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Adonit's Jot Touch and Jot Script 2 make a strong case for the stylus
I've never been a big fan of the stylus. Sure, I don't really have a choice when I'm using Wacom's Cintiq pen displays, but other than that, I don't care much for styli. Adonit has a pair of them -- the Jot Touch and Jot Script 2 -- and they promise a more pen-like feel, so now seemed like as good a time as any to give the stylus another shot. Alas, though, after spending a few weeks getting to know these two gadgets, I can confidently say that I'm not ready to give up the ol' pen and paper just yet.
Evernote's Plus tier gives you a bit more notetaking for $25 a year
Until now, Evernote's service options have been something of an all-or-nothing proposition: either you stick to the free, very limited tier for your notetaking or shell out $50 a year for the full Premium package. You won't have to pay quite so much after today, though. The company has introduced an in-between plan, Evernote Plus, that unlocks a few key features at a more reasonable $25 per year, or $3 per month. You can only upload 1GB per month, but you get access to offline notes on mobile devices, automatic email-to-note conversion and a passcode lock. It's enough to help you with some serious life organization or your schoolwork, and not much more. If you do need more, though, you'll be glad to hear that Premium now has unlimited uploads and larger note sizes. All told, you're more likely to pay only for the features you'll actually use.
Evernote's redesigned Android app adapts to your note-taking style
Evernote only reworked its Android app half a year ago, but it's already back with a new version that's centered around adapting to your note-taking habits. Besides a fresher look that's in step with Google's flatter and brighter Material Design, the update gives you more control over the pop-up action buttons, navigation bar and even notebook covers. The all-important note interface is simpler, too, to help you focus when you're jotting things down. This upgrade probably won't sway you to Evernote if you weren't already a fan, but you'll definitely want to grab it if you didn't think the existing app was flexible enough.
Reddit shelves its pseudo-currency plans for now
Bad news if you were hoping to swap Reddit Notes with friends: the internet community just put its don't-call-it-a-currency project on ice. As Reddit's Alexis Ohanian argues, the company doesn't want to dive into cryptocurrency (even when it doesn't have conventional monetary worth) until both the legal and technical aspects are "further along." He wants to make sure that users get the "full value" of their equity, and that's reportedly not possible right now. It's not clear that this is the only motivation, mind you. Notes was started under Reddit's previous CEO, so it may be as much about a change in leadership philosophy as anything else. Whatever the cause, you'll have to make do with handing out Reddit Gold if you want to reward your fellow redditors without relying on third-party services.
Patch 6.0.3 Hotfixes for January 7th
Hotfixes, piping hot. And what's in those hotfixes, you may ask? Well, I'm glad you did. Because if you hadn't, rhetorical reader, I wouldn't be able to inform you that, in addition to the trap stealing hotfix we mentioned earlier: Spawn rates for Direfang Alpha, Ironhide Bull, and Wetland Trampler has increased slightly. This change requires a realm restart. Alliance and Horde PvP vendors in Ashran now have collision boxes, so it should be easier for players to buy stuff. Hand of Protection should now interrupt players that are in the process of capturing a point in the Battlegrounds. A whole host of class fixes and changes. Come with us under the shadow of this small jump to see what's going on.
The tech in MyScript Smart Note is perfect for stylus users
MyScript Smart Note is a note-taking app for iPad geared toward stylus users who want a comprehensive solution for jotting down handwritten notes that actually function like physical, organized notebooks rather than like sketches. It recognizes your handwriting and treats it like text, allowing you to highlight and define words. Plus with a variety of other gestures, MyScript Smart Note proves to be pretty powerful for a free app. It requires iOS 7.0 or later. As the app explains in its 3-page tutorial, MyScript Smart Note analyzes your handwriting. This isn't the type of app you've probably seen in which what you write actually converts to text using a predetermined font. Your handwriting remains as you wrote it and the MyScript technology realizes it's text. Pressing and holding a word highlights it. Dragging the left and right points can even select individual letters. In practice, the handwriting recognition is extremely accurate. In fact, MyScript Smart Note managed to correctly identify every word from my neatest handwriting to my very-sloppy-yet-still-readable handwriting. There's also a zoomed-in mode that focuses in on each word you write before moving on to the next if you find that to be your preference. Gestures make it easy to edit handwriting in the same way it's easy to delete or replace letters or words you've typed. Strike through individual letters or words to erase them. Draw a vertical line in between two letters to put a space in between them. Repeat this in a space to bring the two letters together. Then of course there's my favorite gesture: writing a letter over another letter to replace the one underneath. It works near flawlessly. In addition to handwritten text, MyScript Smart Note allows for regular sketching using the drawing tool, custom selections using a selector tool and of course provides an eraser for those pesky mistakes that a simple gesture might not fix. Notes can also have audio clips, images and even complex math equations. Your notes don't need to start from scratch either; import PDF files to draw or write over them. As for the notes that do require a blank canvas, even that's customizable: line patterns, backgrounds and margins are all adjustable. Also important for powerful organization is search and this app nails that too. Everything you write is searchable. The app searches through multiple notebooks, displays the notebook your query is in and highlights the word on that page as well. When your task is complete, pages or entire notebooks can export out of the app in the form of text, an image, a PDF, a printed page and a few other options. The only downside I see with MyScript Smart Note is the limitation for free mode. Without reaching into your pocket, you get 10 pages in one notebook to work with. You hit the wall quickly, but I suppose it's sufficient usage for a free trial. Unlocking the full app requires a US$1.99 in-app purchase. The go-to app for taking notes is typically Penultimate. However, there's no question that serious note takers should give MyScript Smart Note a try instead of rushing to what's most common. Penultimate has more options for sketching and drawing, but if you're avid for writing with a stylus, MyScript Smart Note is frankly top-of-the-line.
Stay organized and creative with the free version of NoteLedge
The NoteLedge iPad app, free in the App Store with in-app purchases, is built around inspiring creativity, not staying organized. Of course, it's great for that too. Unfortunately, NoteLedge gives a bad first impression. It immediately prompts you to sign up for the developer's Kdan cloud service so that you can sync your data across all of your devices. While this is not necessary to use the app, these kinds of pop-ups are extremely annoying and bad UX. On the subject of cloud backup, you need to upgrade to the paid version to sync with Box, Dropbox, Google Docs or other cloud services. The free app only comes with one basic notebook cover. You must purchase any additional covers from the NoteLedge store. This is a bit of a drawback, but not necessarily a deal breaker. Enough about the negatives, let's talk about what works: I love the look of NoteLedge. It mimics the look of a leather bound notebook. If you are hesitant to move from a traditional notebook to a digital one, this might be the app that you've been waiting for. There are 15 different types of paper to choose from. These give you everything from a variety of lined pages, to graph options, as well as templates for things like agendas. It comes with six different writing tools, but more are available to buy. The default tools are sufficient for the average user. Only power users or artists will want to add more. If you would rather use your keyboard for traditional note-taking, you have 12 font options to work with. Additionally, there are four e-card pages available. Most apps go too far into cutesy territory with things like this. NoteLedge keeps it simple. Plus, there are ten seasonal backgrounds for Halloween inspired notes. All of these elements prove that your imagination is in the driver's seat here. You can add almost anything to your notes. Create tables, add photos, record or import videos and add audio files. As an added bonus, there's a photo editor so you can crop images and add filters. Not to mention that you can use the app solely for sketching or drawing. My favorite part of NoteLedge is its navigator. From here, you can copy selections from your note and easily move them around. The best part is the in-app browser that makes copying text or adding screenshots to your notes incredibly easy. This feature is really great if you have notebooks for recipes or home decorating, but there are endless possibilities. It also has a magnifier for close-up writing or drawing. For those of you who like to have a lot of notebooks, you'll like the calendar view which lets you find notes based on their date. Despite some of my issues with it, NoteLedge does have some cool features. If you are new to note-taking apps, give it a try. If you already use an app like Evernote for organizing your life, the free version probably is not worth the switch.
OneNote on iOS and Mac now lets you attach files
Like it or not, school is fast approaching. However, Microsoft thinks it can make the fall semester a little more bearable with big updates to OneNote on both iOS and the Mac. Both apps now let you attach files to your notes; you can include audio recordings from a lecture to add some context to what you wrote, for example. If you add a PDF printout, you can also jot down annotations.
Note-taking platform Springpad shutting down on June 25th
Springpad, the online and app-based platform for saving and sharing web content, managing notes and collaborating on projects with others, has announced that it'll be shutting up shop come June 25th. Despite ongoing development of the service, it's evidently struggled to compete with the likes of Evernote and others, despite attracting over 5 million users during its six-year lifespan. Come the tail end of June, you'll need to find a new home for anything that lives on Springpad, and the company's said it's working on an export tool that'll allow you to save your data and/or move it elsewhere, although we don't currently know which similar services the tool will support. Little consolation to Springpad loyalists, no doubt, but at least moving over to a more successful alternative means it'll probably be the last time you have to.
Microsoft's OneNote may come to the Mac this month
Microsoft's OneNote app has been available on mobile, Windows and the web for quite some time, but Mac support for the note-taking software has proven elusive... at least, until now. Both The Verge and ZDNet hear that OneNote will be available for free on OS X later this month. Microsoft would also release a free desktop Windows app (the Windows 8-native app is already gratis) to better support its own platform. Both versions would include new features, too, including a Clipper service to save web content and a desktop variant of Office Lens' document scanning. We've reached out to Microsoft to verify the claims. It's easy to see why the folks in Redmond might expand OneNote's ecosystem, though. The app is facing stiff competition from Evernote, which is available on most modern platforms -- Microsoft would simply be countering a rival.
UpWord Notes is a useful new note-taking and task management app
UpWord Notes is a new note taking and reminders app from the Lau Brothers that focuses on convenience, allowing you to track important information easily and get things done quicker. UpWord is designed to make it easy for you to quickly jot down a note and get on with your business. When you launch the app, you are shown all your notes, which can be listed individually or nested in folders. At the bottom of the screen is a big "+" button that allows you to add a new note. There's also an option to create a new note automatically when you open the app, saving you the extra step of pressing the "+" button. The main notes list also provides quick access to your favorite notes and notes that have a due date. This latter option is useful for users who want to use UpWord as a task manager as it lets you quickly see the notes that need your attention today, tomorrow or next week. You can use a swipe left gesture on each note to reveal a menu that lets you favorite, move, delete or assign a due date to a note. Theme support allows you to change the color based on your preference as well as the time of day (day/night mode). UpWord has a handful of advanced features that make it more than just a place to store your static notes. The app supports tappable links, allowing you to open a URL, email address or phone number by simply tapping on it within your note. The app also supports third party services like Dropbox for backup, TextExpander for input and both Facebook and Twitter for sharing. Other handy features include multiple undo, custom note title, word count and an auto-bulleting option that automatically continues bulleting a list with bullets, numbers or roman numerals. You also can use a swiping left gesture to style a line of text so it is highlighted or bolded, while a swipe to the right will strikethrough your text and mark it for deletion. It takes a few moments to swipe through these style options, but it's a convenient way to markup a block of text. UpWord does not have a desktop companion app, but you can use it with any desktop text editor by installing Dropbox on your desktop and opening the text files found in the UpWord Notes folder. For a launch version, UpWord notes is a polished app. It's easy to use and has more than a handful of useful and time-saving features. It never crashed on me and was enjoyable to use. The only area I found that was lacking was organization. You can create individual notes and folders for notes, but it's not readily apparent how to move the notes around after you create them. I discovered I had several notes about an outside environmental project, and I couldn't just tap a note and then drag it to the folder I created. I had to swipe right, tap the move icon and then select the destination folder. It's a minor quibble to have to go through multiple steps to move an item, but I feel it's important to point out for an app that otherwise excels at efficiency. UpWord Notes debuted today in the iOS App Store and is available for US$0.99. It is an iPhone-only app that requires iOS 7. There are no ads and no in-app purchases.
Evernote for Mac now lets you search using everyday language
Evernote syncs gobs of content these days, and that can make it tricky to find what you're looking for without some clever search tricks. However, those data hunts just got much easier with an updated version of Evernote for Mac. The app is the company's first to let you search using common language; you just have to include the relevant criteria, such as the location, time or any attachments. Look for "notes from phone created last month with audio," for example, and you'll get just those recent voice memos. There's no mention of when other Evernote apps will get their turn at the refined search engine, but Mac users can start downloading today.
Evernote now syncs your documents four times faster
Syncing Evernote content was quick when most users had just a handful of notes, but times have changed -- many people are now transferring pictures, presentations and web clips. The company may keep up with that seemingly insatiable demand, though, as it just launched a brand new sync engine. The improved infrastructure syncs data roughly four times faster than before. You may not notice a difference if you're a casual user, but veterans and Business customers should see the impact right away. This isn't the end of the story, either. Evernote is updating its native apps to make better use of the engine, and developers will get to take advantage of the upgrade in the future.
Apple bought Catch and Broadmap in 2013, beefs up its note-taking, cartographical chops
Apple's bought plenty of companies this year, and while the number they bought is known, all the names are not. Today comes secondary confirmation of two more firms acquired by Tim Cook, as 9to5Mac and AllThingsD cite unnamed sources that BroadMap and Catch were taken into the Cupertino fold earlier this year. Apple, for its part has issued its standard non-confirmation confirmation of the story, stating that it "buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans." Both acquisitions make sense, however, given that the technologies they bring dovetail nicely with existing Apple products. The headliner here is the acquisition of Catch, builder of a note-taking productivity platform not unlike Evernote. Catch has similar capabilities, with cloud syncing, image capture, voice recording and text notes all baked in, plus checklist creation, reminders, and collaboration features, too. Having such features in Notes for iOS and OSX would be pretty nice, no? As for Apple's other recently revealed acquisition, BroadMap? Its specialty is in dealing with massive amounts of mapping data and geographic information systems. Those strengths seem a natural fit given the still-fairly-daunting hill for Apple to climb before its cartography app catches up with Google's behemoth.
Gift-giving with a personal touch via BOND for iPhone
The rapid growth of the app-centric ecosystem means that it's possible to do almost anything with a few taps on your iPhone. Unfortunately, one of the things that's gotten harder is building and maintaining a personal connection with clients, friends and family -- particularly for on-the-go professionals for whom the idea of sitting down and writing a stack of thank-you notes is probably as remote a concept as skipping the day's third cup of coffee. The folks behind BOND, a new gift-giving app hitting the iOS App Store today, think they have a way to change that. By pairing the power of e-commerce with the power of a hand-written note, BOND founders Sandeep "Sonny" Caberwal, Angelo Bruno and Andy Ellwood are trying to put some of the person-to-person contact back into our daily digital experience. If you were to visit a typical mobile/ecommerce startup with a few days to go until the product launches, you'd probably take away an impression of frantic activity and last-minute load testing. When I stopped by BOND's offices last week, rather than being greeted with whiteboards full of feature lists and assets to be located, I was greeted instead by the office dog, Rivington. After a brief detente, he proceeded to curl up on the couch next to his master Sonny Caberwal while I chatted with both co-founders about BOND. The experience of the BOND app is straightforward but luxe; users, who are reminded of upcoming special events and birthdays via their calendars (and optionally from Facebook's friend info), select from a curated list of intriguing gifts sorted by cost. Some gifts, it should be noted, are a trifle risqué; shop like a grownup. If you only want to send a note, that's in there too, for US$5 (but read on for a limited-time deal). Select the recipient, type out your note -- you can send a note without a gift, but not a gift without a note -- and check out. If you don't know the gift recipient's mailing address, BOND will ask on your behalf with an email or SMS. The whole process only takes a few moments, but on the receiving end the package includes a handwritten note (robot-written, technically, but with lovely penmanship), a beautiful box and a great opening experience. The gift offerings are curated by co-founder Bruno, former merchandising lead at designer shopping site One Kings Lane. The overall vibe at the BOND office was far more high-end boutique than far-out startup, and that's the way Caberwal and Ellwood want it; both have been through the crazy times of entrepreneurship (Caberwal at India's Exclusively.in fashion site; Ellwood at Gowalla and Waze) and both are looking for at least a measure of balance in this latest venture. "We want a sustainable organization, where we like what we're doing," said Caberwal. "We don't want to sacrifice our relationships on the altar of a company about relationships ... We have not quite figured that out yet," he admitted somewhat ruefully. "Launching a startup is like having a child," he notes. "You try your hardest, but you never have everything completely figured out." Ellwood and Caberwal are a visual odd couple -- the taller Ellwood sporting a jacket and pocket square, the bearded and lean Caberwal in a traditional Sikh turban -- but they're aligned on the value of relationships and on effective messages of thanks. "I started my career cold-calling billionaires," Ellwood says, referring to his days as a sales rep for Warren Buffett's business jet venture. "I had to distinguish myself somehow." He developed what turned into a lifelong habit of sending handwritten thank-you notes to prospects and clients, and always uses a Mont Blanc pen he received as a gift from a manager in his early days. "I use that pen for two things: signing contracts and writing notes." Caberwal believes that the underlying anthropology of giving, the "why" of the gesture, is part of what brings us satisfaction and pleasure as a giver. "Everyone loves to get gifts, but everyone also loves to give them. True happiness comes from making others happy," he says. "As busy professionals, we want to send notes to follow up and gifts to show we care, but we often don't have time" to get all the ducks in a row. Giving a great gift that makes sense for the recipient is awesome, but the fallback position for harried givers is... well, not. "Gift cards are not awesome," Caberwal jokes. "Step up your game a little bit." Cracking into the $300 billion global gifting market may not be easy for BOND, or for other mobile-first gifting plays like Sincerely's Sesame and Ink apps, or Cleverbug's Facebook-centric photo greeting card app. But the opportunity is too big to ignore. "There should be a user-friendly destination focused on the gifting space, and that's what BOND is," says Caberwal. Want to try out the BOND app for yourself? For a limited time, you can download BOND and send a handwritten note for free! Just use the code FREENOTE when checking out, and the normal $5 price for the card will be waived.
Evernote comes to Windows Phone 8 with multi-shot camera, speech to text support
Evernote has let its Windows Phone app languish at times, but the company is making amends with a new version of its note-taking client that supports Windows Phone 8. The update primarily improves navigation and speed for modern hardware, although there are a few platform-independent additions. Users can now snap multiple photos without leaving the camera mode; the refresh also introduces photo slideshows, speech-to-text transcription and an automatic title generator. Evernote's big upgrade is available in the Windows Phone Store today, and there's promises of "lots more" coming to Microsoft's mobile platform in the near future.
Daily iPhone App: Notograph is a photography tool for your important notes
The iOS camera app is handy for taking photos of your memorable moments. It's also useful for grabbing snapshots of important notes, receipts or lunch break napkin scribbles. This usefulness is stymied when you hop into the camera roll and find your important note mixed in with hundreds of photos of your latest vacation. This lack of organization and context is addressed by Notograph, a new iPhone app from Craig Bradley. Notograph is designed from the ground up to be a note-storing app that grabs its content from your camera. It's quick and easy to snap a photo of a note -- just launch the app and tap the onscreen camera button. There are no filters or fancy effects; only the shutter button, a toggle for the flash and the option to switch from the rear to the front camera. Each photo gets saved to your folder of choice and you can move notes between folders with just a few taps. The folders are displayed in a text-based list, while the individual notes are listed as thumbnails. The thumbnails jog your memory and help you recall the contents of a note. The developer behind Notograph realizes people like to store and share notes so he has included support for iCloud syncing, Dropbox storage and Evernote backup. iCloud and Dropbox can be configured to automatically back up your notes, while notes are sent over to Evernote on a individual basis. Though Evernote syncing is manual, it's still easy -- just open the note and select Share > Evernote to send your notes to the note-taking and storage service. Notograph also allows you to send notes via email and messaging as well as share them socially on Facebook and Twitter. Notograph is for the notekeeper who likes to quickly record photos of important documents and organize them outside the iOS camera roll. The app has options for cloud storage and social sharing so your notes can be stored safely and shared as needed. The UI could use some polishing, but it's still a good first effort, and I look forward to future improvements from Bradley. Notograph for the iPhone is available for US$1.99 in the iOS App Store.
iOS notetaking service 'Catch Notes' shutting down August 30th
Users of the popular iOS app Catch Notes, take note (no pun intended): the note-taking and archiving service is shutting down as of August 30. The service allowed people to take notes via text, photos or voice and share them with friends and colleagues. The company has not been specific about why it's shutting down, but is urging users to download their data before it is deleted from Catch's servers on August 30. From an announcement on the company website: Catch has made the difficult decision to take the company in a different direction. As such, we will be terminating service next month. We value our users and have greatly enjoyed providing Catch to millions of people over the last several years, but it is time for us to move on. Catch will no longer be available after 30 August 2013. Please follow these directions to download your data before this time. We thank you for your support. If you have any questions or concerns, please email us at support@catch.com. We apologize if we are not able to respond to all emails. - The Catch Team The provided export tools allow Catch users to export their data as CVS and ZIP downloads and will also optimize data for use with other services, like Evernote.
Evernote for iOS gets related notes, shortcuts and Skitch integration
Many habitual Evernote users have giant stacks of notes that can be difficult to sift through. Mercifully, Evernote's updated iOS app has come to their rescue: it now lets users create shortcuts to favorite notes and surface related notes. It's easier to mark up those scribbles, too -- the update integrates tightly with Skitch, dropping users directly into the companion app for annotations and drawings. Premium users can jump directly to Skitch for PDF editing. There isn't a corresponding Android update just yet, but serious iOS note takers can get the new Evernote build today.
Evernote for Windows Touch gets a redesign, two-step verification
Couple of updates to Evernote for Windows Touch users: for starters, the app's hub page has been redesigned for a better fingers-on experience, bringing handy columns for notes, shortcuts created across different platforms and Notebooks. The Windows Touch app now includes support for Evernote Business, as well -- Notebooks created for that side of things will appear in blue, so you can tell them apart from the personal notebooks sitting in your hub. Also new is two-step verification for added security. A full list of updates to the pachyderm-friendly note-taking platform can be found in the source link below.
