Penultimate 6.0.4 Released

[cifip 270]

Hi all,

 

We released Penultimate 6.0.4 to the App Store earlier today.

 

What’s new:

• Support for the new Jot Script 2 Evernote Edition stylus
  • A brand new stylus from Evernote and Adonit
  • Faster, smoother, more precise, and rechargeable
  • Also includes 6 months of Evernote Premium
  • The Pen, Mightier: Meet the Jot Script 2 - Evernote Blog
• Faster and more accurate Jot Script performance with the latest Adonit Jot Touch SDK
  • More improvements to the overall writing experience
  • Upgraded to Adonit JotTouch SDK 2.7.0.2147
• Added ability to split large notes automatically
  • Notes too large to sync? We'll split your large notes for you within the same notebook
• Improved syncing and large note editing experience

 

Please let us know what you think.

 

You can download the Penultimate app from the App Store.

 

You can order the new Jot Script 2 Evernote Edition Stylus from the Evernote Market.

 

Cheers!

 

[PizzaFiend 10]

I've been running this version on my iPad mini (first edition).

There is a noticeable delay that occurs every few seconds, so that my writing isn't captured, and then sometimes catches up, or sometimes malforms my writing. The battery level of my Jot Script (first edition) was reporting about 50% in the app, so I tried using a passive stylus to see if the delay remained, and it did.

Palm rejection (wrist guard) using a passive stylus now seems to be nonexistent- it used to be pretty good.

I'd ordered a Jot Script 2, so will try again once it arrives. That said, Penultimate V6 needs to support the Jot 1 and passive styli...

[PizzaFiend 10]

Okay. So I received my Jot Script 2 today and gave this another try, this time on my iPad Air. It is much, much better. I then tried out my Jot 1 and passive stylus, and those also worked great, with no noticeable delay and good palm rejection. I'll go back to my iPad mini and try again later this week.

The Jot Script 2, by the way, is really good.

[PizzaFiend 10]

All right, you've sold me. This is by far and away the best v6 release so far. I'm even starting to like it better than v5.3.1...

 

I'd been at a conference this week and was taking a lot of notes, running this version on my iPad Air, whereas in the past I would've re-installed v5.3.1 for this. 

 

First off, the writing is excellent! I tried a Jot Script 1, Jot Script 2, and a passive stylus and all were very good, but especially the new Jot Script 2. Regardless of the stylus I used, the ink flows better, the drift speed was good, and I never had a single palm mark. One of the things that I like best about using the Jot Script 2 with this version is that I don't even need to bother turning it on or off; it just connects and is ready to go as soon as I open a note! I wasn't expecting that. Excellent!

 

Second, I also found myself taking notes in landscape mode (using the Smart Cover as a stand) because it was a comfortable way to take notes while sitting at the conference table. It worked very well for me; better than v5.3.1 does in this orientation.

 

Once I got home, I uninstalled and re-installed v6.0.4 on my iPad mini, and that seems to have solved many problems that I was having with weird delays and palm marks. It is much improved over how it was behaving a week ago.

 

Long story short, I've come around to really liking this version. I'll keep it installed.

 

Thank you!

[Loperation 1]

It's quite frightening that nobody else is posting any replies on this update, feels as if everyone simply gave up on Penultimate after 6.0.3… I appreciate PizzaFiend's comments, but it'd be useful if anyone else who has dared to use this update could share their thoughts.

To be honest, I reverted to 5.3.1 after the fiasco of the version 6 introduction (lost a full 56 page notebook to that disaster, which I had to rebuild from scratch) and haven't bothered with trying out the previous updates based on the comments that I read for those, as I can't risk losing more information.

[TeachTrapp 0]

I have had no issues with the latest version of Penultimate but I was wondering, is there a way to download notes (or PDFS or any other type of file) directly into Penultimate so that my students can write on the notes? This would be most useful for in class use. Thanks.

[Loperation 1]

I have had no issues with the latest version of Penultimate but I was wondering, is there a way to download notes (or PDFS or any other type of file) directly into Penultimate so that my students can write on the notes? This would be most useful for in class use. Thanks.

 

From what I know, actual download of a document can't be done into Penultimate (unless it's a Penultimate notebook) but I do something similar; it's not actually downloading the notes or PDF files, but rather capturing images of the document and pasting them on a notebook in Penultimate. As a matter of fact, that's how I managed to recover the notebook I lost when version 6 was introduced: fortunately the notebook had been previously synced to Evernote so I had to take images of each of the 56 pages and then pasted them on a new notebook once I had downgraded back to 5.3.1.

 

Hope it's useful for you.

[rborgner52 0]

I have been playing with the app for a few days, using a precision touch stylus, which I like very much (even though my bamboo stylus works fine). I guess for now my only compliant is that the scrolling feature is too fast for me, and my note taking or handwriting gets stretched out. Wish there was some way to fine tune it. Otherwise, I prefer the system that U-Pad uses, where the magnifying window moves as your handwriting moves to the right. 

 

If they come up with a way to adjust the scrolling speed I would really like this app, with its ease of syncing with Evernote.

[Loperation 1]

So I decided to give this version a shot and tried it out, here are my thoughts and comments (comparisons relate directly to the last truly functional version, 5.3.1, which I'm  fortunate enough to still have):

 

• Scrolling pages: it's a feature that can be useful (at least I find it so) but seriously people, are you gonna insist with this as the only way and not even give the user the option to either use page flip or scroll? There are types of notes for which scrolling can be very useful, but others work better with flipping. Therefore, it should even be a choice on a notebook-by-notebook basis.
• Zoom box and drift speed: it's been seriously improved since the initial rollout of version 6, it behaves a lot closer to the way it did in version 5.3.1. Very good.
• Writing directly on the page: as opposed to what I've seen from many forum members, I still prefer writing with my finger and I've found many people that use iPads share that method, thinking it's not worth to spend money on styli among other reasons. Considering this, I've found that direct finger writing is still below par compared to what 5.3.1 was. I tried all three wrist positions but none worked truly well. The fact that the pages scroll instead of flipping doesn't help, because many times the app gets confused with the palm on the screen and tries to scroll the page, interrupting writing capture.
• Landscape writing: However, there is a HUGE plus: finger writing improves significantly when in landscape orientation. And the option to rotate pages is an interesting feature but with a negative aspect: page rotation should be an option for each page, not only for all pages. The problem with the app confusing the wrist with the scrolling gesture still happens this way, but much less frequently.
• Useful 'medium zoom': Related to the previous point, writing with the iPad in landscape orientation but with the page in portrait mode creates a sort of medium-sized zoom option, with the possibility to enhance it using the actual zoom box, which constitutes a neat alternative that wasn't possible in 5.3.1.
• No more lag: Also, the terrible lag that used to exist with the first version 6 has mostly disappeared. There are random moments when it does happen a little, but nothing critical and hardly noticeable most of the time.
• Image pasting and usage: this was a real headache when version 6 first came out, but it's been seriously improved and now works fine from what I saw during my tests.
• Clearing page contents: a nuisance in this version, 5.3.1 was simple, just tap the eraser tool twice to display the 'clear contents' option and tap it again; now I have to go to the sidebar, tap 'Edit', select the page and then select 'clear contents'. An absolutely unnecessary addition of steps.
• Pen tool thickness: the additional thickness options are very useful, particularly for writing small text in zoom mode.
• Permanent spots on page: Many users noted that previous rollouts of version 6 had an issue in which lines and spots that appeared on the page due to the wrist touching the screen wouldn't disappear when using the eraser tool and would just vanish if the notebook was closed and then reopened. I experienced this issue recurrently so it's rather surprising that it hasn't been fixed. Not good at all.
• Writing recognition stops occasionally: Sometimes, the app simply stops recognizing the writing movements on the screen. When this happened, I had to press the undo button and then redo to have it recognize my finger writing on the screen again.

Considering all of these points, I'm still not fully convinced to switch from 5.3.1. There are indeed significant improvements compared to the original version 6 fiasco, but my reluctance (and moderate skepticism) lies in the fact that several of these issues/observations have been mentioned before in this forum by other users when versions 6.0.1 to 3 were rolled out and yet haven't been addressed to this day. To me, that shows a rather arrogant position from Evernote to repeatedly disregard suggestions from loyal customers whose interest has only been to have the best handwriting app, like the one Penultimate used to be up until 5.3.1.

 

I'm sure for many users you just used up the time they gave you to fix the version 6 debacle. Even though there are clear improvements, it's been almost 6 months since that first happened and still you haven't delivered 100%, and that's not justifiable and way below par for a company like Evernote. A true shame.

 

As I can still use 'good old version 5.3.1', I'll try again if and when 6.0.5 comes out. I can only hope my comments/suggestions don't fall on deaf ears…

[SureshRaja1 2]

I tried the latest version today with Jot Script 2: the note closes inadvertently when I am writing. Please fix That!

Believe me I have no such issues with Goodnotes. I cannot believe that penultimate works poorly with the latest and greatest Jot Script 2 and just superb with other third party apps like goodnotes.

In addition to the above problem, do have dots and lines where my palm rests and again these issues are not there in goodnotes. Goodnotes is just smooth.

I have got to say this: The latest update in Notability app with palm rejection works like a charm without a Bluetooth stylus and specifically with Jot Script 2 Bluetooth turned off! Why do you need Jot Script 2 or a Bluetooth stylus!

Thought Evernote meant quality and is no longer valid because of Penultimate and Jot Script 2. At the least Jot Script 2 is a little better because Evernote did not make it t,

Note this: I am a long time Evernote Premium Subscriber!

Shameful!