Way off topic-active styluses for iPad

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Posted by jamesofford
Nov 11, 2015 at 04:16 PM

Folks:

I realize that this is way off topic, but it is somewhat information management related, so I figured I would check here first.

I have been using an iPad for some time. I originally got it for reading journal articles. The idea was to upload the pdf to the iPad and then read it there. This has worked well for reading. The pdf is pretty clear, and things like photos and micrographs show up better on the iPad then they do when you print.

However, I like to take notes on the article when I read. I print out the pdf, and then as I am reading I take notes on the paper itself. Then, if I need to keep the notes I will type them into Onenote, or the equivalent.

With the iPad this doesn’t work so well. My fingers are too big to be able to select regions and either highlight them or copy them. I use either iAnnotate or Liquidtext to read. Liquid text is great because you can easily copy out parts of the paper, including figures, and save them as notes with your own notes attached. I still have the problem with the fat fingers.

I recently bought an active stylus-the Joy Factory Pinpoint Precision active stylus. It is one of those styluses that generates an electrical field at the tip to simulate the capacitative effect of your finger.

My experience has been kind of plus/minus. For general use on the iPad it doesn’t work that well. It doesn’t always select things when you “touch” them. In Liquidtext it works pretty well. I can easily copy and highlight even single words. So in a sense, it is doing what I want.

However, it would be nice if it would work better as a general stylus. Since it is simulating the capacitative input of your finger, it should work pretty much every where.

One possible issue-I have a Griffin Defender case on my iPad. It may not have the oomph to work through that. However, my finger works fine.

Does anyone have experience with active styluses(styli)? Either one like the Joy Factory stylus, or something like one of the bluetooth styluses. I am reasonably happy with what I have, but it seems like it should work better than it does.

Jim

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