(Archived) Nearly 2 months since Penultimate acquisition...

[Aeryon 6]

Nearly 2 months have passed since Evernote's announcement of Penultimate's acquisition, but do we have any idea what they are doing? 2 months is a long time to wait with little or no news, especially (this is my opinion here) when writing on the ipad with a stylus/finger is more of a hassle than a convenience.

Am I just blind and not seeing the announcements, or have both companies been really quiet outside of the initial announcement at the beginning of May?

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Nearly 2 months have passed since Evernote's announcement of Penultimate's acquisition, but do we have any idea what they are doing? 2 months is a long time to wait with little or no news, especially (this is my opinion here) when writing on the ipad with a stylus/finger is more of a hassle than a convenience.

Am I just blind and not seeing the announcements, or have both companies been really quiet outside of the initial announcement at the beginning of May?

Hi. I think we are all looking forward to seeing what improvements they make to the application, but Evernote isn't in the habit of announcing roadmaps, and in my experience, they spend their time getting it right before they release something. So, I think it will be worth the wait

In the meantime, I would say writing with a stylus on the iPad is actually pretty nice. I've written my thoughts on some of the applications available out there. The only thing I would change (next time I update the page) is to say that GoodNotes is currently my favorite one for note-taking. When Penultimate gets a zoom box, it will probably be at the top of the list.

http://www.princeton.edu/~cmayo/reviewhandwriting.html

[Aeryon 6]

I would say writing with a stylus on the iPad is actually pretty nice. I've written my thoughts on some of the applications available out there.

How about pens? I have been watching these guys for the past few weeks (http://handstylus.com/) and so far compared to what I have seen on the market, they offer the most realistic stylus writing experience yet... however, I am excited to see user reviews.

I would really love to take notes in class on my ipad, but going against ye ol' pen and paper feel the cons still outweigh the pros.

*Grumpy- Of those you have tried... which has been best for practicing/writing kanji?

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

I would say writing with a stylus on the iPad is actually pretty nice. I've written my thoughts on some of the applications available out there.

How about pens? I have been watching these guys for the past few weeks (http://handstylus.com/) and so far compared to what I have seen on the market, they offer the most realistic stylus writing experience yet... however, I am excited to see user reviews.

I would really love to take notes in class on my ipad, but going against ye ol' pen and paper feel the cons still outweigh the pros.

*Grumpy- Of those you have tried... which has been best for practicing/writing kanji?

I am definitely not an expert on styli. I have been meaning to buy a bunch and give them a try, but the Targus and Griffin $10 models work well enough, so I have never gotten around to it!

My concern with the handstylus is all of that metal. Actually, all styli seem to have this metal fetish, which I don't understand, because we are writing on a piece of glass!

As for kanji, if you look at the link I posted you'll see a few screenshots. The kanji don't come out terribly well, and I certainly wouldn't recommend the iPad for calligraphy! Whether you do calligraphy by pen (a relatively new, but quite vibrant community of calligraphers) or brush, you'll find the lines on the iPad just aren't what you are used to seeing. That said, the iPad works well enough for notetaking in Japanese/Chinese.

When the quality of the strokes does matter, I just write with pen/brush and paper, and then scan it into a PDF. The really cool thing about Evernote is that the app doesn't care -- PDF or text, it will hold onto my notes for me

[nova47 60]

How about pens? I have been watching these guys for the past few weeks (http://handstylus.com/) and so far compared to what I have seen on the market, they offer the most realistic stylus writing experience yet... however, I am excited to see user reviews.

I jumped in on the funding of handstylus on Kickstarter. It's set to ship in July and I'll post a review here as soon as it arrives.

[Aeryon 6]

I jumped in on the funding of handstylus on Kickstarter. It's set to ship in July and I'll post a review here as soon as it arrives.

Please do! I am anxious to see how the pen turned out!

[Bojan011 27]

I am also not very fond of Penultimate. I purchased it simply, because it became Evernote app. I don't even feel the integration. Just a lousy app, that doesn't do me too much good and requires a stylus.

Sorry for slander, but you gotta up your game in this department.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

I am also not very fond of Penultimate. I purchased it simply, because it became Evernote app. I don't even feel the integration. Just a lousy app, that doesn't do me too much good and requires a stylus.

Sorry for slander, but you gotta up your game in this department.

Hi. It doesn't seem like slander. It's your opinion about the app. The integration is there in the settings, where you can choose how you want your notes sent to Evernote. This is a step beyond most apps, which require you to "open in" Evernote from a drop-down list of ten apps. In my case, with lots of apps, Evernote doesn't appear in the list (I have a lot of apps on my devices) so it is very inconvenient to use other apps. I expect the integration will get even better in the future.

For notetaking, I have found that I need a zoom box to do well with the iPad, so I don't use Penultimate as much as I would like. I do expect that Penultimate will improve in this regard.

You can certainly use Penultimate without a stylus. However, like every notetaking app, it does better with a stylus. A good stylus is only $10, so it is no big deal, in my opinion. I think you will still want to use a stylus with it, because no one I have seen so far has been able to improve on the stylus input. I know Steve Jobs was against it, but I am afraid writing tools like styluses simply work better than stubby fingers

[titanstrides 2]

I would say writing with a stylus on the iPad is actually pretty nice. I've written my thoughts on some of the applications available out there.

How about pens? I have been watching these guys for the past few weeks (http://handstylus.com/) and so far compared to what I have seen on the market, they offer the most realistic stylus writing experience yet... however, I am excited to see user reviews.

I would really love to take notes in class on my ipad, but going against ye ol' pen and paper feel the cons still outweigh the pros.

*Grumpy- Of those you have tried... which has been best for practicing/writing kanji?

i have tried a couple styli and have had pretty good results. i started with the Wacom Bamboo stylus. this one was not bad, but shares the same problem that most styli do... they use a fat rubber nib on the writing end, which makes it hard to see where exactly you are writing. i also noticed that the nib started to crack open after only about 2 months of use (they sell extra replacement nibs) i recently purchased the Adonit Jot Pro and absolutely love it! it is one of those that uses a clear disk on the end of the pen to simulate a finger press, yet allows you to see exactly where your pen is writing. a couple of drawbacks are that this type of stylus is much more fragile at the tip, and it makes an audible clicking noise as you write on the ipad, but other than that i have loved using this stylus!

[The_Wall 1]

We're patiently waiting for the new update from Penultimate. The app has a powerful inking experience, however the feature set is still pretty primitive and I honestly can't use it for my primary note taking purpose. I'm switching to Notes Plus application (www.notesplusapp.com), they have a full-featured set, especially the close-up writing box (zoomed writing) which delivery the best inking result and recordings for lectures. Would love to see Penultimate comes up with revamped UI then I'm surely check back to use this app. So far Penultimates works fast!

[PFF 1]

We're patiently waiting for the new update from Penultimate. The app has a powerful inking experience, however the feature set is still pretty primitive and I honestly can't use it for my primary note taking purpose. I'm switching to Notes Plus application (www.notesplusapp.com), they have a full-featured set, especially the close-up writing box (zoomed writing) which delivery the best inking result and recordings for lectures. Would love to see Penultimate comes up with revamped UI then I'm surely check back to use this app. So far Penultimates works fast!

I too have abandoned Penultimate for the time being due to the limited feature set. Using Notability now but the lack of EN integration is the biggest knock.

To the question re: styli, I've been using the Wacom Bamboo since first of the year and find it's the best of the lot I've tried. A little pricey at $30USD but worth it in my opinion. Good enough that I rarely switch back to my Moleskine any more.