While the iPad Pro launched nearly a week ago, many early adopters have been unable to get their hands on the companion Apple Pencil. With shipping estimates of 3-4 weeks or longer for the accessory on the Apple Online Store, some prospective buyers have been checking their local Apple Retail Stores for stock and tracking their results in our discussion forums.
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Beginning early Tuesday, it appears that more Apple Retail Stores in the U.S. have begun receiving very limited Apple Pencil stock. MacRumors forum member JuanKr shared the above picture of Apple Pencil stock at the SoHo Apple Store in Manhattan, New York, while we have independently confirmed Apple Pencil stock as of writing at the Oakridge Apple Store in San Jose, California.
MacRumors forum members have shared a handful of other Apple Stores with Apple Pencil stock over the past 24 hours, listed below, although some have since sold out and we cannot guarantee stock remaining at every store due to the combination of limited supplies and strong demand. We recommend calling your local Apple Store prior to visiting, but some customers have had better luck in person.
- SanTan Village in Gilbert, AZ
- Arrowhead in Glendale, AZ
- Burlingame Avenue in Burlingame, CA
- Los Cerritos in Cerritos, CA
- South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, CA
- Century City in Los Angeles, CA
- Manhattan Village in Manhattan Beach, CA
- UTC in San Diego, CA
- Union Square in San Francisco, CA
- Oakridge in San Jose, CA
- Valley Fair in Santa Clara, CA
- Park Meadows in Lone Tree, CO
- Evergreen Walk in South Windsor, CT
- Stamford Town Center in Stamford, CT
- Lenox Square in Atlanta, GA
- Boylston Street in Boston, MA
- CambridgeSide in Cambridge, MA
- Derby Street in Hingham, MA
- Bethesda Row in Bethesda, MD
- Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh, NC
- King Street in Charleston, SC
- Haywood Mall in Greenville, SC
- Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, NY
- Grand Central in Manhattan, NY
- West 14th Street in Manhattan, NY
- Easton Town Center in Columbus, OH
- Walnut Street in Philadelphia, PA
- Pentagon City in Arlington, VA
- Short Pump Town Center in Richmond, VA
- Bellevue Square in Bellevue, WA
- University Village in Seattle, WA
- Georgetown in Washington D.C.
The first batch of Apple Pencil online orders began shifting to "Preparing for Shipment" status earlier this week, while Smart Keyboards remain scarce both online and in stores. Most Apple Stores have plenty of Logitech Create keyboards available for the iPad Pro as an alternative.
Top Rated Comments
(View all)The Walnut Street store is in Pittsburgh, not Philthydelphia.
Nope. There's an Apple Store on Walnut St in Philly. I live right down the street from it.;)
Hmm no it wasn't a joke. It appears that the Apple Pencil tip is not capacitive, so it won't work on the iPad Pro without being paired to it. What I meant when I said that the tip is too small was that even if the tip of the Apple Pencil was capacitive that a normal iPad would not be able to sense it since the tip of a capacitive stylus needs to be a certain diameter for the iPad's screen to 'read' it. That's why most nibs are relatively large.
The pencil is indeed not capacitive but rather active. The tracking technology is magnetic resonance for position and orientation of the pencil, while the tip has a pressure sensor that tracks force emitted. I am taking a guess here but I believe that both the tracking/orientation and pressure data are communicated via Bluetooth 4.0LE (low energy profile).You could consider it a hybrid of Wacom tech. Much like the Surface Pro 3 and 4's pen, though the Apple Pencil is far, far more accurate.
Conversely the surface pro 4 pen has a cool eraser. :)
EDIT: Also of note is your comment about nib size on capacitive styli. In a passive capacitive styli you are correct, however the nib can be any size in an active styli (even for use in a standard capacitive touch screen). This is due to the fact the nib in active styli emit their own electrical charge similar to that of your skin touching the surface of the display. This however has a draw back regarding pinpoint precision as the field resolved is usually that of a finger tip in diameter, vs the tip of a pen or pencil. So the point you make contact with may not be the actual registered center of the active field on the capacitive display. Companies like Adonit and Wacom have made active capacitive styli for the iPad which also use proprietary APIs to adjust relative position with actual position depending on handedness of the user (this must be manually configured by the user in the settings of the Pen API and is entirely application specific).
Ultimately the Apple Pencil is more elegant due to it's consideration of multiple data points (position in 2D, another dimension for pressure, and orientation (angle), which make the pencil accurate in right or left hands irrespective of writing style.
Thanks for the tip!
The Walnut Street store is in Pittsburgh, not Philthydelphia.
Nope. There's an Apple Store on Walnut St in Philly. I live right down the street from it.
Author here. I definitely mean the Walnut Street store in Philadelphia.Looks like there is a Shadyside Apple Store in Pittsburgh, also on a Walnut Street, so I can see your confusion.