Evernote Hello - A review

I have looked again recently at Evernote Hello and I must say I am pleasantly surprised.

I am always looking for better ways of managing contacts and dealing with all the business cards that you receive at conferences and as a result of the numerous meetings I have with vendors.  I tried specific apps that didn't seem to work, lost data just when you wanted it and had inconsistent synchronisation. 

I looked at Evernote Hello when it was first released but felt that its user interface was a little clunky and the method of collecting new contacts didn't fit my way of interacting with people during meetings.  I eventually ended up just scanning business cards straight into a contacts notebook in Evernote.

However with a recent new release on the iPhone I felt it was about time for a new look at this app.  For Premium Evernote users (which I am)  the app now adds the ability to scan business cards and instantly convert them to Hello contacts, with an automatic check against LinkedIn at the same time.  This works really well and the quality of the scan is the best I have seen yet.  The interpretation of the business card information has also been faultless so far.

The data can then be synched into your address book and with your Evernote account. Each contact being presented as a nicely formatted note in the desktop client. The interface is very slick and notes are associated with meeting and locations and delivered as a timeline, which is an interesting idea.  There are other methods of entering data including Hello Connect which allow two or more users of Hello to all swap contact information, which I haven't tried yet.

Overall I am impressed and will continue to work with the app as a premium Evernote user it is a bit of a no brainer. Unfortunately the latest release is not yet available on Android although Evernote say they are working on it.

Do you use Evernote Hello? Have you tried it?

Just started using Evernote? Then I strongly recommend that you get Evernote Essentials. Brett Kelly’s excellent ebook is a great way to get started, and will save you a lot of time. It will quickly get you to the point where you can get the most out of Evernote

Peak meetings - A meeting tool for the iPad

Something I have just found after a search as part of a response to many of my colleagues requests for suggestions on which apps they should be using in an office environment for taking notes on their iPads, especially during meetings.  On first try it seems to take a refreshing and inventive approach.  I am going to be piloting myself for a while and if it proves as useful as it promises it will be going on to the recommended apps list.

Anyone had experience of using this app in an enterprise environment?

Slideshark - An enabler of iOS for the business?

Slideshark may be one potential solution for the iPad PowerPoint mess.

IT departments struggle with the confilicting demands of providing access to mobile tools while maintaining some level of regulatory, compliance and information security control.  They also have to deal with a growing number of users who are enabled with these devices but who suddenly find it difficult to present or display Powerpoint slides from their device. They can display but if they want original formating and animations then they are largely disapointed. 

These frustrating users then come to IT for help and it can be very challenging managing this demand and to find the time to evaluate suitable tools. One potentialy solution that I am currently evaluating is SlideShark. This app has big potential for transforming how PowerPoint presetations are used on iOS devices. SlideShark for iPad seems an ideal medium for easy and quick presentations in a conference room, providing a neat and well designed interface. Lots of potential.

However as neat a solution this might be, like many solutions it requires submitting content into the cloud which causes an instant problem and discussion point around information security and the mobility management discussion circle starts again.

Have you used SlideShark? Do you use it in an Enterprise setting? What has your experience been? 

Starting with Evernote - Find your first use case!

If you really want to get the value of Evernote you need to fill it with stuff.

I had a number of false starts with Evernote when I first investigated it for storing all my stuff.  Recently came across this article on Lifehacker where the author had some of the same challenges as me. The number one thing to do to start seeing the value is to start adding notes.  

The game changer for me as a fairly frequent air traveller was capturing all my e-tickets and having these available on my mobile.  This proved useful on a number of occasions. Once I  started adding copies of passports, visa confirmations, hotel reservations it became even more useful.

What was your initial use case?

Just started using Evernote? Then I strongly recommend that you get Evernote Essentials. Brett Kelly’s excellent ebook is a great way to get started, and will save you a lot of time. It will quickly get you to the point where you can get the most out of Evernote

Evernote - All file types for all users

Evernote have recently announced that they have lifted the file type restrictions for free accounts. Previously free users had been limited to putting only text, image, audio and PDF files into their notes. If you wanted to store Microsoft Office files in Evernote for instance you needed to upgrade to a Premium account. That restriction is now gone, so both free and premium service users can attach any type of file they like to a note!

Just started using Evernote? Then I strongly recommend that you get Evernote Essentials. Brett Kelly’s excellent ebook is a great way to get started, and will save you a lot of time. It will quickly get you to the point where you can get the most out of Evernote

Significant Additional Value

In my opinion this is a significant increase to the value of the free account.  To me it is critical given that as I am choosing Evernote to be my Knowledge/Information/Reference store that I can add productivity application documents that I generate or collect.  So to add this capability to the free account really improves tha capability of the Evernote platform for those users.

There is no additional increase in the upload allowance for free users however.  Attaching a lot of documents to notes will quickly use up the free allowance so be careful.  One tip is to initially store files in a local notebook (one that doesn't get synced with the cloud) unless you are sure you will need access to a document from anywhere.  You can always move a file to a synced notebook later. 

Use Live Update to maintain documents

One really nice Evernote feature, that removing the file restrictions really opens up for free account users, is Live Update!  Using Live Update means that you can reflect any changes made to a file that is attached to a note.  So for instance you might store a draft presentation in Powerpoint, and whenever you do some more work on the presentation, Evernote will always have the latest updated version.  

To use the Live Update feature, all you need to do is right-click on a file within a note and choose "Open With", then choose the application you want to use to view or modify that file. Once you've made the desired changes to the file, just save it using the application's "Save" option and Evernote will automatically be updated with the latest version of the file.

This works for images, PDFs, PowerPoint presentations, Excel spreadsheets - the works - great huh!

What file types do you store in Evernote?