A:
You can take notes, but it'll be slow going, and you'll need a stylus. The screen is wonderfully sensitive, so you can type pretty fast, but I can write faster.
Highlighting is something of a pain. It took me forever to figure out how to get it to highlight a passage (just a word is easy, but the phrase or passage was a challenge to figure out). I highlight the first word (touch and hold), lift up, wait for a slight flash, and then put the stylus down on that word again and drag to the end of the passage. Then touch "Highlight." Sometimes it correctly includes all of it, and sometimes only part of it.