Note taking apps are one of the types of app that I ‘ve always found to be an absolutely essential tool on pretty much every mobile device I ‘ve ever owned, from way back in the day when Compaq made (very good) PDA devices right through to now on the iPhone.
The iPhone “ as it does in many categories by now “ offers a lot of good choices, and a slew of choices overall, in the note taking apps category. I ‘ve tried out quite a few of them, and most have not worked for me. Three have stood out and impressed me over months of trial and error with notes apps “ Evernote, Notes Pro, and Iconic Notes and Lists. (I also have one voice notes app that I love, but that ‘s a topic for another day).
This is not going to be anything like a comprehensive, feature-by-feature comparison of these three iPhone notes apps “ and it ‘s also not at all intended to be a thorough overview of all the iPhone apps for this purpose. As I ‘ve said, I ‘ve tried quite a few, but there are likely far more that I haven ‘t had a chance to try.
This is just my quick take on three of the apps in this category that I think are excellent and do the job very well. They are also all quite different to each other, and each offers a somewhat unique approach and / or set of features “ so between them they may cover quite a range of tastes.
Anyway “ away we go
Evernote:
Approach
Evernote wants to be your ‘second brain ‘, not just a notes application but a holder for all your thoughts, images, web clips you want to save or review later, and more. It offers a fairly basic user interface in all of its incarnations, whether on the iPhone, the web, or the desktop. For a lot of people it ‘s an ‘everywhere ‘ sort of solution, because you can use it across various mobile devices, web browsers, and on the desktop on Windows and Mac.
Features
- Create text, photo, and audio notes
- Auto-synchronizes your note with Mac, PC, and Web
- Magically makes text in snapshots searchable
- All notes include geo-location information
- Portrait and landscape note editing modes
- Premium Feature (only available to paid, Premium users) “ add, sync, access and share files (PDF, Word, Excel etc) among different version of Evernote
Strong Points
All those features! It really is the ‘everywhere ‘ solution for me. I use it for web clipping stuff I want to keep for reference or other reasons, for saving images because I know the words in them will turn up in searches (for example, Apple events pics with words like SDK or similar in them), and for taking text notes on the desktop and the iPhone.
Lighting fast sync “ when you create a new note or finish an edit of an existing one, you ‘ll see the number ‘1 ‘ appear in the app ‘s Pending tab for only the briefest time, and then boom, that note (new or amended) is available everywhere for you.
Power “ things like the ability to easily choose which of your notebooks to store a new note in, and the super cool ability to add tags to notes.
Not So Strong Points
Only two small issues for me
Its text notes input interface on the iPhone is not hugely appealing. It has just never felt great using it, especially when compared to the other two apps covered in this post. I ‘m not sure what it is about it “ a little too basic, input area a little too small, it ‘s just never grabbed me.
I would love to make more use of its voice notes feature “ but it is just too basic compared to others on the iPhone “ as in it has very few features when compared to standalone voice recording apps. This is really a very minor complaint though, as it is nice to have this ability thrown in at all within the app.
Iconic Notes and Lists:
Approach
Makes notes much better looking, and lets you organize them into folders. Offers lots of choices too “ in areas like fonts and colors. Probably the most feature-rich of these three as well.
Features
- Iconic Filesystem “ lets you create folders and subfolders for notes
- Icons for quick visual reference “ default sets and can be added from photo library or desktop via WiFi
- Icon badges to designate notes as urgent or important
- Portrait and landscape note editing modes
- Automatic lists “ create check-lists, and numbered / bulleted lists
- 10 fonts, any font size
- Change text and background colors
- Sync over WiFi “ download notes to and from your PC “ upload and download folders as ZIP archives
- Email notes
- Templates
Strong Points
All those organization and customization options. Great if you like having a nested structure for keeping your notes in, or if you want to color code notes and / or folders. Or if you just want to be able to choose different fonts and sizes.
The automatic lists feature is very slick.
Not So Strong Points
Wireless sync method. It offers wireless sync, but it requires you to toggle on a web server within the app itself, go to your browser and enter (or pull from a bookmark etc.) the iPhone web server address, and choose which folder/s to download. I like wireless sync much better than cabled sync and there ‘s nothing inherently wrong with this method, except that it involves several more steps than Evernote or Notes Pro, and I ‘m a lazy git.
Maybe suffers a tad from offering too many features. Its interface is very nice, but also quite busy.
Notes Pro
Approach
Stays faithful to the simplicity of the built-in Notes app, but gives it a couple of power features it does not have (well, one of them has been added to OS 3.0). A little more background on this from its App Store description:
Inspired by John Gruber ‘s landmark ‘iPhone Likeness ‘ article (from Daring Fireball), PigLit has created Notes pro. This beautiful utility is designed to replace the standard Notes app with its added functionality, while maintaining the simplicity of an Apple app.
That John Gruber piece really is an excellent read, and should serve as an inspiration for more apps “ give it a look HERE if you have a chance.
Features
Spotlight search “ search through the entire text of all your notes, Spotlight style, and see results update as you type. (Note “ in the current version of the iPhone OS software, the built-in Notes app does not have this capability “ though it has been added to OS 3.0)
Portrait and landscape text note editing modes.
Google Docs and Email “ sync your notes with your Google Docs account, or send them via email
Strong Points
Sync with Google Documents. If you don ‘t use Google Docs, this won ‘t have any impact for you of course, but I do and I love, love, love this feature “ partly because I find Google Docs very nice to work with, and partly because sync is accomplished in very few taps and is very fast. Fast and near effortless sync is a huge plus for me “ and this is provided by both Notes Pro and Evernote.
The elegant and simple interface. It has surprised me how much I like this aspect of the app. I always thought of myself as someone who really disliked the built-in Notes app “ but I now realize that is largely because it has never synced to anywhere (again, this changes in OS 3.0 “ but I ‘m not at all fond of its sync to the Mac Mail app) and maybe a little because of the goofy font it uses.
Notes Pro keeps what is great about the built-in Notes app, while losing the goofy font and adding powerful search and a great sync partner.
At certain times, the power of Evernote “ with tags and search within images and all the rest “ is needed. Many other times though, it is great to have the super simple UI modeled on the standard Notes app “ no need to choose a title, it takes it from your first line of text, notes are listed simply in the order they were created, and there are a minimal number of buttons and screens within the app. Again, I ‘m amazed at how comfortable I feel with this minimalist approach.
Not So Strong Points
Sync with Google Docs is only one way right now “ from Notes Pro to Google Docs. This will change soon though “ two-way sync is said to be coming in the next update
Final Thoughts:
I ‘m not even going to attempt to choose an objective winner or ‘best app ‘ amongst these three. I believe all three are excellent apps, and will do their job superbly. Which one (or more than one) works best for you will come down to your own preferences and habits when it comes to taking notes on the iPhone.
A good measure of how much I like all three is that I ‘ve kept all three around for a large number of months, at times going back and forth between them in terms of which got the most use. Lately I am trying (perhaps in vain) to slim down my home screens a bit, so I ‘ve been aiming to get down to as few apps as possible, at least amongst productivity apps. So I am going to cut one of them as I feel three notes apps, plus a favorite voice notes app, plus another text notes app that does handwriting recognition, is just too much.
The two I ‘m keeping on my iPhone are Evernote “ because of its ‘everywhere ‘ usefulness “ and Notes Pro, because I love its interface and simplicity and find myself using it for quick notes more than the others.
I would love to hear how you all do your note taking on the iPhone. Do you use any of these three? Or another one that is your solid favorite? Voice notes apps?
Here ‘s where you can find these three apps:
Evernote “ App Store Link “ free.
Notes Pro “ App Store link – $0.99.
Iconic Notes and Lists “ App Store Link – $3.99.
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TAGS: Evernote, iphone apps, iPhone note taking apps, iPhone notes app, Notes Pro
