Microsoft DumBrick

Countering British Telecommunications' claim to innovation with its recently announced SmartQuill -- a pen that can "read" hand-written words as they are written, without the need for a special writing tablet -- Microsoft today announced their own new pen-based product: DumBrick.

"DumBrick is a cooler innovation," said Microsoft's Rob N. Plunder, head of their catch-up technology division. "It can write with different colored inks at the same time, even invisible ink for secret stuff!"

DumBrick has the shape and weight of a brick, and requires two hands to use.

"Our trillion-dollar user testing labs have shown that users get annoyed when they misplace their pens, so we wanted to address that problem by making a larger product," explained Plunder. "And by making it heavy, no one can easily walk off with it -- another major user complaint."

By pressing buttons on DumBrick's sides, the user can make it extend multiple writing heads. There's even a SpiroGraph game built in, "the product's version of Solitare," Plunder explained. Just press a button, place DumBrick upright on a level writing surface, and watch it spin as it draws complicated interconnected circles.

But DumBrick's "coolest feature", according to Plunder, is the ability to connect it to the Internet.

"Anyone with a web browser will be able to see what you are writing, as you write it! It's an ink version of a Web Cam."

DumBrick also features a full QWERTY keyboard imbedded in its side, just in case you get writer's cramp and wish to switch to typing.

DumBrick will come with 10 ActiveInk cartridges, 128 megabytes of RAM, version 2.157 of Windows CE for DumBricks, and a serial cable to connect it to a Windows computer. Optional accessories will include a mouse for the DumBrick, an external CD-ROM drive, and a DumBrick Expander that lets you connect two DumBricks together for writing large letters.