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Evernote tops voting for TUAW Mac Best Productivity App of 2011
It's the service, Mac app, and iOS app that everybody loves, and it won in our reader polling for the best Mac productivity app of 2011. Evernote (free) pulled in nearly a third (31.3 percent) of the votes from TUAW readers, topping second place winner OmniFocus ($79.99) which had 23.3 percent of the votes. Evernote became even more useful to Mac and iOS device owners during 2011. The company now has a herd of apps that all work well with the Evernote app to help be your "brain in the cloud" -- Skitch became part of the Evernote family this year, and Evernote Hello, Evernote Clearly, Evernote Food and Evernote Peek are all there to help you out as well. Many thanks to the TUAW readers who nominated their favorite Mac productivity apps and then voted in the competition. Congratulations to Evernote founder Phil Libin and the rest of the Evernote team on being the winner in this category for the TUAW Best of 2011.
iPad 2 + Smart Cover = study aid with Evernote Peek
We tend to kvell about Evernote quite a bit around here, it's true; we've even interviewed CEO Phil Libin on at least four separate occasions. If only the company would stop doing cool things so we could quit harping on them! No luck on that score, at least not today. Evernote claims to have introduced the "first iPad Smart Cover app" with Evernote Peek, a study aid and test prep app. It's a fantastically simple idea, so much so that it's surprising nobody has done it until now. Here's the deal: populate an Evernote notebook with your clues/questions (in the note subject) and brief answers (the note body, including pictures if you want), or use one of the preformatted notebooks from Evernote and StudyBlue. Then, run Peek and peek under the first flap of the Smart Cover to expose the question; unfold the rest of the way to see if you got the answer right. Check off correct/incorrect so you can retest yourself on the ones you got wrong. It's ingenious, and it works -- although the app instructions suggest turning off Auto-Lock for the Smart Cover, on my iPad that actually prevented the peeks from registering; it worked better with Auto-Lock left active. I can't think of an easier (or cheaper) way to build out quick, effective iPad flash cards for any topic under the sun. Since Evernote supports shared notebooks, it's simple for teachers or tutors to give students access to class-specific materials. Prepare yourself for libraries and classrooms filled with the distinctive 'kerp' sound of Smart Cover front edges hitting iPad screens. You'll be hearing it a lot.
