It ain’t all good in the app-hood
Notetaking apps, is a category I’ve checked out pretty extensively, and keep checking regulary, as it’s one of the main reasons I even bought an iPad 2 to begin with.
Some may remember I got a bit disappointed with Pages. For that reason, and because I see Pages as a wordprocessor – not a notetaking app, you won’t find Pages on my list.
You also won’t find Evernote on my list. I know it’s been hot stuff in this category, for a lot of people, and for a lot it’ll continue to be so. I just don’t think it’s that good. Try inserting a picture into your note. It isn’t placed in the note, but attached to it. Something I find next to useless. Yuck !
Taking Notes
Awesome Note HD is great for categorizing your notes, and lets you customize each category – you can select the default note theme, as well as the default font and font size. Something I personally find useful, as some categories are articles I write, others are notes, etc. Depending on the purpose of what I write, I like for that to differ.
One pretty nifty feature when it comes to categories, is the description you can set for a cateogory. Not necessarily useful to everyone, and it would seem obvious what a given category should be used for. But a description can still be nice, if you need to provide yourself with some guidance for later on.
Unfortunately, what Awesome Note HD doesn’t offer, is formatting. Which is kind of annoying, especially if you use services like Tumblr or Posterous, where you simply e-mail the service, and it’ll post your mail as a blogpost. I tried using Essay for that, when I used Posterous. That worked beautifully. Great writing experience in Essay, and the formatting carried over flawlessly.
You can insert both pictures from the camera, the photo album, draw some yourself, or attach a location (on which you can also draw). Locations need an internet connection, so if you’re abroad without that – don’t count on using that feature (which is fair enough, as it relies on Google Maps).
Other than that, Awesome Note HD lets you combine notes and to do lists, as well as diary entries, and kind of a photo journal. So it’s relatively versatile.
Viewing notes
Depending on the purpose of a category, Awesome Note HD lets you view your notes in a variety of ways. It has a simple list mode, a photo mode, a diary mode where your notes are presented by date, detailed mode which offers a preview. You’ll find a view that fits.
Sync
One of the winning features of Awesome Note HD, is that you can set it up for syncing with either Google Docs or Evernote. Me, I’m a Google Docs user primarily. I also happen to own both an iPhone and an iPad, so I not only use the sync feature to backup my writings online – I also use it to get them from device to device (so if I for some reason don’t have my iPad readily available, I grab my Apple Wireless Keyboard and my iPhone, import any notes I may need, and I can write just as fine on Awesome Note for iPhone, and sync when I’m done).
You can only setup one of them as the default sync method though, but can export to both services, although it’ll be a manual process to sync to the non-default service. It’s ok though, it works.
There’s no Dropbox sync, which may be a no-no for some.
Bottom line
Awesome Note HD is a great looking app, which provides really great categorization of your notes, is very versatile to work with, but unfortunately lacks formattiing. It syncs with two great services, thus letting you make your notes accessible to your or others via those channels.
Great Categorization, note syncing, great UI.
Not so great Needs text formatting.
Alternatives
Notability: Great notetaking app, with a rather dull UI. Lets you categorize your notes, and as a great feature for perhaps students especially, it lets you add recordings to your notes. Great functionality wrapped in dullness.
CourseNotes: If you’re an academic student or teacher, I would think Course Notes could be good for you. You can sync your notes to Course Notes Online, and there’s an OS X app as well. You divide your notes into Subjects, which are sub-divided into Note Sessions, which then contain the notes. Heavy on the arrangement of notes, and has a subject lexicon which you can add terms to.
Essay: Oh how I would love for Essay to have the categorization and sync features of Awesome Note HD. I do love this little app, it has a very simple and beautiful UI, and great formatting options. Unfortunately it can’t survive on formatting options alone. For some reason I can’t find this app in the App Store – anyone know what happened ?
What’s your favorite ?
Which app or platform do you use for taking notes, and why ? What is it you like in particular about your notetaking app, and what do you consider its killer features ? Leave a comment – I’d love to read what you have to say 
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