″x12″ tablet wasting away in my closet now… anyone interested?
The problems that I notice on my iMac 24 inch, 2.16Ghz computer is some of my software that quits ‘unexpectedly’. It’s sad to install something that just creates more issues that need to be resolved. But this is typical of the computer industry, which has to do with the fact that they need to keep everyone in continuous ‘upgrade fascination’ mode in order to create more products. If they released systems or software that was perfect, then a lot of us would just never upgrade anything because our computers would actually work.