My Daily Journal review [iPhone]

Journals are one of those things you always wish you'd made use of, but can't generally be bothered to get embroiled with right now. Reading them in years to come would be a nostalgic delight, naturally, so every day that creeps past unrecorded is another blank page to mourn in ten, twenty or thirty years to come.

New Year's resolutions always feel a bit more concrete and important when times are hard, and this year feels as hard as any we can think of since Margaret Thatcher retired to become a Hollywood icon. Keeping a diary is one of those self-appointed promises that crops up almost as regularly as going on a diet, and is just as quickly forgotten as January rolls on.

Perhaps, in these futuristic times, the paper and pen journal that made Bridget Jones and Adrien Mole so popular has had its day, and a new fangled app is the way to put your life into words. My Daily Journal does just that, and aims to bridge the techno-gap by offering a personal blogging experience that's as close to the traditional book as possible.

Each diary you create in My Daily Journal begins with the oh-so-important password, ensuring your thoughts, feelings and unjust rants remain firmly private. It then allows you to create just the right look to match your personality, which might sound superficial but is actually a very welcome aspect of both the app, and the writing duty it facilitates.

Choosing a colour theme, font, paper and style that best suits your tastes is a great way to help you enjoy a task that, at times, is going to feel like a chore. Opening a personalised book makes it feel like coming home, and helps immensely with integrating the job into your lifestyle.

An entry is made very easily, simply by tapping on today's blank page and starting typing. Portrait and landscape keyboards are included to make the text entry as smooth and friendly as possible.

By default, each new entry is given today's date, and the current time. At any point the date info can be edited, however, so you've every opportunity to catch up on yesterday's missed story, or to add bits of info here and there to your previous ramblings. It also means you can make multiple, individual entries on a single day, which is something of a rare feature in similar apps.

But just because My Daily Journal mimics a paper and pen journal in terms of style and use doesn't mean it ignores the technological aspects that are expected from any iPhone app. Since you intend to keep these scribbling for the rest of your life (if not longer) backing them up essential.

This is primarily achieved through a Dropbox sync, though, you can also export as a PDF, or fire out individual entries to Facebook or Twitter (assuming you don't mind going public with your dirty brain laundry). And should you want to add a bit of illustration to your day's events, photos can be imported from the Camera Roll to create a photo journal, as well as a written one. Nice.

Obviously My Daily Journal isn't going to find much traction with anyone who isn't in the market for a journal, as it won't substitute for a to-do list, for example, or a word processor, but as far as personal diaries go, this has everything you would need.