Software Review | Pear Note for iPad

Last week I was away at a Leadership Advancement Program at the University of Maryland. It was the first of two, two-day sessions. I brought my iPad along for note taking. Prior to class I purchased an app called Pear Note. Pear Note builds on the standard notes app by providing additional controls for tabs, bullets and numbering. However, the coolest feature is the ability to record the presentation / lecture - audio only - and it syncs with the notes you type. 

I’m note a great note taker, so the way I used it was to record the lecture and type the headings from the slides displayed on the board. We received a hardcopy of the slides in our binders. Now I can go back and look at the slides and if I want to hear that part of the lecture, I just tap on the slide heading in my notes and the audio will begin from that slide.

The version I downloaded had a bug that caused a crash when bullets were used. When I returned to my office and updated the iPad, there was a new version of Pear Note that fixed this bug.  Pear Note also works with Dropbox to backup your notes and audio files. That feature allows for sharing your files and provides some safety should your lose your iPad. 

There is also a version of the software for the Mac, which I haven’t bought yet. My understanding is it provides the same features as the iPad version, but also allows you to insert slides, photos and video into your notes.

It’s a great app, well worth the $5 from the iTunes app store.