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Comment by pottertheotter | Hacker News Reader

I've always partially wanted something like this, but can't get away from paper. I recently completed a PhD and tried an iPad and my computer, but ended up always printing off articles. It's annoying having a lot of physical paper around, but I'm constantly flipping back and forth in papers and it's so inconvenient to do that digitally. I also find it's so much easier for me to recall information based on where it was, and I completely lose that in a digital device.

Curious if those have been issues for you or not. I wonder if it's just how my mind works, or if I'm not "doing it right"?

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I'm in the middle of my PhD and switched from printing papers to reading them on my iPad roughly two years ago.

There are some things I miss from paper but overall I found the pros to overweight the cons.

I haven't found that flipping back and forth on iPad is that horrible, to be honest.

Not sure how helpful this will be but I'll share what I've been doing for now. I use the following apps:

* Mendeley (to organize papers)

* PDF Expert (to annotate PDFs)

* GoodNotes (mostly when working out the maths)

My usual workflow is:

* Read through the paper

* Annotate in the paper using Apple pencil as I read through

* Figure out the maths on the iPad when needed

* When I get back to a computer, upload the annotated file to Mendeley and type summary notes in Mendeley

A few things that I like/dislike about iPad when compared to paper.

+ Search for information on the web while reading paper more easily

+ Check notes/annotations quickly from my computer

+ Share notes easily

+ Search notes easily

+ Clean desk =D

- More context switching needed when I need to scramble something

- Mendeley misses some basic features on iOS (e.g. attach PDF to existing paper) so need to context switch with computer at some point after reading the paper

I would say that for 90% of the papers I go through, where I don't dive that deep in the paper, the experience is just as good on iPad. For the 10% of the papers I read where I go in-depth, redo proofs, etc, it's a little more tedious. While it's for sure not perfect, given the above pros, I can live with the cons.

I would avoid Mendeley. Firstly, they are trying to create a researchgate-style social media spam network layer. Secondly they are owned by the maximally vile Elsevier. Thirdly, their software quality is poor eg. they couldn’t get sync working properly for maybe 5 years (until I gave up).

On the other hand, I love https://paperpile.com/app

As much as I agree with you on all the points, in my case I kind of have to stick with what my research group is using for now.

Let me know what you think about Polar:

https://getpolarized.io/

We launched about a year ago and are REALLY close to a 2.0 release.

It would be nice if you did not initiate a download on my behalf when I merely visit the "download" page via the main navigation. I would expect at least prompt for confirmation before you push a 180 MB binary to me.

I'm a huge Polar fan! I'm considering buying an iPad just for using Polar, but I was wondering about the ReMarkable as well, since I like e-ink better for reading.

Do you have any recommendations for a tablet to use with Polar?

What app do you use for Polar? I used Polar for a bit on my Mac but gave up because I do most of my reading on an iPad. Would give it another shot if I could get Polar running on iPad.

I just use it on my laptop and desktop (Mac/Linux). I think I'd prefer to use a tablet though as I'm not a huge fan of reading on computers. Currently looking around and I've seen your sentiment about Polar and iPads before. Hopefully better support is coming in the 2.0 release though.

Looks great - will check it out.

Noticed you have a typo on the homepage under the uni logos.

"Discovery why Polar [...]" should read "Discover why Polar [...]"

Oh this looks really cool and your free tier is awesome. I'm going back to school in the fall and will be giving this a shot.

Do you any plans to support math symbols in annotations?

I think it's not only you.

I have the same problem with e-readers and books, I miss the ease of moving backward and forward in a paper book.

Also, I have observed that I remember better what I read in physical books. Maybe it's because the content is associated to something real out there in the world with a cover, a weight, and a position of the content in the book and a position of the book in my bookshelves.

It's kind of weird because the first intuition is that the support where you read something shouldn't matter.

i have the same experience. there is less retention when the object isn't permanent. that's another reason why i think it's important to keep notes as handwritten visually and not convert/OCR into typed text.

Then check the Rocketbook:

https://youtu.be/-h_rZHWmke8

It feels like paper because you actually write over it with a real pen.

Not just you. I tried hard to adapt to ebooks; spent the better part of a year trying to find an arrangement for reading on the train that worked as well as a paperback, and failed.

If I'm reading more than maybe 10 pages, or if it is material that I'm flipping back and forth in a lot, I print.

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