#notes apps

13.28

i read something about humans being building a home in each other and ever since that i haven't been the same. on saturday mornings as i sip on my tea i think about that girl i made friends with in an amusement park and how we spent the day dailling together but didn't bother to say a goodbye- is she still waiting?

on sunday evenings i think about the girl who lived across the street from me and how she used to wave at me everyday but one day even without noticing i realized she stopped showing up at her window- what happened to her? does she still remember me? where'd she go?

before i know it's monday and i do my best at holding on but the tears spill as i scroll through the pictures of my cat who made me feel that i belonged somewhere but now even she's gone after i angrily shut the door on her so that she knows that getting aggressive over her kittens won't do- i planned on getting her back from the garden she loved playing in with her little ones, little did i know that my words did hurt her and it's been two years ever since i saw her last. maybe, just maybe if i had realised sooner that i'd done the same thing as her and gotten her home from her garden instead of waiting for her to come, she wouldve been here with me but it's the void that refuses to fill the gap with something else and it's become the only regret i'll never recover from. instead i associate her with moon and hope that everytime i look at the moon- maybe she's looking at it too even though i know she will never forgive me for what i did even after i apologise. will she ever come back home to me?

on tuesdays i'm still trying to be alright after what mondays do to me. wednesday evenings when i walk back home i think about the old man who helped me rescue that same cat and how he continued to make sure she was doing alright everytime he saw me but maybe a year or two has passed and i haven't heard from him, what will i say the next time he sees me? will he think that the cat was in the wrong hands even though i did my best for three years that i had with her?

on thursdays i can't help but think about my former bestfriend when her favourite artist shows up on television, even today we do talk, i love you's are exchanged but it just feels that the other one is trying the pacify the heart of the person who said that by repeating it monotonously or typing out the words hurriedly.

fridays are blurred and seem long and painful to live but have prettier sunsets and as i look at a certain colour in sky and immediately associate with my bestfriends only to be questioned back by myself that what will i do if they ever happen to leave me? would they? because all people leave one or the other day don't they? regardless of the what circumstances are, every one leaves according to their convenience. and then birthdays become inevitable days to mourn about something that never really died but couldn't make it out alive either, stories they told become tales we use to navigate through our lives and suddenly we're referring past tense for someone who still lives- in our heads or the world; it's the same thing.

what do we do of the memories that are etched on our brains? those that refuse to get lost among other ones?

someone said they become a tragic memory that used to be beautiful that we almost believed was ours to cherish but they do become another star in your sky.

but noone ever told me about what to do about the homes that i abandoned or about the homes that abandoned me or about the homes that changed their address without telling me and now i wander in the memory lanes aimlessly hoping to find them one day. what am i supposed to tell someone when they ask me where i live? in that garden along with my cat and her kittens?

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Top Apps to Make Notes

When your latest cool idea comes to your head, you need to strike while the iron is hot. It’s so easy to find a decent app to make notes no matter what phone you use. Make the most of the day when you use one of these top 10 apps to jot down everything most important to you.

Notetaking App Countdown

Any notetaking app worth its salt is full of sharing functions. If you’re looking for apps like Evernote, you can rest assured that there are plenty of apps that can do what Evernote can and more.

Microsoft OneNote

If you don’t want to stray too far away from the world of paper and pens, OneNote offers a user interface that adheres closely to a style that mimics note taking the old school way. It includes a notebook divided into different sections and you can pretty much treat it like you would a real one by typing anywhere you like and adding references to other material. It stays up to date despite its traditionalist outlook by allowing audio and video recordings and more.

Google Keep

If sharing with your friends and colleagues is of vital importance to you, Google has you covered yet again. You can jot things down in a minimalist fashion and then send your notes off to a Google Doc file for future reference. It follows OneNote’s example in that it uses a style that remains faithful to real world note taking, letting you use virtual post-it notes with browsable thumbnails. The most significant advance over other apps is the audio transcription feature. Speak clearly and you’ll get a record of your voice and a typed transcript of the content.

SimpleNote

If you want something completely opposite to apps like Evernote, you can still find a good notes app or two out there. This is one such app.SimpleNote is exactly what you think: a simple app that helps you get straight down to the task at hand with its basic approach to note taking. The most valuable feature is something that really ought to be included as a standard part of any such app, and that’s a frequently saved file history. You can check every version of your notes in case you deleted something you didn’t realize was important at the time.

Find out what is the best weather app for you!

Paper

If you’ve got a stylus for your mobile device, a handwritten notes app is exactly what you need. This particular choice is perhaps the best handwritten notes app around. Paper lets you draw and write notes, sketch brainstorming sessions and even draw out your ideas. It tidies up your scribbles as you go along, leaving you with a beautiful set of calligraphic notes and smooth lines and curves for your diagrams.

Penultimate

This cleverly named app is now part of Evernote, letting you add your own handwritten notes to this venerable and comprehensive service. You can have your notes indexed so that you can take a look at the original handwritten notes as well as the digitized copy.

Squid

While a lot of apps are developed first for iOS and then badly ported to other devices, this is one that was designed for Android and Windows operating system users as well. After all, the true mark of a really good notes app is its compatibility with all the various operating systems. One of the most pleasant feature here is the ability to upload your PDFs and edit them using your stylus. Of course, this means you can extend its use to signing documents and sending them to relevant parties.

Evernote

Obviously, this had to be in here somewhere. There’s a reason why Evernote is so popular and widely used. It stems from its simplicity in getting you started writing notes and jotting down ideas. If you need to get a little deeper and make your notes comprehensive and full of all the information you need, this app is your best bet. You can add all kinds of files including video and whole web pages. In fact, one of the most useful features that is rarely found elsewhere is that you can store the content of any hyperlink offline. You don’t have to follow a link to get to your source. Evernote would have taken the top spot if it hadn’t gotten rid of its cheaper price plans.

LectureNotes

This is indispensable for students who take their note taking very seriously indeed. It has been designed with the rigours of academia in mind, letting you write professional notes that pass muster in any class you take. It supports a number of platforms including ones you’d expect like Evernote and Microsoft OneNote. Like these, you can record lectures and seminars, examine PDFs and more.

SomNote

If it’s long-term projects and learning that you’ve got to get to grips with, SomNote has you covered nicely. It’s not so good for simple lists, but it’ll help you focus your thought processes and improve your memory with its folder organization system. There aren’t really any extra bells and whistles with this one, but it does exactly what it says on the can and you can’t really ask for more than that.

Apple Notes

If you’re purely an iOS user, this app has just usurped Evernote’s crown. It offers all the features you’d expect from this former king of note taking, except that it’s much simpler to use and is completely free. Not only this, but you can easily transfer data from other apps.

Use this top 10 list wisely when you choose an app to make notes with. There are plenty of great apps out there as well as a fair amount of duds. Don’t get caught out when a hot idea has hit your brain; use an app that works well without any trouble. Take the advice here on board and choose the right app for your needs.

When I think about task managment tools, I mostly think about to-do list apps, like Wunderlist or Any.do. Those are the kind of tools I use to manage my tasks (Wunderlist is my current favorite). I don't use Wunderlist for everything, however. I also use Evernote to keep track of all my notes & ideas for various projects. I don't mind using two apps to do this. In my mind at least, tasks and notes are two distinct things and having two apps helps keep things organized and uncluttered.

But a lot of people don't follow that approach. They want something more encompassing, a tool that gives them the flexiblity to take notes, jot down their to-dos, sketch out ideas, etc. There are a lot of apps that do a great job of that.

For example, yesterday Lifehacker wrote about their current favorite notes app, GoogleKeep, characterizing it as "the perfect balance between a basic note-taking app and a full-fledged notebook system like Evernote".

I'm going to play around with it and see how works for me. With Evernote, for example, the to-list functionality is pretty limited, just as the note taking functionality is limited for Wunderlist etc. And while there are integrations that address each of those shortcomings (and yes, I know you can create checklists in Evernote), I personally find it easier to just use two separate apps.

FiftyThree’s Paper for iPhone, A Notes App Done Right

A new app, Paper for iPhone, was launched today, and it looks to be a new favorite tool for designers and thinkers soon. Especially designed to help creative thinkers capture and organize ideas more easily, it offers all the features a creative iPhone user needs: Notes, images, sketches and more, stored in easily-arranged spaces. With Paper for iPhone, you can sketch on photos, make diagrams,…

This past year, my school gave every student an iPad. There were some apps that were blocked and some that came preloaded, but you mostly had freedom with what apps you could use. I tried several different apps throughout the year, but I eventually found some that worked best for me.

1. MyHomework - This app was super useful! It’s a planner app, but there’s so much more to it. First, there’s regular planning stuff. You can add assignments, rank their pritorities, mark them as studying, homework, quiz, and a whole bunch of other things; you can join classes that your teacher has created, and then the teacher can posts assignments, announcements, etc. and they’ll show up in your calendar; it has a monthly view with dots representing what’s due/to be done each day; the home page lists all of your assignments in order of priority; you can add your own classes which can help because you can also colour code your home assignment page by class; and, one of the coolest things the app has (in my opinion) is a live homework help service (If anyone wants to know how that works just let me know). You can also use it on your computer here.

2. Notability - This app is super great for taking notes, annotating, recording, etc. It’s kind of expensive ($5ish on the app store) but it’s worth it. On this app you can type, write, high light, record audio, import docs and pdf’s from other apps and annotate them, create folders to add your notes to, and it’s super easy to make diagrams and drawings with. I personally like this app a lot  better than I liked Evernote.

3. Quizlet - I know a lot of people talk about this so y’all probably already know what it’s about. This was super helpful, especially when studying for tests because not only can you make your own sets of flash cards, but you can study sets other people have made. I had several people who shared a lot of classes with me this year and we created sets together or just used each other’s all the time. It can also be used on your computer here.

4. Coffitivity - This is basically just a background noise app, but it sounds like a coffee shop. It was great to play over my headphones while working in the library (studying in silence is just not something I do well).

5. MyScript Calculator - This is a calculator, but you write in what you want to calculate (like with your finger or a stylus) and it can solve it. It’s kind of difficult to explain, but I found it much easier to use than other calculator apps. 

6. Google - Docs, drive, sheets, all of the Google apps. Especially good for people with unpredictable computers, not so great for people with unpredictable wifi. 

And that’s pretty much it. I didn’t try to use four different planning apps and have all of my todo’s on them, and I didn’t need multiple apps for different kinds of notes. I tried to keep my home screen as simple and clutter free as possible.

If you have any questions about the apps or if you want to know some of the others I tried and what I thought of them, just let me know! :)

My iPad deleted some of my notes yet again. This time I didn’t lose a list of books I want to read, but some vital information* instead.

Any recs for free note-taking apps are more than welcome. Evernote is not working well for me. I don't need something that will ask me to synch up every five seconds - sometimes there's no internet connection available. I just want something simple, a notepad that won’t magically delete my notes.