Super Note: Voice Recorder and Notes review [iPhone]

People have quite different opinions about the best way to take notes. Some still prefer a scribble pad and a pen, even when they've got an iPhone in their pocket, while others need a full laptop keyboard to hammer down those important bullet points.

The iPhone itself does the bare minimum when it comes to taking notes, offering nothing more than ultra-basic Notes and Voice Recorder apps. Admittedly this isn't an operation that lends itself to a complex, feature-rich application, as by their very nature a note is a quick, simple recording of a thought as it whizzes through your brain and past your ear.

Super Note seems to understand this concept because it keeps its basic functions fast and easy to access. If it takes you two minutes to set up a new note, the moment has passed and you've likely missed another couple of thoughts while you were getting ready to record the first one. So this app is only ever a button press away from a blank sheet of virtual paper, and that's no bad thing at all.

But where it differs from the iPhone's lacklustre native apps is in presentation and intuitive organisation. Firstly, Super Note looks great. The buttons, backgrounds and animations are all very attractive, and are bolstered by solid function as well as great aesthetics.

Whenever you don't want a button, menu or keyboard cluttering the screen it can be tucked away to the side, above or below, leaving the screen real estate free and useable. This user-interface requires no explanation, as the expand and retract button for each menu or on-screen operation is obvious in its purpose.

These moveable menus include a four-section categorisation option that allows you to file the current note as a memo, lecture, note or meeting. Each category is colour coded, too, making it easy to spot the note you're looking for when viewing the overall list. This is actually a rock solid feature that could be expanded on with custom categories, which sadly the app doesn't offer.

Even if it was limited to four categories, being able to assign your own labels would be of massive benefit (notes and memos are more or less the same thing, after all), particularly for students who might want to make similar notes but for different topics. Still, the ease of use and great presentation still makes the categorisation an excellent addition to Super Note's armoury.

A close second, however, is the voice recording feature that's also activated from within a note using a single button press. The app begins recording from the iPhone's mic straight away, and attaches the recording to that particular note automatically. Should you want to make several voice recordings to one note, they're strung together with markers at the beginning of each phase, making it simple to jump to specific voice memos without things getting cluttered.

Your notes can be exported via email, Facebook or Twitter, though, the character limits of the latter two must be considered when writing your notes in the first place. Emailing attaches any voice recordings as individual files, using the Mac-focused CAF file type. For the most part this will be fine, but it's hard to imagine why the industry standard MP3 format isn't at least an option. Again, it's a small matter but that option could be a life saver for some users who don't favour QuickTime.

All in all, Super Note adds up to the beginnings of a super note taking app that manages to keep things wonderfully simple, yet intuitively functional. What it needs now is a small amount of user customisation to help you craft it into the memo app that best fits your specific needs.