Evernote … Text, graphic and sketch notes

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I‘ve been using the Note II pretty extensively since I got it and have spent a lot of time in Evernote as that’s been my note taking / digital brain for years.  I typically capture meeting notes as well as article clippings I see online which gives me a fantastic archive I can search as needed.

One challenge I was initially having with Evernote was the stylus since it’s not directly supported as an “S-App.” I’ve been trying to use the stylus more to max out all the features the Note offers.  Samsung includes their S-Note app as part of the Premium Suite which is rich with features.  S- Note is the default action and is called up when you slide the stylus out and pops up when you double-tap throughout the system (though only on the home screens not apps if you use a launcher other than touchwiz). While you can add your S-Note memos to Evernote via Android Intents (send to) but there’s no way to sync by default.  I’m still using S-Note for a quick scribble, but have found a nice way to include all media forms in my notes directly in Evernote.  In order to do this you need to also install Evernote’s Skitch app and then when it’s time to sketch something or capture a quick scribble you just hit the + icon …

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My amazing notes!

While in the note itself, you will then see the Skitch sketch saved as an attachment, but once you save the note it syncs into the note body which really handy. If you click the camera you can capture the whiteboard in the room or snap a pic of whatever you want.

You can grab Evernote and Skitch on the Play Store.  Both are equally solid on the Mac Desktop and of course it all syncs together beautifully.

Windows 7 beta on the Samsung NC10

I should probably preface this post by saying I’m far from a windows expert.  I am quite comfortable within XP but don’t really have much experience in Vista outside of the few occasions I’ve launched it in VMware to flash a phone.  I use XP daily for work, but basically just tolerate how it all works.  I definitely prefer OSX, though the more I’ve used Windows on a daily basis the less I find I care as there are ways to basically to everything I need on each system.

The Windows 7 beta was leaked at the same time I ordered the Samsung NC10 netbook so I decided to go for it.  I had a few days of experience in VMware before the NC10 arrived and overall I find that it’s quite peppy and looks really slick.  It definitely reveals XP’s age visually and offers some general niceties.  I was pleased to see that performance in both virtualized as well as the netbook environment was excellent.  The standard install / startup of the NC10 includes some Samsung specific applications for controlling the keyboard, trackpad, battery etc and none were obviously included in the Windows 7 install though they all installed without too much hassle in Windows 7.  I did have to use compatibility mode to install things, and thus far the only conflict here seems to be the synaptics trackpad software.  Through some trial and error I was able to find that the conflicts are unfortunately with most of the cool stuff you get with the synaptics driver.  By disabling the virtual scrolling and gestures, I was able to stop the trackpad from freezing.  While this essentially reduces the trackpad to a basic device again, I at least can continue using the PalmCheck feature which prevents the trackpad from activating while typing.  With the smaller keyboard this feature is actually critical for me.

Otherwise I’m running Firefox, iTunes, Tweetdeck, Chrome, Windows Live Writer, Evernote, Launchy, Skype, WinSCP, OpenOffice, Boingo and probably a few things I’m not remembering.  I’ve seen a few circular stalls (the windows 7 beach ball) which I expect to have resolved when I upgrade from 1 to 2GBs of RAM.  Windows 7 installed beautifully and seems to handle pretty much anything I’ve thrown at it.  I’m looking forward to seeing how things evolve over the course of the beta.