The New York Times company has launched a new application that makes it easy to save web links and notes and synchronize them between multiple devices. ShifD has several components.
There's a web page where you can add notes in three categories: Links, places, and notes. You can also add a "ShifD This" browser bookmarklet that lets you instantly save any web page you're visiting to the Links category.
You can also run ShifD as an application using the Desktop client built on Adobe AIR. And you can also access and update your ShifD information from a mobile phone. There's a mobile version of the web page optimized for the iPhone and other small screen devices. Or you can send notes to your ShifD account via text messages.
ShifD is currently in public beta. The SMS updating feature isn't available yet, but should be rolled out within the next few weeks.
Springnote is a powerful browser based note taking system. You can forget about the standard text only inputs that many online note tools offer, this application has the ability to drop in images, attach files and organize layout at will. Its wiki style note taking system allows pages of content like todo's, monthly calendars and plans to be created with Word like functionality and tools with tags, change history, folder hierarchy and page bookmarks for more important content. Springnote's can also be shared between friends for reading or collaboration.
Perhaps the most important feature of Springnote is the ability to import and export notes. Downloading options include HTML, XHTML and Send to a Blog or use anywhere else. Importing can be done using MS-word docs, .txt, HTML or OpenDocument .odt formats. Springnote has an open API and unlimited storage of text files with 2GB file storage available. There are tons of Springnote mashups that you can utilize to expand the functionality of your account, including IM, Flickr, and Firefox toolbar integration.
Looking for a good solution for organizing all the notes in your life? EverNote is an application for saving web articles, snippets of Office documents, to-do lists, images, and other notes all in one handy package.
There's also handwriting recognition for Tablet or UMPC users, an OCR that lets you search for text inside of images, and a Google Desktop indexer, making it easy to search for notes stored within EverNote.
An EverNote license will normally set you back $50, but Giveaway of the Day is offering up a free copy today only. You'll have to download and register EverNote 2.2 before the end of the day in order to get a free license.
Google has added support for labels to Google Notebook. The move isn't surprising. You can use labels to organize Gmail, Google Documents, RSS feeds in Google Reader, and the list goes on. What is a bit surprising is that it's taken so long to roll out support for labels in Google Notebook.
Labels are automatically imported from your Google Bookmarks settings, if you use Google Bookmarks. You can then sort or filter your notes by label using either the Google Notebook web page or the Google Notebook browser plugin.
You wouldn't normally think to take notes using a social application as Twitter, but it is possible.
Twitternotes is an online application that uses the Twitter API to basically, take notes. This tool is a little more complicated than scratching something down in a notebook, using Outlook Notes, or one of the many other online note tools but if you have Twitter open throughout the day, this might come in handy.
Users log into the system using their Twitter account information, and add TwitterNotes as a follower. Notes can be added to your account privately or open for all users to see using special characters and combinations in your Twitter entry. Notes can then be picked up when logged into your TwitterNotes account, which is a bit frustrating because it would be nice to be able to simply check these notes out in Twitter itself under Direct Messages. Nonetheless, it's just another way to try and stay organized and on top of your to-dos.
NoteSake is one of the cleanest, easy to use online note taking applications we have come across.
This "keepsake" for your class notes is free to sign up to, and offers a clean look at your online class notes. Notes are easily entered using a scaled back toolset version, but it has the basics of what is needed including paragraphs, bolding, italics, underlines and bullets. Notes are neatly listed out with the ability to tag them with keywords for easy searching. Notes also have the ability to be re-edited, printed, or even shared with a NoteSake user, email address or group.
Although beautiful, one thing that is missing from NoteSake is the ability to export notes to common formats (or even RSS feeds). A feature that is highly needed when using notes as a base for essays and reports.
With some students already in school, and some preparing to enter yet another journey into a new semester, let DLS make your studies that much more organized with a few free desktop and web applications that will make your school life that much more enjoyable.
From free document creation applications, online to-do's and organization applications, users are faced with a decision, go for the costly desktop versions and upgrade every few years, or stay ahead of the curve with free web based applications that are constantly updating with new growing feature sets. The choice has never been easier.
This DLS special feature lists out current tools that are floating around the web as highly competitive alternatives for both students and professionals.
We know, it's the middle of the summer, but it's never too early to start looking at what you might need for the upcoming semester. And if you are looking for another way to get, and stay organized while off at school, Notely might be your lecture note savior.
This online tool allows users to organize data from meetings, appointments, class notes, lectures, accessing it anywhere. There are a number of free features that the Notely application supplies, including:
Calendar
To-Do
Homework Organizer
Course Manager
Notes
Link, Contact and File Organizer
Notebook/Lab book
Notely is a pretty powerful online application that can aid in keeping all class information together, in an easily managed interface. One main thing we wish it had, search. It would be nice to search for a phrase or keyword and have all related notes, calendar items, and course information show up. All of the content that users store in Notely can be exported as PDF, DOC, TXT, Excel and synced with iCal.
Get a little more organized with this updated Notebook release from Google. The organizational tool looks a little nicer now, care of some AJAXy goodness from the team at Google. They have updated and transformed the once boring Google Notebook, into something extremely useful.
Notebook now uses a nice blend of AJAX and common Gmail features to store and share notes. Users can create a list of nicely organized Notebooks, or folders on the left hand side where notes are stored and auto saved. Notes can easily be made in each Notebook, and even shared with other users for collaboration, or exported to Google Docs for further work.
Take a look at the new Google Notebook, Its pretty helpful now. Especially with the Google Notebook Firefox Extension that you can easily use to clip and collect information as you go about your WWW travels. Maybe Google will think about adding this into the Gmail interface one of these days? It would do wonders there.
Getting and staying organized in any school level can be a little difficult, now there is a free online application that could help.
mySchoolog is an online application that students can easily use to track and organize their school lives. Users start off by entering lessons they take and organizing them into categories, and make weekly schedules. Schedules can be made through a drag and drop lesson planner with times associated for each class to keep them organized. Of course it has a to-do area where appointments, homework and anything else can be added, and reminders set to be sent out by email or sms. Lesson notes can be entered online, searched, exported and printed so they can be kept and used when required. 20GB of File storage is available for documents, audio or images, and can be categorized by lesson.
But really, is there any time to organize yourself while in school? Sometimes not, so hopefully this might help a bit.
Notes, doodles, marks, comments; They're how we remember things. Firedoodle brings notes right into the browser window, and puts them squarely on top of webpages.
Firedoodle, a Firefox extension, will enable any page visited in the Firefox browser to turn into a whiteboard where notes, additions and comments can be made easily.
Firedoodle also acts as a bookmarking tool. Any page that you leave your mark on gets archived and can be easily found through highlighting or placemarks. This will only be activated when you register for free on the Firedoodle site. If you choose not to register, your marks will disappear when you exit Firefox.
This is great for Designers and Developers to make small comments, feedback, and doodles for feedback, or even a surfer keeping tabs on something they enjoy.
Check out a video of Firedoodle in action after the jump...
Cozi was created by a group of ex-Microsofties to help address the complex dynamic needs of a family lifestyle nowadays. They created a complete scheduling environment to help families stay productive and on schedule. Cozi is a downloadable PC application that serves as a central location where families can plan, schedule and manage all the things they do in life. There is also a web-based version that supports Mac users.
Through Cozi users can access their family calendar, schedules, and notes information that are stored in the family's personal system, even when they are on the go. Reminders can be sent out and accessed by any PC or mobile phone you choose. This sounds like the ultimate family planner, 2.0 style. Did I mention it's free?
If you find yourself forgetting important notes that you made to yourself on your desk, in your notebook, or in Outlook, check SyncNotes. SyncNotes allows users to keep notes accessible wherever it is the most convenient, on the desktop or on the go through a mobile device. The SyncNotes Desktop client is for Windows users only. The application allows for creating and managing notes on desktop computers, automatically syncing at specified intervals when connected to the internet. Notes can be placed on users desktops, and transparency and colors set so they are always visible. Users that have access to a mobile device that supports WAP or XHTML will enjoy the SyncNotes Mobile application where you can view, add, edit or send notes. The NoteBox is the central syncing hub of for all of your notes. You can log into your SyncNotes.com account to see a list of your notes, clear notes and archive notes.
SyncNotes is a free service. The desktop application is only available to Windows users, and mobile users must have a WAP or XHTML compatible device.
In Scrybe there is a Planner pane which contains your calendar and tasks, and now the ThoughtPad pane which contains web clippings, or simply text and images as notes. These notes can be organized into different Labels (essentially tags), making it easier to locate relevant information when you're looking for it. Basic formatting like bold, italics and bullet points are included, but this is definitely not a full-featured word processor.
The ThoughtPad includes a browser at the bottom of the window that provides thumbnails of the clippings you have stored. This can be useful when scrolling through a number of related clippings to quickly locate a specific one, particularly if you're like me and your mind works in a particularly visual manner.
Yet again the latest update of Scrybe feels quite polished, and is very much usable. If I have any misgivings about using Scrybe as my productivity application of choice, it would be the user interface decision to confine task management to a relatively small corner of the Planner pane. As much as I need to keep an eye on the hard landscape of appointments I have scheduled, I typically find myself spending more time managing the tasks that need to fit in between those scheduled appointments. Working in a tiny corner of an application 80% of the time feels awkward, and demotes Scrybe (for me, at least) to the status of Worthy Productivity Application, but just not for me.
I love my Pocket PC. I love that it's like having a small computer/media player/ebook reader in my pocket. I have never, however, been very fond of the suite of programs that comes preinstalled. The mobile versions of Microsoft Word and Excel work well enough for very basic functions. But the notes feature is practically useless if you store more than a few notes at a time.
Phatware's Phatpad is one of the leading 3rd party notes organizers for Pocket PCS. There's also versions for Desktop and Tablet PCs.
You can write text notes, add pictures, or draw your own pictures. And most importantly you can search for notes and/or view them in thumbnail form. You can also export notes as BMP, JPEG or PNG images.
Here's some of the new features in PhatPad 4.0:
Allows to load background images
Supports handwriting recognition (PenOffice and/or CalliGrapher software is required, sold separately); Tablet PC recognizer can be also used
Allows to mix digital text, handwriting and drawing on the same page
Supports document templates
Supports document password protection with 265-bit encryption
Allows changing page order in the PhatPad document
Allows notes animation with new Animation feature
Includes new File and Page managers for Pocket PC
Includes new Pocket PC Today screen add-on
Further support Windows Mobile 5.0
PhatPad goes for $40, but for a limited time, PhatWare is offering a $10 discount.
NoteSake
