This is Technology Bytes, episode 37, for November 19th, 2023.
Technology Bytes is a microcast where I share brief bytes on interesting technology.
My name is Joel.
Enjoy, and here we go.
I was looking through my list of microcast topics on this Technology Bytes microcast, and nothing had really jumped out at me this week about the technology I use.
Most of what I use is the same day-to-day.
And then I realized something I use every day and have never talked about is the Apple Pencil.
And so I’m going to talk about that for the next few minutes.
So in general, the Apple Pencil is a unique device.
I think it’s really well made.
You know, I’m not going to talk about the first-generation pencil, although I used that quite extensively when I had that iPad.
But I’ve got an iPad Pro now with the M1 chip, so I’m pretty much one of the latest.
And I use the second-gen Apple Pencil, and I like the way it works, and I use it every day.
I use it to take a lot of notes.
I use it to write and have it turn into text.
I use it for operating the iPad on occasion.
And I think it is, although I don’t draw, I still think it’s a very useful tool for someone who owns an iPad.
I think it charges well.
The connecting to your iPad is really easy.
How it writes, the speed at which it writes, the different tools that are available, all of those things make using the Apple Pencil a joy, really, and unique.
One of the things that Apple introduced at some point, and I don’t know the history.
I didn’t spend time to look it up.
I’m sorry.
But it’s called Scribble, and anywhere where you can type text input, you can write, and it will turn that into text.
It will take your handwriting, recognize it, and then actually type in there.
You can do that on regular notes as well, but in Scribble, you can use it to fill out forms.
You can use it to do lots of different things, and it just recognizes your handwriting and turns it into typing.
The thing that I find amazing is that I didn’t have to do any training.
I didn’t have to say, you know, Apple didn’t take us through a thing that says, here’s a word, write this word, here’s another word, write this word, so they could figure out our handwriting to turn it into text.
It just works for everybody, left-handed, right-handed, cursive, printing.
It is pretty amazing, and then I found out that in the keyboard shortcuts that I have set up, so maybe I type some kind of H-A-D, and it puts in my home address.
That would be terrible because the word had is that, but something like that.
You know, I put in E-M-L, and that puts my e-mail in, and then I found out when I was in Scribble mode that I could write those shortcuts, so I could write E-M-L, and my e-mail would get filled out.
At work, I use it to send people e-mail, and I can write the three, two, whatever characters I have, and it just fills it out with text.
It is pretty amazing.
Drawing with a pencil is also pretty cool.
I’m not a good artist.
I tried to teach myself some drawing things, use some apps to do it, but I’m still just not very good.
But I’ve seen work done by others, and it’s a neat tool and can do a lot of really cool things.
One of the things the latest iPad Pro has is called a hover mode, so you can kind of see before you touch the screen what your Apple Pencil is going to do.
My iPad Pro does not have that feature, so I have not been able to use it.
So I don’t really know much about it, except that I wish I had it so I could try it, but probably not worth another, whatever, $1,200 to buy a new iPad.
This one is perfectly fine and works really well.
You can even use the iPad as a pointing device, almost like a mouse to run your iPad.
You can click on apps, you can click on menu things, and so some may wonder why you do that.
Well, a little more accurate pointer at that point, a little smaller than your finger, maybe a little easier to hit menu options.
It also keeps your screen clean because you’re not getting fingerprints on it.
And I use it some to do that, but most of the time I’ve got my Apple Pencil in a writing mode, use my finger to do the manipulation of the apps and whatever I have on the screen, and then use my Apple Pencil to write, to draw, to sketch, to note, and those kind of things.
The other cool thing is now the Apple Pencil kind of works everywhere on the most recent of iPads.
Even some of the older ones, they have added functionality in that sense.
The only thing it doesn’t do right now is give you the ability to use the Apple Pencil on the iPhone.
I always use the Max versions of the iPhone, so I think it would be useful.
I’m not sure why they haven’t added it.
It’s not too big to use.
I could use the scribble mode on my phone just like I do on my iPad.
Sure, it’s a little smaller surface, but I think there’s plenty of room.
And I really hope at some point Apple opens up the system to do that on the iPhone.
So the final thing, I guess, the final idea, that’s not right.
Anyway, my final thought is I personally would not buy an iPad without buying the Apple Pencil.
I find it incredibly useful.
I use it every day.
I should use it more.
There are times when I do things and think, oh, I should have just used the Apple Pencil to do that.
Why am I poking so much at the screen or trying to do typing on the screen while I’m holding the iPad funny?
But I would encourage anyone who has an iPad to, even if you don’t want to buy an Apple Pencil, because they can be expensive, but to go to the Apple Store if there’s one near you.
Link your iPad to one of the pencils in the store and just give it a whirl.
Give it a try.
Maybe even an Apple employee might be able to help you walk it through.
But I think it’s a valuable and almost necessary thing for iPad users.
Well, that’s all I have for today.
If you have comments or suggestions, feel free to reach out to me at technologybytesatmerigfamily.com.
That’s M-E-A-R-I-G family dot com.
I want to thank you for listening to the Technology Bytes Microcast, and I look forward to the next time we are together taking another bite of technology.
Microsoft Mechanics www.microsoft.com www.microsoft.com
