note-taking.net

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.

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.

Here is the latest ranking of the top 20 Android Notes apps. These include text notes, voice notes, tasks and todo lists. If the app can be used for a quick memo or note-to-self, and it is in the productivity category of the Android Market, we included it in our survey.

It is amazing to see the stability in the market. Other than the rise of 3banana Notes and the decline of Evernote, there has been very little change in the Android notepad category of the Android Market.

We kept track of the rankings of Android Note-Taking Apps over the past two months, and it is interesting to see how little changes. With the exception of the rise of 3banana and the fall of Evernote, very little has changed. Note that the graph shows the ranking within the Productivity category of the Android Market. Ranking does not correspond with actual number of users, because the higher ranked apps tend to have many more users than the lesser ranked apps, and the relationship is not linear. AK Notepad remains the top ranked notes app on Android and one of the highest ranked Android apps overall.

Here are the top 30 Android note-taking apps as of January 18, 2010. We included notepads, lists and task managers, as well as voice recorders. The rank is with respect to all apps in the productivity category of the Android App Market.

Here are the top 20 Android note-taking apps as of January 3, 2010.

Evernote slips while competition for note-taking productivity apps continues to heat up. Here are the top 20 note takers as of December 24, 2009.

The competition in the Productivity section of the Android Market is really heating up with the debut of Evernote’s Android App. Here are the top 20 note takers as of December 17, 2009.

Evernote is the new entrant since the last ranking, but AK Notepad has maintained its position as the top Android note taking application on the Market.

Google’s mobile app store, the Android Market, has doubled in size in the last five months, and now hosts more than 20,000 applications, according to unofficial numbers from specialist portal AndroLib.

While 20,000 apps is an impressive number, the Android Market runs a distant second place to Apple’s App Store, which has more than 100,000 applications available for the iPhone and iPod touch. Google is narrowing the gap, though, according to AndroLib’s numbers (Google doesn’t disclose Android Market figures); the selection is up from a reported 12,000 titles earlier this year to 20,000 in December. Google’s Android Market is a few months younger than Apple’s App store, but both stores are just over one year old.

via Android Market Hits 20,000 Apps Milestone – PC World.

Google is providing developers with a dashboard that is aimed at helping them decide which versions of the software to support and that shows the fragmentation of the Android platform.

The chart, displaying the percentages of Android phones using different versions of the software, also offers a peek at how the various Android phones are selling.

via Google Dashboard Shows Android Fragmentation – PC World Business Center.

Next Monday sees the release of the latest mobile phone to run Google’s Android operating system. The Motorola Milestone is a significant launch and is already being touted as an “iPhone killer”, not least because it will be the first handset to run Android 2.0, the very latest version of the software.

Android – the brainchild of search giant Google and a consortium of handset makers and component manufacturers – is finally beginning to realise its huge potential, and so too are consumers.

via The Motorola Milestone: will Google Androids take over in 2010? – Telegraph.

AK Notepad – A great little notepad that I frequently use to jot down an address or ideas that I have and don’t want to forget.  It’s not fancy but it works perfectly. You can also send your notes to a friend via email or SMS (see how-to video).

via 5 Great Productivity Apps For Your T-Mobile G1.

Astrid is a solid task manager developed by the Google folks (you know Google always makes good stuff). Tasks are easy to add and easy to check off when you’re done (my least favorite thing is having to “edit” a task to mark it “complete”). You can also add a timer – you know I like timers! – to help you build that sense of urgency. But what people like most about it isn’t the features but the notifications, which offer friendly encouragement to help motivate you to finish up.

via 12 Free Android Apps to Help Get Things Done (Part 1) – Stepcase Lifehack.

At long last we have a new ranking of the top 40 Android Notes applications together with their overall ranking within the Productivity Category in the Android Market.

As in prior rankings, we recognize that there is a convergence of text notes, voice notes, task and to do lists, as well as mind mapping software for capturing your ideas.

What all of these apps have in common is that they are competing for your attention when you want to capture a thought on your Android phone.

Note that we are only looking for Free Apps in the Productivity section. There are so many free apps to choose from, so why pay? And if it’s not in productivity, it’s not categorized in the section where it belongs.

There are many new entrants since the last ranking, but AK Notepad has maintained its position as the top Android note taking application on the Market.

After four long months,the Android v1.5 “Cupcake” update has finally been made available to the masses in the UK and USA. As April 29th came to a close, the first reports of update notifications came trickling in, and they’ve continued throughout the morning.

As usual, it’s not hitting every handset at the same time. Don’t panic if you’ve yet to see the prompt – you’ll probably see it within a day or two, tops. This one’s a big one, so look forward to some exploration. You’ll have video recording, stereo bluetooth, onscreen keyboards, live folders, new widgets, a brushed up browser, and a slew of performance upgrades and bug fixes to check out. Be sure to drop a comment and let us know when it hits your handset

via Ding Cupcake is done Android v1.5 now hitting handsets in US and UK .

The iPhones lead over smartphone upstart Android is set to be short-lived, according to new research.

Android smartphone sales will outstrip iPhone sales by 2012, a report by industry watchers Informa Telecoms & Media has predicted.

Last month, O2s parent Telefónica Europe revealed sales of the iPhone topped one million in the UK. While T-mobile UK – the exclusive carrier of the first Android device, the G1 – wouldnt put a figure on how many of the devices have been sold, it did say the handset now accounts for 20 per cent of its contract sales.

Web behemoth Google GOOG released the first beta SDK for its Android open OS platform in August last year, with the first handset – the G1 smartphone – launching the following month. A second handset, the Magic, is expected to arrive next month.

Apples AAPL iPhone has a slightly longer heritage – with the first device arriving in the US in June 2007. However the 3G iPhone has only had a few months headstart on its Google rival, hitting shops in July last year.

Both Android and OS X are eating into the market share of the number one selling smartphone OS-maker, Symbian. Last year just under half of smartphones sold were based on Symbian – a drop of 16 percentage points on the year before when it had 65 per cent market share. BlackBerry OS, Linux and Windows Mobile are also gaining popularity and eating some of Symbians lunch, according to Informa.

via Android Could Overtake iPhone by 2012 – BusinessWeek.

News Release: 3banana Launches First Android Smart Phone Note Taking App with Wireless Sync and Social Media Sharing

San Francisco (PRWEB) March 3, 2009 — 3banana Inc. today announced the launch of 3banana Notes, the first note taking app for the Android smart phone with wireless online sync and social media sharing. 3banana combines fast and efficient private note taking on the Android smart phone with the ability to sync, share and discuss notes with friends over the web at http://3banana.com and via social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.

“Do you ever want to quickly jot down an idea before you forget it? Whether it’s your next great movie plot, or the keyword that will help you find that ridiculous YouTube video everyone is talking about, the 3banana note taking app helps you catch those ideas before they escape,” said Andreas Schobel, 3banana co-founder and CTO. “3banana also makes it easy to share your notes with friends — rather than being lost forever, that idea in your notes can be the beginning of an online conversation.”

“Since before the invention of paper and pencil, people have sought to improve their lives by capturing and sharing thoughts, experiences, and ideas,” said Steve Brown, 3banana co-founder and CEO. “In the information-rich and fast-paced world today, the challenge is to get information from the brain in your head, into the brain in your pocket, and connected to the brainpower in the Internet cloud. We streamlined and simplified our note taking app so that users could quickly jot down a thought or tag a photo on their Android smart phone with as few keystrokes as possible, and then sync and share those notes wirelessly and effortlessly.”

3banana Notes for the Android smart phone stays synchronized wirelessly with the 3banana online service, where users can view and edit their private notes, share notes with friends, or comment on shared notes. In addition to photos and notes captured on their smart phones, online users also can keep track of web pages, presentations, and videos, all organized and labeled inline — without the need for extra data entry fields or repetitive typing. Each shared note has a private permalink that can be posted to popular social networks like Facebook and Twitter or shared on http://3banana.com for a more private online discussion.

The 3banana Notes Android note taking app is currently available as a free download in the productivity section of the Google Android App Market.

About 3banana

3banana Inc. creates smart phone and web applications that capture and share information effortlessly, wirelessly and securely. 3banana Notes are less work and easier to share than any other smart phone or online note taking app available today. Combining patent-pending innovations in semantics and social media sharing with fast, efficient and secure wireless information capture, 3banana mobile and web applications help people become more productive and more connected. For more information, please visit http://3banana.com.

3banana name and logo are trademarks of 3banana Inc. Android is a trademark of Google Inc.

via Android Just Got Smarter — And More Social — With 3banana Notes.

While Acer unveiled its plan to launch a pair of Android phones this year via the slightly ancient pen-and-paper method, Samsung used an even trustier method: spoken word. According to Reuters, the company’s head of product strategy Won-Pyo Hong affirmed that Sammy would sell “more than three” Android phones by the end of this year, and furthermore, it would “definitely” unwrap a phone using the LiMo Foundation’s Linux-based software before 2010 dawns. Hong wouldn’t disclose whether those Google-powered handsets would hit America, Europe or elsewhere first, but he did remark that both the US and Europe would be covered by the year’s end. We’d love to say we’re totally unaffected by such a tease, but c’mon, who has that kind of patience?

via Samsung: at least three Android phones and a LiMo handset in 2009 – Engadget.

Vic Gundotra, VP of engineering at Google, demonstrated an offline-capable webapp for the iPhone 3G this morning that allows full access to a user’s GMail even while the handset is in airplane mode.  The app – which Gundotra described as a “technical concept” – relies on HTML5′s AppCache and Database standards, keeping an on-device store of not only the user-data but the software itself.

via Google demo offline GMail webapp for iPhone: Video Demo | iPhone Buzz.

HTC and Google are getting closer to perfection with the new Android G2, the HTC Magic. Nice finish, great form factor. Check out our video, including the obligatory comparison with Apples iPhone, and hands-on impressions:

The bad news first: Apart from my gripes about the user interface—which are still there—there is one but. A big BUT, bigger than Ramonas, the planetary lady with accidental moustache who serves the bocadillos down at one of the fairs restaurants: The software keyboard. On this first touch, the keyboard felt cramped, probably a result of the screen size, which is smaller than the iPhones—which is the obvious soft keyboard reference, since it was the first one to implement a finger-touch software keyboard.

via Android G2 Hands On: Close to Perfection.

I’m pleased to announce that Android Market is now accepting priced applications from US and UK developers. Developers from these countries can go to the publisher website at http://market.android.com/publish to upload their application(s) along with end user pricing for the apps. Initially, priced applications will be available to end users in the US starting mid next week. We will add end user support for additional countries in the coming months.

We will also enable developers in Germany, Austria, Netherlands, France, and Spain to offer priced applications later this quarter. By the end of Q1 2009, we will announce support for developers in additional countries. Developers can find more information about priced applications in Android Market at http://market.android.com/support/

Google Checkout will serve as the payment and billing mechanism for Android Market. Developers who do not already have a Google Checkout merchant account can easily sign up for one via the publisher website.

via Android Developers Blog: Android Market update: support for priced applications .

We went through all of the Android Note Taking Applications on the market as of February 11, 2009, and we asked a simple question: If I take a note on my Android phone, how can I get the information out of my phone and into my computer? Can I sync the notes with a web account? Can I email my notes? Or do I need to save files to the SD card and do it manually?

Here is the current state of the market, according to the current popularity ranking among all applications in the marketplace as of today. The marketplace does not provide the exact number of downloads, but instead provides a range. The number listed is the bottom of the range. We also provided a little information on how you can get your notes out of the phone.

If anything is missing from this list, please leave a comment. Everybody needs a good Notes application to jot things down, remember things, and share, but the current state of the market with Android is quite paltry, especially compared to the Apple iPhone. It could change rapidly, however, so stay tuned.

Not your typical notes program!

Every note can be viewed and edited by other Android phones, or, on the web.

EXAMPLE: Make a note called “steves apartment” that has your apartment number and gate code. Even if your friends don’t have Android phones (lame!) you can give them the web address.

Powered by the PBwiki API.

via Cyrket – Magic Note .

DroidRecord is a voice recording app for the Android platform that offers you a good handful of features to compliment its basic function. This app has a very simple layout that makes it easy to navigate and manipulate all of the additional details for each recording.

While the main part of the app is based around voice recording, once you get past the record/play page, you’ll have plenty of additional details to mess around with. Each recording has an Edit, Timed Alerts, and GPS Alerts tab. The Edit tab is the basic area where you can change the title of the recording and view information like when it was created, how long the recording is, where the recording was made from, and the ability to view that location on a map.

The Timed Alerts tab allows you to set an alert based around that specific recording. You can set a date and time for the app to alert you through Android’s notification system to open that recording. The GPS Alerts tab allows you to set a similar alert to the Timed Alert, however this one is based on entering within a certain radius of a specific location.

While all of those features are nice, one of the best parts of this app is the ability to email your recording to yourself. DroidRecord is a full featured recording app for the Android platform that should be a must have for just about anyone with an Android phone.

via Droidrecord Android App Review – AndroidApps.com.

NitroDesk, a company that specializes in web-services, has just released TouchDown – the first Microsoft Exchange client for the Android OS. TouchDown, unlike other released exchange services for Android, will allow users to access their email, contacts, and calendar information on their Exchange servers. NitroDesk assures users that TouchDown is secure, and that the TouchDown will be the only application necessary to ensure the process on both the mobile and server-side.

In addition to allowing users to fetch data from the server, TouchDown also allows users to set their devices to periodically check for updates. TouchDown is currently available direct from NitroDesk for the price of $29.99. A free trial is also available.

via NitroDesk launches TouchDown Exchange client for Android: .

DroidWiki is a local wiki notebook. User can enter notes with a simple wiki formatting. Notes are saved locally.

Formatting: italics: //, bold ‘ ‘, lists: * or #, links: [[show-text|url-or-new-page]],

Future features:

* import/export

* search

* tags

* customizable look and feel (font size etc)

via Cyrket – DroidWiki .

Personal Notes for Android – Use your Google Android powered phone to access your Personal Notes for Facebook data and other useful web services. View your favorite RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0 feeds. Access the Service Directory to find other useful content. Personal Notes for Android will be available for download from the Android Market in December 2008.

via Threespaces.com.

Upvise Mobile Notebooks

Upvise Notebooks is the ultimate desktop to mobile phone notes manager. Create, categorize, instant search and auto sync any note on both your phone and your computer web account.

Send a quick note from your desktop to your mobile. Type in some information you want to remember in your mobile and retrieve the note later on from your web account. With the Upvise Notebooks app, you can store and classify your notes by creating personal notebooks, and access all your notes on-the-go.

via Upvise – Mobile Notebooks.

Notebooks

Send a quick note from your desktop to your mobile. Type in some information you want to remember in your mobile and retrieve the note later on from your web account. With the Notebooks app, you can store and classify your notes by creating personal notebooks, and access all your notes on-the-go.

via Unyvers Becomes Upvise – Worth Another Look | BerryReview.com » .

QuickList is an app for the Android platform that makes it easy for you to create a list on the go. This app is simple and easy to use, so you won’t run into any confusion when creating your lists. 

There aren’t a lot of options to configure in this app, but you can make it your own. There are five different colors that you can use to code the different items in your list. If you’d like to, you can actually rename them to better fit your needs as they default to being named after their color. The only issue is you can’t rearrange the order of the colors, so you’ll have to get use to them in the default order.

Once you’ve got your items set up on the list, you can easily start striking out the tasks you complete. This makes it easy to keep track of what you’ve finished. You can also clear out all of the items that you’ve put a strike through to declutter your list.

This app isn’t robust and it really doesn’t have to be. The Android platform has need for all these little apps that offer something new to the user. If you need a list or notetaking app, check out QuickList.

via Quicklist Android App Review – AndroidApps.com.

The AK Notepad Android App by Andrew Kurniadi is a note taking app for the Android. The description in the Android Market made this app seem like it did way more than it actually does. Don’t get me wrong, this app is good for taking notes and you can even set custom reminders which is very useful but it claimed in the description that you can send notes through text messages which I can’t seem to figure out how to do. The description also said that you can stick the notes onto your home screen like a virtual post it note type of thing which I also could not find an option for. There is a hyperlink to their website for additional help, but in my opinion the app should be easy enough to use without going to a website for instructions. There are several settings you can use to enchance your note taking and customize your notes for example, you can enable hyperlinks to e-mail addresses and websites which is pretty useful and you can change the color of your note which is neat. Overall the app is very easy to use and the reminder feature is a plus. If you are a note taker I recommend that you download this app. Thumbs up.

via AK Notepad Android App Review | Android App Review Source.

This application is a simple voice recorder.

A voice data is saved on SD card.

Sending voice data by Gmail is available.

via Cyrket – Voice Recorder .

EnKeep store notes encrypted with a password

Note entry is simplistic and the first 2 lines are shown in the main page for quick reference.

EnKeep is open source: http://code.google.com/p/enkeep/

Release Note:

- Corrected a slide open bug

- Added pretty icon

- Added forget menu

USE AT YOUR OWN RISK

via Cyrket – EnKeep Notes & Passwords .

A simple note taking application with two interesting features:

- Encrypting a note with a passphrase chosen by the user

- Emailing a note to a contact

via Cyrket – Notes .

It’s a simple memo application.

A memo is recorded sequentially in time.

The detailed direction for uses please watch Menu-Help.

via Cyrket – Time MemoPad .

Simple notepad program to open, edit and save text files to and from the SD card. Saves its state so you can switch to other apps without losing data or needing to reopen the file.

Now includes a simple file browser. For more advanced operations try “Android File Manager” in the market.

Not recommended for large files.

via Cyrket – Text Edit .

Note Pad (also known as Notes List or Notes) is another sample of an Android application from Google with very basic functionality. It features a simple text processor and lists all notes in a linear structure. Users can only add, edit and delete notes.

Note Pad comes from Android SDK, all copyrights belong to Google Inc.

via Cyrket – Note Pad .