How many times have you been out somewhere and come across a product that looks just awesome but you're convinced you can find it for cheaper somewhere else? Or how about if you're headed out to the store to pick up a few grocery items and you arrive only to find out that you left that little scrap of paper you jotted down your essentials on back at the office? Or maybe you're in a business meeting and you and your coworkers have scribbled all over the conference room's white board a scheme for developing the meaning of life, your meeting ran long and now the next group is about to use a battering ram to commandeer what they believe is rightfully theirs and you don't have time to rewrite your beautiful scheme onto your notepad? You're in luck! I have the perfect solution for you.
Evernote for iPhone [iTunes App Store link, FREE]
This is no mere app; this app is a way of life! Never again will you be without all (and I do mean ALL) of your vital notes, links, photos, and even voice messages. Yes, Evernote does it all!
But wait, there's more!
Remember, Evernote is a way of life, so it's not just a simple iPhone app. The makers of Evernote have integrated this fantastic app so that it syncs on the web, on your mobile device of choice (iPhone, duh), and on your desktop. They have made it spazzerifically simple to have your complete collection of notes at your fingertips at all times! And these Evernote dudes must know what they're talking about cause they managed to snag themselves the Best Mobile Startup Crunchie Award for 2009 and Mashable's Mobile Applications Open Web Award for 2009!
Using Evernote in daily life
Personally, one of my favorite applications in the Evernote app are the Snapshot Notes. They're so versatile; you can use them for just about anything. What's more, it's super easy to use. Watch....
iPhonespaz Evernote Review: Snapshot Notes from Whitney McKim on Vimeo.
See! Perfectly simple. Suddenly with a touch of a couple of buttons your note is saved safely on Evernote's servers all ready for you to access at a moments notice from any platform you can think of.
Top 5 uses for Evernote on your iPhone
Inspired by Photojojo's 12 Ways to Use Your Camera as a Tool
With Evernote on your iPhone you don't just have a camera you have a photographic memory! So just like Photojojo's excellent suggestion to carry your camera everywhere, if you carry your iPhone with Evernote you've just increased your ability to wow your friends with your super sharp memory!
- Remembering where you parked your car
It's no secret that remembering where you parked your ride in a busy shopping mall is nearly impossible. Who can keep track of all those different colors, numbers, letters, farm animals? You can use Evernote's Snapshot Notes tool to grab a quick picture of your location or if you're an auditory learner you could use the Voice Note to record your memo to yourself.
How Evernote does it better: In the details menu of each note, Evernote records your lat/long coordinates of where you created the note, and you can view them on a map! So you can actually use your iPhone's awesome GPS capabilities to help you locate your lost car! - Make a shopping list
Photojojo suggests that you use your camera to snap a picture of a recipe before you run out the door to the grocery store; you'll never forget the milk again! You can do the same with Snapshot Notes.
How Evernote does it better: Since you can add details about the snapshot, you can add your favorite brands and sizes (maybe even remind yourself you have a coupon). If you're sharing Evernote between you and your honey, you can feel safe sending someone else to the grocery store without fear that they'll return with something un-organic!
- Remember all the details
No need to forget what kind of printer cartridges you need, what kind of oil your car takes, what size battery goes in your watch, or anything else for that matter! Snap a quick picture of it and store it in your Evernotes.
How Evernote does it better: You can add links into your favorite online e-commerce site that carries all your necessities. What's even cooler is that you don't need to know HTML at all! Evernote automatically converts "http://www...." addresses into links! - Save important phone numbers
Ever find yourself out and about and you need to buy a used car? I know, happens to me all the time! Problem with buying used cars is that the best ones are parked in the front lawns of random people. They like to make it easy by sticking their phone number on the "For Sale" sign, but really, who carries a pen any more, let alone paper? Snap a picture of that sign and you'll never have to worry about losing that little scrap of a note ever again!
How Evernote does it better: Just like the web addresses, Evernote recognizes phone numbers in the description field as links to call out! No need to program or do any kind of funky tricks, it's all built in. Type the phone number in the note description and when you come back all you need to do is tap the number and Evernote will politely ask you if you'd like to dial the number! - Document file storage
Let's face it, no matter how cool your camera is, it just can't do this. Granted, you need to utilize one of Evernote's desktop applications to get the files into Evernote's database (because Apple doesn't seem to want to let us use the iPhone as a storage device), but once they're in there they're easy to access. I've got good news and bad news about this feature though.
Good News: With the free version of Evernote you can store PDFs! Yay!
Bad News: If you want to store other document types (like .doc, .xls, etc) you're gonna have to purchase an Evernote Premium subscription. Luckily this is only $45/year. You also can only store documents up to 25MB, kinda skimpy on the file size.
Evernote 2.0: Big, Bold, and Beautiful
While I was writing this review Evernote happened to release version 2.0 in the middle of all this hoopla! And boy am I excited! Best new feature? Landscape mode!
Check it out (click on the thumbnails to view them large):
Sweet, huh? You've got a wide keyboard for easy text entry, and the thumbnail view is simply awesome; you really have to try it out to appreciated it. And all you have to do to invoke landscape mode is to flip your iPhone!
Evernote support applications (anything not the iPhone app)
The best thing that makes Evernote a lifestyle is that it gives you every opportunity to access your notes where ever you are. Web, iPhone, desktop, Evernote's got you covered.
Great thing about Evernote is that it doesn't discriminate. You can be a PC person or a Mac person and you still get the benefit of having a destop platform to access your notes in. Extra sweet thing about the desktop applications is that it uses an OCR (optical character recognition) type thingy to allow you to search for handwritten text inside (yes I said, inside) of the pictures that you stored there!
Going back to our previous example above. Your boss is screaming at you, the vultures that your co-workers really are are circling your conference room and what you need more than anything is to take that chicken-scratch off the white board and transcribe it into something useful. Guess what? You already have! Because you're such an iPhone Spaz you're carrying your iPhone everywhere, and because you read this fantastic review on iPhonespaz.com about Evernote you've created a Snapshot Note of that whiteboard with iPhone's internal camera, and now that you're back at your desktop you can actually search within all that muddy text inside that picture and make sense of it at your leisure! Brilliant.
Now, let's say that you also remember that there's a fantastic webpage that has some great info pertaining to your meeting. No problem! Evernote's got a sweet little bookmarklet that you can install in your browser (designed for: IE, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and others). What's even sweeter is that if you add that little bookmarkelt to your Safari bookmarks bar and then sync your iPhone's bookmarks, why you've got yourself a neat little bookmarking tool (which doesn't currently link directly to your Evernote app but is still functional inside the Safari window)!
One final nifty feature Evernote offers is its integration with Eye-Fi. While it is inconceivable to imagine being stuck somewhere without your iPhone, the only thing worse might be being stuck somewhere without a camera. Luckily, if you always carry your camera, Eye-Fi is the perfect back up to your missing iPhone. With Eye-Fi, photos that you take can be directly uploaded to Evernote's server; just like a Snapshot Note!! When you return to your trusty iPhone you'll be able to edit the info, add tags, write a brief description and find you won't have missed a beat!
I hope that i've been able to convince you that you can't live another moment without Evernote. But seriously, it's FREE, what do you have to lose? Evernote had me at, "Hello..."
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