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?"

iPad with a keyboard?

[davecrusoe]

IPad with a fold-up keyboard? Taking notes with a small stylus (quickly) seems really hard -- end up spending more time to correct the notes taken than keeping pace with the lecture and notes that need to be taken.

Recording

[bonch]

Why not record the lecture? A stylus doesn't provide a very good handwriting experience, and not using one would allow her to use an iPad.

Re:Recording

[BlackSnake112]

Maybe because faculty do not want to be recorded? When I was in school I did ask to record the classes. Most of the faculty were against it. This was 20 years ago (dam I am old) it might be different today. I would ask before recording class.

The original is still the best.

[Bocaj]

After trying many options over the years I still find the tried and true paper version [pendaflex.com] works the best. I recommend a small netbook + real notepad. There is just no real substitute for paper yet. I love das blinkinlights as much as anyone but when it comes to a classroom environment, a paper and pencil just works. Especially for math formulas. The only college classes where I used a computer to take notes were programming ones. A laptop or netbook works better because you can use VI or other editor of your choice to copy code examples much more quickly. Also doesn't hurt to be able to actually compile and test something right then and there.

Re:Recording

[Big Smirk]

My best notes were actually in pen.... more precisely a multi-colored pen. Black for subject headings, blue for text, green for examples, red for important stuff. I have very good memory recall for things like that and it worked well for me. A combination of actually writing down the notes, plus a vivid image in my head what the notes looked like, I found it really easy to recall exactly where in my notes a subject was covered.
The problem I have with electronic note taking is that I have little concept on approximately where in my notes something is.. Was it on page 10, 20 or 30? With a physical notepad, I always had a rough idea.
Of course I'm older, and my brain never grew up on I-pads.

Re:None

[bizard]

Having spent three semesters now taking notes on an iPad I couldn't disagree more. In physics and astrophysics classes it is quite common to want to add plots and other figures to your notes. If you have them at hand (ie googled for them) then you are correct and a laptop is as good. However, it is much more frequent that you simply need to add a quick figure or write down an equation with more greek letters than you feel like pseudo-latexing out. Switch the the pen, zoom in for smoothing or detail work, result is better generally than pen and paper. Since most of the content is typed, there is not 'recognition' problem. I have had a professor ask for my notes since they were more detailed than his slides (incorporating what he was saying as well).