Evernote : Never forget again

The Basics

Category: Productivity

Release Date: May 29th 2008

Seller: Evernote

Price: Free

Size: 2.1 mb

Version: 3.1.1

Requires: Compatible with iPhone and Ipod Touch. Required iPhone OS 3.0 or later.

Recommended: Works best when coupled with the free Evernote software, available for PC and Mac for free at http://www.evernote.com/

The Review

We’ve covered apps from music, finance and the gaming category, but we’ve yet to touch upon the productivity genre. To fill this gap, we’ve turned to Evernote, a free application that has evolved from a free web and software application that allows the user to collect notes and information. The Evernote program is free, as is the app, to use but there is also a premium account, that offers greater security, faster word recognition and a larger per month upload limit to Evernote’s online servers.

The general idea behind Evernote, is to allow users to save notes, ideas, things the user see’s or likes. This can come in a number of formats, users can add text, emails, images or videos to their notes. These different inputs can then be added into the program via the software or online, through the website. The program then syncs the data between the online version and the software version to ensure they contain the same information. The Evernote app, aims to add another method to input information into Evernote and, through syncing, allow the user to access all their notes on the move.

The Evernote application opens and immediately allows the user to add a note to their collection through a number of different inputs. The application supports text, voice and picture inputs right off the bat. The text input incorporates the standard iPhone keyboard, with the landscape mode enabled, allowing for quick text input. The voice input works using the inbuilt microphone and the app has an integrated recording screen for capturing your thoughts . Using the picture input is just as easy, allowing the user to pick between taking a quick snap using the iPhones camera or selecting an existing photo. However for some reason the app only allows he user to select from the camera roll folder rather than the whole photo library. Overall, our favorite feature of the input part of the app is that it tags the notes that you create on your iPhone with your location. Notes can then be searched by location or viewed on a google map- a nice touch and a good use of the devices hardware.

Unfortunately there is one omission from the input methods, surely one you’ve all spotted – video. The Evernote software for pc and mac supports video as a valid input, so why not take advantage of the camera in the iPhone? This omission has us puzzled, but Evernote could always change this with a simple software update.

As mentioned before, one of the main ideas behind this app is to allow you to access all your Evernote notes on the move and the app does not disappoint in this area. Notes are sorted by date and are presented in a similar format as they are on the full software version. A search facility along the top makes rummaging through your pile of notes an easy task. Hitting one of the notes will bring it up, displaying the relevant data and text notes can be edited within the app and then the changes are synced back to your online account.

The Evernote app also boasts a favorite feature, in which users can select notes as their favorite- the notes can then be easily accessed and picked out from the rest of the notes. But, the main advantage of the feature, is that the app downloads favorite notes, so you can access them when you don’t have a good signal or wifi access.

The user interface of the app is easy enough to navigate around, with large finger friendly buttons, as shown on the input page, which makes accessing the features easy. The app incorporates the built in software, such as google maps, the keyboard and the camera app, to ensure that using the app is as quick and easy as possible.

Conclusion

The Evernote app is a great extension of the software and the online account, allowing the user to easily create, view and sync notes between the three. The clever use of existing hardware, such as the camera and microphone, combined with the use of software such as, google maps, makes this a quality free app- forgetting things will no longer be an excuse.

Rating :

+ Easy of use

+ Good features, such as the favorite note offline storage and google maps

+ Combines well with the existing software and online services

– Lack of video input