Evernote perks up its Windows Mobile app

On Monday, Evernote, a good triple-platform note-taking service for Windows, Mac, the Web, and (multiple) mobile platforms (see all), updated its application for Windows Mobile phones (download).

Speed is the main story here, with text, photos, and audio notes uploading faster than before. Of course, depending on your carrier and the phone's capabilities, this still may not be as rapid as it is on the highest-end Windows phones.

The Evernote for Windows Mobile 3.0.0.172 also improves the interface, a spare but attractive app consisting of four actions to take various notes or upload a file from the phone's folder, in addition to two soft-key buttons.

One key lets you view and search notes created on the desktop, Web site, or your phone. Thumbnail images and the ability to search notes directly from Evernote are two additions--previous versions rebounded you to the Web to view search results. From Evernote's menu, you can click to view recent notes, settings, and, now, your saved search results.

(Credit: CNET)

Evernote never worked as well on Windows Mobile phones as it did on the desktop, Web, and iPhone, but this effort is the publisher's new personal best for the platform. Much more can be accomplished without leaving the application, but there's still room for growth.

For example, playing back a voice note requires you to download the audio first. That's a more time-consuming and space-sapping event than viewing an image or text note, especially if you created the recording from your phone in the first place and have simply used Evernote as a holding pen. I'd love to see Evernote host an instant-playback feature that can optionally just play the file without saving it.

Evernote's applications and basic 40MB bandwidth-per-month membership are free. A premium membership offering 500MB per month rings in at $5 per month or $45 for the year.