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 As the number of apps available for Apple's popular iPhone have exploded, there are now a growing number of programs that are designed to help you to capture ideas in an organized way. I recently discovered two of them: Thoughts by SuiteTouch and IdeaOrganizer from Nanaimo Studio.
These tools are impressive because they leverage all of the multimedia inputs of the iPhone to maximum advantage. In other words, if you see something (a sign, a storefront, a piece of merchandise, etc.) that inspires you, you can use the iPhone's built-in camera to take a snapshot of it and store it in your idea database. You can also record voide memos or type notes. If you have an iPod Touch like I do, I'm afraid you'll only be able to use these programs for storing text memos only.
Thoughts goes several steps farther than IdeaOrganizer in terms of functionality. It enables you to share your ideas with others, using a companion "Mobile Thoughts" account. You create this web account from within the Thoughts app; you can then access it from any browser by visiting the SuiteTouch website (the developer of Thoughts).
This capability is similar to EverNote, which I recently told you about. That remains number one in my opinion because of its cross-platform support for the iPhone, desktop PC and browser based app. Still, there's something mighty compelling about capturing ideas in audio and photographic forms...
When you login to your Mobile Thoughts account, you'll see a simple, well-organized interface that enables you to organize your ideas into folders, as well as send e-mail invitations to coworkers and colleagues to view your ideas.
Seen in this context, then, the Thoughts iPhone app is intended only to be the idea capture device. The developer has wisely decided to let the web app do the heavy lifting. Very impressive!
IdeaOrganizer, on the other hand, enables you to e-mail your ideas to others, and is designed around the philosophy that simple is best - if an idea capture tool contains too many bells and whistles, it will bog you down and you won't get in the habit of quickly capturing your ideas as they occur to you.
I think there's a lot more room for growth in this genre of apps - using the iPhone and iPod Touch as a tool for capturing ideas on the fly. I can't wait to see what's next. The only thing I haven't seen so far is the ability to record ideas as video clips. I'm sure that's coming soon, too! |
