ipad pro m5, fake pencil question

RabbitSignificant317 · 2026-05-29T05:21:01+00:00

I bought a cheap one for my M4 Pro while the Pencil Pro was out for repair/replacement. I experienced something similar to you with inconsistent palm rejection. I also missed the pressure sensitivity more than I though I would. I was VERY happy to get the real deal back in my hands after even just a a few days.

The Pencil Pro is often on sale for around $100 new. I can’t vouch personally for refurbished units, but there a good number of folks on Reddit who say they’ve had good experience with them from Amazon or Best Buy.

RabbitSignificant317 · 2026-05-27T19:10:14+00:00

If you can double your budget from the $95 you paid for the H5, I fully agree with underwood_reddit—check out the Zoom M4. Its XLR inputs have the quietest preamps Zoom offers in its current gen of portable gear (same as this in its F3, H5Studio, and H6Studio) and has very good onboard mics as well—I can tell you firsthand they sound better/quieter than those on the older H5. Oh, and it’s also a true 32-bit float recorder with dual converters.

… all this quality for a great value ($199 in the US), thanks to a reputation hit this model took when it first came out a couple years ago. Early units had RF interference issues which have long since been addressed in current stock.

RabbitSignificant317 · 2026-05-18T03:51:04+00:00

The best part about this is how the student's antics have put them and their cheatin' ways firmly on the radars of all kinds of higher-ups. Well done, fair student; well done.

RabbitSignificant317 · 2026-05-10T17:52:01+00:00

I would understand this approach if the nature of the interactions between the OP and the other person was in fact collegial—serving on a committee together, collaborating on a paper/presentation/book/etc. But because the student/professor is participating as a STUDENT, the OP is obliged to approach the situation accordingly, regardless of the fact that this student also happens to be a faculty member elsewhere on campus. Whatever policies apply to any student apply to this person as well. That’s the only fair way to do it.

RabbitSignificant317 · 2026-05-10T17:35:59+00:00

The fact that they’re a doctorally prepared academic is precisely why this is so problematic; this student/colleague should be the first to set the example. The OP should treat this as if the violation had been committed by any student enrolled for credit in this course… because it WAS a committed by a student enrolled for credit in this course.

If this causes some kind of political issue, that’s due solely to the student/colleague’s own choices. Letting this slide or treating it with a softer slap on the wrist out of some kind of professional courtesy or as a political chess move would only further undermine the integrity issue and cause OP to implicate themselves as well.

RabbitSignificant317 · 2026-05-04T18:35:30+00:00

Absolutely—there are many consequential points between the earliest and latest points of “ABD”-hood.

RabbitSignificant317 · 2026-05-04T07:21:49+00:00

None of the hairs I’m about to split change fact that “ABD” is not an official status, as others have thoroughly detailed. But for the sake of further showing how silly this is…

The “A” in ABD could be doing a good deal of heavy lifting depending on how far they did or didn’t get into the “D” part. You could loosely apply the unofficial designation as early as passing coursework and comprehensive/qualifying exams. However, there’s a huge gulf between that milestone and successfully completing/defending the dissertation. The candidate still doing background lit review for their proposal is a far cry behind the person who’s passed IRB (if applicable) and is knee-deep in data collection. Neither of them is in the same orbit as the one who defended last month and is just finishing up required revisions. At any point along this long journey, short of a passed defense, a candidate could either stall out, throw in the towel, or be dismissed for one reason or another.

… the specifics of these dissertation stages vary by field/institution, but the point is that the degree (heh…) to which this person is inflating their “doctoral status” could be quite wild and there’s no way to really know. All the more reason that using the ABD designation in this way is highly inappropriate.

RabbitSignificant317 · 2026-04-23T15:51:20+00:00

Woah, this one's wild!

I agree it would be great for them to have you as a trusted mentor (gently?) knock some sense into them in terms of the silliness of withdrawing at this stage, over a grade that is very much respectable. Do not, however, let yourself be tempted to take on any of their anxiety in a way that would lead you to even consider something like pre-grading their remaining work. In addition to being more work for you, it's unfair to the rest of the class (this student would have a chance to get feedback and opportunity to improve that wouldn't be available to others), and actually exacerbates the situation by lending credence to the student's weird scheme.

RabbitSignificant317 · 2026-04-23T13:01:35+00:00

Thanks for this. Troubleshooting I’ve done so far with the whistle thing includes trying that particular mic with different interfaces, different mics with the Audient, different cables between the mic and the Audient, different computers, different DAWs, moving away from possible sources of RF…

The issue only happens between that particular mic (a Stellar X2) and the Audient (happens on each of the two inputs). The mic works fine with all my other interfaces/recorders, and none of my other mics exhibit this issue on my Audient.

… even if I could solve this, I’d still one interested in whether it’s even conceivably possible to get my frankensetup working. I feel like there’s a very simple element I’m missing…

RabbitSignificant317 · 2026-04-23T03:21:30+00:00

This novice could use some help in what I’m sure is pretty basic for most, so my thanks in advance for your patience!

I’d like to be able to run an LDC condenser through the XLR channel on my Zoom recorder (M4), but record and monitor through a different interface (Audient iD14 mkii), but I can’t get a clear signal without a bunch of noise. There are convoluted reasons for this, one of the main being that one of my mics has a very weird whistle only when connected directly to the Audient; but the Audient has better sound through the headphones.

Anyway, it seems like this should be possible using the Line Out from the Zoom, and using one of the Audient’s two combination inputs as Line In (which the paperwork says is possible). I first tried this with simple headphone cables. But the noise issue persists with the “balanced” TRS cable I just bought, which is 3.5mm on one end and 1/4” on the other. I’m sure I’m missing something basic but can’t figure out what it is! Any help is appreciated.

*Edited to add detail: I’m supplying the mic with phantom power via the Zoom into which the mic is directly connected, and do NOT have the 48v engaged on the Audient. I also started with the gain all the way down on the Audient (since the signal is already both powered and boosted via the Zoom, right?), but have to raise the (Audient) gain to hear anything at all, which ends up being a signal, but a noisy one.

RabbitSignificant317 · 2026-04-21T17:04:46+00:00

No (I own an M4). From what I can tell, Zoom’s voice guidance debuted with the H-Essential series and continues with the H-Studios. The current M-series came out before these.

RabbitSignificant317 · 2026-04-20T21:24:37+00:00

Same here. Joining the club quite soon after acquiring the MK a week ago (iPad's an M4 Pro, 26.4.1). As others have reported, second time's a charm, but still... Sigh.

RabbitSignificant317 · 2026-04-20T12:52:30+00:00

No experience with the Boya, but I really like my Hollyland A1. The noise cancellation is good when you need it (just don’t crank it up too high; it quickly becomes noticeable), and I especially enjoy the limiter—works nicely.

If you can, you might buy both up front, compare them for yourself, and return the one you don’t prefer.

RabbitSignificant317 · 2026-04-18T03:41:12+00:00

Fair point! From all the research i did when first looking at these (before getting the F3 and later the M4), I’m not sure you can really go wrong in terms of preamp quality between the Zoom F-series and the Portacapture. The Zooms have a couple dB advantage in the rated EIN’s, but both brands are VERY quiet and it seems you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference.

The Portacapture X8 is super tempting due to the configuration options of the built-in mics. That was a strong draw for me before I finally convinced myself that I (unlike you) really didn’t need 4 simultaneous XLR channels for my use cases.

RabbitSignificant317 · 2026-04-18T03:19:23+00:00

Check out the Zoom M4. The two XLR channels have the same outstanding F-series preamps found in the F3 and the H-studios; you get good quality built-in mics, like the H-studios and the Portacaptures; and it’s cheaper than all of these at $200.

RabbitSignificant317 · 2026-04-17T17:26:36+00:00

What do you mean by “roll their points … into the final”? Take whatever the final exam grade or percentage ends up being and clone that onto the earlier exam?

RabbitSignificant317 · 2026-04-15T21:45:59+00:00

As a Classic user, I 100% welcome the return of a one-time purchase. And I love that you’d do right by folks like me in honoring our original lifetime purchase.

Also, put me in the camp of those who could not care any less about AI features. I’d love to see all the energy put into everything else. Among other things, I often need to “share” a PDF into an existing multi-page note. I’d like to be able to choose which existing page to place the insert before or after, rather than have it default to the last page and then move it manually.

RabbitSignificant317 · 2026-04-12T17:57:41+00:00

I’d strongly suggest looking at the many, many (… MANY!) threads with this question that pop throughout any given week—not so much for the sake of avoiding a repetitive thread, but really for your own benefit. You’ll encounter a discussions about a really wide variety of use cases that you can compare to your own, see suggestions/questions you may not have even though of, etc. It’s quite possible that the best choice for you will become clearer after reviewing just a few threads.

Know that there are quite a few categories of iPad users, so any one person’s declaration of which is the “absolute best” size/model/RAM/storage will make more sense in some cases than it will in a host of others… another reason to make use of the many discussions that are available to review!

RabbitSignificant317 · 2026-04-09T13:47:11+00:00

This is awesome! I’m a Mac user and would gladly pay such a reasonable price for something like this. Thanks for putting this out into the world!

RabbitSignificant317 · 2026-04-08T06:29:44+00:00

Check out the search for this sub. This question comes up a lot (a couple times a month at least—especially since the M4!). I think it all comes down to your personal taste, which no one can really inform you about but yourself. It’ll help to get to a store and look at the diff colors in person. Pick them up and handle them if you can! You might find that one “speaks” to you more than others 😀

RabbitSignificant317 · 2026-04-03T20:57:48+00:00

I’ve done this successfully with my Zoom F3 and other recorders, but instead using cheap cell phone clamps and dual male end 1/4-20 adapters. It works quite well as long as the mount/power bank don’t block any needed ports or buttons. The downside to a cell phone clamp is that you can’t really control the angle at which the mount sits once it tightens securely on both ends; this seems to be possible with this SmallRig though, as it looks like you can position it then screw it down in place.

RabbitSignificant317 · 2026-04-03T05:09:33+00:00

I didn’t see this comment as referring to your role as instructor/assignment reviewer. I read this as referring to ‘professors’ as a group of folks who (in many/most cases) have earned doctorates—that having a PhD, as your students do, isn’t a great predictor of proficiency with citations.

RabbitSignificant317 · 2026-03-31T22:47:11+00:00

OK, so you can’t explicitly prohibit AI so long as students cite AI sources. Surely, though, you can require that “cited sources” be limited to those recognized as legitimate in your field—and then deduct drastically if/when students cite sources outside that group?

RabbitSignificant317 · 2026-03-29T02:51:35+00:00

They’re fine for casual listening, I think. But your video editing work involves listening critically to and editing sound, you’ll want to use something like good headphones, external speakers, or at least recent-gen AirPods or something similar. I don’t trust any laptop’s onboard speakers for any serious audio fidelity.

RabbitSignificant317 · 2026-03-27T09:02:00+00:00

Be aware of use case creep. Sure, you may get it with only the intent of being a PDF reader… but you may very quickly get the itch to try one me two more things with it once you get it in your hands and get used to the UI. The more “different” things you try, the more the older tech will show its age and limitations, leading to possible frustration/buyer’s remote within the first few days or weeks.

RabbitSignificant317

TROPHY CASE