Hand Notes – Quickly Jot Anything

Here is a really simple, but useful app that has made it’s way to my Start screen. Hand Notes gives you a full screen canvas to jot anything with the tip of your finger. Good for us resistive screen folks still experiencing stylus withdrawal. The app opens quickly, ready to accept your input. Options are sparse but get the job done. There are buttons to; Clear the current image, Save the current image, and to toggle between Pencil and Eraser (Rubber). The eraser is broad and works well clearing the screen. Maybe my finger is simply too fat, but I would prefer an option to select the width of the pencil. When you tap Save, a screen opens with an option to accept the predefined file name or create your own. Images (jpg) are stored in your Saved Pictures folder. BTW, you need to save an image before closing the app, otherwise you will lose what’s on the screen. There is no way to access previous saved images from the app itself so you need to navigate to the Pictures Hub to retrieve an image. I would prefer that images were stored in their own folder accessible from the app, but the simple approach works. I use this app to quickly jot down a phone number, license plate or other basic information. Also fills in for a pen and napkin when you have that next “life changing” idea and need to jot it down.

From the developer:

The app can be found here for 0.99. You can download a Trial but it does not let you save any images so it’s a bit limited. Yeah, I know. Not much there for 0.99 but using ads in this case would definitely take away from the available real estate so I had to make an exception. I do hope the dev follows up with his promise of “regular updates coming”. BTW, I can’t explain this one, but the developer, Eden FX, created a second app, “Hand Write Notes” which is identical to Hand Notes, except the Start Tile is Orange instead of Yellow. So if you want to try this out, choose your color first.