Apple’s latest iPad Air and iPad Pro 2024 officially launched last week and got most of the attention, but there’s also a new, souped-up Apple Pencil: the $129 Apple Pencil Pro.
Like the second-generation Apple Pencil before it, the Pro has the same look and feel as a traditional pen and is weighted with good ergonomics. Inside, however, it has a new wireless charging coil that can magnetically attach to the iPad Pro and iPad Air with the new FaceTime landscape camera.
It also features a new pinch feature that lets you pull up a ‘palette tool’, a feature I wish was there since day one in 2015. It allows you to easily change the ink color or undo the strokes in what feels like as the time stone of The Avengers. Apple has also added haptics, which provide small vibrations and pushes to confirm an action.
While these features can be used in Apple Notes, you’ll naturally want to try out some more developer-made experiences for specific use cases.
Don’t worry, because there are already a number of applications in the App Store that support the new accessory. If you don’t have one of the new tablets yet, check out our iPad Air 13-inch (2024) review and iPad Pro 13-inch (2024) review to see what we think of Apple’s new tablets, and anyway you can bookmark this article as we will update it with new applications as we try them.
Good notes 6
Already praised by people who use the iPad for planning and extensive note-taking, Goodnotes 6 has two major updates to take advantage of the Apple Pencil Pro. For starters, the Fountain Pen tool will now look more like a real writing implement that adjusts the appearance of the virtual ink based on how you hold the Apple Pencil, thanks to the barrel roll feature. This way, as you twist or rotate the Apple Pencil, it will reflect that movement on paper. Anyone who enjoys calligraphy can now get more personal when writing with the Apple Pencil in Good Notes.
Like the palette tool in Apple Notes, it appears in Goodnotes 6 as a concise way to adjust the ink color and size of writing utensils, easily undo changes, and switch between utensils. It also has a unique user interface that matches the rest of Goodnotes. You can use it to call tools, including click shapes like lassos or squares.
Morpholio track
While Goodnotes 6 opts for the palette tool, the latest update to Morpholio Trace uses the new ‘squeeze’ functionality. An application-specific menu is displayed here. This implementation allows you to get more specific with a detailed color selection menu and view all available shade palettes.
Since it is a professional sketching app for design and architecture, it makes sense for the developers to tailor the Apple Pencil Pro experience to fit usage scenarios and enhanced functionality within the app. Morpholio already offers Hover and Double Tap support – since the former is now on iPad Air and Pro, people sketching and designing in the app can appreciate a preview of what a stroke looks like.