Evernote launched Evernote for iPhone on the same day that Apple launched the iTunes App Store. Over the course of the two years, Evernote has gained incredible insight into what makes an application great.
Commenting on this, Mr. Dmitry Stavisky, VP, International Operations, Evernote Corporation said, “What we learned is that our users want faster access, easier note creation, better browsing and more ways to find what they’re looking for. Put another way, getting stuff done should be a snap. With that in mind, we went back to the drawing board and reconsidered every single aspect of Evernote for iPhone. We think you’re going to love the changes. With that, we give you Evernote 4, available in the iTunes App Store.”
The new Home Screen and Snippet View
The first thing users will notice is that Evernote now supports unified browsing and note creation in the application’s new home screen. The notes list is now shown in Snippet View. This view maximizes the amount of information that is presented in a small amount of space. If a note is text only, then the app will show the title of the note and as much text as will fit into the snippet. If the note only contains an image, then the slice of the image is taken and presented full width. If the note has a mix of text and other forms of content, then the user sees the title, some text and a thumbnail. This means that the user will get more at a glance than ever, in many cases allowing them to skip opening the note entirely.
The new New Note screen
Gone are the big home screen tiles of old. They have been replaced with an ultra-functional New Note screen. When the user taps the big plus, they are presented with a split screen. The top half is their standard text entry area. The lower half lets them attach images and snapshots, record 90 minutes of audio, assign notebooks and tags and even sets the users location. The user can now attach multiple items to a single note. So, if users are sitting in a meeting or lecture, they can have notes, record audio and a whiteboard snapshot all in a single note.
To create a note on the audio recorder: tap once to start recording, tap again to stop and attach the recorded audio to the note. Tapping a third time will start a new recording, which will become a second attachment.
Removing attachments
To remove an attachment, tap on the paperclip icon. This will show the attachment screen. To remove, tap edit and tap the red circle. The user can also swipe across the item.
Selecting multiple camera roll images at once
When adding images from the Camera roll, the user can choose to attach multiple images to a single note or create a note per image. To select multiple notes, tap on the arrow in the lower left corner of the Camera Roll note screen. If the user decides to make multiple notes, the title, notebook and tag settings associated with the note they are creating will be automatically be applied to all of the new image notes.
Assigning notebook, tag and location
The top row of buttons lets the user create and assign a notebook and tag their note. The location button is a convenient way to double-check their current location or modify (or even delete) the note’s location information.
Browsing by notebook and tag
This is a biggie. Many users have asked for a way to view a single notebook at a time. Now, they can. Both notebooks and tags are options along the lower tab bar. The user can select the notebook or tag what they wish to view and that’s all they’ll see.
Resource views
Have you ever had that tip-of-the-tongue feeling? You’re trying to remember something and you almost have it, but not quite. The new Resource Views will cure the user. When the list is open, tap on the 2×2 box icon in the top right corner. All of the Resource Views relate to the current note list, so if the user is filtering by a specific notebook, then only those notes will show up.
- Image view: This view displays all the images from all the notes. Tap on an image and the note will open.
- Attachment view: This view displays a list of all the attached items (excluding images) contained in the notes
- Map view: This view drops pins on a map for all notes with geo-location information. Tap the compass icon to find notes near your current location.
Search
Search now gets its own screen. That’s because all of the users saved searches appear below the search bar. The user can either create a new search or tap on a saved search using a desktop version of Evernote.
A reminder about offline notes and notebooks
As always, Evernote for iPhone supports offline notes and notebooks. For a Free subscriber, any note that they create, view or favorite on the iPhone will be available offline (access Favorites from the Notebooks menu). Evernote Premium subscribers can select entire notebooks to be viewable offline. This option is available from Settings. The user can also upgrade to Evernote Premium right from the app, if they like.
Evernote for iPad
Evernote for iPad got numerous behind-the-scenes improvements as part of this update. The user can expect many of the ideas and concepts from this iPhone redesign to make their way into upcoming versions of Evernote for iPad.
