Evernote, one of the most popular note-taking apps for the iPhone and iPad, has been updated to version 4.1.7 and now includes options to allow users to share notes with friends.

• Improved stability
• Addressed some sync errors
• Users can share notebooks and manage the sharing members of notebooks on both iPhone and iPad.
• Easier access to offline-notebooks (Premium only)

I use Evernote for pretty much everything, from simple note-taking to helping me remember wishful purchases and more.

• Free – iPhone App Store Link

• Free – iPad App Store Link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Last week on our iPhone Live! podcast, Chad and Seth got all nerdy about how they take notes, and manage their workflows, on the iPhone, and we figured it would be great to get even more views on this. So we’re asking the TiPb nation!

Do you use the built in iPhone notes app or a special App Store app? If an App Store app, which one? Do you sync your notes with other devices, like your iPad or Windows or Mac PC? If so, how do you sync? The default notes app syncs to Mac Mail. DropBox has become a hugely popular way, but some people like Rene prefer SimpleNote on iOS and Notational Velocity on the desktop. Others, like Chad in the past, have been huge Evernote users, which has its own client on almost every platform. Are universal note apps better, or do you prefer note apps specifically designed for iPhone vs. iPad vs. desktop?

What’s your ultimate note taking workflow?

Switching to the Verizon iPhone, or any iPhone, from BlackBerry or Droid (or another Android phone) and curious how to transfer your data over? We’ve already told you how to switch from AT&T iPhone to Verizon iPhone, but crossing platforms can seem like a bigger headache. It isn’t. There’s lots of services available to help you transfer data from one device to another. Keep reading for some simple suggestions that can make the process of going from BlackBerry or Droid/Android to the iPhone just a little easier for you.

There are two main ways to move all your data over to iPhone: desktop sync via iTunes and cloud sync via Google, Yahoo!, Exchange, etc.

iTunes

If you want to move your music, TV shows, movies, photos, and other media over to your new iPhone and you already use iTunes on Mac or Windows PC then it’s pretty easy.

1. Just plug the dock cable into your iPhone and into your PC and your iPhone will show up in iTunes.
2. Go through the tabs and choose what information, media, and photos you want to sync.
3. Press sync

You can sync multiple iOS devices (if you already have an iPad or iPod touch) with one iTunes library or set up multiple iTunes libraries to keep things extra neat and tidy.

Google Sync

Here is a way to use Gmail or Google Sync to transfer your data. If you’re already using a Gmail or Google Account to sync your mail, contacts, and calendars, this process is dead simple. Just make sure you’ve done a sync on your current BlackBerry or Android device.

1. On your new iPhone tap Settings and go to Mail, Contacts, Calendars.

2. You’ll need to add your new account to your iPhone. Simply tap the new account and then Gmail option.
3. If you want full push, you can also set Gmail up as Exchange as well. Visit Google’s Exchange page for instructions on setting up this way.
4. After your account is verified, you can simply choose to sync what items you would like to sync by turning those options On.

5. If a message pops up asking what you’d like to do with the data, choose to replace your iPhone data.

Yahoo! Sync

To perform a sync with Yahoo!, you are essentially going to repeat the same steps you would for Google sync (see above), except you’ll choose Yahoo when you choose your new account type. All the options should be identical when it comes to syncing contacts, calendars, and email accounts.

Exchange and Hotmail

If you’re using Exchange at work, and/or Windows Live Hotmail at home, again the instructions are the same as above just choose Exchange ActiveSync as your account type. (If you have problems with a work account, check with your IT department for the proper settings)

Transferring contacts and calendars from your computer with iTunes

If you don’t use any Google, Yahoo!, Exchange or any online service and you’re just looking to transfer your contacts to your iPhone, you can do that too. Whether you have Windows or Mac, you can transfer contacts from your current smartphone to your iPhone pretty easily.

1. Plug your old device into the computer and sync them with either Outlook, Exchange, or Mac Address book. This process is pretty easy but varies from device to device, so you may need to refer to your specific device instructions in order to do this. If you still have an issue doing this, head on over to the Verizon iPhone Forum for some expert switcher advice and help.
2. Once your contacts are already on your computer, you can plug your new iPhone into your computer.
3. Open iTunes and click the Info tab under your iPhone sync settings.
4. You will see a Contacts option. Select that and choose what contacts you would like to be synced to your phone.

5. Click sync and wait for iTunes to do its thing. When complete, your contacts should now be on your new iPhone.

Note: You may have noticed iTunes has native options to configure Yahoo! or Gmail sync. You are more than welcome to use these options as well. They are just as easy. You can also choose to sync calendars via iTunes as well. Use whatever process is going to be more convenient for you on an ongoing basis.

Transferring photos from your old device to your new iPhone [PC users]

1. Simply sync or transfer the photos from your old device into your photos on your Windows PC. Whether you choose to do this with your actual device, or from removable storage like an SD card is your choice.
2. Plug your new iPhone into the computer and open iTunes and navigate to the Photos tab.
3. Navigate your way to where you save your photos to your PC when choosing what photos to sync and make sure to choose the pictures you’d like on your phone.
4. Click sync and wait for iTunes to finish. Your photos should now show up in the Photos app on your iPhone.

Transferring photos from your old device to your new iPhone [Mac users]

1. Plug your old device into your Mac and open iPhoto. (If iPhoto doesn’t recognize your Android or Blackberry, simply transfer the pictures from the removable storage in your device, if you have that option.)
2. Your device should show up in the left navigation pane of iPhoto.
3. Name your album and import the photos. Alternately, you could select just the photos you’d like on your new device if you want.

4. Open iTunes and go to the Photos tab. Select the albums or events you’d like to sync to your new iPhone.

5. Click sync and wait for iTunes. After the sync is complete, you should see your new Photos in your Photo app on your iPhone.

Next steps

The iPhone is a pretty easy device to transfer data to. Once you’ve gotten all your data from your other device into a cloud service or on your computer, it should be easy as pie. If you guys have any issues doing any of this, feel free to check out the TiPb Verizon iPhone Forums for answers to many questions.

For more on using your new Verizon iPhone, check out our iPhone Starters Guide.

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to news@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

Microsoft has released OneNote, which is its first Microsoft Office application for iOS devices. OneNote is a note-taking application, which is very popular with Windows tablet users. With OneNote you can create and view notes and also sync them across multiple platforms and devices. Created notes can contain text, pictures, bullets and checkboxes. To use the application, you will need a Windows Live ID.

OneNote is compatible with the iPhone and iPod touch running iOS 4.2 or higher. It can also be used with the iPad however it is not a universal binary so will not be the greatest experience. The app is free for a limited time only and currently only available in the US App Store.

With many other fully featured note taking apps already available for iOS, do you see any advantage to using OneNote compared to something like Evernote? Either way could lead to Microsoft releasing iOS versions of Word, Excel and Powerpoint?

[iTunes Link]

With Notability for iPad, Ginger Labs has a great app for note taking, especially if you are a student. Inevitably you will need to take notes on your iPad at some point, right? With so many other note taking apps out there, Notability also has some unique features that make them stand out from the rest. First, the basics.

Notability is setup by subject. You can create multiple subjects and put multiple notes in each subject. Sounds simple enough. However where Notability shines is the power of their notes. At first you will notice the standard fanfare that you come to expect from a note taking app. Folders (aka subjects), search, edit, email the note etc. However Notability can also sync to iTunes, Dropbox and print your notes.

The note taking experience is rather pleasant. Tap the compose button located on in the top right corner to begin. From here you can rename the default note name (Note 1 by default) to whatever you like. Tap return and you’re in business to complete your note. But what is this? Besides just typing text you can change the font, color, emphasis and size? You can insert not only images from the Photo app, but you can also insert a figure and web clip.

The figure option allows you to draw your own figure and insert it into your note. You can draw free hand, change the line thickness, draw squares, circles and more. Once embedded in the note you can easily edit the note, resize and reposition it. If you want to embed a webpage, you can do that too. Navigate to the webpage you want from within Notability and presto, it’s embedded too, just like the figure.

Beyond these cool features, there are subtle things as well such as the ability to tab/indent without having to do it manually and add numbered or lettered bullet points. You can even add an audio note (and geek out and change the frequency if you want!).

As awesome as these features are, they come at a small price. The performance of Notability is slow. Even opening a note with one word in it can take a few seconds. I know this may not seem like a lot, but if you are trying to quickly view multiple notes quickly, Notability has some challenges with this.

Overall, I like Notability and it’s cool features that make it stand out. The web clipping feature was particularly helpful. If you are a student, this is definitely worth a try if you haven’t found the must have note app for your workflow.

[$4.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Great value with awesome features
• Insert pictures, drawings and web clippings in your note
• Format your notes with rich text
• Export to different formats including email and Dropbox backup sync
• Developer is always adding new features

Cons

• Slow opening notes
• Some items are not clearly delineated such as rename note and body of note

Note & Share is a note taking app with support for iPhone and iPad. It is a universal binary so you won’t have to purchase them separately. Note & Share also offers integration with several different services. Dropbox, Twitter, Evernote, Google Docs, and Mail are a few popular ones that Note & Share easily integrates with.

Note & Share also supports markdown as well. I recently wrote a review on Markdown Mail, so I was eager to see how Note & Share stacked up against it. I’d say it fairs pretty well. Setting up your services is easy enough and sharing to them is even easier.

When you launch the app, you’ll be presented with a text entry box. You can simply start typing your content and then choose how you want to share it. Or you can optionally just save it as a note locally to your phone with a simple tap. You can also clear the entire text entry field with one tap, which is a nice feature.

Note & Share also supports image upload as well. You can choose your media and it will shorten the URL and insert it into your note.

When it comes to exporting to Evernote or any service that supports hashtags, it will recognize those as tags and import accordingly. Your first line of text will also be used as the note title, similar to the way Markdown Mail will title notes.

The interface is not as simple as Markdown Mail’s but its still extremely easy to use. I expected the interface to be a bit advanced considering it supports many more features than Markdown Mail does.

If you’re looking for a note taking app that allows synchronization and upload with several services, Note & Share is probably the way to go. If you’re just looking for an app that allows markdown conversion and offers a way to send HTML rich e-mail, you may want to give Markdown Mail a look. Both apps are extremely good at what they do and neither is a bad choice. As of right now, Markdown Mail is $1 more than Note & Share. I’d say for the extra features, spring for Note & Share.

The developers of Note & Share were also nice enough to give us some promo codes to give away to you guys. Wanna win one? Leave a comment below using a valid e-mail address. That’s it, you’re entered! We’ll pick 2 of you to win free copies of Note & Share! (Reminder: Promo codes only work in the US App Store — Apple’s rule, not ours!)

Pros

• Integrates seamlessly with several services
• One tap delete is a nice feature
• Hashtag support for tags in Evernote works great
• Markdown conversion is extremely simple

Cons

• Text entry field is small on iPhone version and scrolling can be daunting when working with long notes

iOS 4.2 brings with it the ability to change fonts in Notes, traditionally locked down to — what many type snobs would call the torturous — Marker Felt.

The new default is Chalkboard, a new option is the system standard Helvetica, and Marker Felt is demoted to last.

Oh happy day. Settings pane after the break.

[via @gruber]

With iOS 4, the built-in Notes app gets the ability to sync with multiple IMAP accounts, including MobileMe and Gmail. When you set up MobileMe or Gmail (not via Google Sync/ActiveSync/Exchange but via the Gmail button) there’s a toggle to turn notes sync on or off.

If you enable notes sync for multiple accounts, you get a new Accounts button at the top left of the Notes app. Tapping it takes you to a new screen where you can choose to view All Notes, just the notes on your iPhone, or just the notes that are synced via IMAP to your email account(s).

Those notes then appear in your desktop and web-based IMAP clients as well, like Apple’s Mac Mail.app (in Marker Felt, ugh!) and Gmail.com.

If you’re using multiple IMAP Notes accounts, let us know how it’s working for you. For more features, see our complete iOS 4 walkthrough.

How does a “shooting scene reconstructor” use his iPhone to get the job done and what iPhone apps help get him through his day? TiPb’s iPhone at work contest aims to bring you just such slices of the iPhone life. Here’s Theta’s answer and as a small token of thanks we’re sending him a $20 iTunes gift certificate. If you want to see your name up on the TiPb home page and get a gift certificate all your own, head on over to the TiPb iPhone Forum and share your story now!

I just got my first iPhone, an iPhone 4. Before that I used two different generations of iPod touches.

I do quite a few “shooting scene reconstructions”, and other investigations related to firearms examination. To that end, I have converted over from using a Tablet PC for field note taking, to using Office² and various self made worksheets. I can quickly enter various types of data related to the evidence I am examining. Today I even took a picture of a fired casing comparison using the iPhone 4 camera through the microscope objective, cropped the image (CropForFree), annotated it (iRetouch Lite), and then inserted into my worksheet in Office².

I track my various Google calendars using SaiSuke. I have used it for a few years now. I allows me to update and track various calendars (work, personal, baseball, swimming, cub scouts). When I’m and get a call from a client, I can quickly add an event, which will update on my company website that many customers use to check on my work availability.

I also use Office² to track case numbers, payments received, to update a Google Doc that my bookkeeper checks daily to make invoices for me, and to track courtroom testimony.

I use Air Sharing to take PDF copies of my electronic case files along with me, for reading while on the phone with clients, or reviewing prior to courtroom testimony. It truly allows me to have a mobile office.

I use MileBug to track my mileage and email reports to my accountant.

I use the standard Apple Notes app to email bank deposit summaries to my bookkeeper.

skobbler has become my GPS app (I switched from Sprint with free turn-by-turn, so I’m a little hesitant to start paying for a formerly free service).

Those are just the main ones. There are various other ones I will quickly use on the stand to covert units to answer questions from attorneys, spreadsheets for performing blood alcohol calculations, rulers for measuring, protractors for measuring angles, periodic charts for chemistry questions, and even RxDrugs for looking up prescription drug information.

What about you? Do you do investigations related to firearms examination? If so, how do you use your iPhone for work? If not, head on over to the TiPb iPhone Forum and let us know how you use your iPhone for your job.

My latest productivity app this week? Penultimate for iPad. There are several competing “free hand” note taking apps on our favorite tablet device. After our recent TiPb at Work Post, I thought I would see if Penultimate tries to separate itself from other note apps on the iPad. Is being simple with just enough  of a “feature” to get the job done enough?

Penultimate starts you off with a single notebook. That notebook serves as a tutorial to show you how to use Penultimate. The example notebook is excellent as it “teaches” you everything you need to know about the app. The basic setup is this; you can have virtually unlimited notes in your notebook. You tap the bottom right corner to go to the next page and the bottom left corner to go to the previous page. You have a pen, eraser and a clear page button at the bottom as well. On the main screen you can create your own notebook, email or delete notebooks as need, you can even rename them by tapping the name located below the notebook.

Writing in Penultimate is a pure joy. As you draw or write with your fingers, the developers have given the virtual ink a very distinct look, almost like calligraphy. The ink is thick in some areas and thinner in others. If you want to adjust the thickness or color of your ink, simply tap and hold the pen icon at the bottom of the page to make your changes.

You can create new notebooks with the tap of a button located in the top left hand corner. The top right hand corner gives you additional settings. The style of paper be changed from graph to lined for example, you can reposition the tools (pen, eraser, etc.) to the top of the page and even email the entire notebook or just the page you are on via email. Penultimate converts the notebooks to PDFs for emailing.

I like Penultimate for what it does; it is a simple no-frills note taking tool. I find there to be a couple of irritations however. In landscape view, you are given a cropped view of the page and you can flick the right side of the screen to scroll towards the top and bottom. I feel there has to be a better way to implement this, or, give me completely different functionality in landscape. The other issue is that there is no way to zoom to give yourself more space; the notebook is it’s real size and there is no zooming. I would have liked to have seen a pinch-zoom function that increased the size of your note area. Ah, perhaps in a future release. Regardless, Penultimate is a beautiful fun and easy note taking tool that most of use can find a  use for in our busy lives.

[$2.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Simple
• Beautiful design
• Ink looks great
• Animation is smooth

Cons

• Landscape view is awkward to use
• No pinch to zoom functionality

How does an elementary school teacher use her iPad to get the job done and what iPad apps help get her through her day? TiPb’s iPad at work contest aims to bring you just such slices of the iPad life. Here’s Courtfrogger’s answer and as a small token of thanks we’re sending her a $20 iTunes gift certificate. If you want to see your name up on the TiPb home page and get a gift certificate all your own, head on over to the TiPb iPad Forum and share your story now!

The iPad has added another dimension to my classroom! I teach music, English and theatre at a very small public k-12 school. I use the iPad for lots of different things in the classroom, at meetings and at play rehearsals. For my youngest students, who sometimes just need to dance, I use Pandora. I can just type in “Tito Puente”, for example, and get unlimited Latin jazz that keeps them moving and very happy.

For slightly older kids, who are learning band instruments for the first time, I can use the YouTube app to show them videos of famous musicians playing their instruments. With the cleaner interface, I don’t have to worry about R- rated adds showing up alongside the content I want.

For the spring production of “A Doll’s House,” I loaded the script into iBooks. I found it free through project Gutenberg. I can easily toggle back and forth between that and my notes, keeping track of actors’ lines while taking direction notes. I don’t have to worry about running out of paper, dropping my script, or forgetting a pencil!

For fun, I showed my kindergarten class the Planets app. They’re studying planets right now, and for music class they wrote rhymes about planets that can be sung to the tune of twinkle twinkle little star. Being able to spin beautiful images of the planets was engaging for them and added a tangible element to the class.

So there you have it! My top five apps for the music and theatre classroom are Pandora, YouTube, iBooks, notes and Planets.

Are you an elementary school teacher? If so, what apps do you use to enhance the learning experience in the classroom?

During the WWDC 2010 Keynote today, Steve Jobs announced new features for Apple’s iBooks app, including the much-in-demand ability to take notes, the ability to tap and and bookmarks, and support for the PDF format. Jobs also announced that, while it’s only been on the market for 8 weeks, iBooks already accounts for 22% of the eBook market. They also repeated that it would soon be available for the iPhone.

The iBooks app is now available as a free download for iPhone, so you can read your favorite books anywhere. On iPhone 4, the high-resolution Retina display renders every page beautifully. Vibrant colors, rich illustrations, and crisp, sharp text make reading a pleasure. Turn pages by tapping the right or left side of the screen or by dragging the page corner (just like a real book). Jump to a different part of the book by visiting the table of contents and tapping a chapter. When you’re finished reading, iBooks bookmarks where you left off. It syncs with iPad, too, so the story you started on your iPhone can be finished on your iPad.

[Apple.com iPhone iBooks page]

When you add an IMAP-based email account (including MobileMe and Gmail) to iPhone OS 4 (iPhone 4.0), in addition to the previous options you now get a toggle for “Sync Notes”.

Notes syncing was famously listed as an iPhone 1.0 feature but then mysteriously vanished only to return in iPhone 3.0 as an iTunes-limited option (i.e., not push or over-the-air).

Apple’s desktop Mail client includes special folders that serve as repositories for notes, so perhaps this is now (finally) being echoed on the iPhone.

Whether or not this gets tied in to the actual Notes app remains unknown (it doesn’t seem to right now, but it may just not be working yet). It also doesn’t seem to be an option for Exchange accounts (yet?).

If you discover anything else about iPhone 4 Notes sync, let us know!

[Thanks anon for the tip!]

I am a huge fan of Evernote [Free- iTunes Link]. I knew they were working on an iPad version of their software, but I had no idea what to expect. Needless to say I am pleased with their design decisions and love the completely new layout for iPad.

Evernote for iPad gives you several new and fun ways to view and organize your notes. First, you can view them by thumbnail or details. I think thumbnails work best with pictures. I tend to have more text notes, so details works best for me. It gives me the name, etc. of the note at hand.

I love the way Evernote organizes notebooks and tags; the notes appear stacked on each other just like the Photos album. You can’t pinch to peek and open (though that would be cool) instead you simply tap to open the notebook or tags you want. You can also sort by name or by count. There is now a separate area of view notes by place too, you can even use location services to find notes by your current location. Take audio and picture notes? Now you can do both in one note on the iPad app. This is a very nice addition.

If you are an existing Evernote user, you are in luck — the app is universal. Download it once and use it on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

Gallery and video after the break!

YouTube link

One of my favorite apps from my days using Palm OS was BugMe! Back in the day, it offered functionality that the Palm OS did not have in its Memo/Notes applications. You can pick up BugMe in the app store for a deal [$0.99 - iTunes Link]. Let’s take a look at what BugMe! For iPhone has to offer.

BugMe! is setup to have a cork board-like interface where you can stick your notes and rearrange them in any order you like.  From the launch screen you can view and rearrange your notes as you want by tapping and holding. You can tap the “New Note” button to create a new note. Once created, you have several options available to you:

• Ink or eraser
• Change ink thickness
• Change note color and add an image to the note
• Share note (email, Twitter, Home Screen, Photo Album)
• Alarm

Another nice feature is the ability to set custom alarms with push notifications. This can come in really handy if you jot down a quick note and need to be reminded later.

I  like this 1.x release of BugMe!. It is simple and fun, but lacks some features such as resizable notes (ya just can’t fit in a lot of the release given, even with a smaller ink size) and options to not size-to-fit images you place on a note. Other than that, if you are looking for a simple ink note app for your iPhone, BugMe! fits the bill! Lots of pictures after the break!

Today’s TiPb Top 5 is directed towards our iPhone and iPod touch wielding readers who love to take notes/memos on the go. Just like our other TiPb’s top 5 must-have posts, all of these applications are available in the App Store. For the full run down, follow us after the break!

Notes

Okay, all the applications are available in the App Store but this one — Apple’s Notes is built-in and comes pre-installed on every iPhone and iPod touch. And it’s not bad. Harkening back to the old PalmOS Memo app, you can add a note, start typing, hit Home, and the Note is automagically (and persistently) saved. That’s right, no explicit user action is needed — not even to name it as Notes just pulls the first line and uses that as the name. You can add new notes, edit old notes, and delete what you no longer need. You can also sync Notes via iTunes now (though not via MobileMe… get on that, Apple!)

Set up to look like a yellow, legal-esque note pad, the only drawback is the almost universally panned use of the Marker Felt font. If you can stand that, it’s simple but it’s free and you don’t even have to download it. For some users, that’s all they’ll ever need. For me, it’s perfect to jot down a hotel room, phone number, parking space, or anything else I want to remember and keep with me.

Simplenote (and Notational Velocity + DropBox)

Simplenote [Free - iTunes link] came to our attention via Daring Fireball‘s John Gruber and has stayed there thanks to the Notational Velocity awesomeness highlighted by 43Folders‘ Merlin Mann.

Simplenote by itself is just as the name implies, quick, clean, and highly usable. Instead of tethered iTunes sync over USB, Simplenote offers secure wireless sync to the cloud (their WebApp). You can keep using it free with fairly unobtrusive adds, or for $8.99 a year (less than $1 a month) you can go “premium” which removes the ads and gives you auto backup (versioning), create by email, an RSS feed, unlimited API use, and some cherries on top like early access to future features.

If you’re a note ninja, however, combining Simplenotes with Notational Velocity could dang-near blow your mind. Notational Velocity is a desktop client that offers modeless operation (search is your gateway), incremental search (start typing, it starts filtering), and keyboard-optimized operation. DropBox can store the data/files so you can enjoy not only iPhone to desktop, but cross-desktop sync as well. Getting things done indeed!

This is pretty much the nuclear option when it comes to note-oriented productivity, and the scaling from just Simplenote to the cross-platform sync solution is impressive. If you’re the high-order geek and notes are where your life lives, this combo can be hard to beat.

PhatNotes

PhatNotes [$9.99 - iTunes link] is a big, bold drought of note taking. On the surface, it’s covered in icons and colors. Under the hood you can organize “thousands” of notes in folders and groups. It also supports handwriting recognition so you can scribble your note on the screen and Phatnotes will OCR it and turn it into editable text. (A process which works pretty well (and yes, internet, it does OCR and print curse words without any censorship).

You can sync PhatNotes for iPhone with the PhatNotes for Windows desktop client (no Mac client… yet?). Given the price tag, PhatNotes will most likely appeal to hardcore on-device users who want to do as much as possible on their mobile, especially if they already use PhatNotes on the PC and see the sync as a bonus.

For those who like the handwriting recognition but don’t want the higher price and fuller organizational features, the same developer offers WritePad [$1.99 - iTunes link]

Appigo Notebook

Appigo’s Notebook [$4.99 - iTunes link] earns a spot immediately simply by virtue of its integration with the excellent Appigo Todo, but proves its own worth with clever offline/online note sync handling, password protection for secure notes, Toodledo.com sync, and TextExpander [$4.99 - iTunes link] support.

The user interface is simply gorgeous and the workflow is quick and easy. Notebook isn’t free but it’s not premium priced, it’s not bound to the desktop or the cloud, and if you’re invested in Toodledo, TextExpander, and/or Appigo Todo… well, you likely have it already! If you don’t, and you want a flexible yet elegant note-taking solution, give it a look.

Evernote

We’re not just including Evernote [Free - iTunes link] so that Chad (and Leo Laporte) don’t smack us around for not including, though that’s certainly a plus. Evernote is literally — and iconically — the big elephant in the note-space. Unlike the apps above, Evernote isn’t primarily focused on traditional, text-based note taking. It puts pictures and voice right up front alongside text. What’s more, it will make text included in your photos searchable (though it won’t OCR that text and make it editable — please ad?)

You can sync Evernote for iPhone with Evernote for Windows or Mac, or for other mobile devices running Android or BlackBerry OS. If the free functionality isn’t enough for you, you can “go premium” for $5 a month or $45 a year. Premium gets you 500MB of monthly upload bandwidth, support for Office docs, PDF, and videos, share and collaborate with other premium users, and SSL encryption.

Evernote is a great choice for people who want to include a wider range of material and basically scrapbook their notes as they go. It’s also especially handy for cross-platform users with different desktop and mobile platforms. If you’re not already using a different cloud-based or desktop solution, Evernote is something to check out.

Conclusion

iPhone and iPod touch users are fortunate to enjoy a wide range of high quality note apps, everything from the built-in to tons of App Store downloads (we barely scratched the surface here!), from free to premium, from cloud-based to desktop-bound. Which one is best for you will depend on what, if anything, you’re already using and what functionality matters most to you.

If we didn’t mention your favorite, or if you have any ninja or pro tips to share to take our iPhone note-taking to the next level, let us know in the comments!

TiPb had a chance to talk to some developers who attended Apple’s recent iPhone Tech Talk World Tour (San Jose, Seattle, New York, Toronto, Paris, London, Hamburg, Bejing, and Tokyo), where they promised expert advice at cities near developers. So how has it gone? The T-Shirt’s given away say it all they “came, saw, and coded”.

There were different tracks for developers to choose from, and one of the complaints we heard was that the devs wished it had been longer so they could have attended them all. Still, we have some notes they were willing to share, after the break!

(And if you think this is just for geeks… well it is, but it explains some of why the iPhone does what it does, and what developers could do to ease some of our frustrations).

WebKit

• One dev who was new to Apple technologies found WebKit and their specific CSS (-webkit-gradient, -webkit-mask, webkit-box-reflect) to be “astoundingly powerful”. (If you run WebKit or Safari, check out the http://westciv.tools.gradients demo.
• Apple stressed the advantages of using WebKit and embedded WebView. The AppStore app is an example of a native app with a WebKit UI made by Apple.
• A button made in CSS is much lighter than an image file and also scales elegantly (resolution independent).
• Even a JPG that’s only 50k in size will take up 10 times more memory when it’s decompressed and rendered in a UI.
• WebKit interfaces can be updated outside of the App Store approval process, so no resubmission just to change UI elements.
• Client-side database storage API in HTML 5 saves state locally and reloads the next time you view the page. (Again, http://webkit.org/demos/sticky-notes/ demo.)

App Performance

• Apple believes every developer should be obsessed about performance.
• For the end user experience, every fraction of a second is important. They want to load and go, not invest time in waiting for an app to load.
• iPhone uses 12MB for graphics, 32MB for kernel, 12MB for daemons, 4MB for phone, so for iPhone 2G and 3G, half the memory is gone before any 3rd party app even loads.
• There’s no swap file, so the size of binaries matter since they’ll be loaded into memory.
• When a low-memory situation occurs, there’s a warning. On second warning, background apps are killed, on third warning (95%), front-facing app is killed. (Think Safari disappearing and getting dumped back onto the home screen).
• Apple stressed that developers need to handle these warnings elegantly and free up memory as/when appropriate.
• A user should never be warned about memory or asked what to do (hello AnDROID!).
• Where a developer stores cache is important. If a developer stores cache in a location that iTunes backs up, it creates slow iTunes backups for users. They should cache in temporary areas instead.
• The iPhone uses a single core processor, but can handle multiple threads. In the future these devices may be multi-core so starting now and building them for that future is a good idea.
• Apple believes that great apps come from developers who pay attention to details beyond just what’s necessary to get the job done.

What About Those Rejections?

• The most common reason for a rejection, according to Apple, was when an app crashed on launch.
• Developers tended to know that if an API was private, they shouldn’t try to make an app that depended on it since it would likely get rejected.
• No specific rejections were brought up or addressed.
• One dev we spoke to liked the App Store and Apple as “gatekeeper” because it created greater end-user trust — people were more likely to trust that App Store apps would work and not mess up their phone or do anything criminal.
• Another dev, when asked about iPhone development vs. another platform, liked that Apple handled all the transactions and getting all the apps in front of all the users, which would be a huge chore and expense otherwise.
• Yet another dev just thought the size and reach of the App Store made it the best place to develop at the moment.

All in all it sounds like developers enjoyed the free event, and the free coffee, pastry, and t-shirts. Hopefully Apple will continue to provide them next year, and going forward.

If you attended an iPhone Tech Talk World Tour session and have any additional notes for us, please send them our way!

UPDATE: Stephen Rayner Jr. let us know he’s putting his lengthy, detailed notes from the Toronto Tech Talk online via blog.nuthatch.com.

Every week a few of us from team TiPb, bloggers and forum crew alike, will bring you our current favorite, funnest, most useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they’re iPhone (or iPod touch) related, they’re fair game.

So who’s on deck this week and what are our picks? Find out after the break!

Chad’s Pick: Notes

Chad’s pick of the week has to be the built-in iPhone Notes app. With the iPhone 3.0 software update, the Notes application has become much more useful; spotlight search, in-line delete, landscape and syncing has bumped Evernote for tasks (using the Autofocus system) and is very simple to use. Couple this with the built in ability to email your notes, you have one killer-app! [Built in]

Chris’ Pick: Voice Memo

My pick of the week is the Voice Memo app in iPhone 3.0. From the early days of my Palm Zire, I always liked having a voice recording app. I felt it was useful to be able to jot down a quick note or htought, rather than typing it out (and especially if you are driving and can’t type!). As soon as I got my iPhone, I purchased a voice memo app, and now Apple has included one. True, it doesn’t offer all of the accoutrements that some do (voice to text, wifi synching, etc) but it is a nice feature to include, and I find myself using it on almost a daily basis. Now if only they made it able to record phone calls. [Built in]

James’ Pick: Google Sync

In my upcoming job change, I will be losing the free Exchange server I was using to house my contacts and calendar. Enter Google Sync. With free Exchange connection for push calendar and contacts, I am able to safely save my data in the cloud. [Web link]

Justin’s Pick: E*TRADE Mobile Pro

I’ve using this app for little over a month now and love it. I find the user interface design to be very intuitive, especially with all the functionality that is packed into it. Also, a recent update has now added push notifications for stock and account alerts which makes it even more useful. You can do almost everything on that app that you can do from the computer like trade stocks, view streaming real time quotes, transfer money, view market and stock news, and much more! To sum it up, if you have an Etrade account this is a must have app. [Free - iTunes link]

Matt’s Pick: VLCRemote

This is a very nifty app for those of you that enjoy watching videos on your PC or Mac. VLCRemote controls VLC player via WiFi (my mac was using a LAN line, but it’s on the same network). The app lest you control all the basics, plus view your playlist, utilize different skip speeds, and use an IMDB lookup on selected playlist items. This is a must have app for an VLC user! [$2.99 - iTunes link]

Rene’s Pick: Camera Zoom v1.1

Not withstanding the conspiratorial selection of multiple built-in apps above, I’m joining Justin in staying true to the App Store with a freshly updated little photo gem, Camera Zoom. While the iPhone 3GS did wonders with 3 megapixels, auto focus, macro, auto white-balance and overall picture quality, still missing is any form of digital zoom. Enter the simply named app above. Just move the slider to frame the scene as tightly as you’d like, up to 4x magnification, then snap the shot. Results aren’t optical quality, of course, but they’re surprisingly good. If you use your iPhone as a convenience camera replacement, this is a must-have app for your toolbox. Works fine as the hardware allows on iPhone 3G under 3.0 as well. [$0.99 - iTunes link]

Your Pick?

You’re part of team TiPb too, so what’s your pick? What app was your absolute fav last week? Let us — and everyone — know in the comments!

iPhone 3.0 Beta 4 required iTunes 8.2 Pre-Release to install, and it looks like iTunes 8.2 Pre-Release requires… Mac OS Leopard 10.5.7 in order to sync notes now. Which, of course, is not yet available.

Previous iPhone 3.0 Betas have synced perfectly well under the current Mac OS release, 10.5.6.

A sign of 10.5.7′s immanent arrival? Perhaps. A more interesting question is what’s changed in note sync to require it where previous betas did not?

(via daveizzle on Twitter)

When Steve Jobs first showed off the iPhone at Macworld 2007, and told the world that it would sync data via iTunes, Notes Sync was one of the items listed on his Keynote slide. Meanwhile, over on the Mac side, Apple shipped OS X 10.5 Leopard, and the desktop Mail app popped up a warning about syncing Notes to the iPhone.

This probably led you — as it did us — to believe the original iPhone on OS 1.x would sync notes.

Ha! As if! When iPhone 1.0 arrived in June 2007, Note Sync was MIA, as it was when iPhone 3G dropped in July 2008. Fast forward to iPhone 3.0 Preview in March 2009, however, and — finally — Notes Sync is in the house.

Note: It’s our understanding Notes Sync currently only works with Apple’s Mail.app Notes under OS X Leopard. It would be all kinds of awesome if Apple expanded this not only to Windows Outlook, but to Exchange ActiveSync and MobileMe for a more robust, cloud-based solution. Right?

That, and Tasks and Task Sync. Ahem.

Back in October of ’07, Mike discovered a warning message in Apple’s new Leopard Mail that mentioned Notes Sync with the iPhone — something that the iPhone didn’t offer. Rumors flared, and the intertubes began to hope against hope that Apple would offer Notes Sync. Thing is, though, Apple themselves said they’d be offering Notes Sync fully 10 months earlier during Steve Jobs’ original Mac World 2007 keynote where he introduced the iPhone. It’s right there on the big screen, plain as day. “Notes”.

But we didn’t get it with the iPhone 2G’s launch, we didn’t get it with Leopard’s launch, and now coming up on 2 years after that momentous keynote, we’re on to the iPhone 3G and OS 2.2, and we still don’t have it.

Kind of makes “push notification” have to stand in Apple’s “promises, promises” line, now doesn’t it?

So what happened?

Notes Sync was obviously intended for release with the original iPhone (it’s on the slide and in the Mail.app code!). Was OS X 10.5 Leopard’s delay enough to push it out, and drop it into functionality purgatory? Did Apple run out of engineers, or decide later that engineering efforts were better spent elsewhere? Did it work fine on Mac with Apple Mail, but get complicated enough on Outlook to scuttle partial-support plans?

Or is Apple thinking it’s peripheral enough functionality that they’ll just roll it into Snow Leopard’s release, which should also have integrated ActiveSync support (for “push” notes)?

What’s your conspiracy theory?

Brett Terpstra of TUAW fame has posted a tip here that offers a step-by-step procedure for… sitting down? … a way to CHANGE the felt marker into something a bit more professional and readable.  Read on for the step-by-step and check out Brett’s article as well!

If you wish to dispense with the Felt Marker font and go with something more professional-looking and easier to read, the power to do so rests in your hands, no Jailbreaking or hacking required. This method, by the way, will also change existing Felt Marker Notes that you’ve created, but requires that you enter each Note and follow the steps.

First, go into Settings on your iPhone, select General, then Keyboard. Select International Keyboards, then scroll down to Chinese and select either Chinese keyboard (Simplified or Traditional). Then, activate Pinyin and you are ready to go.

Next, hit your Home button and open up your Notes app. Tap on the screen to pull up the keyboard. You should now be presented with a small “world” icon just to the left of the “space bar.” Tapping the “world” key will switch your keyboard to the Chinese one, then tap a letter and you will see the font has changed. Tap the “world” button again and your keyboard returns to English. Now, anything you type on the particular Note you opened will be in the new font. If you open an existing Note and change the keyboard, the entire text of the Note will change to the new font.

Each time you start a new Note, you will need to tap the “world” key to switch keyboards, tap a letter, then switch back and the font will be changed. To avoid this step each time you need to quickly enter a new Note, you might consider making several Notes in advance, titled with a number or letter.

That’s it for this week’s Tip.  Thanks again to Brett Terpstra at TUAW.com for finding this little gem. If you have a tip of your own that you would like to share with the rest of us, please leave a Comment or you can email me at: brian.hart@tipb.com.

Disclaimer:  Tip o’ the Week makes no guarantee, express or implied, that any tip found herein will be new or particularly useful to the reader (and who came up with the Felt Marker font as the standard in the first place?? Felt tips are so 1975).

I spent a bunch of time getting Leopard installed and set up on my mac to find out what goodies it would bring to the iPhone. It looks like syncing notes from the iPhone to Mail might have been pulled just before it was ready, or that it’s going to come in a future iPhone update. When I tried to change the default font in an edited note from Marker Felt to anything else, I’m given this warning message:

“Convert this note to rich text format?
Changing the style or formatting requires that this note be converted to rich text format. Rich text notes may not be editable on iPhone and other devices.”

And in other news, it looks like Apple hasn’t made up their mind whether or not we’ll be able to edit rich-text notes in the future. The fact that there’s a warning at all indicates that we should be able to edit notes on the computer and have them sync to the iPhone.