When I got my iPad back in December, I mostly used it as a means to surf the web, watch Netflix, read, and play the occasional game. Oh, I blogged on it a bit, too, and I figured it would be great for taking notes and the like, but I quickly found that extended typing on the glass surface led to aching fingertips. Besides, when trying to work things out and get creative, there is something very powerful about the old fashioned pen and paper approach. Determined to see if I could get the same power out of my iPad, I started researching handwriting apps.
After going through several, I was largely disappointed by what was out there — until I discovered Noteshelf.
Now, to be fair, I originally went with Penultimate, which has an excellent natural feel when you write — and gets extra awesome points for it’s freeness. However, I still felt like I was missing something. So, when my friend and colleague Daniel Gold recommended Noteshelf to me, I grudgingly gave it a shot, despite it’s $4.99 price tag. I’m cheap when it comes to app purchases, but I figured I could hold him responsible if it sucked.
It didn’t.
In fact, it rocked so much that I use it all the time, even though my handwriting is absolutely atrocious. Noteshelf has all of the features I could want or need:
- Excellent natural feel when writing
- Different pen sizes and colours
- Wrist protection that works
- Zoom writing
- Just as functional in landscape mode as portrait mode
- Unlimited undo and redo (until you leave the page, anyway)
- Notebook templates for writing, drawing, task and day planning, meeting notes, shopping lists, journal writing, graphing, and music
- A bookshelf view to easily organize notebooks
- Dynamic line-sizing for easy and clean jumps to the next line on a page
- Photo embedding and annotation
- Backup and restore functionality
The kicker, though, is Noteshelf’s sharing capabilities. You can print and export notes as .jpegs and .pdfs, configuring by page or as an entire notebook — by email, iTunes, your iPad photo album, and (Yay!!) Dropbox and Evernote! That’s all kinds of awesome, right there! Nothing quite like being able to quickly scrawl down several pages worth of ideas, and then send them to your out-of-brain-brain for easy searching with Evernote’s OCR. Even writing as bad as mine gets picked up. Mostly…
I can’t say enough that’s good about Noteshelf. If you have an iPad, and have a want or need to use it as a notebook that will get you on the path to being well and truly paperless, you need to go and get it. Right now.
What’s your favourite handwriting app for tablets?
Father’s Day Tech-and-Stuff: Gimme!
Ladies and gentlemen, it is upon us once again! You know what I mean… that one day a year when those of us who are fathers are shown the respect we so richly deserve — and are showered with gifts and free dinners. Well, gifts, anyway.
Sure, the gifts are often things like ties and aftershave and the like, but at 40Tech, we believe in the power of dreams! We believe that if we can imagine it – and most especially: if we can geek on it – that it just might become a reality some day. That may be nothing more than pie in the sky, and possibly even farcical – but we care not! This is a tech-blog dammit! And for our Father’s Day we demand (see: dream about/hope for) TECH!!!
So what really cool gadget do you hope you get this Father’s Day? Not a daddy? *eyes you* Well then tell us what cool little tech thingy you’re getting for your dad, instead!
Here’s my list:
The Millennium Falcon
Yeah, yeah, I know that it’s not real – but a guy can dream, right? In the meantime, I’ll take the toys. I miss the full-sized Falcon I had back in the day – and not just for the crazy amount it’s worth these days…
Battalion 101 X8100-U3 Gaming Laptop
This little (OK, so not so little) beauty will play most any game you can think of, and will do it in style.
A Real Life Transformer
I don’t know what’s really going on here, but I want one. It doesn’t really transform into anything, that I can tell – but it sings! It’s a crooner, in fact. And… I want one!!
Let’s be clear: I don’t actually expect to get any of these things. Nor do I expect to get the more accessible iPad2 or anything other than a nice hug and possibly a home made card from my cute little girl – and I will love and cherish those much simpler things until the end of days and beyond.
But a guy can dream, dammit!
Your turn!