Evernote is designed to keep notes, voice recordings, photos, and web clippings within one app and synced across multiple devices. Clip a web site on your Mac, and then view it later from within Evernote on your iPhone. Or tap out a few notes on your iPhone and then pull them up later from your Windows PC. Given that many people have two or more computers to keep in sync along with their iPhone, this is an excellent feature.

Evernote’s greatest strength is its cross-platform appeal. Along with a dedicated iPhone app there are desktop versions for both Windows and Mac. The closest thing to Evernote on the PC is Microsoft’s OneNote - an excellent notetaking app in its own right, but it lacks the over-the-air syncing and cross-platform extendability.

From within the Evernote iPhone app you can create a new text, photo, or audio note. You can take a new picture or import an existing one from the iPhone photo gallery. Notes can be assigned a name and tagged to make for easier searching. Notes created on your desktop version are available for viewing or editing – though certain notes with photos or special fonts will only allow you to append text at the end. Evernote establishes a custom e-mail and Twitter address so you can e-mail in notes or save tweets. If you are worried about heading somewhere the AT&T network coverage may be a bit spotty, mark a note as a Favorite and it will be available without an Internet connection.

An Evernote account is free (so is the app), although you get some extra perks by signing up for a $45-per-year premium account. The premium service increases the amount of data you can upload, uses SSL encryption, and removes the ads in the desktop version (a full comparison of the free and premium accounts can be found here). If you find yourself more of a casual user, then the free version will probably meet your needs.

Evernote is not perfect. It can be a bit poky at times – so much so that when I just want to write a quick note I will use the native iPhone app and then email it into Evernote (you could do the same with the new Voice memos app). Sometimes even though Evernote says your notes are all synced, the newest ones take a bit longer to show up.

Despite these minor glitches Evernote has been one of my favorite iPhone apps. It is incredibly useful and continues to get better. It is an essential productivity tool for any iPhone user.

• app_name: Evernote
• rating: 9/10

© AppCraver, 2009. | Create and Sync Notes with Evernote | Get our iPhone Reviews on Facebook & Twitter!

Bento

Bento, a product of Filemaker,  is most effective if you are a Mac user and plan to use it in combination with the iPhone version. Windows users are out of luck. However, there is still a lot to like from the Bento iPhone app alone if you are the organizing type. Bento will appeal to a certain crowd — those who like to put together their records, notes, class schedule, music collection, and other information. With Bento, all these various records can be updated and accessed from within one application.

Bento integrates quite nicely with some of the native iPhone applications, such as Contacts, Safari, Mail and Google Maps. The interface is clearly Mac-centric with an overview of your notes reminiscent of the iPod album cover flow. When you tap the Bento Contacts app, you will see your iPhone contacts. Through syncing with your Mac you can then add in any other contacts or calendar events. There are plenty of libraries (as Bento calls them) to choose from or you can create one from scratch. Bento is incredibly flexible with the options to input specific data fields that suit your particular tastes.

However, Bento may be a bit too much detail overload for some. Entering data means filling out long lists and categories from within the various sections. It’s great if you want to fill out your vehicle history, keep track of what is in your wine cellar, plan out your class schedule. But if you would rather throw these paper documents in a file or just tap it in your iPhone calendar then Bento may be overkill.

Those who want a less detailed experience at keeping notes and data may prefer Evernote (works across Windows, Mac, and iPhone) or Microsoft OneNote (desktop and Windows Mobile only). However, if you are already a heavy Bento user this iPhone version is pretty much a must-have.

• rating: 9/10
• app_name: Bento

© AppCraver, 2009. | Bento Organizes Your Life | Get our iPhone Reviews on Facebook & Twitter!

Developed by the Mcleaner Team, mAdvNote allows you to use pictures, text, voice, and doodles, or any combination thereof, to create a single note file. At first I was confused by the whole interface of mAdvNote, trying to discern what I was supposed to do with it. With all pre-conceived notions of note-taking  out of my head, I realized I could do whatever I wanted. I could make myself a note, I could take a picture and caption it, I could record a sound clip, I could draw a picture, or I could do any combination of those things.

With each new note you create, you have the option of taking a picture, writing a note as text, drawing out a concept, and recording a note (not an option for iPod touch unless you have a mic). If you happen to be a regular note maker/taker and prefer simplicity, mAdvNote may be a bit excessive for you. That’s not to say you can’t just type out a quick note and save it, but mAdvNote is a bit more sophisticated.

To take a note, simply tap on the “add” button at the top of the Notes page. You can assign a title and a tag and then tap the text box field to insert the note. If you choose to add a picture, tap the camera icon and snap away. If you choose to insert a voice message, tap on the microphone icon. To insert your own doodle or drawing, tap the brush and paper icon. Here you can select a brush width and a primary or secondary color from the paint pallet. It’s kind of hard to draw in this mode, as even the finest brush stroke comes off a bit wide, but it works for a quick doodle. When you have finished inserting all of your selected options, tap the “save” button.

While for some a picture/text/voice/doodle note may seem excessive, bear in mind it doesn’t have to be used for simple productivity. I personally have decided that mAdVnote would make a nice little iPhone scrapbook. Sure I’ve had apps that lets you organize and tag pictures, but I particularly like the idea of making voice recordings to go with the pictures and captions. I’ve not had an app that allows me to insert voice messages with a picture yet and I kind of like the idea. The recording quality is not exactly five star, but it’s not bad either.

Since you are not limited or pigeonholed into creating specific notes, but rather can choose which way you create it, I give mAdvNote some kudos for flexibility. It is fairly intuitive and user-friendly and has a search option for finding saved notes. When you finish with a note, you have the option of emailing it, but for some reason only the text portion sends – the photo and audio portions are seemingly absent from the email, which I do consider problematic.

All in all, mAdvNote is a pretty creative note-taking app. An all-in-one solution? Not quite; but if you’d like to check it out for free before you buy, mAdvNote Lite lets you create and save up to three notes as opposed to an unlimited amount for this $1.99 version and it’s a good way to decide if mAdvNote meets your approval.

• app_name: mAdvNote
• rating: 8/10

© AppCraver, 2009. | mAdvNote is a Simple but Flexible Note Making App | Get our iPhone Reviews on Facebook & Twitter!

Put Things Off

One of the problems that I’ve always had with time-keepers, time organizers and other time-related things is that it’s too much of a pain to enter information using the iPhone’s keypad. Give me plenty of scroll wheels, sliders, icons, buttons—anything but text entry and I might use it.

My life is just not that complicated and I’m a professional at doing next week what I ought to do today. Put Things Off is almost as close as it gets to want I need.

Put Things Off is more like a Sticky Note app but with a bit more meat on its bones. Create a task and deadline in the form of a note and then choose what to do with it: Take care of it today; put it off for X number of days; or just do the damn thing and get it over with!

Tap the plus in the upper left, enter text that describes the job at hand, tap a plus sign on your note, select your deadline from a slot-machine wheel and tap save. Decide what to do with your note by tapping a complementary icon on the note. Tapping a star puts the note into the Today box, for example.

You can see all your sticker memos all in one place, which I found particularly useful. In fact, what other time-manager app developers might learn from Put Things Off is an appreciation for simplicity.

Like I said, it’s a simple app for people who have few tasks to keep up with and who generally prefer to Put Things Off for as long as possible (ideally that would be forever for pro procrastinators like me).

• app_name: Put Things Off
• rating: 9/10

© AppCraver, 2009. | Put Things Off to Help Yourself Get Organized | Get our iPhone Reviews on Facebook & Twitter!

I have tried my hand at several note-taking apps and while they all have their strengths and weaknesses, it seems apps of this kind definitely have their place on the iPhone/Touch menu. As of yet, I don’t have a favorite, but AyeNotes Pro is causing me to look harder at its capabilities for consideration as a frontrunner. I have to agree with the developer in regards to time consumption being an issue for note-taking apps so I specifically like AyeNote Pro’s ability to assign clips for recurring words or phrases.

The other function of AyeNotes Pro that appeals to me is its ability to display all notes alphabetically by name or by date on the home screen.

Of course, if you prefer, you can customize the way the app launches in settings and assign a specific note to pop up or change the text to a programmer color scheme of green on black. This provides a bit of versatility that might make AyeNotes Pro appealing to a broader range of users. Lastly, once notes are created, they are not trapped on your device in any way as you can simply email them to yourself or someone else directly from the app.

There are currently two versions of AyeNotes — AyeNotes for free and AyeNotes Pro. The free version does not allow you to sync with Ayenotes.com, which you must create an account to use, but is free. I didn’t go so far as to register yet, so can’t comment on the ease or convenience of this feature, but it’s a nice enough thought. There are tons of ways you could use AyeNotes, the developer suggests creating email templates, workout logs, shopping lists, and to-do lists, but I suppose the ideas are near endless.

To get a better idea of AyeNotes Pro, check out the video below. The free version is available only through June 9 in the App Store.

AyeNotes for iPhone from AyeTeam on Vimeo.

• app_name: AyeNotes Pro
• rating: 8/10

© AppCraver, 2009. | All Those in Favor of a Versatile Note-Taking App Say AyeNotes Pro | Get our iPhone Reviews on Facebook & Twitter!

While there are several note taking apps available, NotePrinter by EuroSmartz Ltd. is one of the most inclusive note apps I’ve yet to run across. It has several features conducive to many personal and business tasks, including the ability to create and send formatted notes with images. You can also transfer notes to your computer or print them, providing you have a computer running WePrint helper software.

The more impressive points of NotePrinter include the ability to format and align text and images, copy and paste, and quickly insert photos. Once you write a note, you can file it in any of the default files or create your own for personalized organization. You can also utilize the secure folder, which you password protect, for storing sensitive or private information.

As far as creating notes, the onscreen keyboard of the iPhone is not the most ergonomic device, especially for those with large fingers, and is not all that helpful for creating large text documents, but quick notes are quite manageable. NotePrinter supports both portrait and landscape orientation, which in my opinion is quite useful.

After downloading NotePrinter, I gave it a once over and checked out the in-depth help section. I was able to easily add folders, create notes, format text, including bold font and left, right, and center alignment, as well as insert photos. From the main screen in  NotePrinter, you can simply touch and drag new notes into their designated folders and double tap to view. NotePrinter is very user friendly. I especially liked the ability to highlight, copy and paste text from one note to another.

The one aspect of NotePrinter that I had trouble with was emailing. When I try it, I receive a message about my SMTP server name being empty or not valid. When I check my account settings as it suggests, I see that I have a server, so I assume it is “not valid.” The help page suggests I contact my ISP provider, which if I were hell-bent on figuring this out I would do. I also noted I have the option of accessing the developer’s support page and contacting them for help. While I’m not sure why email is an issue, as I can email from numerous other apps installed on my device, I am sure with effort I could find a solution. In fact, I like using NotePrinter well enough that I am determined to find one eventually.

For the price, NotePrinter is a great value and just about as productive as a note-taking app can be. NotePrinter is both smart and user-friendly. Check out the developer’s website for multiple screen shots and detailed information. Remember that to fully utilize NotePrinter’s capabilities, you will need to install WePrint and have it running on a computer on the same network your device is connected to. However, you can still create and send notes via email without it (providing your SMTP server is valid).

• app_name: Note Printer
• rating: 9/10

© AppCraver, 2009. | For Price and Value, NotePrinter is Worth a Look | Get our iPhone Reviews on Facebook & Twitter!

OmniFocus is a task manager designed to aid you in taking charge of your everyday chores in your work and home lives. The app helps you keep track of your projects, to alert you when time is running out, and to check them off your list as you complete them, or put them aside.

The iPhone version is aimed mainly at Mac users but you also can use OmniFocus for the iPhone if you’re a PC user, although with less ease of use.

To get started, I suggest you watch the OmniFocus how-to video. You’ll probably need to wade through a 35-page manual to make the most of this app.

My inclination was to fire it up and try things to see just how intuitive OmniFocus is. Besides, I think it’s fun in a geeky kind of way to poke around to see if I can figure things out. However, the learning curve on OmniFocus is steep, I began to emphasize with that poor guy in Greek mythology doomed to push a boulder up a hill.

The top-level screen is the starting point for using OmniFocus and from here you can get to all the other functions, which includes your inbox and projects organized by hierachy, time and due date. You also can alert yourself when projects are overdue and flag those and other projects that require close attention.

It takes time to figure out how these functions relate to each other and that’s where I had the most difficulty. My life is just not that complicated!

I’m still working my way through OmniFocus but I can already see just how flexible a tool it can be for people who must juggle many projects. I suspect Mac users, especially those who already use the desktop version, would find this app extremely useful. The reason is that you can work on your desktop and then synchronize with iPhone/iPod touch via MobileMe or WebDAV over EDGE, 3G or Wi-Fi.

OmniFocus is (gulp) $19.99, certainly higher than your average task manager and most other apps, for that matter. I doubt anyone other than hard-core users who have many projects to keep track of will be willing to pay the price. It’s also worth noting the desktop client is $80, which is also a deal breaker for many people.

If you’re not a Mac user, you might want to try something simpler and more intuitive than OmniFocus.

• app_name: OmniFocus
• rating: 8/10

© AppCraver, 2009. | OmniFocus Has a Steep Learning Curve, but Mac Users Would Probably Like It | Get our iPhone Reviews on Facebook & Twitter!

If you’re super busy and with school, work or just life in general, one of your missions each day may be to try to remember everything you’re supposed to do that day. How we do this differs from person to person. Developers have come to the rescue faster than late night infomercials hawking memory pills. iSticky will help you remember it all and keep you well organized.

Forget about post it notes all over your desk. Now you can leave them all over the desk top of your phone. Here’s how it works. Start iSticky and three default stickies appear. Tap twice and you can make edits. You’ll be able to change the title of the sticky and add additional text or comments below it — i.e. the grocery store and the gym.

Visually iSticky is a gem. It has a clutter-free crisp white background. And there are five pastel colored stickies to choose from when making your notes. iSticky is definitely pretty darn easy to use. Functionally, you may drag and drop the notes all over the display anywhere you like. And, even with a lot of information on my stickies, iSticky feels fairly stable.

While it seems like iStickies has everything that would make the meticulous user ecstatic or memory -challenged user more than satisfied it doesn’t do all the things you might expect.

iSticky doesn’t have an email function. Many users like the ability to email themselves notes if their battery is about to die or they need to print something out. It also doesn’t allow you to use the camera to take pics to help jog your memory. iSticky doesn’t include an alarm. This feature would be particularly nice it would definitely help keep you on the ball. It’s practical and it makes good sense. In a word, much like the Stickies program included on the Mac for years, iStickies is more of a Post-it note and less of a full-featured to-do system.

The developers of iSticky have already announced updates for future versions. The new update will include multiple pages of stickie notes this is a great feature especially for those who use their handsets for ‘everything” from gaming to shopping. You’ll also be able to change the font size and type on your note and to edit more details.

• app_name: iSticky
• rating: 6/10

© AppCraver, 2009. | iSticky Sticks With the Facts | Get our iPhone Reviews on Facebook & Twitter!

ActiveNotes has many of the traits you’ll find in nearly every note-taking app: The ability to set fonts, organize your notes into groups or categories and email notes. ActiveNotes is also missing some features that you’ll find on many other note takers such as the ability to set the font size, change the background color or paper, search for notes and enter notes in landscape mode.

The look and feel of ActiveNotes is similar to most other note takers too. I wish the Delete and Add buttons were a little larger, though. I also don’t like having to add and delete groups via the Settings page. I think I should be able to do those things from the Groups screen.

Where ActiveNotes differs from other text-based (not audio) note takers is that it can act as a Web server, meaning that you can transport files to and from your iPhone of iPod touch to your desktop. Enter the address and port for your handheld, launch your browser on the desktop and you’ll get the hook up in under 30 seconds.

Whenever you use your iPhone or iPod touch, there’s a risk (a small one) that a bad guy might scarf up your info. Every app I’ve seen with file transfer capability gives you the option of password protecting your info, as does ActiveNotes. Each time you connect, you’re required to enter a randomly generated password. That’s fine, but I’d like the option of turning off password protection. I seldom carry state secrets on my iPhone.

One feature I do like is being able to create notes in my browser and transfer them to my iPhone. Using a full-sized keyboard over the iPhone’s touch keyboard is a night and day kind of thing.

I like ActiveNotes for the most part, but like I said, it’s nothing special, especially with its $3.99 price tag.

• app_name: ActiveNotes
• rating: 7/10

© AppCraver, 2009. | ActiveNotes Has Some Unique Features but It’s Nothing Special | Get our iPhone Reviews on Facebook & Twitter!

That’s where Metaspark’s Notespark could be of help to you. The app syncs to the company’s Web site, enabling you to send notes back and forth from your iPhone. Just think how organized you’ll be.

You can create or edit files on your iPhone and sync it to MetaSpark’s Web server or you can create and edit files on the Web server and sync them with your iPhone. That’s a particularly worthwhile feature because you can create your notes using a standard keyboard rather than the iPhone’s keyboard.

One of Notespark’s nifty features is that you can give access to your notes to whomever you designate. For example, your family might decide to collaborate on where to go on vacation or you and your spouse could update the week’s shopping list.

Should more than one person edit the same file at the same time, Notespark will combine the changes.

Last, you can star and tag key topics, like that list of resolutions you plan to write.

Metaspark says it’s notes sync app and site are different than others in the App Store because the company built the system from the ground up to ensure they’re closely entwined and work well together. I have to agree, the process of creating and swapping notes is seamless.

• app_name: Notespark
• rating: 9/10

© AppCraver, 2008. | Notespark Makes it Easy to Synch and Go | Get our iPhone Reviews on Facebook & Twitter!