When it comes to stylus, i've used both the Pogo Sketch and the Boxwave Capacitative Stylus, i have to say that i love my boxwave stylus. It's pricey, but very responsive and durable. I noted that another forum member mentioned that stylus with rubber tips can get sticky on iPad, i've experienced the same, but it's really due to (1) iPad screen is dirty or (2) rubber tip of stylus is dirty. The gradual pile up of oil from fingers on the ipad screen can cause this, simple cleaning of screen and stylus tip will solve this.
I use my iPad for taking notes in meetings, so i've tested quite a few handwriting note taking apps - Penultimate, WritePad, Note Taker. I like WritePad, but realize it does take time to get the character recognition properly adjsted to my style of handwriting, unfortunately dont have time to keep at it. On the other hand, i love Note Taker, especially since you can resize the writing to fit the lines. My only wish is that they had folders to store groups of notes, or have separate notebooks like Penultimate, for easier organization.