Cat Keyboard vs Beamer Notes
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Cat Keyboard
This app allows you to quickly input saved text snippets from your iPhone keyboard or Apple Watch. You can also display or speak text aloud on your Apple Watch, keeping your phrases organized in folders.
- One-tap text input
- Save frequently used phrases
- Organize phrases with folders
- Display text on Apple Watch
- Read text aloud on Apple Watch
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Quickly input frequently used text directly from your keyboard or Apple Watch. You can also display text on your Apple Watch or have it read aloud through the speaker. 【Key Features】 ・Easy Text Input Save frequently used sentences and phrases to input them with just one tap from your keyboard or Apple Watch. ・Organize with Folders Keep your phrases tidy by organizing them into folders, making it easy to find exactly what you need even as your collection grows. ・Apple Watch Integration View text directly on your Apple Watch or play it back as audio through the speaker. Terms of Use: https://wordouen.sakura.ne.jp/KeyHolderKeyboard/terms.html Privacy Policy: https://wordouen.sakura.ne.jp/KeyHolderKeyboard/privacy.html
Beamer Notes
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Beamer Notes is a two-screen presenter for slide decks made with LaTeX Beamer and “show notes on second screen”. Your iPad shows the current slide, your private speaker notes, and a preview of what’s next — while the projector shows only the slide, cleanly letterboxed on black. Draw with Apple Pencil and every stroke appears on the projector in real time, in exactly the right place. Fingers are free to turn pages, so your palm never leaves a mark. YOUR IPHONE AS A REMOTE Step away from the lectern. Your iPhone shows your speaker notes, the next slide and the timer, turns pages, and aims the laser pointer on the projector. It pairs straight to your iPad — no shared Wi-Fi, no account, nothing to set up. AND A MAC FOR THE TIDYING UP Beamer Notes on the Mac keeps your library in order between talks — folders, colours, renaming, sorting, on a big screen with a keyboard. Everything stays in step with your iPad over iCloud. Presenting remains the iPad’s job. It is free on the Mac App Store, and a Full Version bought on iPad carries over with Restore Purchases. FEATURES • Dual screen over HDMI or AirPlay — the audience sees only the slide, never your notes or controls. • Apple Pencil ink with live mirroring, through the system drawing palette: pen, monoline, fountain pen, pencil and marker; a pixel eraser and an object eraser; lasso to move what you have already drawn; a ruler for straight lines; any colour, any width. Plus a laser pointer with an optional comet trail. • Tabs — keep several decks open at once, drag to reorder, and they reopen where you left off. • Speaker notes shown full-width with pinch-to-zoom, plus a next-slide preview. • Automatic layout detection for notes on the right, left, top, or bottom — 16:9 and 4:3 — with a manual override when you need it. • Count-up timer and an adjustable countdown with an on-screen “time’s up” alert only you can see. • Navigate by tap, swipe, on-screen arrows, hardware keyboard, USB or Bluetooth presenter clickers, or your iPhone. • Tappable table-of-contents and \hyperlink jumps inside the PDF. • Thumbnail overview that marks the pages you’ve annotated. • An in-app library with coloured folders, synced through iCloud and organisable on your Mac; import via Files, AirDrop, or the share sheet, and a revised PDF with the same name can replace the old one. Plain PDFs work too. • Decks are fetched to the device in the background, so they open with no network at all — and anything not yet downloaded is marked in the library. • Your ink is saved automatically and survives quitting the app. Built for lecture-hall reliability. No account, no tracking, no data collection. Free to try with three of your own PDFs. The built-in tutorials are always free, and reopening a deck you have already used never counts again. Need more? Add ten or thirty decks whenever you like, or unlock unlimited decks forever with a single purchase. TIP FOR PROJECTORS Connect the display before you begin and stay in Beamer Notes for the talk. On iPadOS 26 and 27 the system sometimes does not hand the external screen back to an app that has been in the background; if the projector starts mirroring your iPad, quit Beamer Notes and open it again with the display connected.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Beamer Notes at every 3 days against Cat Keyboard's fortnightly. Beamer Notes also leads on iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Cat Keyboard sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and Beamer Notes sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Cat Keyboard ships an update fortnightly, Beamer Notes every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and October 13, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Cat Keyboard | Beamer Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (9 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 83.3% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 9 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 18.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 106 MB | 2 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | kimihiro kubota | Wei Chen |
In-app purchases
Cat Keyboard
- Premium (1 Month)7 Days trial$2.991 Month
- Premium (3 Month)7 Days trial$7.993 Months
- Premium (12 Month)7 Days trial$19.991 Year
- Cat Pro$24.99
Beamer Notes
- Add 10 Decks$1.99
- Add 30 Decks$4.99
- Full Version$9.99
Questions
Is Cat Keyboard free?
Is Beamer Notes free?
Do Cat Keyboard or Beamer Notes have ads?
Which is updated more often, Cat Keyboard or Beamer Notes?
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