Evernote — the once de-facto name among note-taking apps has today introduced version 8.0 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. This update introduces a wholly redesigned interface as well as a rethinking of the feature-set, and is a complete departure from the previous versions that had become too convoluted with needless, largely business-focused features.
Today’s release focuses on “speed and simplicity” by making it easier to create new notes as well as to search and organize them into Notebooks. If you’ve used the last few versions of Evernote, this update will be a refreshing experience for you. The most notable introduction in Evernote 8.0 is a new simplified tab-bar interface and much-needed elegance to the UI. Yep, the ugly green is gone.
The cluttered home screen has been removed completely and replaced with your feed of recently accessed notes in the first tab. You can quickly jump between notebooks or create a new one using the ‘All Notes’ dropdown at the top. The second tab has been dedicated for ‘Search’, which I found quite weird. There ought to be a good reason why Search isn’t just an icon in the top left, unless the company plans to introduce other features in here. You can create new text note by tapping the big green plus in the center, or tap & hold and then slide for audio, photo and reminder options. Towards the right are tabs for Shortcuts and Account. Thankfully, my biggest annoyance with the previous versions — the ‘Work Chat’ feature has been moved into the ‘Account’ tab where I can never use it.
Evernote 8.0 also introduces the ability to add bigger font-sizes and color to your notes. You can choose the size of any selected text to be either Small, Medium or Large and also choose between eight different colors.
If you’ve Evernote in the past, and it’s very likely that you have, you should definitely give Evernote 8.0 a try. This is an ambitious reboot from the company and looking at this release, I’d say it’s a great one.