Springpad for Android – Review

Pros

• This is a cross platform app – iPhone/Android and the internet
• Notebooks, tags, flags
• Can look-up items e.g. books
• 3 types of widget
• Widgets customisable
• Easy sync

Cons

• Search is US centric
• No editing options within a note

I’m always on the look for a good note app. I’ve tried loads on Android – Evernote, Catch Notes, the built in app, Extensive Notes, Mobisle notes and Springpad.

Springpad is the app I want to talk about today, all these apps have their merits (a subject of another article), but Springpad has lots of interesting features.

Admittedly, some of these are available in other apps but some aren’t. These include a sophisticated look ups, a large number of note types and filters.

The app is available on Android, IOS and the web. Integration between all three is very good, though you do have to sign up (this is free). The sophisticated web version will push note types that are not available in the mobile app.

Like many of the modern note apps, Springpad allows you to create notebooks, within which you can add any of the types of note. These include tasks, lists (shopping, packing and checklists), look-ups for books, movies, TV shows, wine, recipes, albums and products and places. The lookups will find details of the item for you, most often from Amazon. This is handy because you then have many of the details added for you including a picture. The app will also look up local businesses and there is a barcode scanning look-up. Pictures can be added from the camera or gallery.

One nice touch is that you can add further notes and/or pictures and/or audio to existing notes. You can send items to Springpad through the Android share system. Thus, you can add bookmarks to events or items that the app cannot find for you. This does highlight that the search is US centric. It will find most products but they will be on Amazon.com. In addition, the app provides updates, such as price drops or tours the artist is doing or maybe TV appearances but they are all in the US.

The filter is very useful, you can list by tag or type and this can be done for all the notes or for a particular notebook. If you want to see this filter permanently, especially if you have a launcher with potentially loads of screens,  one of the widgets gives you the opportunity to add a full screen one which you can set the notebook (or all notes) and the type or tag. That way you could have a list of all the albums that you want to buy, on one of your home screens. The other widgets (Large or small) can be adjusted to show what buttons you like.

However, this is a very useful app, and I use it to record all the events and products that I am interested in. You can tag them, but also you can flag them which adds I want to see or similar and you can then mark this off once you have completed. Ratings can also be given and this shows that Springpad allows sharing amongst its own community; you can make notebooks private though.

This is one of my most used apps, which helps me keep track of my information. The fact that I can also see them on the web and do even more there is a bonus. All-in-all a must have app.