Evernote for BlackBerry PlayBook review

Evernote is the notes application that the Blackberry PlayBook has been waiting for. The notes application that is free, has the ability to add media to notes, has a double-paned layout, has the ability to sync notes to a cloud and most importantly a well known name behind it.

I shall begin with the layout of the Evernote application for the Blackberry PlayBook. Evernote initially requests that you sign in with an account, but if you don’t have one, it lets you sign up. After this process is finished, you are greeted with a rather simple display of greens, blacks and whites. You have two main panes, the left pane is your list of notes in date order and the right pane shows the note that you have selected. In the top left you have the option to create a new note and a button that brings down the option to either look at all notes, select a different Notebook or to look at tags. Also you have a search button if you have a lot of notes and wish to search for a specific one. Finally, on the right of the application main screen, you have a delete button, an edit button (for the current note you have selected) and a refresh button. Also you are given the option to see the note in a bigger preview without having to edit it by clicking on the top arrows just on the top left of the note preview. I like the layout as it is simple to use and the scrolling through the note is very smooth, however, the scrolling through the note titles is not so smooth.

When creating a note, you have the option to add media into the note, which gives this application something most other free note-taking applications for the PlayBook don’t give you. The variety of media that you can include within the application is outstanding. You can include: an image, a document, music or a sound clip. You are also given the option to record a short voice note or take a picture straight within the application. This really adds appeal to the application as it boosts it from a simple text note-taking application into a multimedia note-taking application.

One feature of the Evernote application that I do like is the synchronise to air feature that it provides with your notes. This comes in handy when I begin writing a review or a checklist at home and wish to finish the review or look at the checklist when I get home. It synchronises as fast as your phone can upload the note size which is usually within five seconds. I currently run an Android phone so it syncs up to the Evernote cloud for when I get home and wish to complete something on my PlayBook’s bigger screen. Also, your notes can be viewed and edited on the Evernote website at www.evernote.com due to the synch feature. This really appeals to me as it really feels like I can access my notes anywhere, on my phone, on my tablet, or on my laptop or pc; brilliant.

This application does have it’s flaws though, the first of which I am going to mention is almost a deal breaker. The simple fact you cannot access your notes without signing in to your account beforehand. This was highly frustrating for me for when I was out of a Wi-Fi zone and wished to write a note on my PlayBook (I reverted back to typing it into my phone’s Evernote application). This for me almost made me delete the application and I hope it gets dealt with in a future update, thankfully the fact you can synch the notes to a cloud from your phone and open them up on your Blackberry PlayBook stopped me from deleting. Another flaw I found, was that it was lacking in some of the features that the mobile application featured such as checklist notes (you can’t even open them up in the app).

Overall, the Evernote app is a solid application that could easily become the best note-taking application on the PlayBook with a simple update. If I were the creators of Evernote, I would get rid of the sign-in to access notes problem, the lack of features that can be found as opposed to the mobile applications and would add some more transitions and animations within the interface. Also I had a problem with saving notes on my PlayBook with the simple fact that they didn’t want to save. The wheel that suggested it was saving would not stop spinning, in the end I gave up after five minutes of waiting.

Posted by: Luke