Add my post all about evernote fanboyisms.
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R. Tyler Croy
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layout: post
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title: Evernote. The Killer App for Tablets
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tags:
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- evernote
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- tablet
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- android
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---
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One weekend in the not-so-distant past I started playing with
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[Evernote](http://www.evernote.com), reading all sorts of LifeHacker-esque
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articles on how to use Evernote for super mega-awesome organization and
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note-taking, etc. I was so convinced that I would **change everything** to
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revolve around Evernote that weekend, that I went ahead and signed up for
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Evernote Premium after only a few hours.
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Then I left Evernote dormant for a couple of months, except for occasionally
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clipping some URLs from Chrome into my "Bookmarks" notebook.
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I honestly didn't take any notes, Evernote was a place for interesting tidbits of
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information to die.
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Then at one point, I bought an HP TouchPad, which I soon returned (after HP
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killed the line) and picked up an [ASUS
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Transformer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASUS_Eee_Pad_Transformer).
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I originally avoided Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" because, and I've now experienced
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this first hand, Honeycomb _sucks_. That's not a point I want to dwell on, while [I've
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started to keep track of some
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gripes](https://www.evernote.com/shard/s75/sh/5226f888-240b-4dcd-8ce2-902578f8c6b4/0b9ee8e54c29f130117002c5254a7cf8),
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at the end of the day, it's just not a very polished OS.
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Fortunately, Android has one saving grace:
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<img
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src="http://agentdero.cachefly.net/unethicalblogger.com/images/evernote.gif" alt="Evernote!" title="Evernote!" align="right"/>
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### Evernote.
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The Evernote Android app is *nearly* perfect and combined with the tablet form
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factor, it goes from "kind of useful" to "cannot live without." At the time of
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this writing, I have over 300 notes in Evernote, with a rate of about 2-5 notes
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per day.
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#### Bookmarking and the Web Clipper
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The tablet app combined with the [web
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clipper](http://www.evernote.com/about/download/web_clipper.php) browser
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extension has given me a cross between delicious and instapaper. Throughout the
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day when I find interesting links, if I need them for referencing later I will
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just clip the URL into my "Bookmarks" notebook.
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If I find an interesting tutorial or article that I'd like to read later, I'll clip the full article into the relevant
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Notebook. Later on the train, I'll go read through the articles that I've
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clipped into Evernote on my tablet, which were synchronized to the device prior
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to leaving the office . (*Relevant feature:* Offline Notebooks
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([details](http://blog.evernote.com/2011/09/06/evernote-for-android-now-with-skitch-integration-offline-search-slideshow-view-and-more/)))
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#### Meeting Notes
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I have never been one to bring my laptop into meetings, I don't particularly care
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for it and I'm too tempted to get work done (zing!). Using Evernote on the
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tablet allows me to focus on taking notes and if need be, occasionally jump
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back to email or the browser on the device in order to double-check something
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that might be pertinent to the meeting.
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Sure I could take notes on paper, but having those notes immediately available
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on other devices and copy/paste-able is pretty invaluable once you need to turn
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your notes into tickets in JIRA or feedback on an interview candidate.
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#### Product Design/Competitive Analysis
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As an Evernote Premium user, I can share notebooks with other Evernote users in
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a way that allows them to read and write to them. Using this functionality,
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I've shared some notebooks with various colleagues as we scheme and plot.
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Using a shared notebook lets us compile notes from our various meetings and
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discussions on the subject, using Skitch for quick and dirty little diagrams.
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On top of that, any relevant information we might find about potential
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competitors, interesting APIs, etc, we can use the Web Clipper to clip straight
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into that shared notebook.
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(*Relevant feature:* Skitch integration
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([details](http://blog.evernote.com/2011/09/06/evernote-for-android-now-with-skitch-integration-offline-search-slideshow-view-and-more/)), Shared Notebooks
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([details](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtPCyV62zRM)))
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#### Grocery List
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Utilizing shared notebooks, I have a shared notebook between my wife and myself
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where we add to-do items to our grocery lists, add other notes that we might
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need to share between each other.
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Being the domesticated house man that I am, I typically go grocery shopping,
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tablet in hand with my grocery list full of to-do checkboxes sitting shot-gun
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in the shopping cart. As I meander through the store, I check the boxes as I
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pick up various foods. Upon completing my trip, I add a picture of the receipt
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and the total price to the note. As time progresses, I not only have a clear
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idea of how our grocery needs have been evolving, but I also have a good idea
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of how much damn money we're spending on all our fancy foods. (*Relevant
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feature:* To-do list
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([details](http://blog.evernote.com/2011/08/02/did-you-know-how-to-create-a-checklist-in-evernote/)))
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### Missing Functionality
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Unfortunately, Evernote isn't perfect and has a number of flaws which can take
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you out of note-taking-nirvana pretty abrubtly.
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* Shared notebooks have **no notifications** associated with it. The only way I know if you added something to a notebook is if you tell me, or I notice by chance. This *sucks*.
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* [NixNote](http://nevernote.sf.net) is a half-decent client for Linux, but doesn't render rich text well at all and is a bit slow.
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* The Evernote.com web application is decent, but lacks many keyboard shortcuts and can get slow when you're navigating a notebook with hundreds of notes.
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* The web app doesn't allow you to create to-do lists as it does numbered lists, i.e. hit return and get a new checkbox list item, fortunately the Android app does this properly.
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* If you have a spotty data connection, the synchronization from the Evernote Android application to Evernote.com will screw up constantly and your resulting note will be full of "Conflicting save : *timestamp*" which you will have to later clean up on a more full-featured client (like the .com).
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* Evernote support is borderline useless. I've emailed them about a couple of the above issues, and I've consistently gotten back a templated reply, in one case, the support person clearly didn't even read my email before replying.
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----
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There's more good with Evernote than bad, I admire the approach they're taking
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with the company and I'm pretty fond of their product (obviously).
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If you're on the fence about buying a tablet of any variety, I recommend
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purchasing a tablet coupled with an Evernote account, it's really the killer
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app for tablet computing.
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