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Android App Reviews by codesplice

Hello, all.
I've got a confession to make: I like apps. A lot. To an unhealthy degree. I've got a huge stash of apps on my phone, and an even larger collection of .apk backups waiting to be reloaded whenever I feel like it. I love finding new apps to try out, and deciding which ones are worthy to be added to my collection. A lot of the apps that I find and want to try out are paid apps; without finding many thorough reviews on them, I don't know whether they are worth my money - but I can't stand the thought of missing out on the Next Big Thing. And so I buy them, download them, install them, and test them out anyway. If it's an awesome app and well-worth the money, I tell my friends. If it is money that could be better spent on another app that I've tried before, I tell my friends that, too.
Unfortunately, not all of my friends are interested in my opinion on apps. They only listen to me because of my rugged good looks (my theory). This makes me sad, because I spend a lot of time (and money, in some cases) trying apps out - someone else needs to benefit from that time (and money) as well. Until someone decides to pay/reimburse me for all the apps that I evaluate, the next-best thing I can do is offer up reviews to the community of any apps that I have found particularly useful. This is the driving force behind my desire to make this thread.
I will be running down my list of currently-installed useful applications and entertaining games. I will include screen shots, AppBrain links, and as much detail as I can muster up. My hope is that the rest of the community may find some benefit from these reviews - and who knows, maybe you'll find a kick-ass app you'd never heard of.
I'm open to questions, ideas, requests, suggestions, and pretty much any other type of communication or input that could be provided. I only ask that you be respectful - both of me, and of the app developers. And if this list helps you find a neat paid app to try out, please do support the developer(s). Piracy is bad, mmmmkay?
Enjoy!
-codesplice
Credit where credit is due: All screenshots are made using the free ShootMe app.
NOTE: Now that the Android Market has a shnazzy new web interface, I'm going to change the primary links for apps to reflect this. I will add the AppBrain links as a secondary, and hope to add direct market links at some point once I find a site to reliably provide this information. Stay tuned!
Reviews:
Minimalistic Text (Widget)
Clutch Pad(Multitasking App) UPDATED 2/24/11
CircleLauncher (Widget)
Swipe Pad (Multitasking App)
Keyboard Manager (App) UPDATED 2/23/11
Shift Puzzle Game (Game)
ElecroDroid (App)
Hella Umbrella (Game)
Digital Wall (LWP)
Shortyz Crosswords (App)
Elixir (System Info App)
Google Authenticator (App)
Zeam (Launcher)
Lookout / WaveSecure (Mobile Security App double-feature)
If you don't want to subscribe to this thread, you can follow me on that twitting thing, as I will post updates about new reviews there.

Minimalistic Text (widget)
App Name: Minimalistic Text (v.2.1.3, @AppBrain)
Developer: Devmil
Price: FREE
There is quite a handful of text-based widgets available on the Market, and a lot of them are very nice. There are widgets for displaying the time as text, the weather as text, the battery level as text.... but this is one widget that does it all. Just about every aspect of the widget is configurable, from the text alignment and rotation to the font size and colors to even the format for different types of data. You've got several options for the display type, whether you want to use digits or words or even a bar (for days of the week or percentage of battery charge). There is also an optional "blur" text effect which works wonderfully for making accented text appear to be illuminated. To top things off, this widget also functions as a plugin for Locale or Tasker and can be used to display variables from either of those applications. For instance, if you want a small text-widget to display what Locale/Tasker profiles are currently active, this is your answer for a very configurable solution.
For each widget you are also able to define an action to perform when tapped - whether it is launching another activity (my clock widget launches my alarm clock), opening the widget preferences page, or even reading out the text currently displayed on the widget. You are also able to save and restore your widget settings, so don't be afraid to experiment.
Given the sheer amount of customizations available to you with this widget app, the configuration menu may be a little bit overwhelming and complex when you first get into it. Play around for a few minutes, and you're bound to get the hang of it.
This is a fabulous widget, and one that I highly recommend to anyone who will take the time to tinker with it.
Verdict: A highly-configurable text-based widget to display pretty much anything you want, especially with Tasker integration.
Screenshots:
1) Widget(s) in action. I should note there are three separate widgets displayed: Time / weather up top, day / date on the bottom, and a battery level bar on the right-hand side.
2) Preferences Manager for all widgets
3) Text Style menu
4-5) Custom Layout configurator
(tested on NexusOne / Kang-o-rama 1.2 T1 (CM7.n13 / GRH78C / Android 2.3.2))

Clutch Pad[APP]
App Name: Clutch Pad (v.1.3v.1.4.2, @AppBrain)
Developer: stevealbright
Price: $0.99 $1.99
Clutch is an application that seeks to optimize and streamline the way you multitask on Android. It is currently in beta status, but is very functional in its current state. It is a powerful supplement to the built-in Recent Apps feature.
Clutch manifests itself as a small semi-transparent "trigger" area, which functions similar to "hot corners" on a Mac (I think. I'm a Linux/PC guy). This small region rides at the very top layer of the Android interface (in a user-configurable position) and is accessible no matter what application you may be working in. You can tap this region to instantly bring up a small grid displaying your recently-accessed applications. You can customize how many apps you want to be visible, configure the application to ignore your Home (Launcher) app in its list, and to visually distinguish currently-running applications from terminated apps. This makes it very easy to quickly determine if that app you just exited is still running or if it has been shut down as it should, as well as providing a quick (and lightweight) task switcher.
Nice, but nothing terribly fantastic. Yet. Clutch also has configurable swipe gestures - the most useful (to me) of which is a Last Task functionality. For instance, if I Swipe Up from the Clutch region, I instantly switch to whatever my previous app was. If I swipe again, I am moved back to the app I just switched from. This functions similarly to just pressing ALT+TAB quickly, and is very useful for quickly jumping between two apps.
This little utility is quick and lightweight, and I have found it to be extremely useful. It is still in development, and has many more features planned (and a price increase to accompany them - so get it quickly!) including support for additional gestures (open/close notifications, for example), on-click task control (press-and-hold to kill, for example), and configurable transition animations.
If you've got a dollar to spend, you would do well to add this application to your device in its current state, and I can only imagine the app's versatility and usefulness will increase with the further planned updates.
Update (2/24/11): Clutch Pad has recently been updated to version 1.4. With this update, the application has dropped the "Beta" tag, gained an additional "Pad" in its name, and has added additional features and configurable options. At the same time, the price has also been increased to $1.99. New features include additional swipe gestures, configurable transition animations (that are quite pretty), the option to toggle the trigger button via a press-and-hold on the Search hardware key, and a Favorites option to quickly launch your favorite apps. Options have also been added for additional visual tweaks and adjustments of both the trigger icon and the popup lists, and all known bugs have been fixed. With each incremental update, this app gets more and more useful and I find myself relying upon it more all the time. Even at the increased price, this is still one of my must-have applications.
Verdict: An innovative way to access recent apps, and the Last App gesture functionality is every bit as useful as Alt-Tabbing between apps on your desktop.
Screenshots:
1) Trigger icon
2) Recent apps list
3-5) Settings pages
(tested on NexusOne / Kang-o-rama 1.2 T1 (CM7.n13 / GRH78C / Android 2.3.2))

CircleLauncher (widget)
App Name: CircleLauncher (v.1.5.2, @AppBrain)
Developer: db-ware
Price: ~$1.37 (free, limited version here or @AppBrain)
As mentioned previously, I have a lot of apps. One of the problem with having a lot of apps is running out of room on your homescreens for app shortcuts. There are various widgets out there that propose a variety of solutions to this problem, but they often leave you with tiny, almost unusable icons. This would have been fine in the days where the trackball reigned supreme, but this is the oh-tens. It has to be finger-friendly.
One true solution that I stumbled across the other day is called CircleLauncher. What it does is really very simple, but it does it very well. It allows you to create a single widget to group similar applications together (I've used location-themed apps and clock-based apps in my example). Tape the 1x1 widget, and a lightweight menu appears to launch your apps. Pretty standard, but this menu is laid out (by default - you can change this in the settings) in a ring around the icon. As you slide your finger or thumb around the ring, the currently selected application icon grows to make selection a bit easier.
Note that CircleLauncher includes other layout types (configurable from the widget's config menu, which you access by selecting the widget and then press-and-holding the center) including horizontal and vertical lines. I was also very pleased with the way that the widget's application menu adapts to its position on the screen - stick it in a corner, and your full selection of apps will be displayed within a 90-degree pie slice.
Obviously, a menu such as this is a bit limited to a relatively low number of apps (more than 9 or 10 and the ring will be just too cluttered to be functional), but if you need to have quick access to just a few more apps from your homescreen, this should do the trick. Since there is a free version available, why not give it a shot and see if this widget can help you to organize your home screen a bit?
Verdict: An easy way to combine several app shortcuts into one.
Screenshots:
1) Plain widgets (labeled GPS and Time) - you can dress them up a bit more if you are artistically inclined.
2) One widget opened showing the full selection ring.
3) The corner widget open showing the adaptation to the position.
4) One icon expanded while my finger hovers over it.
5) Settings menu
(tested on NexusOne / Kang-o-rama 1.2 T1 (CM7.n13 / GRH78C / Android 2.3.2))

Keep going mate

gruzman said:
Keep going mate
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I surely intend to! Just have to figure out which app to post next
Thanks for the encouragement though. It is appreciated to know at least someone is reading over all this mess!

SwipePad Beta [APP]
App Name: SwipePad Beta (v.0.7.5, @AppBrain)
Developer: Conduction.mobi
Price: FREE
Keeping on the theme of "apps to help you access your apps", we come to SwipePad Beta. Similar in some regard to Clutch, this app also gives you "hot corner" functionality. Use the settings menu to establish what corners (or regions) you want to be active, and then slide your finger from a specified region to the center of the screen. Hold it for just a moment, and a 3x4 grid of application shortcuts magically appears. You can, of course, fully customize what applications should appear on this grid by simply pressing your finger on an empty square or by holding your finger over an existing icon until it is highlighted. The hot corners/region and swipe gesture should work pretty much any time that the screen is unlocked, and is a great way of quickly launching a new app without returning to your home screen.
The application offers to integrate task managing application by the same developer (which is a paid app) that I haven't tried out yet. Personally, I've got plenty of other ways of killing apps at this point - particularly once the function gets built into Clutch.
SwipePad is very nicely polished and quite responsive. It does what it does quite well. My only issue with it is that I just don't use it very frequently. I almost forget that it is there; I must be thoroughly conditioned to launching apps from the home screen. It's free, though, so give it a whirl and see if it can further help to optimize the way you launch apps from within other apps
Verdict: Clever use of hot-corners to gain quick access to up to 12 user-defined apps; non-intrusive to the point that you might forget to use it.
Screenshots:
1) SwipePad in action. Note that putting a link to SwipePad on your SwipePad gives you a quick way to access the settings screens.
2) SwipePad settings, with the hot corners highlighted in red at the bottom.
(tested on NexusOne / Kang-o-rama 1.2 T1 (CM7.n13 / GRH78C / Android 2.3.2))

is there a video demonstrating the use of Clutch? I want to watch it before paying for it.

Deff fav'ing this. Am looking forward to all reviews
(*is thinking about getting clutch)
Epic is as Epic does

Nice! Thanks bro!

waichung said:
is there a video demonstrating the use of Clutch? I want to watch it before paying for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I imagine there should be a video somewhere on the youtubes. Let me know if you find one and I will add it to the post. I'm about to go into work so it will be another 12 hours before I have access to the full internet, but I will look then if you haven't found anything.

Very good! Thanks

Keyboard Manager [APP]
App Name: Keyboard Manager (v.1.1) Keyboard Manager (v.1.4)
Developer: ne0fhyk
Price: FREE $1.99
NOTE: This app requires root!!
It took me quite a while, but I finally weened myself away from requiring a physical keyboard on a mobile device when I got my NexusOne. With the multitude and variety of available software keyboards available for Android, I haven't really missed the physical keys. The only annoyance at this point is that I find keyboards that work great for one-handed operation in portrait orientation, like Swype or 8pen (if you're in the mood for adventure and don't really care how long it takes to get a message completed ), but are next-to-worthless for dual-thumb landscape input. With a physical keyboard, you'd just slide that bad boy out and away you go. For those of us with only a touchscreen and maybe a few additional buttons, it can be a bit of a chore to manually change the selected input method each time we rotate the device. If only there was a way for the device to read my mind and select the appropriate keyboard.....
As luck would have it, XDA member ne0fhyk has provided us with a solution to this difficulty, in the form of his Keyboard Manager application. Simply select what keyboard you want to use in each orientation (I use Swype for portrait and SwiftKey for landscape), and the app will handle the tedious business of choosing the appropriate input method. It's that easy, and it works.
Mostly. The app is a bit of a hacked solution, and requires root permissions to be able to get around the Android security feature which prevents applications from changing the input method. Installation is not always straight-forward (instructions are available in the first post of the application thread, and it may cause a few software keyboards to force-close if you change orientation while the keyboard is displayed. The current version (1.1) has come a long way from the previous releases in terms of usability, stability, and reliability, and I haven't had any major issues with it. I highly recommend that you give this application a shot and see if it will help you out with your input needs.
Update (2/23/11): Keyboard Manager is no longer available for free, but is now installable from the Android Market. The now-current 1.4 version has fixed most of the install issues and should be a very easy set-up for you. If you run into any issues with the purchased version, please contact the developer - he helped me solve issues specific to my device, and the application works like a charm now.
Verdict: A functional hack to auto-select the appropriate software keyboard based on device orientation.
Screenshots:
1) The optional persistent notification icon. Activating the notification will give you quick access to the Keyboard Manager settings page, and I recommend you leave it enabled until you get things set up the way you want. After that, disable the persistent notification at your own risk (the persistent notification keeps the process in the foreground and prevents Android from terminating it).
2) Settings screen
3) Selecting which keyboard to use
4) Demonstrating that the app has automatically selected Swype for portrait...
5) .... and SwiftKey for landscape.
(tested on NexusOne / Kang-o-rama 1.2 T1 (CM7.n13 / GRH78C / Android 2.3.2))

Shift Puzzle Game [GAME]
App Name: Shift Puzzle Game (v.1.2, @AppBrain)
Developer: Handmark
Price: $1.99 (Free ad-supported version here or @AppBrain let's you try out 15 levels; full version features 40 additional levels and no ads)
The Shift Puzzle Game is a tasty Android port of the ever-popular SHIFT game by Armor Games, which you can play free in your Flash-enabled browser at the Armor Games website. If you're not familiar with the original (as I wasn't until I found this app just an hour ago), then let me fill you in on the skinny.
Shift is a new take on the classic adventure-puzzle platformer game. Your mission is to get from point A to point B, dodging whatever nasty traps and obstacles may be in your path. The twist is the ability for you to literally shift the game universe upside down. White becomes black, up becomes down, and you find yourself walking on the flip side of the surface you were just standing on. You can (and will) use this clever maneuver repeatedly in order to successfully navigate each challenging level. Not quite tracking? It can be rather tough to explain... Hopefully the screenshots below will help clear it up (or go play the flash version for free here).
This implementation for a touchscreen device is phenomenal. The controls are large and appear on either side of the landscape display - and you don't even need multitouch. Just tap the left arrow to move left, the left-up diagonal to jump left, and the SHIFT button at the top to do that groovy shift thing. The gameplay is engaging, and the levels can be quite challenging (and quite addictive). The game is worth trying out (the free version) solely for experiencing the joy that is puzzle-solving by twisting the fabric of the universe, and you might just get hooked enough to purchase the full version. It would be two bucks well spent.
Verdict: Quickly becoming my latest Android gaming addiction.
Screenshots:
1) Main menu
2) First level
3) First level - SHIFTED!
4) It gets twisted!
(tested on NexusOne / Kang-o-rama 1.2 T1 (CM7.n13 / GRH78C / Android 2.3.2))

This is a little off topic but is anyone attempting a Tor app?
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App

jinsfch said:
This is a little off topic but is anyone attempting a Tor app?
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just slightly off topic, but no worries.
A quick search on AppBrain found Orbot: Tor On Android. Impressive, since Android still doesn't have proper proxy support on its own...

Can't find clutch video on youtube...
Btw,i think swipepad is better than it as swyping from the bottom is easier than from the right
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

waichung said:
Can't find clutch video on youtube...
Btw,i think swipepad is better than it as swyping from the bottom is easier than from the right
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I looked for Clutch videos as well and was disappointed to see that there aren't any. I may try to shoot a video once I get home from the desert in a few weeks (hopefully).
You can change the position of the Clutch region to really any spot on the screen. And I don't really see the two as competing anyway as they have entirely different purposes: Clutch gives you quick access to your recently-executed apps, while SwipePad offers a fixed menu of apps for you to launch.

codesplice said:
I looked for Clutch videos as well and was disappointed to see that there aren't any. I may try to shoot a video once I get home from the desert in a few weeks (hopefully).
You can change the position of the Clutch region to really any spot on the screen. And I don't really see the two as competing anyway as they have entirely different purposes: Clutch gives you quick access to your recently-executed apps, while SwipePad offers a fixed menu of apps for you to launch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The likely alt-tab function of clutch is really fantastic but does it show the recently-executed apps or the running apps? I use swipepad together with the virtual task switcher which allows switching among the running tasks. These 2 apps are completely free and no need to paid $1 for the "swipepad: tasks". But I prefer quick accessing recent tasks to showing those apps running at the background.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

waichung said:
The likely alt-tab function of clutch is really fantastic but does it show the recently-executed apps or the running apps? I use swipepad together with the virtual task switcher which allows switching among the running tasks. These 2 apps are completely free and no need to paid $1 for the "swipepad: tasks". But I prefer quick accessing recent tasks to showing those apps running at the background.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The set {recently-executed} apps includes the subset {running apps}. The default behavior of Android is to show all recently-executed apps under the Recent Apps functionality, regardless of whether those apps are still running or have been terminated. I thought that Visual Task Switcher behaved the same way, but based on the application page it does appear to only display currently-running apps. Personally, I prefer to see recent apps (with a visual distinction between those that are still running and those that have been terminated), as I often end up re-launching the same app over and over; of course, you could also just pin a shortcut to those frequent apps to SwipePad. We all operate our devices in different ways, so either option is of course valid.
Visual Task Switcher (at least the last time that I used it) tended to make my phone lag significantly for whatever reason; I did use it for quite some time though, and was pleased with its functionality as a complete Recent Apps replacement (after configuring the long-press home trigger to launch it via CyanogenMod settings). Also note that the free version includes ads (which may contribute to the lag I was experiencing?) while the full version will set you back $1.99.

[APP] PDF Viewer update

I needed a PDF viewer for my own purposes, and the closest I could find was Maciej's PDF Viewer (=apv) app on the market. It was open source, and so I made a bunch of changes that I wanted or needed. Anyway, I now have a pre-release for version 0.3.0, which include a bunch of enhancements since Maciej's 0.2.9 release.
Here it is.
New features:
- speed optimizations
- page number display
- options including: full screen, reverse video, various tweaks, page with volume keys
- overhauled file selection: added icons for directories, added home directory option
- better font rendering

Now I posted pre-release 0.3.0 pre 2. Includes a monochrome feature to save memory and a zoom-to-width feature which I think people will find handy.

Sounds like you know what your doing. Not had a chance to test your app yet, but does it have the functionality to add bookmarks and highlight text?

Gonna try it out now, thanks!

No, there is no annotation, sorry. Just reading.

Its really nice with open source alternatives. Im gonna try it out.

I think i will love this. thanks bud

I haven't tried it yet but it would be great if you could add zoom to a fixed percentage
the reason I want that is some pdfs have huge fonts for the page numbering and while technically fit to width is working, there's still a fair amount of room on the sides. Obviously this should be sticky. A bonus would be it would remember the setting by filename

Works good, one option I'd love to get is fixed scrolling like with browsers

sark666 said:
I haven't tried it yet but it would be great if you could add zoom to a fixed percentage
the reason I want that is some pdfs have huge fonts for the page numbering and while technically fit to width is working, there's still a fair amount of room on the sides. Obviously this should be sticky. A bonus would be it would remember the setting by filename
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Zoom settings are indeed remembered by filename.
You can also adjust how much the zoom buttons zoom by. If you set that to 5% or 10%, you can do zoom-to-width and then press the zoom button once or twice.
Eventually, I'd like it to detect the real edges of the text.

moav said:
Works good, one option I'd love to get is fixed scrolling like with browsers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I couldn't figure out how to implement that. Moreover, I find it's poorly implemented in the browser--it locks much better on my device into horizontal movement than into vertical movement!
Instead, there is a "vertical scroll lock" option. This locks the scrolling to be only vertical, unless you make a serious (1/5 screen width) swipe left or right which temporarily unlocks horizontal scrolling.

I`ve just tested this app for half an hour with a bunch of PDFs littered in my Desire. This is without exaggeration the best pdf-viewer I´ve seen so far.
Very useful:
- zooming in steps as little as 5% because most PDFs were made for monitors or printing and not smartphones
- inverting the screen for reading at night or low-light conditions. It also saves power on my screen to read white text with black background.
- and it´s FAST
What I miss:
- an option to forget about the layout of a PDF, so I can only get the pure text. This would be very useful for PDFs designed for magazines with a columned layout, which is a pain to read on a handheld computer.
Keep up the good work

germanhoss said:
I`ve just tested this app for half an hour with a bunch of PDFs littered in my Desire. This is without exaggeration the best pdf-viewer I´ve seen so far.
Very useful:
- zooming in steps as little as 5% because most PDFs were made for monitors or printing and not smartphones
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Remember, too, that if you set the 5% zoom option, you can still long-touch the zoom buttons for a 2X zoom.

arpruss said:
Remember, too, that if you set the 5% zoom option, you can still long-touch the zoom buttons for a 2X zoom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, haven´t noticed that - that´s quite useful.
Originally I thought of requesting a feature to remember the place where I closed the document because I´m used to open things in the ES explorer.
Then I stumbled through the built-in file explorer - feature implemented
Maybe an FAQ or a short manual would be useful ...

germanhoss said:
Wow, haven´t noticed that - that´s quite useful.
Originally I thought of requesting a feature to remember the place where I closed the document because I´m used to open things in the ES explorer.
Then I stumbled through the built-in file explorer - feature implemented
Maybe an FAQ or a short manual would be useful ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a wiki on the project page. You can add a FAQ.

It's a great light app and it has some cool features which I miss on other apps. But my primary feature for PDF readers is smoothness.
It would be great if it would be working as smooth as Documents To Go (their PDF reader). By smooth I mean smooth rendering and scrolling. Also it won't hurt to have multitouch zooming.
I know it's easy to demand and hard to do but at least there are ideas what should be present in the next versions.

jankoboys6 said:
It's a great light app and it has some cool features which I miss on other apps. But my primary feature for PDF readers is smoothness.
It would be great if it would be working as smooth as Documents To Go (their PDF reader). By smooth I mean smooth rendering and scrolling.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's largely a matter of speed, and it's going to be hard to improve that, except by expending a lot of memory for caching and background rendering.
Also it won't hurt to have multitouch zooming.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree, but it is a finicky feature to implement correctly and hence requires a multitouch device for debugging. I don't own one. Moreover, there are potential patent issues.

I've just posted 0.3.0 pre 13. This unfortunately has a new bookmark database, not compatible with previous versions, so people will lose their per-document settings. I am hoping this is the last such loss--the new format will make code maintenance easier and is easily upward expandable.
New features/fixes in pre 13:
- store horizontal offset in per-document settings
- better restore of zoom if orientation has changed
- fix round-off error which resulted in occasional horizontal one-pixel-width errors

I would also like to mention the color feature in your app is really great! Now I can read without hurting my eyes in the dark and it saves batter as well. Great feature indeed!
arpruss said:
That's largely a matter of speed, and it's going to be hard to improve that, except by expending a lot of memory for caching and background rendering.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hmmm what if you make the memory size for caching an option in the settings for users to choose their optimum size? Do you believe that this would make any speed improvements?
arpruss said:
I agree, but it is a finicky feature to implement correctly and hence requires a multitouch device for debugging. I don't own one. Moreover, there are potential patent issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see it's kind a hard/expensive to make this feature possible. Darn US laws on patents :-/ don't know if in EU is the same for Android apps but for C++ and other programming languages, there are no e-patents.
Keep on your great work!
PS: I'm using HTC Desire (CM7 rom)

jankoboys6 said:
I would also like to mention the color feature in your app is really great! Now I can read without hurting my eyes in the dark and it saves batter as well. Great feature indeed!
hmmm what if you make the memory size for caching an option in the settings for users to choose their optimum size? Do you believe that this would make any speed improvements?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe, but it would need a smarter pre-render queue than we currently have. I experimented with making one, but my attempts were buggy so I got rid of them.
Tell me which scrolling pattern you'd like to be faster? Currently the app (in render ahead mode) is optimized for ebook reading: you read a page, and while you read the page, the next one is rendered and shows up instantly when you flip pages (I generally do that with the volume-down key) or scroll vertically to it.
Unfortunately, there seems to be a bug somewhere, perhaps only on devices with larger screen resolutions (it works fine on my 854x480 Archos, but I am told that it doesn't work on a 1280x960 screen), which makes the next page not show up instantly.

[App] Write - a word processor for handwriting

Write is a word processor for handwriting, available for Android 3.0 and later and Windows tablet PCs. Write is similar to other Android notetaking applications but provides a unique set of tools which ease the editing of handwritten text by grouping strokes into lines, much like typed text in a word processor.
Write supports the S-Pen, although Samsung reserves the pen button for system-wide gestures.
Free on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.styluslabs.write
Features:
* tools: draw, erase, select, insert space, and add bookmark
* move strokes and insert space in multiples of the page's ruling
* reflow handwritten text with the insert space tool
* insert bookmarks and label them with handwriting
* cut, copy, paste selection
* unlimited undo/redo jog dial
* pan/zoom with two fingers
* customize and save pens
* user defined page size, color, and ruling
* pages can grow automatically as you write
* split screen with web browser to take notes from web pages or videos
* html/svg document format viewable in any modern web browser
* export or send document as single html file or all documents as zip file
* view thumbnails as a grid or list; drag and drop to change list order
Comments, bug reports, and feature requests can be posted to this thread; I look forward to hearing your thoughts!
-- Matt

I like this app so far. I only tested it for a few mins. I will give it the full court press for a week or so and report back.
right off the bat I like the add space function.

This program is tiny but powerful to write down somethings as its name. Consider about the saved files to exchange in other non-glaxay-note tablet or phones, even on computers, at least it's very easy to share the notes.
For me, some points to wish to add and I'll say it's perfect.
One thing is about bar buttons, add the function on the icon click to move certain lines and press to move to next page.
Second is, how about use different color on every 10th line, or add a small number at every 10th line? It well be helpful for user to identify the position of the note easily.
The last thing is the sync function, although I use dropsync to do this job. But still a build-in sync is a welcoming function.
Thank you for your hard work to make note-taking as easy as on paper!

I've tried it.
Main thing is that, if I'm not wrong, there's no pen pressure sensitivity.
Otherwise it could be very interesting.

I like some features of this app, like most of them, I wish they would all get together to make a super writing app. The zoom and pan with this app has been a big issue for me, I can not rest my hand on the tablet to write without it going crazy, I have switched through all the options for imput types, and when I remove all touch, there is no way to move the screen to write stuff, only go down to next page and this is difficult to write and reference things previously written down.
I do like the add space option and how it exports to .html for access on everything. There is also a nice select feature with the app. This could be very nice if they got with lecture notes and samsung to get the kinks worked out. Also my writing is a bit jagged here.

Not bad, has some decent features. I think Papryus is better overall though

niveks74 said:
Not bad, has some decent features. I think Papryus is better overall though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What features or improvements would you want to see in Write?

Hi, good app but...how i can change the default page to have every time i open new document?
P.s.: pen button setted to delete dont works...my bad?
Thanks
Alex
Galaxy note n8000

Alx0363 said:
Hi, good app but...how i can change the default page to have every time i open new document?
P.s.: pen button setted to delete dont works...my bad?
Thanks
Alex
Galaxy note n8000
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Love this app! The ability to insert lines/words etc.that's great!!
I have the same issue - S Pent button will not delete after setting it to erase.
I also can figure out how to get different default templates (other than changing the color of paper and ruler)
To the developer - keep up the great work!!

rpmbnsf said:
Love this app! The ability to insert lines/words etc.that's great!!
I have the same issue - S Pent button will not delete after setting it to erase.
I also can figure out how to get different default templates (other than changing the color of paper and ruler)
To the developer - keep up the great work!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, the s-pen button doesn't work. Because Samsung uses the button for global gestures (like double tap to open s-note), the events never reach Write. The page size and ruling can be set from the Page Setup dialog and the "Make default" checkbox will make the entered values the global default. For example, to get graph paper, set the X Ruling value equal to Y Ruling. A future update will provide some predefined page templates.
-- Matt

PBSurf said:
Unfortunately, the s-pen button doesn't work. Because Samsung uses the button for global gestures (like double tap to open s-note), the events never reach Write. The page size and ruling can be set from the Page Setup dialog and the "Make default" checkbox will make the entered values the global default. For example, to get graph paper, set the X Ruling value equal to Y Ruling. A future update will provide some predefined page templates.
-- Matt
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry but "Make default" dont works...I try to set x and y at 25 but every restart of my galaxy note 10.1 if i choose new page (plus) the page return the original one.
Thanks for help
Alex

Alx0363 said:
Sorry but "Make default" dont works...I try to set x and y at 25 but every restart of my galaxy note 10.1 if i choose new page (plus) the page return the original one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In the current version, it looks like there is a bug that could cause this to happen when adding a page to an existing document. This will be fixed in the upcoming version. In the meantime, it should work to set the default for each document.
-- Matt

PBSurf said:
In the current version, it looks like there is a bug that could cause this to happen when adding a page to an existing document. This will be fixed in the upcoming version. In the meantime, it should work to set the default for each document.
-- Matt
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for answer
Alex

Amazing app. I've been dealing with it for some days and it really works. S Note doesn't hold the candle to it when it comes to handwriting. S Note may have other handy features, but when I've got to write with it, it takes time and it often does my head in.
Write makes your handwritten page tidyd and clear, you can read your document with any other app and it's fast and smart - Samsung should learn to develop smarter applications like this.
Enjoy it.
Cheers!

It's the Windows 8 version released
Sent from my GT-N8013 using XDA Premium HD app

inmnbob said:
It's the Windows 8 version released
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, the Windows version is available here: http://www.styluslabs.com/writebeta/ If you have a stylus, you'll need to install the Wacom drivers for it to work properly. The response to touch input can be configured in the preferences dialog. I don't have a Windows device with touch input for testing, so please let me know if there are any problems with touch.
Both Android and Windows versions have just been updated to add a bunch of features including continuous scrolling, lasso select, resizing selections, PDF export, and improved page setup.
-- Matt

Great alternative to S-Note!
I just wanted to thank Matt for his hard work with this! Write's an awesome little app, and Matt's been great with helping me out with some palm detection issues!
Any chance of making this a floatable notepad?
Kudos, Matt, and thanks! :good:

oroboros74 said:
Any chance of making this a floatable notepad?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is under consideration, but would be at least a few months out.
-- Matt

oroboros74 said:
I just wanted to thank Matt for his hard work with this! Write's an awesome little app, and Matt's been great with helping me out with some palm detection issues!
Any chance of making this a floatable notepad?
Kudos, Matt, and thanks! :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
PBSurf said:
This is under consideration, but would be at least a few months out.
-- Matt
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's great when developers interact with users like this. Thanks Matt!
As I was looking for more info on floating apps, I saw this from AndroidPolice which might be useful for your project:
'StandOut' Is An Open Source Library That App Developers Can Use To Build Floating Apps
For those interested, there is a floating note taker out there... not as great as as Write, but just for comparison, here it is.

Simply the best app . Really tks for share us for free!
Enviado de meu GT-N8000 usando o Tapatalk 2

Handy note app - ultimate note taking app!

I have just discovered a beautiful note taking app that possibly can replace a number of the ones available on the market.
The app is called Handy note and gives you compete control over your notes amongst numerous other functions. The only downside is that it's not free to try so you'll have to take my word for it or use the 15 minute refund window (extremely cheap to buy though). With a bit more development, it probably can replace S-notes. I'll list the pros and cons to help highlight key features and will link to the app for those interested.
Pros - app currently can do
° Text entry via chosen keyboard
° Freehand text entry with smoothing applied (makes your handwriting look much nicer)
° Two writing panels, when you enter handwriting and reach the end of the first panel, you start writing in the second panel while the first one transfers writing to screen, this allows continuous writing without having to wait for words to transfer.
° Everything you do can be repositioned anywhere on the screen as easily as selecting the desired area and sliding it to where you want it positioned i.e. you want to move text, handwriting or drawings to a different section just select correct tool and area you want to reposition and drag your S-pen to the desired position.
° Number of text editing options such as bullets, numbering, font size choice etc.
° You can insert pictures and shapes, loads to choose from within the app such as arrows, circle, box, smilies etc
° You can insert date, time etc and change the way it looks too
There are tons more features, too much to list.
Cons - not available (yet, possibly the developer may include in future updates)
° Could not see an option to import pdf's
° Could not see an option to increase page size of needed
° Notes are saved automatically, does not have a save button
° Portrait mode only at present - Now landscape mode available!
° pdf export done as images so any typed text cannot be highlighted using a pdf editor using highlight function - you can always edit the text from within the app
I have only listed some features of the app above as I have only been using for about 30 minutes, there are still lots to discover and I think I will request from the developer some of the cons I have listed above to be addressed. Will truly make this app perfect if they can implement them.
As it stands though, the app is still fantastic and runs super smooth on or Notes and is really worth a try for those who take a lot of notes.
Below is a screen shot I have taken to show only a tiny bit of what the app is capable of doing. If you do try the app and find any useful features that I have not listed, reply to this thread and I'll add to the list of pros or cons for that matter.
Link to app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appbody.handyNote.google&hl=en

HasC said:
I have just discovered a beautiful note taking app that possibly can replace a number of the ones available on the market.
The app is called Handy note and gives you compete control over your notes amongst numerous other functions. The only downside is that it's not free to try so you'll have to take my word for it or use the 15 minute refund window (extremely cheap to buy though). With a bit more development, it probably can replace S-notes. I'll list the pros and cons to help highlight key features and will link to the app for those interested.
Pros - app currently can do
° Text entry via chosen keyboard
° Freehand text entry with smoothing applied (makes your handwriting look much nicer)
° Two writing panels, when you enter handwriting and reach the end of the first panel, you start writing in the second panel while the first one transfers writing to screen, this allows continuous writing without having to wait for words to transfer.
° Everything you do can be repositioned anywhere on the screen as easily as selecting the desired area and sliding it to where you want it positioned i.e. you want to move text, handwriting or drawings to a different section just select correct tool and area you want to reposition and drag your S-pen to the desired position.
° Number of text editing options such as bullets, numbering, font size choice etc.
° You can insert pictures and shapes, loads to choose from within the app such as arrows, circle, box, smilies etc
° You can insert date, time etc and change the way it looks too
There are tons more features, too much to list.
Cons - not available (yet, possibly the developer may include in future updates)
° Could not see an option to import pdf's
° Could not see an option to increase page size of needed
° Notes are saved automatically, does not have a safe button
° Portrait mode only at present
° pdf export done as images so any typed text cannot be highlighted using a pdf editor using highlight function - you can always edit the text from within the app
I have only listed some features of the app above as I have only been using for about 30 minutes, there are still lots to discover and I think I will request from the developer some of the cons I have listed above to be addressed. Will truly make this app perfect if they can implement them.
As it stands though, the app is still fantastic and runs super smooth on or Notes and is really worth a try for those who take a lot of notes.
Below is a screen shot I have taken to show only a tiny bit of what the app is capable of doing. If you do try the app and find any useful features that I have not listed, reply to this thread and I'll add to the list of pros or cons for that matter.
Link to app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appbody.handyNote.google&hl=en
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the recommendation.
Have you tried Freenote? It does everything you listed above as a "Pro," even the two-panel input. Like LectureNotes, it also gives options for customization to the point of becoming confusing, but is a very powerful note-taking app. That's my major gripe with it-- there is a steep learning curve. But once I figured it all out, it became my "go to" note-taking app.
JC

jchammerpants said:
Thanks for the recommendation.
Have you tried Freenote? It does everything you listed above as a "Pro," even the two-panel input. Like LectureNotes, it also gives options for customization to the point of becoming confusing, but is a very powerful note-taking app. That's my major gripe with it-- there is a steep learning curve. But once I figured it all out, it became my "go to" note-taking app.
JC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have tried freenote and my biggest gripe is that it is not very intuitive. I did manage to get used to its functions but this apps user interface is more intuitive and seems more polished. I will recommend this for those who do not want to fiddle about with too many options and want something that just works with minimal set up and a less busy screen.
Thanks for your feedback.

HasC said:
I have tried freenote and my biggest gripe is that it is not very intuitive. I did manage to get used to its functions but this apps user interface is more intuitive and seems more polished. I will recommend this for those who do not want to fiddle about with too many options and want something that just works with minimal set up and a less busy screen.
Thanks for your feedback.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I have the same gripe with Freenote, but have come to terms with it since it offers suck flexibility. But I still find myself trying to remember how to do something I've done before, because its not intuitive.
You inspired me to start a thread for users to contribute to a feature list of the "holy grail" of note-taking apps. I'm hoping to get the users and devs from all the good apps to comment collectively. We'll see...

jchammerpants said:
Yes, I have the same gripe with Freenote, but have come to terms with it since it offers suck flexibility. But I still find myself trying to remember how to do something I've done before, because its not intuitive.
You inspired me to start a thread for users to contribute to a feature list of the "holy grail" of note-taking apps. I'm hoping to get the users and devs from all the good apps to comment collectively. We'll see...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds good to me, it would be really brilliant if someone can come up with a notepad that has all the key features that people use and not have to go to different apps to carry out different functions. At present, the lecture notes developer seems to be the most keen developer who actively makes changes to use requests and requirements.
I hope the thread will be well received and we get the ultimate note taking app as a result.

HasC
Do you have any updates on this app now that you have had this for a few days. Has your opinion changed.

tonyz3 said:
HasC
Do you have any updates on this app now that you have had this for a few days. Has your opinion changed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To be honest, what you are paying for this app and what you are getting far outweighs the fact that it does not have a trial version.
The app has not crashed and runs really smooth, works very well with the S-pen and most definitely has a premium feel to it. Usually an app with the features this one offers should be priced about 3-4 times higher. The best aspect of the app is the tools layout and how easily the document can be re arranged, very intuitive.
To get a feel, try the app for about ten minutes and refund if you don't like the feel of it, that's what I did and stuck with it.
After the above and to answer your question, I would conclude with, my opinion has not changed after using more extensively and I would recommend the app as an optional note taking app, it may not be a daily driver in all scenarios though. Would probably use it for designing simple presentations and information booklets / guides instead of having to use Polaris etc

HasC said:
To be honest, what you are paying for this app and what you are getting far outweighs the fact that it does not have a trial version.
...
To get a feel, try the app for about ten minutes and refund if you don't like the feel of it, that's what I did and stuck with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I took the $0.99 plunge for this app. I think it is worth that much at least for anyone wanting a fairly full-featured but easy-to-use note-taking app.
It might be the most intuitive note-taking app I've seen so far. It is pretty quick to switch between text, ink, graphics, and paint-- even within a single line on the page.
And it allows exporting to PDF or PNG, and to email or Dropbox, with a minimal of clicks, which I like.
The operation of the layers can be confusing, though. I almost returned it for refund because opened a blank page from one of the templates, and did a whole page of ink and graphics to test it. When I finished and hit the button to switch back to the page view, it appeared that all my ink and graphics were gone. It took me a few minutes to figure out that the layer in which I had done my work was only sized to about a third of the total page size, even though the editing view for that layer allowed me to write/paint the full length of the screen. Long story short, I "found" my work by resizing that layer to be the length of the screen, which revealed what I had written. But I initially thought that it had failed to save my work.
This may replace Freenote as my go to note-taking app.
EDIT: Second gripe: Only works in portrait orientation for now.

jchammerpants said:
I took the $0.99 plunge for this app. I think it is worth that much at least for anyone wanting a fairly full-featured but easy-to-use note-taking app.
It might be the most intuitive note-taking app I've seen so far. It is pretty quick to switch between text, ink, graphics, and paint-- even within a single line on the page.
And it allows exporting to PDF or PNG, and to email or Dropbox, with a minimal of clicks, which I like.
The operation of the layers can be confusing, though. I almost returned it for refund because opened a blank page from one of the templates, and did a whole page of ink and graphics to test it. When I finished and hit the button to switch back to the page view, it appeared that all my ink and graphics were gone. It took me a few minutes to figure out that the layer in which I had done my work was only sized to about a third of the total page size, even though the editing view for that layer allowed me to write/paint the full length of the screen. Long story short, I "found" my work by resizing that layer to be the length of the screen, which revealed what I had written. But I initially thought that it had failed to save my work.
This may replace Freenote as my go to note-taking app.
EDIT: Second gripe: Only works in portrait orientation for now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad you like it and also the fact that you didn't lose your work. I think the way the layers are handled on this app are its biggest strength, it gives complete flexibility to where you can position or reposition every aspect of the output.
It is definitely a steal at the price it is going for.
Ps - the portrait mode was listed as a con, hopefully will be available for landscape in a future update.

HasC said:
I think the way the layers are handled on this app are its biggest strength, it gives complete flexibility to where you can position or reposition every aspect of the output.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree it is a strength... now that I figured it out! I read some of the reviews on the Play store, and I think a few others had the same problem, as i saw comments to the effect that edits were not saved once the editor was closed. I would guess they also had edits that weren't showing because the layer was sized too small outside the edit view.
If you aren't sure what I mean-- do a full page of scribbles in a layer that is only sized for a portion of the page. When you leave the editor, you will only see the part of your scribbles in the layer boundaries, even though your notes are still captured within the layer via edit mode.
JC

I emailed the developers to ask about landscape viewing. They responded below, and said some updates should be released this week.
App Body said:
We well know the landscape requirement. It's in our developing plan, but it really take time to implement.
By the way, the next release will be in this week. Some new features will be available.
1. Share page to Facebook, MMS and others.
2. A setting center for set default fonts and others.
3. Recover built-in resource in case of deleted by mistake.
We keep developing Handy Note to match user's requirement.
JC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Pen recognition
I started using this tool as recommended and Liked it a lot.
There´s only one problem Im experiencing. Sometimes, when Im writing a text, there are some pen recognition issues.. that makes me having to write some letters again.
Don´t know if Im being clear...
Im using latest Jelly Bean Rom (LI1) posted on the development forum. Don´t know if it´s the Rom or the App.
I only have this issue with this app, though.
Anyone experienced that??
Thanks.
Luciano.

lucianolsp said:
I started using this tool as recommended and Liked it a lot.
There´s only one problem Im experiencing. Sometimes, when Im writing a text, there are some pen recognition issues.. that makes me having to write some letters again.
Don´t know if Im being clear...
Im using latest Jelly Bean Rom (LI1) posted on the development forum. Don´t know if it´s the Rom or the App.
I only have this issue with this app, though.
Anyone experienced that??
Thanks.
Luciano.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, there, Luciano. I have been using this app only two days. So far, I have not had that issue. It captures all my pen strokes just as smooth as butter.
I am completely 'stock.' Maybe that makes a difference?
JC

jchammerpants said:
Hey, there, Luciano. I have been using this app only two days. So far, I have not had that issue. It captures all my pen strokes just as smooth as butter.
I am completely 'stock.' Maybe that makes a difference?
JC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with the comments above as I am not having any issues with it either.
Thanks for the update regarding the improvements to come.

Thanks
HasC said:
I agree with the comments above as I am not having any issues with it either.
Thanks for the update regarding the improvements to come.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah.. It´s probably some compatibility issue between the App and the JB ROM.
Thats unfortunate, because I really liked the smoothiness and speed of the JB over ICS.
Maybe I will revert to the stock rom.. although the problem is not too bad, maybe I can live with it.
Thanks guys!

The latest update to this app allows you to really easily rotate text and pictures. All it needs now is landscape mode and a choice of paper sizes.

output quality
Trying out several notetaking apps to see if I could find a Onenote-like app (typing, handwriting, easy editing, sync, searchable notes), so I tried this one out as well.
I agree that it's very nice, especially the flexibility with text and handwriting (you can even write text and handwriting in the same box, alternating words). I had some minor issues for improvement though:
1. I tried it on my phone, and chose the smallest font size (12) to be able to write at least a decent number of words on the page. But when I then exported to evernote, I could hardly read the text (handwriting was even worse) because of the low image quality. Not sure if this is an issue on a tablet but I really want my notes to be readable and searchable. So it would be nice if you could choose different export image qualities.
2. Did you find a way to resize the handwriting (in handwriting mode, not the freehand) after it was written? With text, you can simply resize the font of a selection, but I couldn't do this with handwritten text.
3. Highlighting is only possible in freehand mode, but then if you reposition the textbox the highlight doesn't move with the text as it's in another layer. I didn't try so I don't know if this could be solved by grouping objects, but it would be nice to have a highlighting option that changes the actual background of the text and automatically moves with the text.
4. the already mentioned missing page size setting.
Other than this, I found it to be a pretty nice note taking app, too. If only they added a desktop client that could edit the notes too...

hoipiepeloi said:
Trying out several notetaking apps to see if I could find a Onenote-like app (typing, handwriting, easy editing, sync, searchable notes), so I tried this one out as well.
I agree that it's very nice, especially the flexibility with text and handwriting (you can even write text and handwriting in the same box, alternating words). I had some minor issues for improvement though:
1. I tried it on my phone, and chose the smallest font size (12) to be able to write at least a decent number of words on the page. But when I then exported to evernote, I could hardly read the text (handwriting was even worse) because of the low image quality. Not sure if this is an issue on a tablet but I really want my notes to be readable and searchable. So it would be nice if you could choose different export image qualities.
2. Did you find a way to resize the handwriting (in handwriting mode, not the freehand) after it was written? With text, you can simply resize the font of a selection, but I couldn't do this with handwritten text.
3. Highlighting is only possible in freehand mode, but then if you reposition the textbox the highlight doesn't move with the text as it's in another layer. I didn't try so I don't know if this could be solved by grouping objects, but it would be nice to have a highlighting option that changes the actual background of the text and automatically moves with the text.
4. the already mentioned missing page size setting.
Other than this, I found it to be a pretty nice note taking app, too. If only they added a desktop client that could edit the notes too...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. I would also like different export qualities. What i just tried as an experiment was to export the notes into another app called lecture notes. This could be a potential workaround for resizing the document to a more readable size. If you have made all your edits on handy notes, export to the app and use the cut tool and resize.
2. Unfortunately, i could not find a way to resize handwritten notes after writing and again the solution/workaround would be to export to lecture notes and resize the selection or part that is too small.
3. Yep, tried it this morning and could not find a way to move the highlight. I did notice that there was a layer option but could not get it to do anything, ideally we should be able to flatten the highlight behind the text. I tried to group the objects but could not select the highlighted section.
For a possible workaround you could :
Create your notes and once you are happy with the format, do your highlighting and export or alternatively, send the notes to lecture notes, resize and highlight using the functions within lecture notes and export as a pdf.
I think at present the way things are, we need to use multiple apps to achieve the desired end results or one of the developers takes these issues into consideration and facilitates them within their app.
I think i will email the developer of Handy notes to this thread and hopefully he/she/they can improve the app with the suggestions.
I have requested the developer of lecture notes to see if text handling can be done in the manner of handy notes as he is working on text input improvement for his app which currently is the most feature rich note taking app on android (my opinion).
Edit: just realised for highlighted text, if you select the freehand tool used to do the highlight, there is a scissor icon towards the right that can be used to select the highlight and reposition to wherever you have moved the text. If you change the font size from what has been highlighted, it won't match up.

Ive been using this for a few days now and find it really good. Password protect notes and abilty to change covers.
Also you can download an extra resource pack thats full of templates, covers etc here

Because it is no longer compatible with my TF101 with Android 4.1.2? I can not use it! please update ....

What did Samsung think?! S-NOTE, ACTION MEMO, SCRAPBOOK - and their unpractical usage

Hi folks!
This thread will just be about me grumbling about some of our beloved Notes functions - especially the S-Pen "core apps".
My question is: What did Samsung think with integrating two dictinct apps which rather should have been developed as one (and could have been developed as one so EASY)? This is what we do have now:
1.) Action Memo:
- Cool functions (e.g. saving numbers to contacs)
- VERY restricted in formating (pensize, pen style etc)
- Can be opened from the s-pen actions menu
- Can be choosed to be opened instead of the s- pen actions menu after detaching the S-Pen (this function was reserved for the S-Note on the Note 2) (S-Note popup)
- Can only be synced to samsung
- Notes are sorted in a list - but NO WIDGET
2.) S- Note
- No "cool functions"
- many format options (pens, colors, pensize, picture etc)
- Can not be opened from the S-Pen actions menu
- Can not be choosed to be opened after detaching the S-Pen anymore (S-Note popup)
- Can be synced to samsung and evernote
- Notes are sorted in a list - WIDGET IS AVAILABLE.
3.) Scrapbook
--> just a THIRD app with just ONE MORE function, which could have been integrated in e.g. S-Note as well.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Why didn´t they got it managed to have one app to "rule them all"? Wouldnt that have been MUCH better and much more logical!?
One app, that can be immediately accessed form the menu/after detaching the s-pen, which can be used as a notepad, with all the functions and with a widget? Now I always have to decide which app I´m going to use. If it has to be fast, I am forced to use action memo (where I have to go without formating options), wherelse I always prefere S-Note when there is "the time to open it up".
Yes, I know, there ist e.g. Papyrus or /and the S-Pen buddy. But this is not the topic.

If I remember a similar topic was added here and a moderator closed it because there is no point... no offence but if all people liked the phone or its features than samsung would be the only company selling phones.
Peace!
Sent from my SM-N900W8 using xda app-developers app

Well, there is a point. If no one opens up such threads (*****ing about their software) , they have no reason at all to change things.
Closing such threads is not usual on xda, perhaps the OP didn't make his point clear. Otherwise, I would be surprised.

Well, there is actually an action memo widget. Just saying.
And action memo was designed to take memos, or quick, and usually short, bits of information. Hence why you have such a variety of 'actions' to deal with bits of information. S-Note is now designed more as a notebook, we're you can keep a wealth of information, organize it all, etc.
I agree it would have been nice to have a single app to do it all, but then you have to start thinking were do you draw the line between different apps, or lumping everything s-pen related into a single app. The bigger the app, the longer it's going to take to load, index and display everything. Keeping things to small packages for quick tasks was probably the best way to go.
I personally like the separation of the two. I use action memo for jotting down bits of information I need right away, and then just get rid of it later, like a quick phone number, work appt. Or small list of grocery items. I use S-Note to hold detailed information about work I do, neatly organized and synced with evernote (which I'm really liking btw).
I doubt complaining will get something like this changed. Either get used to it and use it or don't.
Just my 2 cents. Not saying your wrong on the matter in a personal sense, but there's logic to why they did what they did.
Sent from my SM-N900W8 using xda app-developers app

I like the segregation of Action Memo & S Note. Divides long form & short form. Coming from the Note II, I wished it had done this, as quickly jotted down thoughts are quite different from longer form, fleshed out ideas. You can still open Action Memo using the hold-button, double-tap action from the Note II as well.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

brooon said:
Hi folks!
This thread will just be about me grumbling about some of our beloved Notes functions - especially the S-Pen "core apps".
My question is: What did Samsung think with integrating two dictinct apps which rather should have been developed as one (and could have been developed as one so EASY)? This is what we do have now:
1.) Action Memo:
- Cool functions (e.g. saving numbers to contacs)
- VERY restricted in formating (pensize, pen style etc)
- Can be opened from the s-pen actions menu
- Can be choosed to be opened instead of the s- pen actions menu after detaching the S-Pen (this function was reserved for the S-Note on the Note 2) (S-Note popup)
- Can only be synced to samsung
- Notes are sorted in a list - but NO WIDGET
2.) S- Note
- No "cool functions"
- many format options (pens, colors, pensize, picture etc)
- Can not be opened from the S-Pen actions menu
- Can not be choosed to be opened after detaching the S-Pen anymore (S-Note popup)
- Can be synced to samsung and evernote
- Notes are sorted in a list - WIDGET IS AVAILABLE.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Why didn´t they got it managed to have one app to "rule them all"? Wouldnt that have been MUCH better and much more logical!?
One app, that can be immediately accessed form the menu/after detaching the s-pen, which can be used as a notepad, with all the functions and with a widget? Now I always have to decide which app I´m going to use. If it has to be fast, I am forced to use action memo (where I have to go without formating options), wherelse I always prefere S-Note when there is "the time to open it up".
Yes, I know, there ist e.g. Papyrus or /and the S-Pen buddy. But this is not the topic.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry off the topic,U said action memo can sync only with samsung but I could not found any settings to sync,may u mean backup threw kies or there is a another way to synk which may i don't know ??pls advice

brooon said:
Hi folks!
This thread will just be about me grumbling about some of our beloved Notes functions - especially the S-Pen "core apps".
My question is: What did Samsung think with integrating two dictinct apps which rather should have been developed as one (and could have been developed as one so EASY)? This is what we do have now:
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you might be missing something from the very core of it - Action Note is not so much a real "note in a notebook" as a "post-it note" (term is TM by 3M - which explains why Samsung can not use it).
I only discovered how handy those Action Notes are when I left one minimized - it will "stick" to your screen everywhere just as if you placed a physical Post-It on your monitor.
My main gripe on that is that you can not change (default) pen width, also you can not write normal text and most important you can only have ONE minimized note on the screen

I agree there are issues. Action Memo is a nice idea but the actions are far too limited. Why not use standard android sharing so I can tweet a note for example. If I don't use Google Tasks then I can't create a task. At present I can't even copy text to the clipboard.
The key missing feature though is the ability to transfer the note over into S Note. At present if I start a note in Action Note and then decide it's a full note there isn't a thing I can do other than write the text out again as a result I don't touch it at all.
Also why not allow the actions from S Note?
The same is true for Scrap Booker. A nice feature which I don't touch because it doesn't integrate with anything else or sync to other devices.

BarneyL said:
...
The key missing feature though is the ability to transfer the note over into S Note. At present if I start a note in Action Note and then decide it's a full note there isn't a thing I can do other than write the text out again as a result I don't touch it at all.
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually you can "Send" the Action Note (from the list view) to a number of destinations, including S Note (where it remains as a separate thing but still is a start).

xclub_101 said:
Actually you can "Send" the Action Note (from the list view) to a number of destinations, including S Note (where it remains as a separate thing but still is a start).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't know that. Not ideal as it converts the note to an image but better than nothing.
So far my preferred method is sending the action note to the browser and then copying it back out from the search box.

Thank you all for your inputs!
Ragnarkov said:
Well, there is actually an action memo widget. Just saying.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are right - it is just usable with TouchWiz and it is just ONE note, the S-Note Widget is usable with all launchers and you can get an overview about all your notes. My bad, but as everywhere --> it is inconsistent
Ragnarkov said:
And action memo was designed to take memos, or quick, and usually short, bits of information. Hence why you have such a variety of 'actions' to deal with bits of information. S-Note is now designed more as a notebook, we're you can keep a wealth of information, organize it all, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You see, that´s the point: You were able to use S-Note for quick memos with the Note 2 as well - the S-Note popup was PERFECT for these kinds of notes! Why should Action memo be better in any ways? I don´t think that there is a "pro" here (just IMAO).
Ragnarkov said:
I use action memo for jotting down bits of information I need right away, and then just get rid of it later, like a quick phone number, work appt. Or small list of grocery items. I use S-Note to hold detailed information about work I do, neatly organized and synced with evernote (which I'm really liking btw).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is how I used S-Note with my Note 2: Quite a big number of notebooks like "ToDo", "groceries", "university", "important", "ideas" etc. (keep the folder function in mind as well), most of them placed on the desktop either as widget or as shortcut. It was just nice - optimized with the action memo functions it would have been just perfect
xclub_101 said:
I think you might be missing something from the very core of it - Action Note is not so much a real "note in a notebook" as a "post-it note" (term is TM by 3M - which explains why Samsung can not use it).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, well, S-Note was perfect for "post it notes" as well (S-Note popup ) - in the end it should be the user who decides if he/she wants to write a short note (blank sheet) or e.g. to develop a more complex mindmap or something...do you really need two seperate programs for that?!
xclub_101 said:
I only discovered how handy those Action Notes are when I left one minimized - it will "stick" to your screen everywhere just as if you placed a physical Post-It on your monitor.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are absolutely right, a great implementation!! :highfive:
xclub_101 said:
My main gripe on that is that you can not change (default) pen width, also you can not write normal text and most important you can only have ONE minimized note on the screen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The first two points are going in line with what I mean. Action memo is just too simple in its functions to justify the "second app thing", as there already is such a mighty tool like S-Note.
BarneyL said:
The same is true for Scrap Booker. A nice feature which I don't touch because it doesn't integrate with anything else or sync to other devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Absolutely correct, I totally forgot to mention scrapbook - which I hardly use at all for the same reasons. Good idea - but why not just include it in S-Note? It is just an additional function - but here we go, a third app (?!).
xclub_101 said:
Actually you can "Send" the Action Note (from the list view) to a number of destinations, including S Note (where it remains as a separate thing but still is a start).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You see - "still a start" - it looks to me as they just collected some ideas and coded an app for each of them^^ This is not well-conceived, it is just a collection of ideas in different apps.
BarneyL said:
I didn't know that. Not ideal as it converts the note to an image but better than nothing.
So far my preferred method is sending the action note to the browser and then copying it back out from the search box.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, and it would have been so easy to think about such tasks beforehand. The Note is one of samsungs premium devices ("the" premium device?) - don´t lynch me, but at this point samsung should take apple as an example.

Action Memo can quiuckly export the memo to Evernote, in a new note that can be freely editted.
S Note creates EN notes for its notes, but they have only a blob pic and no changes can be done to that note.
For me, S Note is junk. EN isn't as pretty, but is WAY more functional. I can create notes on any PC and read and edit them on my phone, and vise-versa. S Note ignores notes that weren't created by it and its notes can't be edited anywhere else.

I use sketch book for galaxy. It's much better for hand writing and it works with cyanogenmod too. I bought it from Sammy hub awhile ago when they gave us free credit.
dont forget the thanks button if I helped out!!

jetbruceli said:
I use sketch book for galaxy. It's much better for hand writing and it works with cyanogenmod too. I bought it from Sammy hub awhile ago when they gave us free credit.
dont forget the thanks button if I helped out!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, well, Sketchbook is known as one of the best DRAWING apps, but as a note taking tool? Hmm,...
No sync, no nice gallery (yeah there is a gallery, but...)...

one only widget
brooon said:
Thank you all for your inputs!
You are right - it is just usable with TouchWiz and it is just ONE note, the S-Note Widget is usable with all launchers and you can get an overview about all your notes. My bad, but as everywhere --> it is inconsistent
You see, that´s the point: You were able to use S-Note for quick memos with the Note 2 as well - the S-Note popup was PERFECT for these kinds of notes! Why should Action memo be better in any ways? I don´t think that there is a "pro" here (just IMAO).
This is how I used S-Note with my Note 2: Quite a big number of notebooks like "ToDo", "groceries", "university", "important", "ideas" etc. (keep the folder function in mind as well), most of them placed on the desktop either as widget or as shortcut. It was just nice - optimized with the action memo functions it would have been just perfect
Yeah, well, S-Note was perfect for "post it notes" as well (S-Note popup ) - in the end it should be the user who decides if he/she wants to write a short note (blank sheet) or e.g. to develop a more complex mindmap or something...do you really need two seperate programs for that?!
You are absolutely right, a great implementation!! :highfive:
The first two points are going in line with what I mean. Action memo is just too simple in its functions to justify the "second app thing", as there already is such a mighty tool like S-Note.
Absolutely correct, I totally forgot to mention scrapbook - which I hardly use at all for the same reasons. Good idea - but why not just include it in S-Note? It is just an additional function - but here we go, a third app (?!).
You see - "still a start" - it looks to me as they just collected some ideas and coded an app for each of them^^ This is not well-conceived, it is just a collection of ideas in different apps.
Yeah, and it would have been so easy to think about such tasks beforehand. The Note is one of samsungs premium devices ("the" premium device?) - don´t lynch me, but at this point samsung should take apple as an example.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
action memo can put one only widget in the desktop, but you can browse all notes in the same widget swiping up with the pen.
ricnar

There is solution buddy and is the following.
On Note 2, after detaching the pen the simple Memo appears. On the left upper corner there is an arrow. By clicking on that arrow, it opens the full featured S Note.
On Note 3, when pen is detached and simple memo appears, just click on the right bottom site, where it writes an "s". Then again the full featured S-Nite page will appear.

There is solution buddy and is the following.
On Note 2, after detaching the pen the simple Memo appears. On the left upper corner there is an arrow. By clicking on that arrow, it opens the full featured S Note.
On Note 3, when pen is detached and simple memo appears, just click on the right bottom site, where it writes an "s". Then again the full featured S-Note page will appear.
---------- Post added at 11:27 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:23 AM ----------
There is solution buddy and is the following.
On Note 2, after detaching the pen the simple Memo appears. On the left upper corner there is an arrow. By clicking on that arrow, it opens the full featured S Note.
On Note 3, when pen is detached and simple memo appears, just click on the right bottom site, where it writes an "s". Then again the full featured S-Note page will appear.