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What is everybody using at med school?


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9 hours ago, lmck said:

Has anyone tried the new iPad? It’s not the Pro but it’s at a much more budget-friendly. It also works with the Apple Pencil. 

new iPad has higher latency because it's not running a 120Hz screen like the Pros are. Writing is slightly less responsive. The screen is also smaller (9.7 vs 12.9/10.5)

that being said, the only way to know if this will bother you or not is to go to an Apple store and try it out. I watched tons of reviews on Youtube and spent hours deliberating, but the only thing that really helped me make my mind up was to go to a store, download a couple papers, and write with the pencil as if i were actually studying for a couple mins on each device. Sounds really stupid though now that I type it out lmao

 

Edit: FYI WWDC is coming up in less than 2 weeks. If you plan on getting a brand new iPad I would wait because last year the new Pros were announced during WWDC. Don't pay full price for an older device if you can

However, at the risk of sounding like an Apple shill, if you want a deal on an iPad but don't want the hassle/uncertainty of eBay/Kijiji/Craigslist, I would check out Apple's own refurbished store (https://www.apple.com/ca/shop/browse/home/specialdeals/ipad/ipad_pro_105/wi_fi). They are usually 10-15% cheaper and you can find last generation devices on there. So if you don't need to absolutely have the newest iPad I'd go for one of these. I personally got the 10.5 Pro and it's basically new

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Hi everyone! I am having a similar dilemma. In undergrad I was a die-hard hard-writer of notes and rarely brought a laptop/iPad to class, however I realize that it is not realistic to be able to hand write all my notes in med school. 

My current laptop is a relatively new PC, but I definitely need an upgrade. I am already having problems with battery life & wifi connectivity, plus it is quite heavy and I was recently diagnosed with arthritis (yay :mellow:), so I need something that will not cause any unnecessary back pain to lug around. I do own an iPad mini, but it's 5-6 years old and while it's nice to have around I can't imagine it will last much longer. Finally, we have a very reliable PC desktop that I can use at home.

I'm currently in the debate of iPad pro vs mac book (or something else?). I had originally decided I was going to buy a mac book until I started considering the ability to hand write/draw diagrams etc with an iPad. I also don't want to get an iPad and feel like I'm missing any features of an actual laptop, especially since I really want to avoid having to bring my current laptop to school. Has anyone used both devices and can shed some insight on your thoughts? Anyone else that hand wrote everything in undergrad that has found a preferred device for med school?

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On 5/19/2018 at 5:36 PM, Sauna said:

I've tried both and found that the iPad Pro has better hardware (Apple Pencil, longer battery, better display) and software (Notability, and although the surface has desktop Microsoft office with full features, I prefer the simpler mobile versions). 

With the iPad Pro, I was torn between using Notability vs OneNote. Notability has superior annotation, functional auto-sync to pdf, OneNote has better organization, infinite scroll in both x and y planes. So rather than choosing a compromise, I've ended up using both: Notability for in-class notes and OneNote for studying. Let me demonstrate what that looks like:

Downloading the pdf/lecture file is easier on iPad (vs laptops) because you open it in the browser and tap "Open in Notability". This iniates multiple steps at once; it downloads the file, opens it in Notability, creates a pdf back-up in google drive that gets updated in real time as you take notes. All with one click. After class you get this:

KX0jpO6.jpg

Then after class, you just tap the share button on the top left corner and with one tap save it in OneNote. Later when you're studying, you'll have room the ability to add additional subpages if necessary (Notability doesn't have this, see example below) and make additional comments/add resources on the side (see example below). You can also still annotate further:

oOHfT6i.jpg

This system has worked beautifully for me so far. Let me know if you have any questions!

I knew those pictures / vids looked familiar ;) 

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On 5/19/2018 at 5:36 PM, Sauna said:

I've tried both and found that the iPad Pro has better hardware (Apple Pencil, longer battery, better display) and software (Notability, and although the surface has desktop Microsoft office with full features, I prefer the simpler mobile versions). 

With the iPad Pro, I was torn between using Notability vs OneNote. Notability has superior annotation, functional auto-sync to pdf, OneNote has better organization, infinite scroll in both x and y planes. So rather than choosing a compromise, I've ended up using both: Notability for in-class notes and OneNote for studying. Let me demonstrate what that looks like:

Downloading the pdf/lecture file is easier on iPad (vs laptops) because you open it in the browser and tap "Open in Notability". This iniates multiple steps at once; it downloads the file, opens it in Notability, creates a pdf back-up in google drive that gets updated in real time as you take notes. All with one click. After class you get this:

-snip-

This setup is amazing. I was just debating picking up an iPad for note-taking and i think you've just convinced me.

What do you use to edit after class? I'm assuming any PC or Macbook would work, or even the iPad itself? My PC still works really well so I'm hesitant to upgrade to a touchscreen PC, so this looks like a great in between where I can hook up the PC to a couple of monitors and be able to study with all the notes taken from the iPad

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49 minutes ago, jfdes said:

This setup is amazing. I was just debating picking up an iPad for note-taking and i think you've just convinced me.

What do you use to edit after class? I'm assuming any PC or Macbook would work, or even the iPad itself? My PC still works really well so I'm hesitant to upgrade to a touchscreen PC, so this looks like a great in between where I can hook up the PC to a couple of monitors and be able to study with all the notes taken from the iPad

Yeah anything works, it comes down to personal preference. There's a lot of people in my class who have this set up as well and we all have different laptops.

I would wait until Monday though! As others said, there will likely be new iPads announced at WWDC :)

Edit: Notability just got OCR recently (and some other useful features)

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17 hours ago, Sauna said:

Yeah anything works, it comes down to personal preference. There's a lot of people in my class who have this set up as well and we all have different laptops.

I would wait until Monday though! As others said, there will likely be new iPads announced at WWDC :)

Edit: Notability just got OCR recently (and some other useful features)

Actually its looking like there won't be any updates on iPads at WWDC this year :(

https://9to5mac.com/2018/05/31/bloomberg-wwdc-roundup/ 

I'm in no rush though, I'll either keep an eye out for deals for the 2017 Pro or wait for the update if there are hints it'll come in the fall

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On 5/31/2018 at 2:30 PM, Sauna said:

Yeah anything works, it comes down to personal preference. There's a lot of people in my class who have this set up as well and we all have different laptops.

I would wait until Monday though! As others said, there will likely be new iPads announced at WWDC :)

Edit: Notability just got OCR recently (and some other useful features)

Sorry to drag this back up... so are you bringing just your IPP to class? Or are you bringing both your IPP + MacBook to do post-class edits in ON? Beautiful notes!!

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On 6/7/2018 at 2:37 PM, jumbocup said:

Sorry to drag this back up... so are you bringing just your IPP to class? Or are you bringing both your IPP + MacBook to do post-class edits in ON? Beautiful notes!!

Yeah typically just IPP unless I plan on hitting up a study room/library after class to get some studying/work done. 

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On 5/20/2018 at 7:21 PM, kirraea said:

new iPad has higher latency because it's not running a 120Hz screen like the Pros are. Writing is slightly less responsive. The screen is also smaller (9.7 vs 12.9/10.5)

that being said, the only way to know if this will bother you or not is to go to an Apple store and try it out. I watched tons of reviews on Youtube and spent hours deliberating, but the only thing that really helped me make my mind up was to go to a store, download a couple papers, and write with the pencil as if i were actually studying for a couple mins on each device. Sounds really stupid though now that I type it out lmao

 

Edit: FYI WWDC is coming up in less than 2 weeks. If you plan on getting a brand new iPad I would wait because last year the new Pros were announced during WWDC. Don't pay full price for an older device if you can

However, at the risk of sounding like an Apple shill, if you want a deal on an iPad but don't want the hassle/uncertainty of eBay/Kijiji/Craigslist, I would check out Apple's own refurbished store (https://www.apple.com/ca/shop/browse/home/specialdeals/ipad/ipad_pro_105/wi_fi). They are usually 10-15% cheaper and you can find last generation devices on there. So if you don't need to absolutely have the newest iPad I'd go for one of these. I personally got the 10.5 Pro and it's basically new

which ipad did you end up going with? 

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32 minutes ago, IMislove said:

Did you buy online or at a retailer? Thanks :D!

i bought it straight from apple's own store haha. if you can find a certified refurbished seller it's probably just as good, but i just went with the link i supplied above. 

 

edit: fixed above, but i meant 10.5 256gb; the 10.5 doesn't have a 128 model

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On 5/31/2018 at 5:30 PM, Sauna said:

Yeah anything works, it comes down to personal preference. There's a lot of people in my class who have this set up as well and we all have different laptops.

I would wait until Monday though! As others said, there will likely be new iPads announced at WWDC :)

Edit: Notability just got OCR recently (and some other useful features)

Could you expand on that? Is it good at recognizing less than stellar handwriting? Can you easily search through years of notes like OneNote, or is somewhat more restricted?

Thank you!

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51 minutes ago, buttercream said:

What size would you all recommend for the iPad? 32GB vs. 64GB vs. 256GB, etc

 

thanks :) 

I'm not a med student yet (starting in August!!! :) ), but I think I'm going 256GB for the iPad. I know on my phone it takes quite a few gigs just to run the system and I would like to have space to save some offline documents in case I ever need to study without internet. I've heard that 64 is fine from a few people but I'm really looking to make mine last though residency too and don't want to chance running out of space. I don't find the price difference too crazy between the 64 and the 256 to warrant getting the 64 to cost-save. 

But since I'm not a student yet I would very much welcome input from others too who have gotten either! 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 6/18/2018 at 10:18 PM, jul059 said:

Could you expand on that? Is it good at recognizing less than stellar handwriting? Can you easily search through years of notes like OneNote, or is somewhat more restricted?

Thank you!

I haven't had a chance to use it in a class/studying situation yet because it's summer, but just for you (and also me because I'm curious) let's do a test and find out.

I wrote the word "sauna" and progressively kept writing it faster and faster so that my handwriting would get worse. I started at normal speed and kept getting faster until I got to my limit of how fast I can physically write.

I wrote the word "jelly beans" as a negative control for the OCR and typed "sauna" as a positive control for the search. Before running the search, I hypothesized that it would recognize all of them but the last line (that last a looks more like a c lmao).

Here are the results:

jNfLHZq.jpg

It recognized all of them!! Does that mean searches will give you more false positives? Not sure and I'm too tired at this point to find out (my final notes end up in OneNote anyway so it probably doesn't matter), but hope this helps :)

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7 hours ago, Sauna said:

I haven't had a chance to use it in a class/studying situation yet because it's summer, but just for you (and also me because I'm curious) let's do a test and find out.

I wrote the word "sauna" and progressively kept writing it faster and faster so that my handwriting would get worse. I started at normal speed and kept getting faster until I got to my limit of how fast I can physically write.

I wrote the word "jelly beans" as a negative control for the OCR and typed "sauna" as a positive control for the search. Before running the search, I hypothesized that it would recognize all of them but the last line (that last a looks more like a c lmao).

Here are the results:

jNfLHZq.jpg

It recognized all of them!! Does that mean searches will give you more false positives? Not sure and I'm too tired at this point to find out (my final notes end up in OneNote anyway so it probably doesn't matter), but hope this helps :)

Cool! Do you know if you can search across many different "notebooks" or whatever they're called in notability? That might make me use notability instead of onenote.

I just found out my school does not accept Surface Pro for test taking, but I really wanted to use OneNote on the surface. I'm trying to find a good solution, and the search feature across all the notes you've ever taken is really important to me!

Thank you

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  • 9 months later...

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