Remember that professor who always told you to study by typing up your lecture notes? Well, if you’d taken notes using PhatPad, your tablet would “type” them for you automatically and then e-mail or sync them with Dropbox.
PhatPad by PhatWare Corporation, which is now available for Windows 8 and Windows RT devices, provides a surface for users to handwrite notes using its digital ink technology. Handwritten notes, drawn images or a mixture of both can be taken on a virtual scratch pad. PhatWare has already released the PhatPad for iPad OS 5.1 or later.
After you scribble your notes onto your tablet, PhatPad’s handwriting recognition engine converts the handwritten script to text. The program also shapes scribbled drawing into actual recognizable figures.
In addition to taking notes on your own, you can put PhatPad into Presentation mode. Instead of ripping off pieces of butcher paper, scotch taping them to the wall and writing on them with smelly markers, you can simply comprise brainstormed lists with co-workers, which can appear onscreen or on an external monitor.
After you’ve put together your materials, you can organize them into a quick presentation on your PhatPad. Furthermore, if you have to give a presentation but you can’t physically attend, then you can sync documents with your recorded voice and let your work literally speak for itself.
PhatPad’s features are optimized for Microsoft’s Surface tablet and other Windows-based devices, leveraging the new Windows Metro interface for easy touch manipulation.
PhatWare also manufactures an iPad app called WritePad that adapts to learn your handwriting style. You simply write on your iPad using your finger or a stylus, and WritePad generates text documents and stores them on your tablet. You can exchange WritePad documents with other iPhones and iPads when you’re connected over Wi-Fi.
WritePad has recognition for multiple languages and even a spell-checker tool, but it doesn’t translate images or create brainstorming sessions the way that PhatPad does.
PhatPad 1.0 can be purchased for $4.99 through the Windows Store.
Edited by
Brooke Neuman 
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