Aleks sends along this app which, while cute, is not quite “killer” for me. I find it more difficult to write the equation using the trackpad than to simply type it in using Latex! But I suppose it could be useful to beginners who want their papers to look more like science.
Something like this might be quite convenient on an iPad. Drawing with fingers is much easier than drawing with a trackpad or mouse. I have an iPhone app that lets me draw a Chinese character on the screen, and it will look it up and give me the dictionary entry.
I think it’s a copy of this original idea that’s been around for a few years:
http://detexify.kirelabs.org/classify.html
The idea is not to type your whole thesis using the mouse; it is intended as a helper to know the Latex code for some esoteric symbol you need. Easier than looking it up in a lookup table.
The two programs do two different things. Web Equation will typeset an entire equation, whereas Detexify is just for individual symbols. On the other hand, good luck getting Web Equation to recognise, e.g. ‘zeta’.
Tablet Gold for big, messy expressions.