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Oakland, CA
USA

My main blog is a Squarespace 5 blog located at saysbrad.com — I'm looking at migrating my technology/design site to Squarespace 6 (or perhaps another platform). It's quite a time consuming endeavor to do right and it's given me a lot to think about.

Life, Technology, Design

Penultimate Review 5.0 & iPad mini

Brad Chin

After waiting for years, Penultimate (free, iPad) finally has zoom.

This change is huge: it makes Penultimate usable.

Above is some handwriting done on the iPad mini. I decided to try on my go-to tablet because it doesn't write as well as the full-size iPad, and if I were to incorporate Penultimate into normal, everyday usage, it'd likely be on my mini and not my iPad 3.

Simply, I use the iPad mini more. Penultimate is the kind of cloud-synced notes app that's used to capture quick thoughts and sketches, phone numbers and directions while on the phone. Prior to the version 5.0 update, Penultimate was too clunky and ugly to tolerate. I've always liked the Evernote integration, but it just wasn't important enough to put up with (and fight against) a crummy app.

Magnification has been on my want list since version 1. Now we have ZOOM and drift, a new feature that dynamically pans the zoomed-in frame while writing. It takes some practice; as evident in my first sentence on the image above, I was moving my stylus ahead while writing and added too much space between letters. Hopefully it's still legible for everyone else. -b


  • If you're looking for a good note taking app for iPad, check it out. I can finally recommend it and call it #bradtasticapproved. Can't beat that price!
  • If you're willing to spend some money, there are many great note-taking apps for iOS — I've reviewed several here on my blog.
  • If you're looking for a text-based notes app, check out ThinkBook by bitolithic.

 

I really hope that the new iPad mini with Retina Display is as good as it sounds, because even without one, the mini has been my favorite thing. Its diminutive frame and weight makes it a perfect tech companion for me. It's small enough to bring anywhere, light enough to use all day — yet large enough to really enjoy apps, games, movies, websites, ebooks, and typing out emails and blog entries. However, I think between the two new devices (iPad Air, iPad mini Retina), for an artist, the iPad Air is the more practical choice. I'll have to wait and see how the iPad Air and new mini handle pressure sensitive styluses like the Wacom Intuos Creative Stylus, but my guess is that the Air is slightly more accurate and sensitive to small, light pen strokes.

But if the new mini is as precise as my iPad 3 — it'll be a no-brainer.

Favicon design part 2 coming soon. I also want to share my recent illustration work, but I've been a little busy earning entries for the Borderlands 2 $100,000 Loot Hunt. Wish me luck!

 

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categories Apps, Reviews, iPad
tags app reviews, cursive, evernote, handwriting, iOS, iOS7, ipad, ipadair, ipadmini, notes, notetaking, penultimate, review, stylus