When Apple announced the iPad the focused on the device as a great tool for reading books, listening to music, browsing the internet, and playing games. While it is true that the iPad does all of those well, it also has the potential to be a great productivity tool. I believe that Apple knows this too and demonstrates some of the great functionality capable on the iPad with their iWorks applications.
While Apple charges for their iWorks applications on the iPad, one of the main productivity apps that is included with the iPad is Apple’s native Notes. Notes is designed to allow you to jot down ideas and organize your thoughts on topics but it is limited in its overall functionality. Notes does not include the ability to quickly and easily organize a collection of thoughts or notes on a particular topic, it doesn’t include any free hand drawing, and the ability to drop pictures and other items into your notes is not included. But don’t count the iPad out in terms of its ability to take notes and help you be productive.
WhiteNote – An iPad Notes & Productivity Application
To provide users with much of the functionality lacking in Notes, Sliced-Pi create WhiteNote, an ultimate notes application for the iPad. Sliced-Pi is an iPhone and iPad application development company that is focused on bringing premier products to Apple users.
WhiteNote is their first iPad application and it focuses its functionality on doing what Notes does not offer users. I’ve played with WhiteNote for the past few weeks and have been pleased with its ability to allow me to include pictures in my notes from the iPad Photo library. It also lets me draw small images and hand notes on the iPad and included them with standard typed notes about the topics I’ve been reviewing.
One of the most interesting features about WhiteNote is the multiple backgrounds that are available to take “notes” on. Backgrounds and note themes include your standard white, graph paper, and even sports fields like Football and Hockey. Draw up sports plays and save them for future use on WhiteNote.
WhiteNote also allows you to easily organize your notes by subject or topic. Each topic displays as a Tab and has a Table of Contents page that lets you see quickly the various notes you’ve created on the topic. This feature makes the App truly usable for multiple topics and a great addition to the classroom.
The drawing feature in WhiteNote is a great addition but it does respond slowly when quickly adding multiple lines. I have no doubt that the development team behind the app are quickly doing everything they can to improve the functionality.
One feature I look forward to in a future release is an undo or back-up action. I make too many drawing mistakes and would love to be able to click a button and backup on my last task.
Overall, WhiteNote is a solid app and solution for creating and taking notes. If you’re looking for advanced functionality to help you be more productive with your note taking then check out WhiteNote. It may just do everything you need it to.
