Two Great iPad Apps: Taking Notes and Reading Articles Made Easy

The iPad has changed the way that I work, and it has truly become the computer device that I have always wanted. It is allowing me to be more focused on my work, keep organized, and feed my insatiable need for information, as it has become known my “media diet”. The iPad like all computers is just a highly designed frame and platform, although out of the box it does allow for email, web surfing, and a few other basic tasks what drives the iPad are apps downloaded from the integrated app store.

The first app that I want to discuss is Evernote, a cloud based note-taking app. I have used Evernote for more than two years, well before I owned an iPad. The app allows for note taking, web clipping, and multimedia storage. (you can take a look at my WIC tutorial for Evernote here). Before I had an iPad, I would lug a laptop to meeting and be that guy clicking away while everyone else talked, or I would carry a variety of paper based notebooks which would then pile up on my shelves rarely referred to once they were full.  On the iPad Evernote really shines, for the first time I can really have all of my notes, files, and ideas in one easy place for meetings I hold in and out of the office. Since Evernote syncs with the notes that I take on my iPad they appear on my desktop, and are easily tagged and searchable allowing me to find ideas or thoughts in a neatly complied and accessible format. Evernote is free to download and use, on all platforms.

Next up is Goodreader, the ultimate article reader app for iPad. This intuitive app provides me with one place to read documents in almost any format, Word (.doc), Excel (.xls), Acrobat (.pdf), and even images and movies. What amazes me most about the app is its ability to provide a number of access points to load documents. It can connect to almost any cloud based server (Dropbox, Google Docs, etc), you can generate a Wi-Fi session and load documents directly from your desktop/laptop, or you can connect directly to your email account(s) and Goodreader will automatically pull only the messages with file attachments. On top of all this you can import a zipped file. The app will automatically unzip and prep the files for reading. Goodreader is just as it’s name implies a reader, you cannot edit a document.  But, you can annotate (only pdf docs) by highlighting, adding notes, and using other common tools for marking up a document. This makes the app perfect for reading academic articles and even grading student work. A recent update has allowed for your annotations to be sync’d back to the file server you have the document on, or you can always email the document right from the app as a file attachment. Goodreader does cost $4.99 (about the price of a grande soy latte)

I love my iPad! I am not ashamed to admit it, well I am a bit I did remove the “Sent from My iPad” from the mail program.