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iPad Pro Productivity apps on M1 iPad Pro

M

mobi-logic

macrumors member
Original poster
May 6, 2014
49
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My M1 iPad pro 12.9 arrives in next few days along with Apple pencil and MKB. My primary use-case it to use it to takes notes using apple pencil and go through online tutorials and videos, reading books online via kindle and some other online book subscription.

I will need help on what apps should I use. I will need an app for note taking, app for accessing files, app to share files between iPad and Mac/iPhone, some occasional drawing and photo editing. What all apps will help me in the above usage to start with and any other suggestion from the users is welcome for apps I might not be aware of?
 
mobi-logic said:
My M1 iPad pro 12.9 arrives in next few days along with Apple pencil and MKB. My primary use-case it to use it to takes notes using apple pencil and go through online tutorials and videos, reading books online via kindle and some other online book subscription.

I will need help on what apps should I use. I will need an app for note taking, app for accessing files, app to share files between iPad and Mac/iPhone, some occasional drawing and photo editing. What all apps will help me in the above usage to start with and any other suggestion from the users is welcome for apps I might not be aware of?
Click to expand...
For note-taking I’ve found Goodnotes very effective. But I have friends who use Notability too. You can use the files app to access any files on your IPad. For sharing files between your iPad and Mac/iPhone you can use iCloud Drive or a third-party app such as Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive. Although I don’t have personal experience with it, I’ve heard Procreate is good for drawing I think. And for photo editing I use Lightroom for big projects and Snapseed for smaller edits. I’m sure other users in the forum will be able to suggest alternatives to these that may be better suited to your needs but this is what I’ve found best for my workflow.
 
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I think the files app by default is ok And with airdrop there are no problems sharing stuff thru all your apple devices.
For creativity affinity photo/designer are very good adobe alternatives. Procreate and sketch from google are fine too.
For books/pfs I use the books app.
 
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I use, amongst other stuff:

File management- Files app, file browser pro and Cryptomator for secure stuff.

File sharing- AirDrop, iCloud Drive, Photos app (shared library) and Cryptomator for secure stuff.

Notes- notes app, goodnotes and standard notes for secure stuff.

Drawing and designing - procreate, concepts, Affinity designer, Vectornator, Shapr 3D

Photography- lightroom, affinity photo, RAWPower, pixelmator.
 
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AndyJoeshow said:
I use Craft to organize all of my notes for work, my website and other personal projects. It is one of my favorite apps to use and it is built for the ipad!
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Didn't heard about the craft app before. May be worth looking into it. But is it in direct competition with goodnotes/notability with features or does it do something different?
 
mobi-logic said:
My M1 iPad pro 12.9 arrives in next few days along with Apple pencil and MKB. My primary use-case it to use it to takes notes using apple pencil and go through online tutorials and videos, reading books online via kindle and some other online book subscription.

I will need help on what apps should I use. I will need an app for note taking, app for accessing files, app to share files between iPad and Mac/iPhone, some occasional drawing and photo editing. What all apps will help me in the above usage to start with and any other suggestion from the users is welcome for apps I might not be aware of?
Click to expand...
Note taking - notability
Accessing / sharing files between multiple devices - get a dropbox account to store your files, sync to your iOS devices via the Documents app
No experience with drawing / photo apps, but I have heard good things about procreate and pixelmator. You could also try affinity photo or Lightroom.
 
I have both Goodnotes and Notability, the former is great for versatile templates for note-taking, while the latter has that useful audio record feature. I only got my Pencil in June and I don't know how I did without it all these years.
 
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Username-already-in-use said:
I have both Goodnotes and Notability, the former is great for versatile templates for note-taking, while the latter has that useful audio record feature. I only got my Pencil in June and I don't know how I did without it all these years.
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I heavily use GoodNotes (but dabble with Notability). I like the ability to seamlessly intermix handwritten notes/diagrams with typed text. Apple's Notes doesn't mix the two...at least it didn't the last time I tried it.
 
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sracer said:
I heavily use GoodNotes (but dabble with Notability). I like the ability to seamlessly intermix handwritten notes/diagrams with typed text. Apple's Notes doesn't mix the two...at least it didn't the last time I tried it.
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Yep, Apple Notes still doesn't do the mix - unfortunately.
 
sracer said:
I heavily use GoodNotes (but dabble with Notability). I like the ability to seamlessly intermix handwritten notes/diagrams with typed text. Apple's Notes doesn't mix the two...at least it didn't the last time I tried it.
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Hey can you share more details on what you mean by that?

I am asking because I have a note in the Apple Notes app that contains handwritten texts (with pencil), imported pdf file and typed text. It is not the most beautiful note, but it is doable.

Granted I cannot have say on the left side an image, on the right side handwritten text. It is one after another. Is this what you meant or something else?
 
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secretk said:
Hey can you share more details on what you mean by that?

I am asking because I have a note in the Apple Notes app that contains handwritten texts (with pencil), imported pdf file and typed text. It is not the most beautiful note, but it is doable.

Granted I cannot have say on the left side an image, on the right side handwritten text. It is one after another. Is this what you meant or something else?
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Yes. I'm referring to the ability to have hand-drawn images/writing and text on the same page. Text that is still text... that can be edited. Copy and pasting a PDF of text onto a page with hand-drawn images converts that pdf to an image. You can't type "into" that portion to change or add to the text.
 
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sracer said:
Yes. I'm referring to the ability to have hand-drawn images/writing and text on the same page. Text that is still text... that can be edited. Copy and pasting a PDF of text onto a page with hand-drawn images converts that pdf to an image. You can't type "into" that portion to change or add to the text.
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I see, thanks. Yeah my use case is different. My pdf was actually a sketch, not text so I did not need to write to it in the PDF itself. I typed down the stuff below the PDF. And the PDF itself was added below some handwritten stuff.

I have to admit I rarely need to use both handwritten stuff and typing in the same note. I am either one or the other way. That being said I just enjoy Notability more than Apple Notes :D. I use Apple Notes for quick jotting while I use Notabiltiy for writing notes during trainings, as well to highlight PDFs generated from web pages.
 
AndyJoeshow said:
I use Craft to organize all of my notes for work, my website and other personal projects. It is one of my favorite apps to use and it is built for the ipad!
Click to expand...
Craft is insanely good. I've used it to replace Bear, KeepIt, Agenda, and Ulysses on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. I'm really enjoying the interface and the "model" for nesting notes. It takes a short time to adjust if you're used to tags, but it's worth it.
 
Using juno for machine learning and pandas data processing. Loving it what it can do on iPad Pro. No complaints. I have MacBook Pro for all heavy lifting of work and yes iPad Pro does not replace MacBook Pro but compliments it.
 
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