With well over 100,000 apps in the iPhone App Store now, it’s pretty rare to find that ‘there’s not an app for that’ when you think of things you need to do on the iPhone, or even in life in general. It is common though to find many apps that offer to do the same thing, and to struggle to find the one or ones that work best for you and your own habits and preferences.
Note-taking is an area where I think there are a number of good apps around – but it’s also one where I have several that I have used but where I still haven’t found a good ‘groove’, a routine workflow that feels like an ideal way to do things.
Three of the apps that I’ve spent quite a lot of time with are shown in the icons at the top of this post – Evernote, Simplenote, and Dragon Dictation. I’ve also used Notes Pro, PhatNotes and various other text note apps, as well as SpeakEasy, QuickVoice, iProRecorder and many other voice note apps.
Here are some extremely condensed thoughts on a few of these apps I’ve used a lot and that each might offer a strong solution for all my iPhone note taking needs:
Sinplenote – as the name suggests, simple and minimalist UI, much like the built-in Notes app. Now has a good and expanding range of sync options, including a dashboard widget and a free desktop sync partner app for Mac.
Dragon Dictation – the new and super cool voice recognition app. Once I really get to know my way around the commands that can be used in this app, it may become the go-to app for new notes input.
iProRecorder: The best of all the voice note apps I’ve tried – not least because it’s the only one I’ve found that lets you add to existing voice notes even after exiting the app, closing / saving an individual recording etc.
Notes Pro – Another simple, elegant UI modeled on the built-in Notes app. Sends notes to Google Docs – ha promised two-way sync was coming for quite a while, but not delivered so far.
PhatNotes – Very full-featured for a text-entry notes app. Expensive and Windows-only desktop sync partner ($19.95).
Evernote – My ever-present. Because of its range – across mobile, the desktop, web browsers – this is the main repository I want all my notes to end up in.
OK – but here’s the rub for me right now. I’ve tried out many notes apps, and found several I rate highly and like using – but what I haven’t been able to find is a good workflow, a nice routine to rely on when taking notes for app reviews, random ideas, and whatever other subjects.
And here are a few ‘ideal world’ scenarios I’d like to see, that I think might get me very close to finding a routine to stick to:
– Evernote comes up with a much nicer and more effective interface for working with text notes
– Evernote allows for adding to existing voice notes
– Simplenote – or others – add a ‘Send to Evernote’ function.
– I become a Dragon Dictation master and pair it with Evernote to form the perfect one-two punch
What are your iPhone note taking habits and tips? Which is your go-to app, or apps?
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Any app that can "send to email" can send to Evernote through your Evernote email address. It's more taps than a straight "send to Evernote" button, but it works.
FWIW, I'm mainly an Evernote user, but mightily impressed by Dragon Dictation. Evernote should just buy Dragon and integrate the functionality (just sayin')…
Yup, that's true – but as you've said, I'd prefere to see it a another direct option, rather than requiring an email.
Dragon functionality integrated = would be sweet
I've tried several apps and agree that those were always too hard or unwieldy to use effectively. Took too much effort to write small, etc. The guy that built this app is the same guy that invented spreadsheets (Visicalc). That gave the app enough street credibility with me for me to give it a try and spend the 10 minutes of orientation timing. It's not one of those you just get out of the box. Once you get it, though, and it's worth the 10 minutes, it has an interesting approach — you "write" in full size but the notes show up more reasonable sized under what you are fingering in — it's pretty compelling. My main gripes with it so far are:
1) It only lets you go so many lines down. It uses a 3×5 card metaphor. I can't help but wonder, what for? I was keeping a list of gifts for thank yous at Christmas and ran out of card space so had to start another. That bugged me, but just a little.
2) The Notes don't seem to be able to be organized. They sort in date order, that's it. I just email them to my gmail account and/or Evernote, but still. Why so dumb about this (or maybe I'm just naive about the apps features)
Anyway, very compelling to me to take notes with my finger. I had been using another app but can't recall the name. This one quickly replaced it and I use it daily. I'm a good typest but those little keyboards stink (whether iPhone virtual or Blackberry hardware).
Thanks for the info Chris. I may give it a go sometime, but my past experiences with handwriting on the iPhone have been so bad that it may not be real soon.
I'm using Awesome Note (http://bridworks.com/) mainly because it can export/import (text+picture) notes to/from Evernote (since the new 2.5 I think). Transfer is VERY basic, but it works. But there's no option for automatic sync (or sync rules) and it can only export notes to your main notebook (but can import from all). For me, the second part is luckily no problem because I use my basic Evernote notebook for quick&dirty notes and have extra notebooks for long-time storage and specific topics. But I'm REALLY hoping Awesome Note adds more sync options in the future.
Here's how it works now:
Start Aweseome Note –> Transfer button –> Export button –> select note(s) in an abc sorted list of all you notes –> Start export button –> Done button
Interesting – I've heard good things about this app.
Anyone know why Dragon Dictation isn't available in the UK and if it's every likely to be? I'd love to give it a try.
Oh – surprising. I've tried 'handwriting' with both fingers and stylus in a couple of apps, and found it horrendous.
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