Far more than a notepad, Evernote is a self-organizing file cabinet for all the info you care to keep. It’s Google for your brain. Chuck anything into it, and Evernote’s search finds it for you. It even reads text in photos; snap a business card or scribbled note, and fetch it later with a text search. Notes are stored at evernote.com, so you can also get at’em on the Web or with free desktop software, where you can also add files to your personal archive.

Worth a thousand words: Add text, photo, or voice notes, photos are especially easy ways to grab into from menus, books, sticks notes, or museum wall text – Evernote recognizes and indexes any text or handwriting in your pictures. Alas, Evernote doesn’t transcribe speech, but it’s voice memos are still convenient ways to leave yourself a reminder. Record up to ten minutes per note, and play them back when you’re ready.

leave the marker at home: Evernote does its work in business-like Helvetica instead of the funky marker felt font preferred by the built-in Notes app. You can also flip in on its side to edit in landscape view. Photos and recprded audio appear as attachments to a regular note; add descriptive text, or give it tags to add your own personal categories to the note. When you’re done, the app saves the note in your evernote.com account.

Head in the cloud: You can browse the titles and thumbnails of all notes offline, but because the full contents of each note are stored online, you need internet access to consult details except for recently viewed notes or those marked as favorites. Evernote lets you read attached documents, but with a catch: Free evernote.com accounts work only with PDF, images, and audio. Other file types require a paid account.

On the Map: When you add a note from your iPhone, Evernote grabs your current location, too, letting you browse notes by location. When you pass a store you’d like to visit, add a note, and the map feature will help you find it later. Or photograph the label of a tasty wine at a restaurant and quickly look it up if you want to order the same wine next time. You can also search notes or browse them by date, title, city, or country. (more…)