Note-Taking App?

pretty sure you cannot use it directly as a graphics tablet, but you could probably get a drawing app and send it over later.
Evernote and Pages are pretty good for general note taking, but never used them to draw.

 

Two words:GoodNotes and Adonit.

Both of these are for the iPad.

Goodnotes will allow your take notes, draw pictures, and has auto complete for straight line, circle, and basic geometric shapes. It is very good to write formulas with. You can export to PDF via wifi, iCloud, Box, and others. It will allow you to mark up PDF's. I have not tried this however. Its user interface is simple and clean. Very easy to take notes quickly and effortless. GoodNotes also has an easy way to type text boxes as well. It even has handwriting recognition.

Add your choice of Adonit stylus and your set. I can't believe it, but I like it better then paper and pen. I have the Adonit Jot pro with Pixel Point Technology and it is great. But I started with the cheapest Adonit stylus to try it. It was really nice too.

You really don't even need your rMBP. If you export to PDF, you can read it on your rMBP at home/dorm.

 

I'd to know if any are good at ignoring the meat of the hand in preference for the stylus and at the same time contemporaneously transcribe into type from writing

 

I am guessing this is your handwriting recognition??

 

I use Notability.

 

If you really need professional-quality graphics for your diagrams, check out Omnigraffle. It's expensive, but I'm told that nothing else does what it does. You could use Omnigraffle for the diagrams and save those into Evernote (or a number of other note-taking apps) for the notes, organization and filing.

David Sparks in his Macsparky.com blog site and in the Mac Power Users weekly podcast mentions Omnigraffle regularly. Search some of the previous podcasts to get a description and recommendation.

 

And as for "the meat of the hand", AKA palm rejection, you have two options:

1. a smart stylus that pairs with your app and allows you to rest your palm on the device's screen
2. a dumb stylus, needing a software solution

I can't tell you much about option 1, because I didn't go that way.
Some thoughts about option 2:

- Goodnotes has a relatively new option list to choose the sensability. When set to high, even your fingertip won't leave a trace on your screen. It works extremely well.
- Bamboo Paper has a good palm rejection built in, your handpalm will leave marks on rare occasions only
- Noteshelf, Notability and others have a slider or a semi-transparant pane you'll need to move in order to rest your palm. The one in Noteshelf moves down automatically while you write
- Notes Plus has an option that ignores the handpalm but at the same time disables swipes
- Procreate claims to have a new palm rejection technology in their latest version, but I'm not impressed

 

I can second the experience with palm rejection on Goodnotes. It works flawlessly with my Adonit Jot Touch with pixel point. Took some notes this morning and it works like a charm. The rechargeable Jot touch is really good. I can take my notes draw diagrams, write formulas with no issues. I really like Goodnotes better than OneNote. Goodnotes interface is so clean and simple. I can find what I need immediately without slowing down.

 

Goodnotes is the only app I have used. I was so impressed with it that I bought an iPad. I am curious about what you think about Goodnotes vs notability. Please post back.

 

How about Lucidchart or Lekh?

 

For my type of notes, I don't believe that is a flexible as GoodNotes. But it looks interesting.