How big is the market for a good Memo application

[jeffdlb]

Many of us have expressed a desire for a proper Memo application on Android, similar in functionality to the Palm OS. Necessary features include: support for multiple memos, quick access to view and edit multiple memos, ability to organize memos into categories or with tags, ability to search through all memos at once, ability to synchronize memos with desktop and/or the cloud. This poll is designed to show potential developers that there is a market for such an app.

 

[karalinagirl]

There are a few apps out there that already accomplish this function. I downloaded one of them right away b/c I need a memo app. I use "Note Everything."

 

[SamFen]

I also use Note Everything. The ability to take notes of many kinds -- text, photo, voice, check-box list, reminders for everything -- is very useful.

However, there are a few flaws with it, which if you were developing a new memo app would be good to note:

* The ability to make a shortcut so that you could make a new note directly after clicking on the shortcut from your home page
* Having folders is good, but if I have folders set as the first page, I can't add a new note directly from the first page
* No tagging
* No syncing with an online web site
* You can add text to notes, but not voice (voice on photo notes would be useful)
* Impossible to clear done items in a durable list (I know that's the point of a durable list, but I'd like to occasionally clear them)

All that said, a new memo app would have to be very good to get me to switch.

 

[alostpacket]

I think there is actually an overabundance of memo apps. However, each memo app has one or two features the others don't. If you managed to combine all this I think you'd have a shot at some market share, but it certainly isn't an empty segment of the market.

 

[alostpacket]

Also, there is no options in the poll for:
"I use Android and am happy with a Notes/Memo app that I already use,"
or,
"I use Android and am unhappy with a Notes/Memo app that I already use or I am willing to try a new one."

 

[SamFen]

Also, now that EverNote has released an app, you have even stiffer competition.

EverNote solves issues 2, 3 and 4 in my list above (but doesn't have checklists and may not have offline storage, the latter of which may be a problem for me).

 

[phwaap]

Note Everything is pretty robust. A few feature updates -- some already listed -- and it would be almost unbeatable.

 

[vincentp]

If someone can develop an app that does everything that the other apps don't (learn from others' mistakes) then I'm sure it would be popular, but as others have said, there are some good memo apps out there already.

 

[(G)]

I'm currently a Palm Treo user and memos are my #1 use of the smartphone. In my searches of iPhone and Android apps, this has consistently been the top search.

 

[katahdin]

I extensively use notes / memos on the PC - from the web, emails or documents - easy to copy and save in notes/ memos (still using palm desktop 4.1 PIM) then after a sync with pda can confidently take info with me. And when away can edit / add data and resync when get back.

Note Everything update has new function to import palm notes to Droid app.

 

[(G)]

Note Everything update has new function to import palm notes to Droid app.

With this one sentence, you just sold me a Droid. This is incredibly cool.

 

[katahdin]

After looking at a bunch of then (I didnt make definitive notes enuf to explain) I found Note Evrerything to be readable and has lots of features. Only one that is missing, is a sync with the cloud, or desktop.

 

[jeffdlb]

OK, it looks like the situation is better than I thought. Another thread gave me the impression that things were bad. Note Everything seems to do most of what I want, though the online sync is lacking and the backup to SD is manual unless you have MyBackup or other 3rd-party app.

 

[brykins]

Notes/Memos for me have been a major problem ever since I left PalmOS. I used to use something called TreeNotes and notes could be nested - this made setting up notes for different things a total breeze. It also had a desktop application that sync'd with the phone.

Now - ideal Notes app for me would have at least five levels of nesting, sync over the air with a server that then sync'd with a desktop app. Failing that, syncing to Outlook either via cable or OTA would be the next best thing.

Ability to link notes to contacts, calendar entries or GPS locations (with location based alarms for things like shopping lists, etc) would be good too.

 

[katahdin]

Its too bad, since Google has control of 3/4 of the data that we were used to having in the PDA, it really should be a google app (or google perspective) to include the memo function and have an app that works on the desktop (web) with all of the parts.

gMail with gContacts, gTasks, gCal seems to work fine for me and replicates the pda as far as I can see. Just would like a gPDA which would include a special folder of gDocs - lets say - sub-folders for different categories, only that folder for gPDA search - so that we could again:

enter a find (search) for Dr Frankenstein and in milleseconds and get the dates of my past and future appointments (cal), phone #-address (contacts), get insurance papers (todo) and memos I created about past appointments and notes of what I want to talk about !! Thats milliseconds !!

Google will need a search that looks at gmail,contacts,todo,and docs very quickly.

 

[mjschmidt]

I am also using Note Everything as my main note app 9with 3banana as a backup so I can sync with the web).

I tried the Evernote app (I use Evernote a LOT on the PC) but not being able to see my notes offline is the proverbial "deal-breaker" for me as far as EN is concerned.

If NoteEverything had the following, it would be pretty much my only note app:

1. online sync
2. PC/desktop sync
3. make it skinnable

It would also be cool if I could import/export with MS OneNote, since I use that on my lappy.

 

[mjschmidt]

* The ability to make a shortcut so that you could make a new note directly after clicking on the shortcut from your home page

1. You can do this. Long-press the desktop.
2. Choose "Shortcuts"
3. Scroll down to "New Note" (you will see the NoteEverything icon) and press.
4. Choose "New Textnote"
5. You will be asked to choose the default folder for notes from this shortcut. Choose your default folder. > Done!

 

[katahdin]

FYI - Note Everything - update to the latest version (2.8.0) via market and can use the new functions - Import from Palm

Read instructions here: SoftXPerience | Import Palm

 

[katahdin]

If NoteEverything had the following, it would be pretty much my only note app:

1. online sync
2. PC/desktop sync
3. make it skinnable

Agree but we're never satisfied !! LOL In addition, I would like the speech input option.

I thought one of the note apps had speech to text - and now I can't find it. Doesn't anyone know or am I smoking dope ? Or maybe I was confusing handcent with notes.

BTW - what does skinnable mean?

 

[SamFen]

Agree but we're never satisfied !! LOL In addition, I would like the speech input option.

I thought one of the note apps had speech to text - and now I can't find it. Doesn't anyone know or am I smoking dope ? Or maybe I was confusing handcent with notes.

BTW - what does skinnable mean?

NoteEverything has speech notes in their pay version. I don't believe it has speech to text, though.

 

[mjschmidt]

BTW - what does skinnable mean?

It would be cool if we could apply skins (like themes) to Note Everything so it didn't look so plain and boring. ;-)

 

[boatman]

Can anyone offer some advice for a certain situation i just came across?

I was out of the country with my phone that had no internet service either cellular or via the hotel. I had an email on my phone that contained a long document I wanted to edit. This document was not an attachment, but rather embedded as text in the email. I had my laptop and a usb cable.

What I couldn't figure out was a way to get that data into a file on the phone that I could access via the computer. I have astro file manager. I have k9 email. I wanted to select the text in the email, copy it to a file, save that file on the sd card, and then I would be able to copy it over to my laptop, and edit it in word.

Which of the above notepads (or maybe memopads, not sure of the difference between these) would be ideal for this? thanks.

 

[Redflea]

Cloud sync is the most important MUST feature for me, and I don't want another site to have to visit, so given we're on Android I want sync to/from Google Docs.

GDocs gets me the ability to view/download/edit/upload notes between my Droid and Google Docs, but if I edit on the Droid I lose all images, fancy formatting.

If one of the other options w/a richer feature set included sync to Google Docs they could own this space.

I'd love sync to Outlook as well, but I'm willing to give up Outlook notes (I can access all my google docs notes from any PC, something I can't do w/Outlook Notes) if I can get Droid to Google cloud sync.

And yes, I'd pay for the app!

 

[tjoebgen]

FYI - Note Everything - update to the latest version (2.8.0) via market and can use the new functions - Import from Palm

Read instructions here: SoftXPerience | Import Palm

But Note Everything creates 15 really huge "notes" - one for each category you had. Every note in that category exists in one note now and is hardly practical. I have about 600 notes spread over those 15 categories. At first I thought I was doing something wrong, but I've seen this complaint about Note Everything in several different droid forums.

I've yet to find the ideal solution. Closest I've come yet is to use OI Notepad to import/export text files on the SD card. Sync of these files with a 3rd party app (presently messing with Best Sync 2010). This is still more hassle than I really want.

But things are looking up. There's an Android app called B-Folders that has categories that you create (not that one that has 4 pre-named categories) and they are in the process of creating a desktop app for importing/exporting files and 2-way sync'ing. I'm eagerly waiting for this!

btw - it seems that people don't like taking polls here. There are a great many responses to threads about note taking and sync'ing across many different forum boards - yet barely 10 people have voted on this. Not a good representation of the market for this.

Developers - trust me, there is a very big market out there for a premium note app with 2-way sync to a real PC (not just a cloud).

 

[(G)]

But Note Everything creates 15 really huge "notes" - one for each category you had. Every note in that category exists in one note now and is hardly practical. I have about 600 notes spread over those 15 categories. At first I thought I was doing something wrong, but I've seen this complaint about Note Everything in several different droid forums.

Wow, I must've done something wrong, then, because my notes imported perfectly. I have roughly 150-200 notes in probably 30 categories, and it imported each note individually into the correct "folder" (instead of calling them "category").

The only "error" in the import was that Note Everything double-spaced my notes instead of single spacing them.

Did you follow the instructions?