Hands-on with the Adonit Jot Script Stylus for iOS – Evernote Edition

In the never-ending quest to make Evernote your “online memory,” the company has been making alliances with manufacturers to bring physical products to market that work with the service. We’ve seen Evernote team up with 3M Post-It Notes and Moleskine for products you can write on, then snap a photo of or upload to the Evernote cloud. Now the company has joined forces with Adonit for the new Adonit Jot Script Stylus for iOS — Evernote Edition (US$74.99).

What makes the Jot Script Stylus stand out from other electronic styluses for iOS? Two things: First, it’s the first iOS stylus with a fine-point tip and second, it is designed to work intimately with Evernote’s free Penultimate notebook app.

Unlike some other styluses that use a rechargeable battery, the Jot Script Stylus Evernote Edition uses a single, readily available AAA battery for months of writing. The device powers itself down after three minutes of non-use and turns back on with a press on the single button that’s on the device.

The big difference is the fine-point tip — 1.9 mm in diameter, as opposed to the 6 mm tips found on a number of competing styluses — and a new technology from Adonit called PixelPoint. That, and Penultimate’s use of the Adonit SDK in the app, is supposed to provide a nice fine-point writing experience similar to writing on paper with a gel ink pen.

Linking this Evernote Edition stylus with Penultimate is easy. You just slip the battery into the stylus, turn on Bluetooth on your iOS device, turn off multitasking gestures in Settings and then fire up the Penultimate app. In the app under Settings, there’s a “Jot Script Evernote Stylus Setup” item. Tap it, press the button on the stylus and the two link almost immediately.

What’s supposed to happen with the Jot Script and Penultimate is something akin to magic. First, your wrist (laying on the iPad screen while writing) is supposed to be ignored, with only the stylus creating marks on the screen. Second, there’s a “pan and drift mode” that can be invoked for very precise writing — you zoom into a page, pan with a two-finger swipe until you get to your starting point, then start writing and the page kind of “drifts” to the side with your writing.

In reality, I found on occasion that, for some reason, the screen would start picking up my wrist pressure again after a short period of time, which made writing a pain until I shut down and restarted the stylus. When I’d write the letter “O,” the stylus would occasionally erase the letter. Things did work better with the pan and drift mode, but then it felt odd not being able to see the entire notebook page on my iPad Air.

I’m one of those people who really doesn’t like to use a stylus on an iPad except for one thing — painting or sketching — and in that case, I prefer the Ten One Design Pogo Connect, as it not only has interchangeable tips, but available brushes as well. However, if you’ve had success with using a stylus with Penultimate, I’d recommend taking a look at the Adonit Jot Script Evernote Edition as you’ll probably love it.

Conclusion

With the Jot Script Stylus for iOS — Evernote Edition, Adonit has jumped to a new level of tablet stylus accuracy. Especially when used with Evernote’s Penultimate app, those who enjoy using a stylus to take notes on an iPad or iPhone will find the Jot Script Stylus to be a surprisingly pen-like tool.

Pros

• Quite lightweight and slender, and it looks more like a pen than any stylus I’ve tested so far.
• Simple linking with Penultimate app.
• Evernote “elephant” logo on it.
• Ridged finger rest provides a very secure grip.

Cons

• At this time, it appears that only Penultimate supports this stylus.
• I had some issues with Penultimate “forgetting” to ignore my wrist pressure.

Who is it for?

• Avid users of Evernote’s Penultimate app

Giveaway

Have a hankering to write your Penultimate notes with a wonderfully balanced, fine-point stylus? We’re giving a Jot Script Stylus away.

Here are the rules for the giveaway:

• Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older.
• To enter, fill out the form below completely and click or tap the Submit button.
• The entry must be made before November 8, 2013 11:59PM Eastern Standard Time.
• You may enter only once.
• One winner will be selected and will receive a Adonit Jot Script for iOS — Evernote Edition valued at $74.95
• Click Here for complete Official Rules.

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