After trying out a ton of apps, I like the results and features of just using Pages (iWork) and SketchBook Pro the best.

I'm thinking about giving Pages a try.

Is there a way to use the iPad as digital voice recorder?

Not that I know of, sorry. It wasn't really a feature that attracted me that much.

Not a digital voice recorder but soundpaper seems to offer a mix of note taking and voice recording. Anyone use it?

No, never hear of it before. I thought that the iPad would be a great incognito voice recorder though and could come in handy in certain situations.

Sundry Notes allows you to record while typing notes and embedding symbols and such...

Try dragonfly...

You should try "Penultimate" with a Pogo Pen really usefull.

I finally decided on Paperdesk. I like that you can switch between text and freehand drawing easily in the same document. Its very similar to Journal on the TabletPC is you have ever used that.

Does it come with a stylus?

I use "Voice Memos" for audio recordings. works fine for me.

I use Penultimate for short names and numbers but it really doesn't cut it for serious notetaking.

Been using Note Taker HD for a week now and really like the app for making serious pages of notes and sketches. It's basically a split screen so you can finger write on the lower half and the notes are shrunk and echoed on the top half.

It's the nearest I've found to taking lecture notes. Best of all it works with my big fingers as I wouldn't be able to keep a stylus for long.
Check out the videos on Youtube to see how it works.
Just a clever solution to the problem of writing on the pad.

I would agree. You can type your notes and then add pen gestures and highlighting if necessary. You can also sync PaperDesk to a web based account that allows access from your PC - printing and saving as a pdf, etc.

I wish it came with a Wacom stylus like the TabletPCs, but I can make do with out it ok. You can buy the Pogo styli separately and they should work fine.

After reading the thread I went with note taker HD. For finger input the zoom feature is just great. I'm never sure about voice recording at meetings, it's fine in a small groups and where everyone knows you are doing it! The only thing I'd like to be able to do is enter text using the keyboard on occasion, I know some of the other apps can do this but note taker zoom text feature outweighs the keyboard after all if you want to use the keyboard you could always use notes. I've just ordered the pogo pen from ebay also.

I do this too, and I can't take real notes, in actual (small) handwriting. I see a few huge words on a screen. Am I asking for too much?

This would never replace a piece of paper and a pen, right? The lines are too thick and you have to hold your hand in a bizarre position so you don't get a million "wristmarks" on the screen. And I have that wrist protector thing or whatever they call it turned on, too.

Dragon fly works great for me.

I downloaded loads of note taking apps but nothing has come close to NoteTakerHD. You can actually take 'real' notes.

You guys using NoteTakerHD, can you import pictures? That little movable zoom window looks great. Can you also type, or is it finger/stylus only?