Any advice about pen & tablets?

[DaRuSsIaMaN]

I'm considering getting this pen and tablet by Wacom:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823100056&cm_mmc=BFUS-_-296-_-N82E16823100056&nm_mc=BFUS

I've never used a pen and tablet before but have been thinking about getting one for some time now. Any advice on getting a pen & tablet, in general, and on that particular product? I'm thinking it might be too small. I want to try using a tablet for taking notes. Either in class or when I write out notes for myself from studying a textbook. The width on this thing is not even 6 inches... I guess that's not too much smaller than regular 8" paper width (especially since I don't use the full width of the paper either) but still, maybe a bigger one would be better for my purpose? I do, however, want one that is portable, so that might place restrictions on size... Any suggestions?

Thanks. I'm just looking at that one because it's on sale for BF, obviously. But the discount is not that spectacular; it's $50 in cart instead of original $70.

 

[darkhunter139]

I am considering getting one too, anyone have any input on this?

 

[Zepher]

they are great for working in photoshop, but I am not sure how well they are suited for note taking.

edit:
this is the one I have,
and it seems to work with many word processors including Word. I am going to give it a shot in a minute, have to reboot after installing the driver.

 

[Zepher]

Maybe it's me, but I can't write with a tablet. I can type faster than I can write.

 

[DaRuSsIaMaN]

Maybe it's me, but I can't write with a tablet. I can type faster than I can write.

Thanks for your input.

I think I've changed my mind on this, anyway. Maybe I should start a new thread dedicated solely to pen and receiver instead of pen and tablet, because I'm practically certain now that that's the type of product I want instead. When I did some google searching on this, originally looking for pens and tablets, I came across some pen & receiver products, and that's how I got hooked on going that direction instead. I'm talking about something like this:
Logipen

That looks like it will work a lot better for what I want out of it. It allows you to write on regular paper just like you would normally, only using their special pen and setting up a receiver nearby.

But it was hard to come up with results, especially a way to systematically shop for and compare these products. Mostly I just find sites like the above, with an entire website set up just to describe and sell that one thing. I want a way to shop in an entire category of such devices, like at newegg or something. But as far as I can see they have only a few items similar to that at NE, and they're lumped in with true tablets.

 

[Zepher]

that logipen looks cool, but here is another one with a voice recorder and the software looks pretty cool.
http://www.livescribe.com/en-us/
It requires special paper though, which looks to be a bit pricey, 150 sheets for $7.95.

Amazon sells the units as well as the paper.
http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=1255749...n:172282,n:!493964,p_4:Livescribe&sort=-price

 

[GushpinBob]

Got one for my sister as a X-mas present. Decent for drawing and Photoshop type applications, horrible for note-taking even though Windows Vista and higher will enable the Tablet PC input panel and utilities (get a tablet pc for that kind of stuff).

 

[DaRuSsIaMaN]

Yeah I saw another one similar to that livescribe in the sense that it also required special paper. I'll stay away from that, though; I don't want to forever after be dependent on expensive special paper. I use up kind of a lot of paper. And I don't need to record the lecture itself (the spoken aspect of it), though I can see how that would be cool for other people. I'm a physics student, so it's kind of different for me. What I mean by notes is not only lecture notes from class but also, and more commonly, writing out derivations/proofs and sample problems based on the textbook.

 

[darkhunter139]

Got one for my sister as a X-mas present. Decent for drawing and Photoshop type applications, horrible for note-taking even though Windows Vista and higher will enable the Tablet PC input panel and utilities (get a tablet pc for that kind of stuff).

Will the higher end wacom tablets be good for writing?

That pen looks interesting but I want to use this for photoshop too.

 

[Taikero]

Yeah I saw another one similar to that livescribe in the sense that it also required special paper. I'll stay away from that, though; I don't want to forever after be dependent on expensive special paper. I use up kind of a lot of paper. And I don't need to record the lecture itself (the spoken aspect of it), though I can see how that would be cool for other people. I'm a physics student, so it's kind of different for me. What I mean by notes is not only lecture notes from class but also, and more commonly, writing out derivations/proofs and sample problems based on the textbook.

I'm in a similar situation. Physics major and premed so a lot of classes require handwritten notes, though I type where I can. I'm heavily considering jumping on an HP TM2T when another good deal comes along that brings the loaded unit with an extra battery down to $7-800. A convertible laptop seems ideal for this. I want to be able to type when necessary, but also take searchable, handwritten notes and annotations and sync it all to audio from the lecture. OneNote is awesome. I haven't upgraded to OneNote 2010 yet, but it seems like the utility is further increased, allowing for things like tethered notes (notes are linked in real time to whatever research you're doing on PDF slides/webpages).

It appears that the LogiPen allows for importing into OneNote, but one would think it wouldn't be as versatile as using a tablet directly. Highlighting and formatting are important features to me, and I would never take the time to import my notes, edit them, rearrange them, etc. after school. The value in OneNote for me is not having to do any of this. I've read that spending an hour after class reviewing and consolidating your notes after class can dramatically increase performance, but the searchability and incredible organization afforded by the software allows me to largely circumvent this. Of course, there is a substantial monetary tradeoff which has to be considered.

Also, on a tangentially related note, I'm also looking at building a book scanner over the holiday. It'd be awesome to go from carrying around heavy books, a netbook, and a paper folder to small messenger bag with a 12" tablet and some scratch paper. In addition to handwritten notes, I think having all of my books with me at all times and being able to read them in tablet form is one of the primary justifications for this purchase. And hell, I imagine it will pay for itself in books I don't have to purchase. I'll scan from the library where I can, assuming I don't need the entire book (academic copyright laws are convoluted, but I understand that in many cases you can copy quite a lot without treading into morally questionable territory . . . I'll have to read into this further).

The only reason I haven't made the purchase yet is the screen on the HP is mediocre compared to more expensive tablets. I may just continue waiting until CES2011 and see if anything new comes along. Anyway, that's my game plan to deal with the handwritten notes issue. Hope it gives you some ideas.

 

[DirtyB]

I use a tablet all day at work and I think they're horrible. I can't write on them, the screens are too small and the pens are cheap.