Catch Notes
Your thoughts on all your devices
Android App of the Week Trying to keep your spur-of-the-moment scribbles and jottings synchronised twixt phone and computer can be hard enough, and with third-device tablets hoving into view the problem is only going to get worse.
Catch Notes: speak your brains
This is where Catch Notes comes in. It’s a relatively simple note-taking app that supports text, voice recording and picture notes, but when you add or edit anything it automatically synchronises your data across all the devices you have the app installed on.
You can also access your account though a web browser so you can create and edit notes from the comfort of your keyboard and have them appear as if by magic on your mobile device.
Chrome users even benefit from a handy browser extension.
Catch Notes supports hash tags making it ideal for anyone who is a compulsive note taker and wants to search through their stuff later. There’s also a facility to share content directly though Facebook and Twitter - or by way of any other messaging application installed on your device.
Notes typed into a browser immediately appear on your phone and tablet
Reminders can be set to flash up in your handset’s status bar at a predetermined time. At the moment, alarms don’t sound on synchronised devices, but the developer tells me it is working on a fix.
Notes can also be location tagged to remind you of the where as well as the what and the when.
Next page: Multiple devices, multiple platforms
COMMENTS
Springpad
Sounds very much like springpad bar two important differences. Springpad doesn't support voice notes and doesn't charge at all. The wife and I find it dead handy to share notes - from her PC at home she can trigger a reminder on my phone to collect the kids or we can add things to a shared shopping list etc.
AK Notepad
Back in the day when Catch Notes was called 3banana (and company name was Snaptic), they released a text only version of this app called AK Notepad.
It still works and syncs with Catch.com.
What's more, it can peacefully coexist with Catch notes on the same (Android) device, using the same credentials as Catch Notes, albeit without the voice/photo notes, obviously. These simply will not show on AK Notepad, without any fuss.
All notes taken on both can be exported to the SD card as plain textfiles from the apps (if you want to go off the grid, migrate, whatever).
@Jim Coleman
OneNote? First of all, the desktop version of OneNote is not free. It only comes with paid versions of Office. I actually downloaded an office trial just to try it out. It is good, but not that good. And the mobile version only works on a WP7 phone, making it as rare as a unicorn.
Ditto
I've been using Catch for, oh, almost a year, and it does everything I ask of it. And no, they don't pay me to say this - I guess maybe I'm not asking much of a note-keeping service. Perhaps I should be more demanding!
One of the highlights for me is the lack of ads, and the lack of nagging to upgrade to the paid version. I sincerely hope they're making money - maybe someday they'll make money from me...
Beer because you don't have an Android icon, and I'd rather have a beer than a penguin.
