Recently I discussed how I’d given up on Evernote and attempted to piece together a similar service using various apps and Dropbox. While it’s true, one can accomplish roughly the same thing by doing so, the experience is less than appealing. Today I’d like to discuss how Evernote has been intertwined into various other apps, that utilize the service and make it even better. While one can use the standard Evernote app to accomplish the same things, having these additional apps is like having an Evernote-Phone or Evernote-Pad, and make using the service even more enjoyable and useful than I ever thought it could be. This is the Evernote Trunk.

I had been using Wunderlist for a while as my list, todo, task manager. I like that it syncs to many different platforms and looks great. However, now that I’m using Evernote for everything, well, I decided it was time to use it for these lists as well. While I can easily accomplish this using Evernote’s app, the fact remains that it is a ton quicker to access them without any effort on my part by using a dedicated todo app…that’s where Egretlist comes in. Egretlist ($2.99) is an app that accesses your Evernote account and finds notebooks/notes that contain the checkboxes used for creating todos or tasks. It finds these and displays them in a gorgeous interface. The app syncs your todo’s and tasks both ways, allows you to create notebooks and tags, edit items, and add images if wanted. This is all presented simply and beautifully. One of the best features, and there are plenty of them as Egretlist is highly customizable, is the ability to add your tasks/todos to your iPhone/iPad calendar. This can be done automatically, or only when you decide. It’s great for a task you really want to set a date for completion and want to also be reminded of via the calendar alert.

I’ve also found that getting simple things into Evernote, such as quick notes, while easy to do with the official app, are even faster with an app like Quick Ever ($.99). It’s a very simple app that lets you get right down to business by adding your note faster than you could ever imagine. While the official Evernote app focuses on allowing you to use everything in your account, Quick Ever is solely around to make it easy to add information, fast. I love that I can have a thought, tap it, and boom, ready to roll. One can add tags, set notebook landings, set defaults, create checklists, and more. It’s great. The app is a universal one so that’s even better for those with both an iPhone and an iPad.

Sometimes it’s just not the right time for keying text. Sometimes it’s easier to hand write it, thus the popularity of apps like Penultimate. For the best possible integration with Evernote I’ve been using WritePad. WritePad ($9.99) is a little different than say Penultimate. The point of WritePad is to hand write your notes and let the app convert them into text. There are many reasons why one would do this, but for me it’s about the ability to upload the document to Evernote as TEXT instead of a PDF or image. This keeps the usage amount down (great for free accounts) and makes the document just that much more searchable within Evernote.

Lastly, for now, I have been using JotNot Scanner Pro ($.99). This is a great app for taking pictures of documents instead of scanning them. By using the iPhone camera I can quickly snap a picture of a receipt, alter it to take up less space (make it black and white for example), and send it off to Evernote. JotNot Scanner Pro has a good amount of features, but this simple ability makes it completely worthwhile to me.

As you can see, just by these few apps, Evernote by itself is one strong application and service. However, when coupled with apps by others, it turns into the end-all service for organization, notetaking, and recording. From research for papers, capturing rough drafts, keeping track of website clips and useful links, recording memos, creating a personal online paperless filing cabinet, and so much more…Evernote really is one of the strongest services I’ve ever used.

There are a ton of apps that utilize Evernote, these are just a few that I’m using and loving. You can view a pretty great list at the Evernote Trunk site.

Bonus:

Just the other day Evernote released an app tailored to the iPad 2 in conjunction with the Smart Cover. It’s called, Peek (Free). It’s perfect for students who use Evernote to create flashcards of vocabulary, and utilizes not just the Evernote service but the iPad 2 and Smart Cover perfectly. It’s a pretty ingenious way of using the device to study actually, and I’m surprised no one did this before them.

Basically…oh nevermind, just watch…

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