Thing 9

Evernote could be what I've been looking for all my adult life. I love tools that make your life easier for you.

As it saves screenshots, you don't have the issue of going back to a webpage some months later to find it's no longer there. It's also very helpful that all the notes that you add can be accessed from any computer or device you happen to use.

I am yet to get to the Thing about referencing tools, but I can see how useful it would be for a student doing some research - or just putting all their notes together. The ability to create and save audio notes on an iPhone (not sure about other phones) is also great if you have one.

I certainly would have found Evernote helpful over a year ago when I was doing my postgraduate degree. There's even something called StudyBlue that works with Evernote and allows students to create flashcards from their notes. How cool is it to be a student these days, eh?

I haven't used Evernote for a month but I think the account data limits are more than sufficient. Maybe if you were saving a lot of images you would need to upgrade.

Possible drawbacks...well one of the first web pages I tried to save (timeout.com) did not save as I don't have a subscription with them. That's probably not that common though. There's currently just a choice between two browsers for a web add on - Firefox or Google Chrome. So, as far as I can see, you can't save web pages on an iPhone or Android phone. Maybe you would need to email the page to Evernote instead...

Also, I linked to my Facebook account but they asked for permission to access all my notes even when I am not using Evernote. So, if you value your privacy, don't get accounts with sites like these!

I also noticed that they had automatically signed me up to their marketing emails and that of other companies, so look out for that if you sign up.

It would be good to write again about Evernote at the end of this course and question if it really has changed my life for the better! Sites like Pushnote I really haven't gone back to since signing up for them. I think that it is more likely that I will stick with something that helps me in my everyday life rather than confuses me with more friends to add and feeds to follow...