I was a physics undergrad back when the origami project launched. The origami project was the introduction of the UMPC (which would probably be called a tablet today). At the time I convinced myself that I NEEDED this device to take notes. What I actually found after buying one was that it was completely impractical. I just didn't have the speed I had with pen and paper with equations and diagrams and I would end up having to stop taking taking notes and copy a colleagues after the lecture. The only thing that was useful was recording the lecturer.

Digital note taking may have advanced since then but i gave up on it a long time ago. Having said that, I do still use my N900 occasionally when I don't have a pen and/or paper.

I couldn't have said it better myself.
You might hear of some lag issues of the NOTE, they are real. When hitting Home, Power, or AppDrawer things always pause for 0.4sec which is a notable pause for the user.
The reason I'm saying this, is because Samsung has made this thing to run at a fraction of its capabilities (it seems) and that the upcoming ICS update is to fix most issues. Perhaps it will make taking notes even more accurate and faster.

If it doesn't, then this thing wont be as advanced as a notepad and pen. I think the best alternative for you is the HTC Flyer (7in, Honeycomb, Pen, Notetaking features)

Well, if you prefer typing notes, I have found that the Magic-Pro makes a great little btkb called ProMini BT-Touch2. It's about the same length and a little narrower than the Galaxy Note. All the main keys, including Ctlr and Fn. The Tab key didn't work for me but instead use ctrl-i. It has a little touch pad that controls a cursor on the Galaxy Note screen so you can point and click to open apps. Oh yes it even comes with a laser pointer which keeps my cat happy!

I've purchased some accessories and wanted to chime in.

Firstly a carbon fibre-leather-hard plastic case.
It fits tight, is a little thick, quite resistive to stabs and falls but definitely no otterbox. Its quite good looking, but wont fit on any car holders or my pockets anymore. I got it for $6 (free postage), I dont use it anymore.

To transform it to a premium finish, I would advise to have a look at rocksiccion's craftsmanship

There are two types; cheap <$15 ones...these work as normal, usually false advertising with some properties added.
Then there are expensive >$30 ones. These ones actually reduce gloss, glare, increase conductivity (finger/pen) and do so without hindering the screen's sharpness/colour ratio.
A cheap one is enough for most people, because what you really want is to prevent scratches .A screen protector is a must.

I also purchased a ($7) car holder from "telegaming" its made of plastic but is a quality piece. The phone slides in and "clicks" into possition. Very stable and very funtional (it can twist to any angle u desire).
I would've loved a physical mount in the car, but this is the next best thing.

From the same seller, I bought a $8 kit (car charger, 3 screen protectors and the case).
The screen protector and car charger are the usually cheap things, but they work more interesting is the case:

Black TPU and Grey Silicon.
There's a kickstand (silicon) which is part of the backing/mainframe. The Kickstand works well.
The case is heat and knife-proof.
Also tamper proof, but dont drop it from a 2.5+ metre height.
The sides are TPU which is textured, greatly help with grip.
All the holes and ports (pen) are easily accessible.
The buttons are covered but NOT hard to press.
Whole case is quite thin, so it still fits in my pockets easily.
Its great to whip it out in front of friends, raise the kickstand and watch a video on a desk surface without having to touch it (now if only the loudspeakers were louder and clearer)

Verdict: 9/10 ...This case is a MUST HAVE for any NOTE owners.

This is a bit off-topic here, but for note taking, it would be cheaper and far more practical to use something like a smart-pen - see http://digitalsmartpen.com/

These start around £120 I think, and can digitise your notes as well as record the audio from the lecture. You write on special pads of paper, so there is an ongoing cost to take into account but it would be much cheaper than a Galaxy Note!

Thank you all for the input on note taking! As of now I think I am just going to purchase the Asus Eee Pad Transformer for $400 and get a stylus/digitizer. The Note is way too expensive, I'll keep my N900 for a phone as it's one of a kind.

Bad move.
You can't get a pen for the Transformer. Only those $2 capacitive styluses, I have one and its very inaccurate and a constant hit and miss.

If your point is to take notes via typing, then forget about tablet+keyboards and go grab an Ultrabook like the Toshiba Z830.

Btw, I had one of those digital note transcribers...wasn't even used for a week. My HP PDA did a better job than those things.

^lol i plan on handwriting my notes. but yeah bestbuy has a very lenient return policy so im trying out the transformer, acer a200/500, and samsung galaxy tab 8.9 to ser which is ideal. i really like the acer :/

From the perspective of a note-taker in my chaotic environment, I would say that it is much easier to lose a note taken on paper than electronically, and I find that searching for key words does not work well on physical paper.

Hi:

I'm doing the same that you are, very happy with the Note, and running a Debian chroot on it.

Could you help me with step by step instructions on how you ssh into the Note, as it seems I'm daft, and can't connect... I've sshed into other Android devices before, but can't connect with this one...

Basically, I've installed sshdroid to run the ssh server on the Note.

It runs the server on 192.168.1.100 which I know is wrong, as this is a local address already accessible on my PC, when pinging it, without the USB cable connected. Now when I connect the USB cable, the PC doesn't bring up the usb0 unterface, instead two devices /dev/sdb and /dev/sdc get created. These can't be mounted, as no disk partition info is identified on them...

I think, the trick to connect is in Android USB settings, which on the other phone let me chose what to do when the USB is connected, i.e. mount disks, do nothing etc.

However, the note's USB settings only give me the option to turn on mass storage, which is not what you want to enable ssh access...

I have USB debugging turned on on the phone.

What am I missing?

OMFG: Just realized all these people talking about SSHing into Android devices are doing it over wifi, that's why the 192.168.1.100, I don't wanna do that, wanna do it over the USB cable. Have you succeeded? How? (Can't do it over wifi anyway, I've tried)...