iPhone App Reviews

NoteMaster

Michael (Admin) | Nov 10, 2011 Productivity

User rating: (No Ratings Yet)

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NoteMaster ($3.99) by Kabuki Vision, LLC

Available on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

I had NoteMaster on my iPhone for a long time before I ever found a use for it. I’m not a big note-taker, but when I decided to start a small business last year I found myself using NoteMaster all the time! The crappy default Notes app that comes bundled with iOS is fine for jotting down an occasional address or whatever, but when you need to keep information organized NoteMaster is definitely the way to go.

It lets you add photos to notes, it syncs with Google docs, it does several different kinds of lists, it lets you categorize notes… it really does it all.

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Tags: notes

Update: Stick It

Michael (Admin) | Aug 18, 2009 Utilities

User rating: (5 votes, average: 2.80 out of 5)

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I wanted to post an updated price image here since Stick It’s maker is now shown as “TapFactory” and Stick It has 375 ratings instead of the paltry 162 it says on this old price thing… but my iPhone has again quit doing screenshots! Groan. I just ranted publicly on the subject and if anyone has a better solution than doing a full reinstall I’d love to hear it.

Anyway, Stick It has just undergone a big update since my review in June, and here’s the word direct from TapFactory:

TapFactory Apps introduces “Stick It”, a utility that allows you to quickly and easily take notes, customize their look, and create wallpapers for your lockscreen to use as quick reminders. Take notes on the fly with Stick It’s quick loading, visually appealing, and easy to use interface. Use Stick It to create personal reminders, shopping lists, special notes to your loved ones, and more!

New in 2.0 update:

• Saving feature – Stick It will now automatically save your notes so you can pick up where you left off.
• Email your notes directly from the app.
• Different options for exporting notes to get the best image quality possible.
• New note sizes and backgrounds.
• Various enhancements to the user interface.

iTunes Link – Stick It
Version 2.0

Tags: $.99, notes

B-Day Giveaway: Stick It, Part 2

Michael (Admin) | Jul 30, 2009 Utilities

User rating: (No Ratings Yet)

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Second chance at Stick It!

iTunes Link – Stick It – iPhone Sticky Notes
Tapfactory website

* Today is iPhone App Reviews.net’s birthday *

Tags: $.99, notes

B-Day Giveaway: Stick It – iPhone Sticky Notes

Michael (Admin) | Jul 30, 2009 Utilities

User rating: (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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I reviewed Stick It back in June and, lo and behold, I actually found myself using it a week or so later while I was running around with a to-do list as I was moving out of my Chicago apartment.

If you’re in the habit of unlocking your iPhone to access lists and notes and whatever, Stick It could become your new best friend. All you need to do is make your notes which you save as an image, then set the image as wallpaper, and it really does make things way easier!

Tapfactory Apps already has an update in the works to make Stick It notes editable and easier to use.

iTunes Link – Stick It – iPhone Sticky Notes
Tapfactory website

* Today is iPhone App Reviews.net’s birthday *

Tags: $.99, notes

Stick It – iPhone Sticky Notes

Michael (Admin) | Jun 17, 2009 Utilities

User rating: (6 votes, average: 3.83 out of 5)

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You’re out running around and you’ve made a to-do list on your iPhone’s default Notes app. Each time you want to look at the list you have to unlock your phone and, when you’re done, you’ll probably want to lock it again. Same goes for shopping lists. Same goes for little reminders.

Pffft screw that!! It’s really not a LOT of work to unlock and then re-lock, but it does take a little extra time and it eats a little extra battery, plus if you’re driving or trying not to drop a baby on its head it can be kind of a pain.

Stick It – iPhone Sticky Notes is basically a note-themed photo maker that lets you create little reminders to be set as your iPhone’s wallpaper. When you do this, all you need to do is push the home button to see your notes and then let the screen go black on its own.

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Tags: $.99, notes

Take A Note and Docs

Lee | Feb 18, 2009 Productivity

User rating: (31 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)

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I like productivity applications that do what they say they are going to do. I also am really impressed when the developer takes the extra steps to add appealing design elements. That being noted, here are two related apps by the same developer you may want to consider.

Take A Note

Take a Note by Readdle is a very handsome application. The design is attractive from the moment you load it. The opening splash screen shows you a nice leather front cover that digitally represents a notebook. This sets a very positive and motivating stage for note taking.

Take a Note allows you to capture four types of notes: text, audio, photo and drawings. For each note type, you get a multi-tabbed page. One tab for where the actual note resides. A second tab for your comments regarding that note. A third tab to categorize (or tag) your note. Each note is date and time stamped in the upper right corner and you are limited to one tag per category.

I have to make some special comments about the photo note. Photo notes have a wonderful, scrapbook appeal where there is a place holder piece of paper “taped” into the notepage with masking tape on the edges. Once you snap your photo or take a photo from your photo album it is put into this placeholder page. It fits so nicely, the photo looks like it was truly “taped” onto the page. Clicking on the photo brings it full screen where you can see all the details of the photo. This is a great example of the design element I mentioned at the beginning of this review; very thoughtful.

You have full control over your folder structure. You can be as minimalist as you like or as numerous, however, at this time, there is no embedded folder structure. The developers state they are working on this for a future release. Another nice touch, especially when you start to develop a large amount of notes, is the search feature. It will allow you to search for keywords that either reside in the title of the note or within the content of the note. This is really nice, very powerful, and another thoughtful touch.

Some additional controls:

- Font size: as small as 14 or as big as 48

- Five available fonts: Helvetica, Times New Roman, Courier, Marker Felt and Zapfino

- Alphabetical note sorting

- Volume boosting, and

- Optional password locking (side note: this is a universal password lock. It would be nice if you could control this feature setting for individual notes)

The icing on the cake for this application is the Wifi syncing capability with your lap or desktop computer. This feature allows you to take your notes back and forth. It comes in two flavors, a shared disk mounted on your mac (or PC) or via a WebDAV client called Cyberduck. I tried both. They each worked without a hitch. I think I will stick with the Cyberduck client as it has fewer needed steps and a few more capabilities.

I’ve tried a few note applications in the past. This is by far the most attractive I’ve seen from the standpoint of looks alone. It’s handsome and makes you feel good to keep your notes in it. If you like physical notebooks, this is a strong digital equivalent. Functionally, Take A Note it is also very capable. The ability to capture text, photo, audio and drawing notes makes it useable and practical in many settings.

I can be very hard on productivity applications. I need them to be quickly responsive, intuitive, helpful, almost invisible. If I have to think to use it, it’s in the way. Take A Note by Readdle passed all of my requirements. It actually earned a spot on my Productivity page on my iPhone. I am impressed. I think you will be too.

Readdle Docs

Readdle Docs is a nice tool for keeping documents accessible either on your iPhone or via access to the cloud. I have a MobileMe account, so I was able to quickly and easily access my iDisk and the files I have stored there. Sweet! I also took the time to sign up for Readdle’s free storage space (512MB) under the AppStore plan (They have pay-to-use plans too for larger storage needs). This too was quick and easy. There is a companion application that you can download to your laptop or desktop (called Readdle Up). It is free. It allows you to load files directly from your desk into the storage by drag-and-drop. No fuss, no complications. Nice! I haven’t jumped on the Box.net service, but Readdle does support it, as well as any other WebDAV access service.

All of the standard Microsoft Office, PDF, TXT, RTF etc. are supported. I could not load up and access iWork files (I particulary tried to load a Numbers document). I also, for grins, loaded up a mindmapping file (NovaMind), it could not read this, though I really didn’t think that it would. They were, however, accessible when I converted them to PDF documents. In fairness to the developers, every file type they listed as accessible was indeed accessible. It would be nice if they could include iWork file types, though.

You can access the web via the internal browser (this includes portrait and landscape orientation). I had been meaning to thumb through a forty-one page PDF document on the web, so I took the opportunity to open it through the browser. After looking around, I was then able to just download the document to my iPhone; portable goodness. Inside the settings page on the app, there is a nice “device storage info” bar that keeps track of how much storage you have remaining. Good! No worries about guessing if I’m bumping up against the limit. Docs automatically picked up all my photos that I am carrying on my iPhone. I didn’t particularly want this and was able to easily turn that feature off. Also, you can email files to your accounts or share them with friends/co-workers. Another nice touch.

This is a useful tool. The layout is intuitive and functional. I am hopeful that someday it will allow iWork files to be loaded and ultimately they will eventually allow on-board editing capabilities (Aren’t we so demanding regarding our applications (smile)). At the end of the day, I like Readdle Docs. It works for me.

Tags: $4.99, $9.99, File Sharing, notes, Productivity

Remind Me

Lee | Jan 7, 2009 Utilities

User rating: (8 votes, average: 2.75 out of 5)

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“Out of sight, out of mind.” We’ve all heard that saying before. Smudge Apps helps us keep focused with Remind Me. It’s a tool you can use to remind yourself of, well, whatever’s top of mind for you. The developer lists things like, shopping list, to-dos, notes to self… the usual suspects. I’m an organization freak so I “got” the idea of this app right away.

When you open the app the splash screen is the first thing you see. To me, it seems to linger about one second too long. My natural inclination was to start looking for something to press to get things moving. Eventually it slides away and leaves you with a set of index cards on an attractive star-filled background. From there you can fill the cards with your reminder of choice by touching the “Edit” button.

Once you’ve put in your reminder, you have options to right-, left-, or center-justify your text. Nice. Then you choose your note style and wallpaper. Choosing is as easy as flicking right or left on either the note or the wallpaper. If you are the adventurous type, then you can select “Random” to have both the note style and wallpaper fall where the dice roll. All-in-all, Smudge Applications has given six different backgrounds and eight different note styles. Good variety.

Once you have chosen your look, you then press “Save to Wallpaper.” A pop-up note informs you to open the settings app and tap on wallpaper to choose your new home screen wallpaper… your newly minted reminder. The operation of this app could not be any easier. It’s straightforward. Easy-as-pie.

I like the idea of this app but I think it’s major shortcoming is the fact that you have too many steps if you are frequently changing the reminders, say daily or many times a day. That can get old. Ultimately, I found a good use for my iPhone: a customized positive affirmation reminder! Every time I open my iPhone, I’m reminded of something positive to motivate me through the day.

Tags: $0.99, notes, to do, Utilities