It seems that fresh app ideas are released by multiple developers close to the same time. I always wonder what the catalyst was for different groups around the world to start thinking through a particular issue needing a solution.

This is of particular interesting because I have spent the last couple weeks putting a variety of ‘Idea’ recording apps. There has been quick note apps available since the beginning of iOS apps. Recently, the simple note apps have gotten more features in the area of being a single location to enter text that can then be moved to other apps on the iPhone. Now, a new group of apps are making it easy to get your ideas out of your head, saving them for private use of share, and via the cloud have access to your notes across your multiple devices.

I tried to do a head to head, but they each have their own unique special features that don’t just drop into a comparison chart.

Today, it’s Catch. An app for the iPhone, iPad, Android and Web. All of the user tools are included for free. If you find you really pound on the service, there is several upgrade levels to allow for more storage and traffic (upload/download).

For Catch Notes (I love the iPhone UX, but find the iPad UX average), launch the app and choose from the lower center button if you will be adding a text note, adding an image (can be worth a thousand word when trying to remember something), create a Alarm, create a audio file or even start a checklist.

Tap the note option and start typing. Hashtags are good to add to your Catch notes for easier grouping and relating multiple notes to a single idea. Note in the Desktop/Cloud version above, a button is created on the left for each hashtag for fast group viewing. Notes added to the folder (called Spaces) ‘My Notes’ are private to you. Create more Spaces, each can be private or shared with others to view/edit.

Checklists can have more in them than just text, add photos, voice and alarms. These can be handy when sharing lists with others. Everyone in the shared group can add and edit the items in a list. Usual ToDo apps that allow sharing. limit all lists being shared with one group rather than each list being able to be shared individually. With Catch Notes, you actually sharing a folder (again ‘Spaces’) which can contain multiple documents.

Viewing your Catch Notes entered can be done by Folder, by tags and by ‘Favored’ (stars). Surprising is how many note apps don’t support Search. Text is searchable, but I find by adding simple ‘#’ keywords to notes I can find groups of notes both on mobile and desktop quicker.

Like I mentioned above, if you need to have more sharing spaces or more storage memory than the free account:

  • 3 spaces (private or shared notebooks)
  • +2 more when you create a Catch account
  • 70MB new content per month to cloud service
  • Text, web clips, photos, voice memos (no office document attachments)

there are Pro and Premier ‘for pay’ accounts available. My first thought was that I can just use my Evernote account for this though it too charges for this level of share as well the Evernote app isn’t made to get started entering a ‘Idea’ as fast as Catch Note.