Pilot TEC-1 Point-of-Sale Stylus

The next day delivery truck is driving up the driveway to my house. Suddenly I am transported back to Christmas morning at my old place on Claremont Street. The anticipation is building as I leap from my bed. Adrenalin rushes to all parts of my body as I hit the stairs and almost jump down all 22 of them on my way to the living room. There. There they are. Dozens of shiny, bright ribbons and bows, all sitting on top of multi- colored paper wrapped boxes in so many shapes and sizes. I leap across the room and grab the first package and am about to rip open the paper with my teeth…..

“Excuse me sir, but will you sign here please?”

“Wha…what….what did you say?”

“Umm, I said can you sign here on this pad with this stylus here sir?”

“Oh. Oh, yes of course”

“Er, dreaming about Christmas again Mr. Berenthall?”

"Um.Yes. Yes I was. Sorry.”

How embarrassing was that? Everytime the next day delivery man comes to the house I just can’t help feeling like it’s Christmas, and he should have a sled in front of the garage instead of that van the color of, well you know what.

And just as sure as my daydreams will be interrupted by this guy wanting my autograph, I won’t be able to read the darn screen to know where to sign.

“Hey. Where do I sign?”

“The same place you always sign. On the line down here” he says as he points to the bottom of the screen.

“I can’t see a thing. This screen is hacked up to bits” I reply in a disgusted voice. But it’s too late. He already thinks I’m just a big softy with all that Christmas daydreaming thing going on.

“Yeah. These styluses suck.” He says. “They have to keep getting screen replacements.” I just sigh and look pityingly at him as I grab the PDA from his hand.

“First of all, it’s styli, not styluses. Second of all, why don’t you go back and tell your boss to order a bunch of these TEC-1 jobbies.”

I miraculously whip one out from my pocket like I knew this was coming. Amazing, isn’t it?

“Hey, what’s that?” he asks.

I see my opening, and I strike.

“Well, I’ll tell you what it is. It’s an inexpensive way to preserve your screen, that’s what it is.”

I show him the point.

“See this? This is a special stylus tip. It’s much safer on screens than your average plastic tip like you have there. And, what’s more, it’s spring loaded, so it can put up with your customers bearing down too hard. That in itself will add many many hours to the life of your screen.”

He shakes his head knowingly.

“Yeah. I bet it would. Now, if you’ll just sign here so I can go…..”

“But wait!” I add “There’s more. This stylus has a tether attached to it so you won’t lose it. And it’s strong too. Just look.”

I pull on the tether hard. “See? It doesn’t come off. Pretty nice, don’t you think?”

The driver is now looking at me funny.

“Um. Yeah. That’s great. It works great. But, look I have to go now.” He begins to back away in a kind of hurried fearful way.

“I’ll tell you what.” He says as he is getting into his van. “I’ll take this and recommend it to my boss when I get back. It’s a great idea.”

Then, he was gone. Almost in an instant, I thought as I closed the door with my package in hand.

I smiled to myself as I grabbed another TEC-1 out of the pile on the table next to the door.

“Hmmm. The next day guy in the yellow truck should be here soon….. Bwahahahahahahha!”

The TEC-1 costs comes in a variety of configurations, starting at $5.99 apiece, available at StyliSource.com:

http://www.stylisource.com/detail-tec-1.asp

Daniel R.  Berenthall is a writer and techno-geek who sometimes does reviews for cool stuff.  Oh, and he writes too.  Pick up his latest book, "Video Killed The Digital Star" at amazon.com.  Right after you buy the Pentopia 2+1 of course...;-)).