Ask Slashdot: What's a Good Tablet/App Combination For Note-Taking?

EmagGeek writes "My wife recently started back to school to finish her 4-year degree, and one of the things that we've been considering is procuring for her some kind of tablet that would enable her to take notes in class and save them electronically. This would obviate the need to carry around a bunch of paper, and could even be used to store e-textbooks so she doesn't have to lug 30lbs of books around campus. At minimum, she would have to be able to write freehand on the tablet with a fine-point stylus, just like she would write on paper with a pen. We've seen what we call those 'fat finger' styli and found that they are not good for fine writing. Having become frustrated with the offerings we've tried so far, I thought I would ping the Slashdot Community. Any suggestions?"

Comments

Evernote, blue tooth keyboard/case combo.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm just finishing a graduate program and my iPad and bluetooth keyboard/case combo have definitely made the long treks across campus easier. Evernote is fantastic for note taking and it has a feature that allows you to record audio... great for snagging lectures and random professor rants. Evernote syncs what you write/record to the cloud which has allowed me to have access to my materials anywhere. And I haven't lost a note yet!

Word of warning: If she is going to use a tablet for taking notes, the external keyboard is a must. Before I picked mine up, my wrists were aching after even short typing sessions in class.

Re:Evernote, blue tooth keyboard/case combo.

[DarenN]

Use some kind of tablet/e-reader for your books, but use paper to take notes. Physical writing has several advantages, not least that the act of writing aids recall later. You take notes in class, and refine them and tidy them afterwards - this serves the double purpose of going over the content twice, and having to understand it better to condense it for the notes you store. Messing with multiple pens, or using a device in class disrupts your concentration and hence makes everything harder than it needs to be.

Memory, recall and learning (understanding concepts) are fairly complex and everyone's slightly different. The above is my own take on it.

If you go that way, the Kindle works quite well for displaying papers (with graphs and the like) although there's no colour for diagrams. I find that the grey background and no back-light with black text is easier on your eyes particularly if you'll be studying those books intensively over a longer period. This is a concern because as your eyes get tired it affects the rate at which you can take things in and you will need more frequent breaks or lose concentration. Anything with a reflective screen should be right out - the shine if the lights are on can make it difficult to read. Don't pick something too bright either, you'll distract those around you!

Best of luck to your wife

Old School

[2names]

A pen and some paper. This method is proven to increase later recall of the subject matter. [too lazy to provide citation]

Re:Old School

[godrik]

and you write and annotate much faster on paper. If you want to keep electronic tracks of what you are doing, you can always take pictures of it. I take pictures of my white board all the time, and that works well for me.

Computer note taking is painful in my opinion.

Re:Old School

[AshtangiMan]

I'll second this. I have always found that the act of writing the notes goes a long way towards remembering what was written. I will rarely need to refer back to the notes. I tried taking a laptop for a while and typing the notes but for me this did not have the same effect, and it would often take me a long time to find what I had typed (somehow it was context free, whereas when I did have to find something in my written notes I would know what part of the page it was on).

Re:Old School

[ColdWetDog]

Paper - means trees, or if recycled paper is used, tracks to deliver, and rest that you can imagine. Pens - chemicals. And then to save notes - you'll scan or retype it?

Go around and watch closely how much paper / trees you use a day. Particularly at lunch. Then look at the couple of pieces of paper you would use to take notes.

Then get some perspective.

None

[Manip]

No tablet as exists today are incapable of taking good usable notes, or if they are (Microsoft OneNote running on a Samsung Series 7 with Windows 7) then they certainly won't exceed a regular laptop with a keyboard. People love to claim the technology is up to that stage but as someone who has foolishly wasted more money that I would like to admit on the tablet dream, I can tell you that, no, you're just wasting money.

The "main issue" I've found is two things, first off handwriting recognition is crap. Secondly that even when it works there isn't any real integration with the rest of the system, so the resulting text and diagrams is an uncategorised orphan unusable by anything of use.

Android and iOS are great consumers of content but they're terrible producers. The software is lacking, the interface designs are arse-backwards, and all it ultimately results in is an inefficient irritating system that you might have well not use. Things like the Android Transformer almost prove my point for me by opting for a keyboard and Microsoft Word-clone like software to increase your productivity. If the fact that the best Android can do is to copy a "normal" laptop then that is as damning of a statement of the state of tablets as I can tell.

Not all text

[pavon]

Unless she is getting her degree in the humanities, there will be parts of the lecture that include equations, graphs, and diagrams that are hard to input with a keyboard. Nothing beats handwriting for that sort of content.

Re:Not all text

[martas]

"professor, could you pause for 25 minutes while I peruse 10 different Latex boards to figure out how to create a \lessgtr with symbols both above and below?"

Re:Not all text

[hism]

Statements like these make me embarrassed to be in the sciences for two reasons. First, for asserting that people in my discipline believe that there's nothing worthy in human knowledge in the humanities; and second, for suggesting that people in the sciences are just doing it for the earning power. These statements demonstrate a narrow perspective of the world. And speaking of that, I'd like to point out that there are plenty of countries where it is fully possible to get an education without "enormous undischargeable debt."

Re:Not all text

[Chicken_Kickers]

WTF is this shit? Never have I met people more hostile to the field of humanities then on the internet. I am a biochemist and I have nothing but respect for the humanities. Who do you think designed all the art in Skyrim? Who do you think wrote, produced and sung the songs on your iPods? Who made the movies that you obsess over? Who researched and wrote the books and encylopedias about ancient history, WWII etc. that fascinated you? Who taught you grammar, math, P.E., even science at school? Stop being such an arrogant douche. The world does not revolve around programmers. Ironically, some people in the hard sciences don't consider programming to be a science at all.

LiveScribe Echo

[Big Hairy Goofy Guy]

This doesn't meet the ground rules you laid out, but you could consider taking notes on paper and then getting electronic copies of them.

I'm thinking of the Livescribe products. It's a smart pen/dot paper combination. The big additional win from the Echo or Pulse smartpen is that it will record audio while notetaking. There is an add-on app for the pen that lets you use it as a stylus for your mouse cursor on the laptop (the pen must be tethered to the laptop with a usb cable). I've never used that aspect of the pen.

The recorded audio can be cued up after class by just pointed to the note you wrote at the same time, as well as by more normal play/pause/scrub controls.

Also, the handwritten text can be searched in the base desktop application. There is an additional software that will convert the handwritten image to fully editable text - but again, I haven't bought it or used it.

You can also send complete audio/image combinations to an online account and sync them with your iPad/iPhone, so you don't need to carry around all your notebooks just to read them, though you will need them if you'd like to take new notes (assuming you keep one notebook per class, as intended)

To be honest, I bought this long after school, because I thought it was so damn cool. I haven't had much call to use it, so I can't really be for or against it. Anyone else use it in an actual class?

http://www.livescribe.com/

Time consuming to play back

[pavon]

Recording is nice because you get all the content, however, it is much slower to retrieve that content than flipping through notes. I've known several people who tried recording lectures, and only one who actually used them after-words. I for one hate it when information online is only provided in video form. Having my notes in that form would drive me crazy. Video is best as a supplement for notes in situations where you have a professor that covers material not in the book, doesn't post good lecture notes, and insists on lecturing faster than you can write. In other situations it is just a hassle.

And like others mentioned, not all schools/professors allow recording of lectures.

and not using one would allow her to use an iPad.

So? Why choose a device that doesn't meet your needs and work around it, when there are devices that do?

Don't take notes

[ShavedOrangutan]

I found it to be more useful to do all the day's reading ahead of class and then don't bother taking any notes. Just listen and pay attention. And ask questions.

Before that, I'd go in clueless and spend the whole class furiously taking notes. I'd miss major points and then go home with incomplete notes that I'd never have time to review anyways.

Probably that and learning how to prioritize are how I went from nearly flunking out to a 4.0 on an overload schedule.

Re:thinkpad iPad.

[gbjbaanb]

or there's the Samsung Galaxy Note that is basically an oversized Galaxy S2, but comes with a stylus.

Re:Recording

[rocketPack]

+1

I am CURRENTLY attending classes and there are professors who specifically state - both during the first lecture and in their syllabus - that any recording, copying, video taping, etc. is strictly forbidden. I know you may think it is odd (I agree), and I should ignore those rules or this and that, but why would I want to piss off the person who submits my grade?

Plus, there is a significant enhancement in the amount of information you remember when you involve more senses - seeing and hearing is great, but when you add the process of recreating what you see it engages a lot more of your brain and gives you a better chance to remember and process information. That is particularly useful when you're in the process of learning (your brain is highly receptive to the intake of information) and you have the ability to get answers to questions or clarification before you cement information in your brain (after you leave).

Bottom line, taking notes is a valuable part of learning. Using computers to enhance note quality, as well as accessibility and retention is a brilliant idea that warrants far more attention (IMO) than it has received.

Re:iPad with a keyboard?

[Anonymous Coward]

I never understood the concept of ipad + keyboard. Why is it practical to have laptop that is split in two parts?
Why not get iPad and and 104 separate bluetooth keys.