Cloudweavers

I’ve recently bought an Apple iPad (v2), for apps development, for LabsPhoenix business support (Zendesk, Remember the Milk, Freshbooks), for mobile reading (Safari Books Online) and.. alas… gaming (Civilization Revolution, Pirates!, and a couples others).

All theses apps have a common trait: I’ve used them before getting an iPad. So, it’s only a new mobile medium to access services to which I already subscribe – nothing very interesting there – not worth making a blog post about it. However, there was one feature I wanted to test: the ability to use the iPad as a notebook.

Peoples around me knows I’ve always been carrying notebooks, normally some Moleskine as I like their paper and form factor… so switching to an application is kind of a big change, as the tactile experience is different – but I’ve been forcing myself to go through a full month before going back to pen & paper. Here is the process I’ve followed and the apps I’ve tried. YMMV.

3 notes applications

I’ve tried Bamboo Paper (free*), PenUltimate (1.99$) and Notes Plus (4.99$). The order is quite important, because otherwise, I might have ended with a different solution.

So Bamboo paper was the first. Installed in my first series of apps – it did the job as advertised. Nice sketching feedback, a bit imprecise for writing (so I bought a series of different Stylus) – it reminded me of my Toshiba Portege M200 Tablet PC… a few years back.

After 2 weeks, I’ve discovered that Bamboo Paper offered a multiple notebooks (up to 20) feature for 1.99$ ; It was too late, I already moved to PenUltimate – recommended by a colleague. The drawing experience of Bamboo Paper was the best of all apps, however, the initial lack of multiple notebooks (option is hard to see, its hidden inside the app.) and the fact that I really don’t see how I could manage a 200+ pages notebooks, with a mix of sections for clients, for blog post drafts, for quick notes… made me switch. However, I do plan to get the Bamboo Pen/Stylus as soon as it become available again.

PenUltimate, second best drawing apps, a bit harder to write with than bamboo paper (anti-aliasing isn’t as great), is an obvious upgrade for features list. Notebooks management is better (with ‘last opened page’ shown), native multiple notebooks support, inside a notebook you get thumbnails of all its pages… I used it for a week, until someone mentioned “Notes Plus”, which “I had to try” (I do have a good purchasing budget for business related apps – so 5$ is negligible).

Notes Plus doesn’t worth anything for drawing. Seriously. I’ve tried copying network schema I drafted in Bamboo Paper (awesome) and Penultimate (acceptable) – it was an utter failure. Add to that a very bad anti-aliasing applied AFTER you lift your tracing devices*, which make it weird, unnatural and a totally uninteresting experience. I almost ditched the app because of that.. but… the developer website spoke of an impending new version, so I decided to stick around a bit.

The, I tried it to take notes. Impressive. Very. I mean, writing a structured text, the application feature a perfectly designed auto-advancing magnifying glass. It takes all the negative aspect of using an imprecise stylus and output good looking text. Good looking enough to be able to use the “send page” feature to send it directly to a client.

Notes Plus text entry mode

So, for now, Notes Plus does worth the 5$. It is my main notes taking application for the last week and a new version with enhanced anti-aliasing is planned for end-of-month of July. So… It might be a keeper.

** Selection of the stylus/pen is the subject of another post, currently being drafted.