note-taking.net

There has been quite a change in the market for online notetaking tools. Many more apps now have a mobile notes app that syncs. New players have entered and are growing fast, while may of the big players appear to have peaked.

The data below was taken from Compete.com, and it shows the December 2009 monthly unique users compared to the December 2010 monthly uniques, together with the annual growth percentage. If no data was available for December 2009, we used the earliest month for which data was available.

Gordon Bell‘s vision for the future is of software that will let you sort and sift through your digital memories to uncover patterns you would never have gleaned unaided.

You will need lifelogging hardware: a discreet camera permanently slung around your neck that can take photos at regular intervals, and a GPS device to record where you are at any time. Your phone calls, conversations and meetings will need to be digitally captured, all your emails stored, and every web page you look at downloaded. Then you will need to scan in any paper documents that head your way and refuse any books unless they are available on an e-reader.

Work, leisure and spending habits, the pattern of emotional response in various situations and around certain people, the numerous subtle factors affecting your mental well-being and physical health — just about anything you care to know about yourself — can be chronicled, condensed, cross-correlated and plotted out.

via Total recall: Data diaries explain who you really are | KurzweilAI.

We passed six million users! With remarkably good timing, our six-millionth user joined us just a few hours before midnight on New Year’s Eve. The chart below shows some other highlights.

As you can see in the table above, total users are up 186% for the year, from 2,096,030 to 6,003,130. December 2010 alone saw a 237% increase, with 2,089,705 unique users compared to 619,211 from December 2009. The largest percentage increase was in Premium users, they grew in 2010 from 35,310 to 201,308—a whopping 470%. This means that not only are we growing faster than ever, but that more of our users are coming back each month, and even more are choosing to pay. If you’re curious about what’s driving premium user acceleration, I talk about it a little in this LeWeb interview.

via Evernote 2010: A Year in Stats « Evernote Blogcast.

Smartphone usage in the U.S. is on the rise and it looks like half of all mobile users in the States will be using smartphones by the end of 2011. As a matter of fact, about a third of mobile users in the U.S. currently own a smartphone whether it’s an iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Symbian or Windows device.

According to comScore:

60.7 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in October, up 14 percent from the preceding three month period, representing 1 out of every 4 mobile subscribers.[...] Despite losing share to Android, most smartphone platforms continue to gain subscribers as the smartphone market overall continues to grow.

That’s just about one-fifth of the nation’s population on smartphones, so it’s easily imaginable that half of mobile users alone would be using some kind of smartphone by the time 2011 is over. According to Asymco, “One in three of all phones in use will be either iOS or Android. That adds up to about 80 million users; up from 35 million today. Overall, 120 million Americans will be using smartphones.” The fact that iOS or Android will make up a third of all phones in use just shows how critical this year has been in making strides in the American smartphone usage. Microsoft admittedly missed the boat and skipped an entire generation.

via Half of U.S. Mobile Users Will Have Smartphones by Q4 2011.

The nice thing about the companies behind some of the most popular mobile applications, like Evernote, is that they get to see some interesting trends in the mobile space. Evernote CEO Phil Libin has seen tremendous growth with his app on the Android platform versus iPhone, and there may be some correlation with handset purchases and activations. Of course, it’s hard to say for sure, but at least we know that Android is catching up to the iPhone in terms of platform usage and app growth.

Libin says that in the last six months, Evernote downloads are up 1000% for Android, but only 150% for the iPhone. This puts the number of users on both Android and iOS platforms much closer to each other with the iPhone keeping a very marginal lead over Android.

As we saw in yesterday’s U.S. smartphone adoption forecasts, the Google mobile OS and iOS will have the lion’s share of the market by this time next year, virtually tying each other in terms of market share amongst smartphone users.

via Evernote CEO Talks Android and iOS, iPhone Growth and Usage.

Catch: this free app easily lets me take notes which synch to their server. You can tag, upload photos, add voice notes… I use it numerous times daily.

Astrid: free app is my favorite to do list for Android.

Quick Boot: I keep this free app on home screen, and it seems to get a lot of use.

SMS Backup : great free app which puts my text messages into my gmail account.

Swype: Yea… there are problems with it like lack of dictionary control etc…no doubt… but I still love it, and even though SlideIt impressed the hell out of me, freebie Swype is still on my evo.

edit: I’ve got to add Zeam… my favorite launcher…

via Your 5 essential android apps | r/android | play along : Android.

It’s that time again where everyone starts making those promises to themselves.  Next year, I’ll lose 25 pounds.  Or quit smoking.  Or manage my money better. Or get back in church. Or… whatever. With the new year comes new resolutions.  This time, stick to it longer than a week why don’t you?  This year, arm yourself with a few Android apps to keep you on track.  We’ve put together a list of titles we think you should consider installing on your phone to keep you adhering to your 2011 resolution.  Some may not be available in your country or through your respective carrier however there are probably great alternatives.  Most of these are free, but a few are available in paid versions as well.  We’re big on supporting developers for paid apps we value, therefore we feel comfortable recommending these to Android users.

via Get a Jump Start on Your New Year’s Resolution With These 30 Apps! › AndroidGuys.

If you’ve been wondering where Snaptic and 3Banana have gone and why something called Catch Notes has been bugging you to install it, you can stop: Snaptic has changed their name to Catch with 3Banana simultaneously becoming Catch Notes. With the name change comes a new update to the app. Here’s everything you can expect when upgrading to the latest version.

via PSA: Snaptic, 3Banana are now Catch, Catch Notes | Android Phone Fans.

Cloud-based note-taking apps are proliferating. Newcomer Catch has joined the likes of Evernote, Springpad, Paprika and Simplenote in this space. Like a lot of my WWD colleagues, I’ve been using Evernote. Although I’ve tried Springpad, I haven’t liked it as well as Scott does. So does Catch offer any features that might induce me to switch?

via Catch: Note-Taking On the Desktop and On the Go: Online Collaboration «.