Note taking applications.

I have had my iPad for about 6 months now, and it has certainly changed the way I use computers. It has become the one device that I use the most. Even more than my work laptop - but that has a lot to do with the amount of time I am spending in meetings these days.

In meetings I do use my iPad for note taking. The most common application I use for that is Evernote. I like that it automatically synchs my notes back to my computer. I have been taking monthly subscriptions to the premium service so I can have offline notebooks as well. The one short coming I find is that I cannot draw with Evernote. So I have started looking for another program to fill the gap.

I have been using Adobe Ideas for a bit as well. It is good. I like the zoom in and out capability. It also smooths out jittery lines nicely. But it does not work so well for written notes. The new version allows for emailing of completed drawings. I would like some better interop with Evernote.

With Evernote's Trunk feature there was an app called Inkest. I gave it a try. It seems to be geared towards artist who would like to sketch. I didn't find that it worked well for written notes. It does allow for drawings to be saved to Evernote's web site (not the local app). If you are connected that doesn't page much difference, but if you are not connected you will have to remember to Upload your notes latter.

On to my third try. InkShelf. It has a nice notebook interface similar to iBooks. Some templates that help get things organized. It does have the nicest writing experience ... The ink flows really nice. The multipage paradigm within a notebook is nice. It does allow you to pick different papers for your notebooks, which is nice, but it is a choice for the entire notebook, so if you want lined paper on one page and grid paper on the next, tough. It does allow you to save your notebooks to both Dropbox and Evernote.

There are two features from all of these that I am still looking for. The ability for the app to transcribe cursive writing into typed notes and the ability to edit the notes once they have been saved to a cloud mechanism.

I have used penultimate on other peoples iPads. It seems nice, but I think I prefer InkShelf.

The next thing I need to get is a stylus.