What makes an iPhone app a real favorite? What are some of the features that take an app past being just very good, and make it an every-day, go-to app in its category? I have a feeling there ‘s almost never a single good answer “ there are a number of things that contribute to an app being a favorite, and they probably differ by type of app as well. Oh, and many of them are probably very personal “ a factor that is huge for me, may be a very minor concern for others.
So for now I ‘m just going to nominate one feature that makes an iPhone app (probably a productivity app in this case) a go-to app for me “ effortless wireless sync. The app that made me think about this a little last night and inspired this post is Notes Pro “ and I think it provides a good example of how this one feature can make an app stand out above all its rivals.
For me, effective sync is a key component of most iPhone productivity apps “ and there are three things about how sync works that are critical to me:
— Sync must be wireless. I hate having to plug my iPhone into a PC in order to sync. I do this is as rarely as possible and apps that force me to use this sync method generally hold very little appeal.
— The easier the sync method, the better. Ideally, once you have setup your account (with an online service or similar) or partnership (with a desktop app for instance) sync should then be automatic and require little or no effort on your part. Things “ the superb tasks management app for Mac and iPhone “ works like this. Once you setup your partnership between desktop and iPhone, it syncs automatically on each launch of the app “ no tapping or any action on your part required. Other apps require just a few quick taps to invoke a sync once initial setup has been done.
— Sync needs to offer good, effective ‘sync with ‘ options. With an RSS app, I want sync with Google Reader; others may need sync with Bloglines. With notes, being able to sync to my PC is one good option, sync with Google Documents is, for me, an even better one. Sync with Evernote would be great as well “ as I find that I love Evernote as a whole (across PC, web, iPhone) but do not like it at all to create and edit notes on the iPhone. With photos, sync to Flickr is great, sync to my PC is probably even better.
Anyway, back to Notes Pro and what got me thinking about wireless sync and how it can help to make an iPhone app a favorite.
I do a lot of note-taking on the iPhone “ a whole lot, all the time and in various ways. I use voice notes apps. I use Evernote. And I use or have used several notes apps that are more like replacements for the under-powered built-in Notes app. Notes Pro is rapidly becoming my favorite of late because of its very simple, almost effortless wireless sync with Google Docs.
As mentioned above, I have not found Evernote to be a good ‘input ‘ app for notes “ so I ‘ve worked with both Iconic Notes and Notes Pro quite a bit. Both are much nicer for creating and editing notes on the iPhone. Iconic Notes lets you organize notes into folders and choose different colors for your notes and folders. Notes Pro keeps some of the simplicity of the built-in Notes app “ making it super quick to create a new note and keeping a simple, streamlined interface “ and has a very nice Spotlight-style search feature.
In short, both apps are very nice to use “ but just lately I find I nearly always opt to use Notes Pro. I choose it because it gives me a one tap sync to Google Docs. It ‘s not a perfect sync option “ as it just one-way sync (uploads to Google Docs, does not ‘pull ‘ down though) and requires a tap for each note, there ‘s no sync button that syncs all notes at once.
Iconic Notes also has a fairly easy wireless sync capability. It syncs notes to and from my Mac “ but it uses a built-in web browser to do so. This method is OK and relatively easy to use “ but requires a bit more effort each time I want to use it. I need to turn on the web sharing in the iPhone app, then go to a browser on my Mac, type in the iPhone ‘s URL and sharing port number, and then choose which files to download etc.
The thing is, even though Iconic Notes ‘ method is far from difficult, Notes Pro gives me a much quicker option “ and one that does not require me to get onto my Mac and into a browser etc. The easy, almost effortless sync method of Notes Pro is the biggest reason it is becoming my most used notes app.
So Notes Pro is a strong app for a number of reasons. Its interface is simple and elegant, and it ‘s easy and comfortable to create and edit notes in the app. But for me, the thing that pushes it up to ‘favorite ‘ status and nudges it ahead of other rival apps, is its simple, effective sync method.
How important are sync methods to you? What are some of the features that make an iPhone app a real favorite for you?
Continue reading:
- Everything New Apple Just Announced (Septembe
- Apple Watch Pre-Order
- Apple Research Kit launches with 5 Apps
- Apple TV now only $69
TAGS: Notes Pro, Things
