In Part I of iPhone Notes Review, I looked at human factors behind notes (scenarios, goals, activities, and needs) to define requirements.  In Part II we looked at popular iPhone Notes applications that are currently available.  And in Part III, I describe two workarounds and reveal my final recommendation.

1. Popular Workaround: Using Contacts

 

The most popular workaround I have read across the web is to create a new contact in your addressbook and add text into the "Note" field.  Each contact can have a note for additional information.  It turns out that the entry, edit and view experience is surprisingly good for a workaround.  Let's look at it in further detail:

The Good

• Offline Capability - Being able to access your notes with slow or no connection was a common complaint among many iPhone users especially those that came from smart phones like the Palm Treo.  And although application like Noter claims offline capabilities, using contacts is just more reliable.
• Synchronization - Smart phone users have become used to desktop synchronization on features like to do lists and notes.  Using the contacts workaround makes your notes sync-able again with your PC.
• Immediate Entry - Create a new contact, type a name such as "my grocery list", tap save, tap "Add Field" then tap on "Note" to type in information.   The initial entry might take a couple of additional steps but it sure beats having to wait for the page to load, especially when the connection is slow.
  
• Ease of Access - Prefix the name of each note with a number or a letter (see above picture) and have them all appear at the same place
• Transferable - Sync, and you have updated information between your desktop and device, *aah* just like what we had in our older smart devices
  

The Bad

• Sync Dependent - After going through the default iPhone Notes program which doesn't have synchronization, this capability feels like a godsend.  However, it doesn't take advantage of the wireless capabilities that the iPhone has.
• Integration Options - For those that use Outlook contacts often, using it to store notes there gives you just the integration you need.  For those that use other options such as Windows Addressbook (like myself), we'd like to see more options available to synchronize with the tools that we use on a daily basis.
• Text limitation - iPhone owners complained that there is a limitation on the amount of text when synchronizing from the desktop to the iPhone.  I did run a test and found that it captured about 1530 characters and roughly 300 words.  If you store a good amount of information in your notes, Contacts may not not be the way to go.

2. Unsung Workaround Hero: Email Drafts

   

When I discovered this approach, my inner geek screamed in joy!  There are others who have posted about this workaround, but I haven't heard this idea nearly as much as the contact notes approach.  The trick is to start an email draft and tap on "cancel".  Then a prompt will appear whether you'd like to save.  This allows you to save the note, even while you are offline!  Let's dive in:

The Good:

• Offline Capability - As it generally should be, email on the iPhone is still very functional while you are offline.  Try turning on airplane mode.  You can still access whatever emails were last downloaded onto your device and make edits to an email draft or compose a new email. 
  
• Wireless Sync - Email will sync wirelessly whenever a connection exists.  At a computer that isn't your own and see a piece of information you'll need later?  Put it in your web email's drafts folder and go to your iPhone email drafts folder.  It will download just as you'd expect for any email draft, but you can use this approach to store notes that you'll need later.  No need for your usb cable, or your main PC to sync a note.
• Immediate entry - Because of the offline capabilities, add new information without waiting.  To edit an existing note that you recently updated from your desktop, you might have to wait for a few seconds for all the changes to download first.  But if your last edit was done on the iPhone, there is no need to wait.
• Ease of Access - As I mentioned earlier, just go to your drafts folder when you have a wireless connection, and you have your most recent note updates.
  
• Integration with Your Everyday Tool - All the information is stored in your everyday email tool, this is especially powerful when using email on the web.  Gmail and this combination works wonders for me.
  

The Bad

• List View isn't optimized for Note - Since you are in an email application, obviously, not everything is optimized for notes.  As you can see above, you end up seeing "No Recipient" in your drafts box and the list of your notes isn't as clean as using contacts or of course much of the other web app alternatives discussed in Part II.

User Interface Thoughts

• Text Input - Both of the above workarounds maximize the amount of space alloted to enter information, which wasn't easy to come by with web based applications.  Being able to edit information was also a breeze for both of these workarounds.  There were no scrolling headaches like the ones I encountered with some of the web apps, which appear to be more of a limitation on the mobile safari browser with multi-line textboxes.
• Text View - Both approaches allow you to view the entire contents well. With the contacts note, you have the advantage of seeing the note without having your on screen keyboard up.  If you take a look at the top right most screenshot on this post, you will see that the format of how the note is displayed doesn't utilize the entire width of the screen.
  

Final Recommendation

After trying a dozen applications, here are my final "notes" on the subject.  If you usually have your iPhone stored where it syncs frequently and you use the tool that manages your contacts often (like Outlook or Mail software on your Mac), the contact note workaround maybe your best bet.  However, if you don't sync as often and you like being able to add and edit notes from any PC between web based and iPhone email wirelessly, I would definitely recommend the email drafts workaround.  The web apps face a tough battle to offer keen advantages over the above two workarounds, but if I were to pick a web app, I would go with Pogo Notes.  My personal tool of choice for notes?  I love the wireless synchronization with the email drafts workaround and have been using it for the past few weeks now as a satisfied user.  Which one is your favorite workaround or application?