app review: Notsu note taking app for iPhone

June 30, 2010 by Christine Chan

The iPhone is the perfect tool for note-taking on the go, and as time passes, there are more and more apps for writing that are available in the App Store. Many of these third party developers are able to create something that is better than Apple’s own Notes app, but at the same time may stray away from the beautiful design that we have become familiar with from Apple’s own apps. Let’s take a look at Notsu, another note app on the iPhone that combines ease of use with a stunningly beautiful UI.

The UI of Notsu is gorgeous and reminiscent of that of a legal pad, although a bit more elegant. The top menu bars are covered in a leathery-like texture that go extremely well with the off-white legal paper. For a brand new app that’s 1.0 (1.0.1 technically, but the 0.0.1 update is for minor bug fixes), it delivers your notes in a very elegant, polished, and almost Apple-like manner.

When the app is first launched, you’ll get a brief splash screen that lasts only for a second, then you’ll get to the main screen of the app, the “Folders” screen. Each folder will have a listing of how many notes is in there, shown on the right hand side. The Edit button at the top allows you to delete or drag the folders into an order of your choosing. At the bottom there will be an All Notes section to view everything, and also a Trash folder to view any deleted notes just in case you would like to resurrect something (I also love the crinkled paper background look of the Trash – it adds more oomph to the app overall). If you really don’t need it, then there is an icon with a paper shredder when you view a trashed note that will permanently remove it. The + button in the bottom left will create new folders, and the ‘i’ button will give links to a User’s Guide, website, tell-a-friend, and write a review in iTunes.

When you go into a folder, the first thing you’ll see is half of a list and half of a note. Swipe to the left or the right to see your List (left) and Notes (right of List). So you can either jump to specific notes via the list, or swipe through your assortment of various notes. I’d assume that the former is easier, but if you want to see everything you’ve done, the latter is a good way to do it.

When you’re in a folder, tapping the + will give you two options when creating a new item – a text note or a list. If you make a list, you can tap on the title to edit it rather than have ‘New List’, and then after doing that, start entering the items for your list. All items in the list will have a circle in the margin of the legal pad interface that can be checked off once complete. New items can be added to the list later via the bottom toolbar, along with several other options. When creating a new text note, it’s pretty basic – so far, there aren’t any choices of fonts or sizes, no various formatting options. It’s all done in Marker Felt, like Apple’s own Notes. This is simply a better repackaging of the default Notes app, done by a third party.

At the bottom of items in a folder, there are three buttons: Move to Folder, E-mail, and Trash (to go in the Trash section, not permanently delete). When e-mailing any note or list, the body of the email will be composed of a button to import the note into Notsu (perfect for sharing with someone else that has Notsu installed on their iDevice), then followed by an image of the legal pad paper with the note/list, complete with the date that can be found in the upper left corner from all items in the app.

Notsu also has a feature on their website where notes can be created (without needing to sign up or anything like that) and e-mailed immediately, no need for the app. But these notes can’t be managed on the website, it’s simply an added bonus for users to create notes/lists and share them with others in case they are unable to get to their iDevice at the time. This feature can be found at notsuapp.com.

The only needed changes to bump the rating up are the ability to change fonts and sizes, and a web syncing service or implementation with Google Docs, etc. Currently, there is no way to get access to these notes without an iDevice besides e-mailing it to yourself. But I’m sure that we can find these types of features in a future update.

rating: four stars out of five • App Store link