Penultimate, Notetaker HD, Notability, Soundnote, NotesPlus

PenUltimate - This is a simple, not a lot of frills app. It allows you to take notes and that is it. It has thinner ink so you can get more on the page but it does not have "close up writing" (see other apps). It does not have search or tags. But if you want to keep it simple for your students just starting out the lack of features may work to your advantage. One thing I really liked is that I sent a notebook with all its the pages together in one pdf to my Evernote account. So having an Evernote account can be a real advantage because now my note is saved to the cloud and I can tag it later for search and retrieval.

Penultimate Review with video by apps for ipad; Oct. 2010

NoteTaker HD - This is has more features like the close up writing box, search, tagging, it has more background papers you can choose from. This is a more full featured note taking app. Therefore it does have a learning curve to it but not something that would discourage me from using with students but there is more here to teach students on how to use this app efficiently. I like it.

NoteTaker HD Review with video - Oct 2010

NoteTaker HD New Features - Nov 2010

NoteTaker HD Latest UPDATE -  May 2011

Notability (Click here for full review April 2011)

Pros Excellent web clipping feature. Can mark up images or sketch new ones. Robust text customization tools. 

Cons High list price. Classifying notes into 'Subjects' is confusing.

Bottom Line Notability is a dream to use if you need a note-taking app that supports web clipping and the ability to draw and type on top of images. But if you don't need these features, free apps will do the job just as well.

Soundnote - It can record snippets of audio with surprising clarity while I type or draw.  The sound quality is pretty good for larger office conference room. I can share the files (notes and audio) via Dropbox, wifi or email.

Soundnote Video Review - Feb 2011

Notes Plus - This is a full featured note taking app. Here are some of its features:

• unlimited depth of subfolders – with Notes Plus, you can create sub folders within sub folders within sub folders, … unlimitedly
• ability to move notebooks and subfolders between folders – total freedom in organizing folders and notebooks – just like Mac’s Finder or Windows’ File Explorer
• ability to copy and duplicate notebooks between subfolders
• ability to copy and duplicate pages between notebooks (this becomes a nice tool for people who want to create a template page and use it across all of their notes)
• comprehensive error checking for folders and notebooks operation – for example, you cannot delete a non-empty folder, you cannot move a page to a read-only notebook, copy a notebook to the same folder become “duplicate” – so name must prefix with “Copy of …
• Password protected folders for private notebook. Instead of marking individual notebooks as password-protected, one just have to lock a folder as password-protected and put all private notebooks in this folder. This way is much more efficient and secure (the name of the notebook won’t be revealed without a password)
• Background recording: start recording, switch to other app (like a browser), the recording still continue until going back to Notes Plus. This feature is requested by many in conferences, meetings, and classes. Also locking the screen doesn’t turn off recording
• Popup dialogue box makes making and naming notebooks and folders simple
• Automated Close-up box

Notes Plus Review with video - Feb 2011

Notes Plus Review with video UPDATE - April 2011