Comments for MacLitigator

Comment on iPad Note Taking Apps Showdown by Louis

Louis — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:27:17 +0000

Hands down, after buying and testing several different apps, Noteshelf takes the cake with the Bamboo stylus. Notability does have the best syncing features with Dropbox, but in terms of comfort and smooth writing and organizing notebooks, Noteshelf combines the best of all of the other apps in one (especially the Penultimate style writing).

Comment on iPad Note Taking Apps Showdown by Donna

Donna — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:52:20 +0000

I greatly appreciate all the comments in this article. I plan to check out NoteShelf and some of the others mentioned. I have been looking for that optimal in meeting note taking app. I like to be able to pre-load my agenda and any documents associated with the meeting into one notebook and then insert blank notebook pages for notes aside from those on the documents.
In an ideal world it would be awesome if my handwritten notes could easily be converted to text, if I could import and annotate upon .doc, .ppt, .xls, and .pdf’s, if I could export individual pages or an entire notebook to dropbox, email, etc. An added bonus would be voice recording that jumped to the spot with accompanying notes like with a LiveScribe pen.
I started using PaperPort notes recently and like that I can insert pages among my imported documents, I have a variety of paper styles to choose from. Recently it added a dragon dictation option as well, which I haven’t tried yet. For the most part I’m pretty happy with it, but the handwriting is not as smooth as I would like and as a lefty, I get palm interference regularly when writing and have to reselect the pen.

I just got Upad lite to try out and also downloaded Notability –
I liked the writing ease of notability, but didn’t like the inability to insert pages into the imported document. I also couldn’t figure out how to add more pages to an existing notebook – it can’t be that jhard, not sure where that feature is though and the intro doesn’t say and the only way I have gotten it to go to the next page is with the keyboard.
In the Upad lite version I have been impressed by the quality of the handwriting, but I do not like that I cannot integrate a memo pad for notes with a book pade for annotations, if someone could tell me more about that type of integration I might be sold more on Upad, but I don’t want to have look in different notebooks for handwritten notes on a page vs notes on a document.

I had a recommendation to also try Ghostwrite so based on their latest updates I may have to try them again.
If anyone knows of an APP with my dream wish list above, let me know please

Comment on TrialPad – Dedicated Presentation App for the iPad by Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:25:00 +0000

Tripp, the idea that successful lawyers should be able to afford to be indiscriminate with their costs is nonsense. Unfortunately, this line of thinking is far too common and that is why there is a deluge of horrible software written for lawyers. If we want better software, we have to expect and demand more.

Pete’s observation that the $90 price tag doesn’t fit within the app store ecosystem is apt. $90 may not be much to spend on a great app that serves your purpose. However, since the app store doesn’t provide a good mechanism for free trials or evaluation periods, we are not being asked to fork out $90 for a great app that serves our purpose, we are being asked to fork out $90 for an app that has some probability of being great and fulfilling our purpose. Considering that I spent about $1200 on apps the first year that I had my ipad and today only use a handful of paid apps, for me that the probability is low. This nature of the app store ecosystem should be by considered by developers when setting a price.

It should also be considered by users when purchasing apps. I knew i was pretty fast and loose when purchasing apps in the beginning, but when i actually went thru the trouble of adding up all of my purchases (which apple makes very hard to do by the way, you can get this from itunes but they render the reports as an image with no selectable text and the font size is too small to OCR accurately) I was astonished that I spent just that much. I encourage everyone to do it, and to figure out the percent of apps they still use. Mine is right about 10%.

So purchasing within the app store model, I’m inclined to pay about 10% of what I would consider a fair value for a comparable desktop app that can be evaluated before purchase. This sucks for the developer and the user, thanks apple.

Comment on iPad Note Taking Apps Showdown by pete

pete — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:54:22 +0000

I like Notability a lot as well. My current favorite note taking app is GoodNotes. It has a really clean interface and the zoom box behaves in a very natural way that makes handwritten notes a breeze.

Comment on iPad Note Taking Apps Showdown by Usedtowork

Usedtowork — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:58:00 +0000

Notability has replaced Note Taker HD for me, it has a very similar feature set but everything is smoother and more streamlined. For sketches of user interfaces etc. I use Penultimate for its outstanding pen rendering, but based on these comments I’ll have to give UPAD a try.

Comment on Circus Ponies Notebook + Dropbox = Joy by Scott

Scott — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:07:32 +0000

A bit more follow up to my last post and how I use GR. I have my entire file scanned and made into a PDF. The PDF has bookmarks and sections within the bookmarks for easy reference. The PDF is ocr’d so it is searchable. As new documents get added to the file a larger PDF is made. I admit I don’t actually do the work of changing the file so maybe it’s a bit harder than I think. this method works quite well for me, but I am always looking for methods to improve upon the system.

Comment on Circus Ponies Notebook + Dropbox = Joy by Scott

Scott — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:22:40 +0000

I use good reader all the time. Wondering if circus ponies would really add much value for me in keeping client trial notebooks? I organize entire notebooks using GR. If I have hand written notes I scan and add them to the file. I have tried many notebook apps but always go back to GR. do you see value in CP above and beyond GR.

Comment on iPad Note Taking Apps Showdown by Thomas Page

Thomas Page — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:59:46 +0000

Would recommend re-visiting both Noteshelf and Notes+ as they both have recent major upgrades. Notes+ has lost all the instability it previously gained after the iOS5 update and the writing smoothness has improved markedly. I like the shape recognition and the ability to select and move chunks of text/drawing/handwriting around on the page. Noteshelf has also had a number of nice new features and improvements, including its writing smoothness. Both now include the ability to import PDFs, although I still prefer GoodReader as a PDF reader and annotation app.

Comment on Date Calculator Roundup + Wolfram Lawyer’s Assistant Review by Wolfram Alpha’s Lawyer’s Professional Assistant |

Wolfram Alpha’s Lawyer’s Professional Assistant | — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:22:23 +0000

[...] MacLitigator, Peter Summerill writes: The date calculator can calculate business (i.e. court) or calendar days between two dates or [...]

Comment on iPad Note Taking Apps Showdown by Drew

Drew — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 08:23:30 +0000

The plural of stylus is “styli” and not “stylii” because radius already has an “i” in it, which is why there are two in the plural form. Plural forms of these kinds of words that end in “-us” change only the “-us” to “-i” in the plural form.

One radius becomes two radii.
One focus becomes two foci.
One stylus becomes two styli.