There are quite a few note taking applications available on the Market.  They are all different and it is not always easy to find the one that suites you best. I have previously reviewed some of these applications in the Quick Notes post . Today I want to have a look at the Notification Notes – one of many programs for note taking. The main point of difference of this applications is its ability to show active notes as icons in the system bar. User gets an option to select an icon when new note is created. Very useful functionality…

The application is free and you can find the QR-code at the end of the review. Notification Notes is very easy to use – when you click on the program icon or select the application in the system bar, a new note window will open. You’ll need to enter the name of the note, which will be displayed in the system bar, and a description. There doesn’t seem to be a limit on a number of characters in the description field, so you can write very large notes if required.

When creating a note, you will be given an option to select an icon for it. There are about 40 icons available to users, all of which are beautifully drawn and look great on all displays, including WVGA screens. You can see some examples on the screenshots.

You can always check active notes in the system bar (selected icons), or if you pull the bar down, the notes will be displayed as separate lines. Alternatively, you can open the complete list of notes in the application itself.

Conclusion: This is a very simple program for quick creation of small reminders for daily use. Notification Notes is not suitable for dozens of notes and reminders for the whole week, and if you keep this in mind you will be able to find plenty of ways to use the application.

Today I want to have a look at two programs that allow you to quickly create notes. The programs are Magic Marker and DrawNoteK. Neither of these applications allows you to use keyboard to type notes, only drawings are allowed. Basically both programs are very simple drawing editors. Both applications have very similar functionality, the differences are only in some instruments.

DrawNoteK
All you can see when you open DrawNoteK is a white screen, which is ready to be scribbled on.

It is quite hard to create accurate and detailed notes using fingers,  but DrawNoteK is not designed for this. Just have a look at the simplicity of the drawing tools. To prepare the note, you can choose the drawing color (pen menu), completely clear the screen or save the note. That’s it. But simplicity is a good thing if you all you want to do is scribble quick notes.

What I liked:

• Simple interface
• Fast loading time (there is no loading screen, program just opens in the main window and is ready for work)

What I didn’t like:

• I wouldn’t mind few more options (e.g. ability to change the size of the pen)

Conclusion:

If you are looking for a simple and fast note taking tool, give DrawNoteK a try. It is free and can be downloaded from the Market.
Magic Marker
The second program greets you with the black screen with a few drawing tools at the bottom. Instead of a pen, you will be using a neon marker to write notes.

Depending on a device there could be a small lag between you touching the screen and the program displaying the result. This lag is quite negligible on faster devices (like Nexus One) and does not affect the operations.

In Magic Marker you can use almost the whole palette to choose a color. You can also change the thickness of the marker. Unfortunately there are no options to choose a different drawing tool.

There are Undo and Redo buttons, which I found very useful, and a Clear screen button.

There is an option to send a note to your friends using some of the programs installed on the smartphone. In order to do this, you will need to first save the note.

One of the cool features of Magic Marker, is the possibility of drawing on the photos. You can select any image saved on your device and draw on it.

What I liked:

• Clear and user-friendly interface
• Undo and Redo functionality
• Marker customisation options
• Ability to share notes
• Ability to draw on pictures

What I didn’t like:

• Slight lag
• Slower load time

Conclusion:

Magic Marker provides more options and cool features than the DrawNoteK. In general this is a very funky and user friendly application. However the load time is much longer and there are some performance issues.

In general, the sensitivity and quality of notes created in both programs is on a similar level. Both applications will allow you to create quick notes on the run. The main question is whether you need this functionality, or is it easier to use the keyboard to type a note.