Being a geek you’d think I’d be really into it by now. I’ve been too exhausted, which is sad because I’ve just started 2 weeks leave from my work.

I did manage to find a use for it on Wednesday night. I “saved the trees” by putting a couple of pdf files on it so I could refer to it at a meeting. But on Friday I had to bite my tongue when in a meeting with some other people and mention was made of “wankers with iPads” (they still don’t know I have one).

I bought this stylus pen. A curious contraption that looks like an ordinary pen but otherwise with a rubber dome on the writing end. I tried making written notes with it in a couple of note taking apps I’d bought very cheaply. I could detect the rubber dome on the stylus pen wasn’t dragging across the iPad’s surface as smoothly as it should be. The effect being my hand written notes looked much like the ones I would’ve made when I was 3 years old.

My “saviour” came today in the form of a book. Head First iPhone & iPad Development, which I bought from Amazon. I might not be able to write properly on my iPad but I’m dam well going to make it pay for itself with the apps I’m going to develop.

I have a stylus pen, but I only use it to tap links etc when my fingertip isn’t small enough.

Erik has a couple too and like Madmouse he uses it to tap on teeny-tiny links and keys.  I have a stylus but it’s not a regular one but rather is used to draw on my Wacom tablet.  It does work with links keys etc. that show on the screen and I CAN tell you that these kinds of pens work best when using software that is designed for them if you’re trying to write.  The results are only as good as the software.

I don’t have a stylus for my iPad. I use my finger. If something seems too small to touch-click I use the two-finger stretch to zoom in the screen and make it bigger.

I’ll try using my finger then. I did however have a good experience using Evernote last night, probably because I’ve already been using it on my iPhone and Mac. Although I don’t know what it would be like to use Evernote to take notes at a client meeting.

Even though I bought a 3G iPad so far I’ve just been connecting it to my Mac, with WiFi. I’ll check out the 3G sims from the different companies here but I’m in no hurry.

So far I’ve managed to avoid getting an ipad although it seems to be the rage with all the guys here at work.

Well the note taking apps I bought for use with the stylus pen are Penultimate, Mental Note (which is really just an iPhone app that gets stretches on the iPad) and Noteshelf. Noteshelf at least has a feature where you can rest your wrist on the screen without it leaving marks. But even with Noteshelf I haven’t mastered satisfactory writing with the stylus pen.

I also downloaded Dan Bricklin’s Note TakerLite but that too is just an iPhone app that you need to stretch on the iPad. Plus it seems a bit confusing to me.

Peter, frankly, when I take notes it’s much faster if I type them….............I may be able to draw but my handwriting is beyond even my ability to read!  I’d use my stylus if I need to draw a diagram though!

Now I really know I have email. After having my iPad connected to my Mac on WiFi when an email comes in I get an audible alert from from all 3 sources, i.e. my Mac, my iPhone and my iPad.

It’s called ‘WAKE UP!’

hulitoons - 04 December 2011 12:01 AM

Peter, frankly, when I take notes it’s much faster if I type them….............I may be able to draw but my handwriting is beyond even my ability to read!  I’d use my stylus if I need to draw a diagram though!

I think I see what you mean. I was typing something in Evernote and I found that to be a good experience.

I’m having an off and on again relationship with Evernote. Sometimes it seems too slow but after I changed a setting it seems OK now. But it’s still in the back of my mind it might get slow again. I’ll check out other apps when I can.

I don’t even have an IPad, I feel so out of the loop.  I like a real keyboard.