I first reviewed Momento (currently $1.99), a gorgeous journal app for the iPhone, back in January. It’s been almost a year since then, and version 2.0 brings a lot of changes quite a few changes to the table, but relatively few “new features”, aside from improved exporting, backup, and a handful of new feeds to import.
What Momento 2.0 really feels like is a year’s worth of little patches that have been sewn together to make a pretty gigantic update. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I also think it would have been great to see some of this stuff sooner.
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I started using an online service called OhLife a few months ago and have been quite happy with the flexibility it affords me, since I can simply e-mail entries to OhLife from my Mac or iPhone and access my data through a website on either device.
In other words, coming back to Momento after so many months was quite an adjustment, but I tried to keep an open mind. I started the transition by transferring 50+ entries from OhLife.com into Momento with simple cut-and-paste. The lack of any sort of text import system within the app is painful, but the complete lack of any Fast App Switching made the process really sting, since it meant I had to reload the app every single time I added an entry. There are all sorts of new feed import options (YouTube, Vimeo, Digg, etc.) in Momento 2.0, but proper text import, sadly, isn’t one of them.
I know I didn’t have to go through all the trouble of manually importing entries, but I wanted to use Momento as a proper little journal that I could sit down and look through. I didn’t really bother to tag people or create events or custom tags during my first sojourn in January, but I gave these extra features a shot earlier this month, and had a lot of fun with them. If you’re the type who enjoys tagging picturesWith full text search, a powerful tagging system, full portrait and landscape support, and a calendar-based layout, Momento does a fantastic job of giving your past some form. The app turns jumbles of tweets, status updates, and personal entries into a navigable history (now available in portrait and landscape modes!).
Backup!
I really appreciate the new exporting and backup functionality in Momento 2.0, and I think these features are a major part of any decent journal application. After all, why put all that effort into Momento when another app could steal your time and attention tomorrow? Having an easy, reliable, and functional backup actually helps thwart these kinds of thoughts (which are all too common — given the ridiculous competition on the App Store). Evernote functions on a very similar principle as Momento in this case: the memories and media that you put into the service should be accessible and exportable at any time, and Momento does a particularly good job of exporting text files with great formatting. By showing you how easily you can head for the door, Momento actually ends up giving you all the more reason to stay.
Conclusion
Basically, I’m *this* close to permanently carving out a space on my first home screen for Momento, but I need a little more help from the app first (iOS 4 multitasking would be a great start!).
For Momento to truly shine, I’d really need some powerful text import functionality so that I can take the moments that I’ve written elsewhere and easily plug them right into Momento’s database. Whether this comes through Dropbox sync, some sort of web app, or a magical carrier pidgeon doesn’t matter to me — but text import will decide whether this app becomes a cute little souvenir in the corner of my homescreen, or a beloved Momento.
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