PearNote
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Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me take notes at school
Dear Aunt TUAW, Now that most of the country's college students are going back to school, I need recommendations for note-taking software for my Mac. In the meantime, let me say, "Boo-hoo Microsoft for not making OneNote for OS X." Sincerely, Kenny M Dear Kenny, If you're looking for an OS X app that hits many of OneNote's sweet spots, consider the US$39.99 Pear Note from Useful Fruit. Developer Chad Sellers tells TUAW, "Pear Note is often looked at as a more focused Mac alternative to OneNote." If you record lectures as you take notes, Pear Note may be the app for you. It integrates your typed notes with audio, providing many of the same kinds of note-taking features as OneNote. Timestamps for each keystroke allow you to associate what you typed with what was being said at the same time. Just click on the text notes to jump to the point in the recording when you typed it, and start listening again to that topic. If you plan to use an iPad and a Mac, the upcoming Pear Note for iPad will coordinate with the Mac version via Dropbox. Do recognize, though, that Pear Note is for creating notes, not organizing them. Sellers says, "I wanted people to be able to use whatever organizational tool they like with Pear Note. So, some organize their notes in folders on the filesystem, some throw them all in Documents and use search to find things, and some use Yojimbo, Together, or Evernote to organize them." Now, if you're more of a visual scribbler than a listener, Auntie suggests the $29.99 Circus Ponies Notebook. Notebook shines in its ability to add diagrams, flow charts and sketches to any page and provides full stylus integration. You can import PDF documents and add notes on top of that material. Plus, you can "...'clip' selections from web pages and other apps straight into your Notebooks," according to Circus Ponies' marketing text. Notebooks stores the URL with the clip, allowing you to return to pages that you've taken notes on. Perhaps your prefer an outline approach? Auntie's got a suggestion for you, too. How about the $39.99 OmniOutliner? It provides excellent outlining tools. OmniOutliner lets you collect and organize information using a traditional outliner on steroids. With it, you can build multi-columned documents that include many spreadsheet enhancements, so your outlines can come to life. If you're a bullet-point style note taker, OmniOutliner probably provides all (if not more) the functionality you need for in-class organizing. Got another OS X note-taking app to recommend? Drop a note in the comments, because Auntie loves hearing from you. Hugs, Auntie T.
Mac Sale and MacBasket offer up Mac app bundles
The Mac App Store is set to change the way you download and use a lot of software on your Mac, but one thing I hope it doesn't change is the tradition of the Mac software bundle sale. Bundling up indie software and selling it for a relatively huge discount is something that, in my experience, tends to be Mac-specific. Despite the obvious benefits of a nice discount (as long as the software's developers are fairly compensated for their sales), it's also an excellent way to find new software that you might not have purchased separately. I know of a few apps that I would have never bought on my own, but now use every day after picking them up in a bundle sale. There are two bundles going on right now. First, the Mac Sale is up and running right now, offering 10 different Mac apps worth $400 separately for just 50 bucks. There are a few good creative tools in there like Mariner Write and iCollage, and the iPad video converter helps you prepare videos for viewing on your iPad. RuckSack is a useful Mac utility for dealing with archive files like .zips and .rars. The Mac Universe has a discount code for an extra 5% off your purchase, so that's a great deal if you're interested in even just a few of those apps. The MacBasket sale is also underway right now with 10 titles on sale for $49. Great apps like Pear Note, SpeedDownload, and Dropzone are included in the offer. An app like Delta Walker, which compares and syncs files and folders for you, might not sound too useful by itself, but once you have the functionality you'll find it very helpful indeed. I like these bundles a lot -- there's always the question of whether the software's creators are making the money that they deserve, but as long as everyone's in on the agreement, it's a win-win for all.
Pear Note 2.0 out now, features web sharing and a revamped UI
Useful Fruit Software has released Pear Note 2.0, a new version of the very powerful note-taking app for the Mac. Sang wrote a great post about the app late last year -- personally, I like just sitting down with a pad of paper and taking notes, but Pear Note helps you capture everything about a presentation, from syncing up slides and audio to your own typed-in notes. It will even keep a "timeline" of what you're noting when, so that you can go back and see where in the audio you typed what, reviewing your notes and the actual lecture audio at the same time. The new version completely revamps the user interface, which allows you to navigate both the app and your lectures more quickly and smoothly. It also brings to the table a web sharing feature, so that anyone online can view your notes and lecture content when shared. And there are a few other improvements as well, including speed playback control, and the ability to bring multiple slide files in on a single note. The app is available for $39.99, and version 2 is a free upgrade for all previous Pear Note users. Especially for students heading back to school in the next few weeks who need a good note-taking workflow, Pear Note seems like a huge help.
Pear Note: note taking for the best of us
Though I graduated from college (Go Bears!) not so long ago, in computer years it seems like ages: notebook computers have almost completely replaced spiral-bound notebooks, and PowerPoint and Keynote are increasingly supplanting the chalkboard. The changing dynamics of teaching demand a change in the way students take notes and learn, and Useful Fruit's Pear Note (available for free trial for 30 days, or $39.99 for purchase) addresses these changing dynamics for students. It's like TiVo for note taking.
