The Good
- Packed full of features
- Lots of customization options
The Bad
- Interface can be confusing
Awesome Note +ToDo (US$3.99) is one productivity app that will satisfy both your note-taking and to-do list needs. The app is packed with features, but how does it perform in the real world? The interface isn’t the easiest to use, but Awesome Note definitely exceeded my expectations once I learned my way around.
Too many features to list
There is so much functionality within Awesome Note that it’s hard to list it all here. You can attach photos and location tags to each note or list, send notes via Bluetooth, back up data to a computer, and sync your lists to Google Docs or Evernote. For your to-do lists, Awesome Note can also add a due date or schedule an alarm.
There are several things I really like about Awesome Note. First of all, the ‘quick memo’ feature on the homepage is much like the iPhone's Notes app -- except better. You can change the font, text size, background color, and even scrawl with your finger if typing takes too long.
I also love the monthly calendar view, which makes it easy to see when tasks are due. In fact, you can view your to-do lists in a variety of formats, including by thumbnail, list, item detail, or daily diary view. You can also sort tasks and to-do lists by date modified, date created, name, due date, and priority. To put it simply, Awesome Note will display your to-do lists in pretty much any format you could want.
Awesome Note interface
Not everyone may be a fan of the colorful interface, but I think it is pretty nice (although I still prefer simple interfaces like Wunderlist for to-do list apps). The homepage includes customizable folders, which are useful for organizing your notes and lists.
Since Awesome Note has so many different features, it can take some time to figure out what all the icons mean. Most are pretty self-explanatory, but it took me a few minutes to learn my way around. Those who are looking for an easy-to-use app without all the fancy features should check out Wunderlist.
My biggest complaint is that if you create a new note under the to-do list tab, the items are grouped as one item, which means you can’t check off each item individually. The only way to get around this is to create a new note for each item, which is rather time consuming. The Google Docs synchronization works very well -- my lists and notes were uploaded to my Google account in seconds -- but you have to press the sync button each time you make changes. That’s not a huge deal, but it would be more convenient if the app synced your changes automatically.
The Bottom Line
Not to be cheesy, but Awesome Note is, in a word, awesome. There are so many features stuffed into this app that the $3.99 price tag seems like a bargain. The interface isn’t exactly simple, and it takes some time to learn your way around, but Awesome Note is a great choice if you want a full-featured app for managing your to-do lists and notes. Overall rating: 5 stars out of 5.
What You’ll Need
The Awesome Note app is compatible with the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. It requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later.