Evernote loves tablets. We’ve got a long and storied history with tablets of all kinds. Got an old tablet lying around somewhere? Chances are we either developed technology for it, had applications that ran on it, or both. Usually both.
Remember the awesome Apple Newton? Evernote’s current R&D engineers developed the handwriting recognition technology that made it so notable (and ahead of its time). Remember those Doonesbury strips making fun of the Newton? You know who cried when those came out? We did. Well, not me personally, I was in college and the Newton was at the top of my unattainable gadget drool-list, but the guys sitting next to me right now clutching their Newton prototypes while watching the Apple liveblogs did. I’ve got those Donnesbury strips in my Evernote account now.
We’ve also been on just about every other form of tablet known to man. The original version of Evernote was written to run on Tablet PCs and the digital ink technology in the current version of Evernote for Windows is still the best in the industry. I even use an old Hitachi slate as a drink tray at home. Tablets are our roots, man. Our roots.
So naturally, we’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about our plans for supporting Apple’s hitherto-mythical tablet device, but we’ve avoided answering them just in case it turned out not to be a tablet but, um, a shoe or something. Still, we always hoped it’d be a tablet. You always remember your first love…
Anyway, now that the iPad has officially gone from “imminent!!” to “just announced!!” we can officially spill the beans on our official plans for Evernote on it. Here’s we go:
Evernote is going to support the Apple iPad. Oh Yeah. We’re gonna support the hell out of it. We’re glad to see that the current Evernote iPhone app will run on the iPad without modification, but we’ll be modifying it anyway to optimize the experience on the larger device. Oh how we’ll be modifying it! Expect rapid improvements to our iPhone app which will benefit all of our iPhone, iPod Touch and, now, iPad users in the near future.
Ok, so we’re excited by the iPad itself, and by the HP Slate, and the Sony VAIO L series, and the Nvidia Tegra, and by the added light that these and other devices will shine on touch computing in general. I’m looking at some happy engineers right now.
113 Comments
Sara Lopez
I am DROOLING right now…
Over iPad, over Evernote.
And the combination of the two?
Someone read my letter to Santa.
Ciaran
I love you guys. Always liked the software, but this brought chuckles.
<3.
Steven Vance
I’m glad you’ll be at the head of the tablet software game. I love Evernote. Two years and 1,000+ notes in the running for me!
Screenshot and my blog entries about Evernote: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesbondsv/4289798620/
Metoo
I hope it’s not like the “improvements” you did to the Windows version…
Terri Schurter
I am happy that you are excited about the iPad. As the owner of a vintage Motion M1400 that just recently turned five years old I am aware of your support for tablet computing. Thanks. I look forward to seeing how Evernote will work with the iPad.
C
I loved my Newton. Kudos to you.
This tablet thing sucks though.
Gary
Woo-hoo!! Great news guys!!
Ryan
Yes! Evernote is the #1 app I hope to have on my iPad. Ideally, I’d like to suck pdf’s of documents/books/magazines into Evernote and have it manage it. Evernote on the tablet will also become my digital cookbook in the kitchen, my notes in the classroom, etc etc. Thanks!
Iain
Look forward to seeing what you guys come up with. Evernote has become a great tool …
Anthony
Amazing – I can’t wait to use Evernote on the ‘Pad. The future of note taking, organisation and web design on the road just got a whole lot more awesome.
iRock
Who cares about “other” slates running Windows! iPad and its OS is da way.
Cam Page
I can’t wait! I’ll be the first to get your app for the iPad.
Jon Dee
I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with!! Evernote on the iPad will be fantastic – I’m really looking forward to that :O)
Alex
Any e-ink devices on the table? I’m impressed with the iPad, but I’m in the market for an e-reader this year, and the iPad’s features don’t outweigh the advantages of e-ink for me. If I could justify/afford/carry two tablet-type devices…
Gary
For the love of god guys…please develop this with some sort of pen input (Pogopen compat?). I think that is the only shortcoming for my use (I currently use a TC1100, and ready to ditch it for iPad), and many others that take notes. Pen beats keyboard – as you guys well know, having roots in tablets!! Pen/ink input PLEASE!
Charles in Charge
But the iPad doesn’t multitask, so moving stuff in and out of Evernote is going to be a bit of a bummer, isn’t it?
Ben
I cannot live without Evernote, and really am looking forward to the iPad implementation…however, i would LOVE to have a more agnostic implementation like having the ability to annotate images (like stock charts) with handwriting in Evernote, more like, dare I say it, OneNote…
PLEASE???
daniel
Yes please! and quick!
Rob
that is great news, Phil. However, I take exception to the statement about your digital ink technology being superior. In the tablet space, it is well recognized that OneNote and Windows inking leaves Evernote well be behind. Ink is smoother, ink and text notes can be mixed, the ink cursor doesn’t get in the way, etc. I’ve had numerous conversations with your inking folks (RitePen, Leonid, etc), and unfortunately, there have been no plans to improve inking in Evernote.
I also echo Gary’s statement – add support for inking in your iPhone / iPad / Android apps.
liz p
I love you guys! Well, at least I love the product you created. Thank you for keeping on top of it all!
Mr Ed
Fairly new Evernote user, but trying to learn quickly. I’m a Mac/iPhone dude. Love it that y’all are going to embrace (try not to lick it) the iPad! And I appreciate the openness with your customers, and sharing part of your history and passion. Happy iPad Day, looking forward to the improvements (start with 90 degree rotate!).
Lynne
Bring it…Can’t Wait! The iPad looks very interesting– not quite the quantum leap that the iPhone was to cell phones, but a device that will still be highly useful in my everyday life– I can easily see it replacing my paper newspapers, books, and magazines. Now if it could also replace my pen and paper notepad for note-taking, and of course being able to store and search for those notes later in Evernote, and I’d be in HEAVEN! So, please Evernote Team, push Apple to give you any SDK things you need to get that done!
Bruce
Please please please develop some sort of pen input! I agree with the guy who asked about this above. This would replace my notebook in meetings in a heartbeat, if you can work something out with a capacitive stylus.
PremiumUser
Before “supporting the hell” out of iPad…
(which is a questionable and unproven product at the moment)
… could you please build a real BlackBerry app?
(You know – one with local note storage & editing)
Please?
Andy Bevan
Oh yes, I can’t wait! Great software, by the way, but can you please include a proper English spell checker in the next release? I mean, as in the version spoken by the Queen and William Shakespeare, not just the simplified version!
Cheers!
Matt Stoner
I would love to have the ability to read a PDF in evernote on the iPad and at the same time takes notess, two panes UI. I can’t wait to order my iPad
Brad Gross
You guys are by far my fav app on the iPhone…can’t wait to get an iPad and use evernote on it….You guys are the best! And, love the podcast!
Jon
Bah, yet more Apple love and fanaticism … how about some info on where you’re going with building out the Blackberry app? Ya know, the #1 smartphone in the world? People tend to forget that the iPhone is number TWO.
Jon
Inasmuch as the Ipad doesn’t support inking, I wish you guys could figure out a way to make it work. The beauty of evernote/tablets is that I can take handwritten notes at job sites. Yes, i could buy another Windows Tablet but this would be a nice change- lighter, etc
Ann P.
LOL. Sounds like mostly Apple fans/users on here.
Even given device limitations, the rest of us COULD use better apps on existing devices *before* you go leaping off into every new gadget announced.
Kev
My wish-list for the iPad version includes: 1. local notes storage and 2. quick user switching. If I bring one of these things into my house, there will be only one of them, and my wife and I will share it, so we’ll want to be able to use our separate Evernote accounts.
That would be awesome, thanks!
Jonathan Korman
Add me to the chorus of e-ink fans. I very badly want to take copious notes with a stylus and convert them to electronically editable text. OneNote calls out to me in spite of the problems with Windows tablets, but I would vastly prefer to do notetaking on the iPad in Evernote.
Paul Brody
With the type of touch screens that Apple uses, if you use a stylus, do you have to be careful to keep your hand off the page to avoid activating the capacitative screen or can you make software that knows the difference between a resting palm and a stylus like Pogo? It would be quite awkward to have to always keep your hand of the screen.
Kyle Cranmer
I’m new to Evernote and was very hopeful for the iPad. I have some disappointments with both, but if Evernote could produce a nice product for the iPad, I’d buy one and be very happy.
I am a physicist, and I need to doodle figures, annotate PDFs (drafts of papers and such). Ideally, I can extract the text identified via OCR from these free form notes to up my productivity. I’d love to do this with a pen (or finger) on the iPad using Evernote.
* Please support inking of some sort for the iPad.
* Please support inking on the mac version.
* Why no voice recognition for audio notes?
* some local storage on iPhone/iPad, please.
YouMadeMyDay
ROFL loud, folks you just made my day xD – happy Apple fanboy party here ROFL ‘… We’re gonna support the hell out of it… ‘ Muahahaha
MyKidsAreSoCute
I love Evernote! I already have 817 notes and I only have been using it for three months. I use it to keep track of all of my bills, recipes for my kids, medical bills, receipts (scanned from JotNot on the iPhone). I scan everything with my Fujitsu ScanSnap S300m on my MacBook Pro. I am super excited about the iPad and I was imagining how I was going to use it I imagined a beautiful implementation of Evernote!
A few requests:
1. Like the previous comment – some sort of inking for the iPad would be awesome!
2. Make it easier to use/scroll/specify with auto completion tags on the iPhone/iPad.
3. I would love to have the ability to read a PDF in evernote on the iPad and at the same time takes notess, two panes UI. I can’t wait to order my iPad (copied from a previous poster! – He already said it!)
4. On the Mac app, please make it possible to scan directly from the ScanSnap – perhaps folder monitoring like on the Windows version. Right now I scan into Adobe Reader and then drag onto the dock icon of Evernote – but I forget to close the Adobe Reader version of the scan sometimes which leaves me not sure if I have processed something into Evernote yet.
5. Allow a way to tag a note when it is emailed in. I use the email feature all of the time (from my Mac and mostly from my iPhone) but then I have to go back and find those notes and tag them after the fact.
6. I love reading books on Kindle for iPhone. Currently to take notes on what I am reading I take screen shots of the page and then import them into Evernote. This is slow and cumberson. Any improvement in this sort of screen shot to Evernote process would be great!
7. Voice recognition for audio notes would be great!
Debbie Ohi
YAY, so glad to hear you’re going to be doing a version for the iPad!
Debbie
Marc Nothrop
Great news that you guys are so psyched about the iPad, but it’s not that surprising, as you say!
FWIW I’ll go along with a lot of comments here about some form of Ink support being quite desirable… and how about that InkWell support on Mac?!
Presumably this could use the same handwriting recognition as applied to photos, so it seems like we’re ‘only’ asking for the ability to draw/write in Evernote. The ability to draw would also be really handy in annotating images and even text.
The other main request I’d make would be the ability to both type notes and record audio, preferably with the ability to play back a section of the recording from the notes written at the time.
A simpler version would simply be the ability to add markers or ‘bookmarks’ while recording, so that you can jump back to interesting sections, when playing back later.
Finally, it would be nice to see an audio-specific recording feature added to Evernote Mac, to match the iPhone version. It would be especially good to be able to associate due dates and even Push reminders for audio recordings, and really any kind of Evernote content.
…there, that’s not asking for much, right?!
Thanks for all of your hard work.
Janet Rae-Dupree
Glad to hear Evernote will be on the iPad. But — I’ve noticed that Evernote is most useful with the camera on my mobile phone. The iPad doesn’t have a camera of any kind. That takes away a sizable percentage of Evernote’s usefulness, IMHO. It’s one of the many, MANY reasons I’m not planning to buy an iPad.
Jason
Immediately after Apple’s introduction of the iPad, I thought about how Evernote will work with it.
Rasmus Lindgren
Well though I am always excited about a new Apple launch, do you really expect the iPad the such a sucess like the iPod and iPhone that you want to invests in targetting this platform?
Sarah
I am so excited I can’t stand it. Having played with the iPad, I am in lust, and having 5000+ notes in Evernote, well, its just my life. I can’t wait to see what you do. Please please please make it faster to search. Right now it takes 5+ seconds to perform a search from my iPhone (even the downloaded/synced notebooks). That’s just too long! It takes to long to create a new note also. Love the app!
Evonne Olson
But don’t forget the main tablet of all, the ten commandments tablet.
But its a great thing, really technology evolve fast.
Jim Russell
“Chances are we either developed technology for it, had applications that ran on it, or both. Usually both.”
Where were you guys when I had my Z80, my Epson HX-20, or my Newton OMP. Glad to hear you share my lust for the IPad! Good luck.
hamhead
i apologize in advance for adding to the din here but i felt i had to speak out loud about the existing evernote products:
* mac and iphone versions, for different reasons it seems, suffer from speed deficiencies especially for people like me with 4000+ notes and counting.
* the mac version needs to be significantly improved from a usability perspective. it makes me think that there aren’t really experienced mac developers on the evernote team as there are on windows and nothing like some independent mac osx development shops. dont get me wrong: im thankful you support mac but please improve it. how about some focus groups?
* the iphone app is still buggy although much improved from before. very often syncs timeout silently and the app has to be restarted among other things.
given the above, i dont think the evernote team should spread themselves so thin before tightening the screws on the existing tools.
finally, thanks for always communicating and being there for your users!
Scott Spiro
Phil, great blog post. I worked with Apple on the original Newton Messagepad from a marketing standpoint while I was at UCLA. The handwriting recog. worked nicely. It was way ahead of its time indeed! Glad to hear you’ll have an Evernote version for the iPad.
Mike
Wow! What if EverNote and the iPad could seemlessly do web clippings as well! Or picture saves for notes. Maybe a built in web browser for the task since there is no multitasking. Excited!
CharlesT
Oh my! With Evernote working on an Ipad, it makes the tablet that much more usable for my work. Ipad, here I come!!
Lukas Stys
You are by far my fav app on the iPhone… I just can’t wait to get my own iPad and use ievernote on it. You guys are the best! I love you
bandsxbands
Seeing these kind of posts reminds me of just how technology truly is ever-permeating in this day and age, and I am fairly certain that we have passed the point of no return in our relationship with technology.
I don’t mean this in a bad way, of course! Societal concerns aside… I just hope that as memory becomes cheaper, the possibility of uploading our brains onto a digital medium becomes a true reality. It’s a fantasy that I dream about almost every day.