M Ridzwan

I met a guy recently who was carrying a high end mobile phone, a cool iBook and the latest PDA. But when he had to take down a girl’s phone number, he jotted it on a crumpled shopping receipt. I’m not sure how the girl took it but if I were her, that would have been a total turn off.



The number of PDA and smartphone users who still jot down little notes on scraps of paper astounds me. Perhaps many still find electronic note-taking to be too much of a hassle. But do read on; the following quick-jot applications might just change your mind.

First in line we have SnapList 1.0 by DataViz Inc. Note-jotters have often cited lengthy menus as the reason why they do not turn on their devices during an essential scribble. True to the name, this application promises snappy menus and hassle free note taking when it matters most. This include things like the grocery shopping list, random phone numbers and the usual random notes.



In case you are worried about losing your grocery list, SnapList also allows you to sync your data with a computer effortlessly. The application currently runs only on Symbian devices and will set you back by US$19.99. However, a trial version is available and can be downloaded from www.snaplist.com

SnapList is a recently-released title. However should you want an award winning application, try PhatNotes.

PhatNotes Professional Edition is an award-winning notes organizer for Microsoft Windows-powered Pocket PCs, Desktop PCs and Palm OS powered mobile devices. PhatNotes allows users to create notes and organise them by type, subject, creation and modification date. PhatNotes provides powerful text search, document security, and email capabilities. Interface to the Contacts Database enables quick access to email addresses and contact information.

The new release of PhatNotes Professional Edition comes with every feature you could possibly need. The new features include rich text editing and formatting, file attachments, hyperlinks between notes, multiple notes database support with tree-like views, hierarchical notes organizer, customizable views, user reminders and even a spell checker. But it will set you by a bit though. It costs US$39.95 and can be downloaded from www.phatware.com

But if jotting down notes is not your cup of tea, perhaps you might prefer audio notes instead. Confidential Notes 1.1 offers you exactly that for only US$19. It also offers a very important feature that users will appreciate – security.

The application allows you to create and read different type of notes (text, sketch, audio, combo) in a highly secure environment using 256-bit AES encryption. So if your grocery list is a state secret, this will be the one for you.

A trial version is available so do check it at www.pocketpcsecurity.com