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Comment by ein0p | Hacker News Reader

There’s no way this particular thought would ever cross the mind of anyone at Google or Microsoft.

To contrast, Surface Pro's pen doesn't need to stick on the side to charge, so no falling off when putting in or getting out of a bag, and the main camera is properly centered.

Different priorities.

Camera is correctly centered on iPad if you hold it vertically. As to the pen, idk, I’ve never seen anyone use one with a Surface outside Microsoft’s ads. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, just that I haven’t seen it.

Not at a university then.

I teach Math with mine, using OneNote as a whiteboard replacement. I've also seen about 6/160 students in my classes this semester using them to take notes. Many more (about 40/160) were using iPads though.

This is an absolutely miserable way to take notes. iPad, too. I just don’t understand why anyone would prefer a tablet for taking detailed notes instead of using paper.

Can you draw a basically perfect circle? I sure can't, but I can set shapes to autocorrect into perfect shapes instead of my janky drawn ones.

Can you quickly change the color of your notes to whatever you want? Nope, you'd have to carry each color pen separately.

Can you carry all the notes for each of your 5 classes in something that easily fits in the hand?

There are a billion reasons. Honestly, it boggles my mind why anyone would prefer to take notes on paper.

Do you need any of those things? Would you trade them for 20% faster writing speed?

Yes. I literally said that I teach Math. So perfect shapes and multiple colors do come in handy.

And no, I’m sure my students would not like me writing faster.

When I was in college, I took notes digitally whenever I could. When in a trip, traveling, or at home, I didn't need to carry another notebook which made my bag heavier. I would be carrying my tablet anyway. I also didn’t need to be mindful about carrying a specific notebook.

Morever, digital notes sync. A note taken in tablet can be viewed in laptop or desktop or phone whenever the opportunity presented itself.

But they are more cumbersome to take and to read. That negates the utility somewhat. Taking notes is _the_ most important thing you can do during lecture. They force you to compress and internalize information, and they are indispensable for refreshing one's memory when reviewing them. I'd think not just twice but ten times before messing with the efficiency of this process. Here's what I'd do in 2024: I'd still take notes on paper, but then scan them into PDF for convenience.

> But they are more cumbersome to take and to read

I'm genuinely curious about what you find cumbersome.

Granted I've never been furiously writing dozens of pages of notes to begin with (to me the most important thing you do is listen to the meeting/lecture/event, notes are bookmarks and comments). I've used an iPad Pro and then the Surface Pro for meeting notes for about 5 years now, and it's just an infinitely paging/scrolling canvas, nothing more nothing less.

Yes, dense material you absorb during a lecture does typically require a lot of writing. IDK about you but I found writing down at least all the formulae and graphs tremendously helpful for absorbing the material. If you write detailed notes, they become far more than bookmarks, you can then refer to notes primarily, and to the textbook for the stuff that's not clear from the notes.

"You're holding it wrong" again

The camera is on the long side on the new Pro models (finally). And off center to not interfere with the pen's magnets.

Probably not, seeing as they're too busy with the obvious things like putting an eraser at the bottom of their pencils.

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