The Evolution of Apple Pencil: From Artistic Endeavor to Productivity Powerhouse

When Apple first launched the Apple Pencil, it positioned it primarily as a tool for artists. Although I have tried my hand at drawing with the pencil and never felt particularly skilled, I couldn't resist purchasing one for its utility in tasks such as editing photos, annotating documents, and navigating the interface of my iPad. However, when the Magic Keyboard was introduced earlier this year, I began to favor the trackpad experience over the Apple Pencil.

Fast forward to iPad OS 14, which has completely rewritten the story on what an Apple Pencil can do on an iPad. With these latest updates, Apple has added two new features that make the Apple Pencil a far more useful tool for a wide range of tasks beyond artistic endeavors.

The first feature is called Scribble, and it's a game-changer for anyone looking to take notes or write text entries with their device. Scribble basically emulates what you have on your Apple Watch, allowing you to handwrite text that can be converted into typed text within the app. This means I can open up the Notes app, start writing, and know that my handwriting will be easily translatable into text that I can review or share later.

One of the most impressive aspects of Scribble is its ability to work everywhere on the screen. Unlike traditional typing experiences where you're restricted to a specific text field, Scribble allows me to write anywhere on the screen and have the text automatically converted into typed text. This means I can take notes by hand without having to worry about formatting or layout issues.

What really sets Scribble apart is its flexibility in terms of editing and manipulation. I can circle words to highlight them, draw lines between words to create spaces, and even scratch out text to make way for new writing. The fact that I don't have to be as careful when writing with Scribble also allows me to take advantage of my sloppiness – I can write whatever feels comfortable without worrying about making mistakes.

Another feature added by iPad OS 14 is Smart Selection, which takes handwritten notes in the Notes app and converts them into typed text. This is particularly useful for meeting notes or working on documents that require both handwriting and typing. With Smart Selection, I can take a set of handwritten notes during a meeting or while brainstorming ideas, and then later go back to review and edit those notes using typed text.

For someone like me who often has trouble reading their own handwriting after a while, it's been incredibly reassuring to know that the Apple Pencil can handle even my sloppiest writing. The accuracy of Scribble and Smart Selection has ensured that I can rely on my device for taking notes or working on documents without worrying about errors.

The impact of these features on my daily life cannot be overstated. With the Apple Pencil, I've been able to take advantage of a productivity powerhouse that was once relegated to artistic endeavors. The ability to write text anywhere on the screen and have it converted into typed text has opened up new possibilities for me in terms of taking notes, working on documents, and communicating with others.

As someone who's always admired the technical features of the Apple Pencil, I'm thrilled to see how far these tools have come. The fact that Apple has made the Apple Pencil a more versatile tool for everyday tasks is something to be celebrated. Whether you're an artist, writer, or simply looking for a new way to take notes, the Apple Pencil is definitely worth considering – and with iPad OS 14, it's now more useful than ever.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's going on everybody ian here for cult of mac and back when apple launched the apple pencil they positioned it primarily as a tool for artists and well as much as i've tried i've never been particularly great at drawing that didn't stop me from picking one actually one for the first generation and the second generation pencil up just for things like editing photos annotating documents and generally navigating the interface though when the magic keyboard came out earlier this year i kind of ditched the apple pencil in favor of the trackpad experience on my ipad but now with ipad os 14 apple has completely rewritten the story on what apple pencil can do an ipad and added some really cool features that make it far more useful for a lot more things an ipad os 14 apple has added two new features to apple pencil to make it really useful for things like text entry and taking notes the first of which and the one that's most useful for me is the feature called scribble and scribble basically emulates what you have on your apple watch it allows you to hand write text and have that text converted into typed text so you can open up the notes app you can open up safari you can open messages any app that has a text field of some sort and simply start writing in a text field and it will convert that handwritten text to something that's typed out and the fantastic part about scribble is that it works everywhere and it's not restricted to just that skinny little text bar that you have in most apps you can color right outside the lines write whatever the text is and it will just simply turn it into the type text to fit onto your screen i personally really like the fact that you can cut out to the lines because it means that you can be a little sloppy you don't to be as careful and you have room to write things whatever is comfortable for you the scribble also works for things like editing text simply by circling a word you can highlight it or circling a whole sentence you can highlight it you can scratch out a word by just scribbling through it or you can even insert a word between two other words or insert a space between two other words by drawing a little line right where you want that space to go and the second huge improvement to the apple pencil is with a feature called smart selection so my selection basically lets you take handwritten notes in the notes app and then later on select that handwriting and have it converted into type text this is really cool for things like taking notes in a meeting so if you're simply handwriting notes and you want to be able to refer back to your handwritten notes or you're working on a document that involves you know drawing a bunch of shapes and having arrows and typing out things or writing down measurements you can then go back select that text later and copy it out to another place now somebody who likes to take notes in meetings by hand occasionally especially if it's a virtual phone call then i can take notes by hand and later on select that text to share in an email or upload to some type of document service as my own personal backup now as somebody who often has a hard time reading their own handwriting after it's been a little while i've actually been really impressed with both scribble and smart selection and how they're able to convert my sloppy handwriting into some form of text that's almost entirely readable very few things have actually tripped it up through these early betas and so it's really reassuring to know that even if you have kind of bad handwriting you'll be able to either take notes or write with scribble and have that text later on turned into text should you need and not have to worry about having tons and tons of errors so well apple originally had positioned the apple pencil more as an implement for artistic endeavors now with ipad os 14 they've made it a far more useful productivity tool for a ton of other people and as somebody who's always admired the technical features of the apple pencil now apple has made it something that i can use in my everyday life which is something that i think is really really great let me know what you guys think in the comments down below while you're down there be sure to give the video a thumbs up subscribe to the channel if you're not already hit the notification bell if that's something you're into and until next time i'm ian for cultivac i'll catch you in the next one youwhat's going on everybody ian here for cult of mac and back when apple launched the apple pencil they positioned it primarily as a tool for artists and well as much as i've tried i've never been particularly great at drawing that didn't stop me from picking one actually one for the first generation and the second generation pencil up just for things like editing photos annotating documents and generally navigating the interface though when the magic keyboard came out earlier this year i kind of ditched the apple pencil in favor of the trackpad experience on my ipad but now with ipad os 14 apple has completely rewritten the story on what apple pencil can do an ipad and added some really cool features that make it far more useful for a lot more things an ipad os 14 apple has added two new features to apple pencil to make it really useful for things like text entry and taking notes the first of which and the one that's most useful for me is the feature called scribble and scribble basically emulates what you have on your apple watch it allows you to hand write text and have that text converted into typed text so you can open up the notes app you can open up safari you can open messages any app that has a text field of some sort and simply start writing in a text field and it will convert that handwritten text to something that's typed out and the fantastic part about scribble is that it works everywhere and it's not restricted to just that skinny little text bar that you have in most apps you can color right outside the lines write whatever the text is and it will just simply turn it into the type text to fit onto your screen i personally really like the fact that you can cut out to the lines because it means that you can be a little sloppy you don't to be as careful and you have room to write things whatever is comfortable for you the scribble also works for things like editing text simply by circling a word you can highlight it or circling a whole sentence you can highlight it you can scratch out a word by just scribbling through it or you can even insert a word between two other words or insert a space between two other words by drawing a little line right where you want that space to go and the second huge improvement to the apple pencil is with a feature called smart selection so my selection basically lets you take handwritten notes in the notes app and then later on select that handwriting and have it converted into type text this is really cool for things like taking notes in a meeting so if you're simply handwriting notes and you want to be able to refer back to your handwritten notes or you're working on a document that involves you know drawing a bunch of shapes and having arrows and typing out things or writing down measurements you can then go back select that text later and copy it out to another place now somebody who likes to take notes in meetings by hand occasionally especially if it's a virtual phone call then i can take notes by hand and later on select that text to share in an email or upload to some type of document service as my own personal backup now as somebody who often has a hard time reading their own handwriting after it's been a little while i've actually been really impressed with both scribble and smart selection and how they're able to convert my sloppy handwriting into some form of text that's almost entirely readable very few things have actually tripped it up through these early betas and so it's really reassuring to know that even if you have kind of bad handwriting you'll be able to either take notes or write with scribble and have that text later on turned into text should you need and not have to worry about having tons and tons of errors so well apple originally had positioned the apple pencil more as an implement for artistic endeavors now with ipad os 14 they've made it a far more useful productivity tool for a ton of other people and as somebody who's always admired the technical features of the apple pencil now apple has made it something that i can use in my everyday life which is something that i think is really really great let me know what you guys think in the comments down below while you're down there be sure to give the video a thumbs up subscribe to the channel if you're not already hit the notification bell if that's something you're into and until next time i'm ian for cultivac i'll catch you in the next one you\n"