Online Web Notes - UberNote Blog

Calling all API developers and Project Ideas

2011-04-20T20:29:00.000-04:00

In the past few months, we have built a early version of an UberNote API. We are looking for developers who are interesting in building on top of it.

This is an early preview where you'll get direct access to the UberNote developers and decision makers. We already have a few in the program and are looking to expand to get more feedback before we publicly release the API. Please email in to feedback@ubernote.com subject "API Program"

Feature Ideas
We are also looking for ideas for features / products people want to see out of the UberNote API. Some ideas that have been submitted are:

- App to Backup Notes Offline
- Chrome Toolbar
- Sync Files to UberNote

Some of the developers in the program are looking for simple apps to develop. If you have some ideas send them in to feedback@ubernote.com subject "Project Ideas"

First UberNote Android App

2011-04-14T01:32:00.002-04:00

We are happy to announce the first UberNote Android App. Many thanks for Kevin at AppBrewer who is the author. You can find it here or search in the Android Market for "UberPad" or "UberNote"

AppBrewer is one of our new development partners. If you have an Eye-Fi and an Android phone, also check out his other app MoPhotos.

Appbrewer is also working with us on our new API and will be developing a better native app. If you are a developer and are interested we are looking for more developers to develop apps and give us feedback. To inquire about the program email us at feedback@ubernote.com with the title "API Program".

Survey Results : Best UberNote Feature

2011-04-10T22:37:00.000-04:00

The results are in!

1. It just works - 38%
2. Overall Web Interface - 18%
3. Sending in notes from other locations - 17%
4. Interactive Information - 14%
5. Other - 13%

Thanks to everyone who responded!

Survey: Best UberNote Feature

2011-04-04T22:12:00.001-04:00

The survey is complete. Please see the results

UberNote for Power Users

2011-04-04T01:13:00.005-04:00

Hi guys, Dan here. I'm one of the original founders of UberNote, along with Josh (posting here as hozer). From the very beginning we have been productivity-app power users. We use the tools we choose day in and day out and we use them to their fullest capability. This goes for everything we use, including UberNote.

Why am I talking about this now? Well we know that we have tons of power users. In fact we probably have more power note-takers per 1000 users than any other note app out there. We stepped up to the plate when Google Notebook went dark and took in thousands of power-user refugees via the notebook import tool. We feel your pain when it comes to finding something that can handle thousands and thousands of notes and daily use. Many of our competitors' apps will choke if you have a lot of notes. I know, because I've tried to pull some 8,000 notes along with me into the cloud before UberNote existed. Now that number is closer to 15,000 and I know that nothing else out there on the web will handle this like UberNote.

Not a power user? You still win. Everything we do to create a great experience for the most demanding 10% of our users benefits everyone.

However, we know we can do even better. We can make things simpler and cleaner while still giving you the ability to handle massive amounts of data. Apple proved that a great user experience and raw power are not mutually exclusive. We are working on some incremental changes that should speed things up and also make using the app more enjoyable.

Updated Firefox 4.0 Compatible Toolbar

2011-04-01T14:09:00.007-04:00

We've just submitted our updated toolbar to Mozilla our update but it has not be reviewed or approval yet.

You are welcome to try it here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ubernote-toolbar/versions/

It's now been approved. Check it out here

Let us know if you have any issues

Update: Small UI Change = Big Impact

2011-03-27T22:31:00.002-04:00

Tonight we released a small change that we hope you notice in a big way.

In our testing some early users knew something was different, but couldn't always place their finger on it. Most of the comments were something like:

"It just feels easier to read."

"The app feels lighter and less dense."

"This is great! How many changes did you make?"

For us, this was more proof that effort is not equal to value and return. We are looking for more of these opportunities in UberNote development.

Can you immediately spot the change?

How I use UberNote: Streaming the Chaos

2011-02-24T00:50:00.000-05:00

At UberNote we love hearing user stories (especially the odd and obscure ones). A few weeks ago we posted this one about one of our cross country moves. Here is mine:

About Me
UberNote is essential to the way my organization (or lack there of) works. I'm creative and a bit scatterbrained. I'm one of those people who on the outside doesn't look organized at all, but I know where just about everything is.

What I put in UberNote
UberNote helps me have a place for every idea large and small. Everything from where I should install vent fans in multiple bathrooms to the next best idea for SEO on my website. It's not uncommon for me to just lay in bed about to go to sleep and a random thought hits me and BAM I'm off to the computer to complete the idea in my new note.

I currently have over 2000 notes and UberNote serves the up very well. Now, how many of these are useful? Probably less then 20%, but knowing they are there and I have access to them all at will is very comforting.

Favorite Features
I abuse the search and couldn't live without the auto-save.

Least Favorite Feature
I don't use tags very much. Honestly, if they were to disappear from the app (don't worry they won't) I don't think I would miss them one bit.

Coolest thing I could see doing with UberNote
UberNote practically has a constant stream of where my brain was at over the past few years. I've always wanted to visually see how my thoughts have moved over the course of time. The data is there, I'm just not sure how I could represent it... It would be interesting. I should write a note about it!

Tell us about the time when UberNote really saved your butt or helped you we would love to hear about it and post it. Send them to feedback@ubernote.com or use our form

How UberNote protects your data

2011-02-20T22:49:00.012-05:00

There are some things we take as a given around here at UberNote, and one of them is the obsessive care with which we treat all of the data that all of you are entrusting to us.

We have been asked, "where are my notes actually stored?". The answer is, they are hidden deep within our secret volcano lair, with backup copies on our nuclear-powered sub that we can escape with in case something happens to the lair. Our minions work tirelessly making backups of each note and storing them away safely.

Well, not really, but the reality isn't that far off. We have dedicated server hardware running in a secure data center with redundant power and cooling staffed by minions that do our bidding. Well not the minions part, they do what we tell them but that's just because we give them money.

The servers we run have multiple hard disks so that in case one goes bad, the other steps in to take the load automatically without skipping a beat. We have our minions pop in a new drive and you never notice anything. All data is backed up every single day to multiple locations including one location that is in yet another secure data center.

All of this is before we get to the UberNote features like automatic note versioning and the trash can that keep you from inadvertently losing data while using the app.

What this means in the end is that your data is a whole lot safer with us than it would be sitting on your hard drive, although you can download all of your notes from us as well if you're super obsessed with redundancy like we are.

Eliminating distractions with Ubernote

2011-02-14T00:04:00.004-05:00

We at UberNote are huge productivity geeks. We are always trying to figure out ways to get things done more efficiently and effectively. Heck, that's why we wrote UberNote in the first place! One productivity hack that has become popular is the fullscreen "distraction-proof" word processor. Programs like WriteRoom for the Mac and DarkRoom for the PC let you edit fullscreen without distractions. But, who wants to install yet another piece of software just for fullscreen editing?

A few weeks ago, we showed you how to use UberNote like Notepad. Well, UberNote makes a pretty awesome fullscreen editor using this single-note feature and the browser's ability to run full screen.

I'm using Google Chrome, but this trick works in all modern browsers.
Starting with an UberNote note, find the single-note pop out icon in the upper-right corner of the note.

Clicking on this will open a new browser window with just the selected note inside. You may have to disable the popup blocker for this to work. In Chrome, here is how I did it:

Once the new window pops up, if you are on Windows just hit F11, and on Mac, use Command+Shift+F. Behold, glorious undistractedness:

We use UberNote for all sorts of document editing tasks, not just notes. The beauty of it is that you never have to leave UberNote's power of tagging and searching behind!

From the Feedback Box: February 2011

2011-02-09T20:41:00.000-05:00

This is a new series of blog posts of comments and submissions we are proud to share from the feedback box.

"I'm really excited to find that UberNote has got apps linked to 'iGoogle',etc.,allowing to 'Directly email my notes' and also providing to 'Add Bookmarks'"

"I love this site it is amazing thanks to you I am getting all A's in my classes"

"I love ubernote!! So easy to use compared to others; i have tried many in the past year."

"This is a very cool feature. In fact, it's time UberNote get more attention from a site like Lifehacker. They rave about Evernote (too complex) and Springpad (too graphical) - UberNote is just right. I hope the coming premium features will bring you much success. "

"I would like to commend the efficiency if ubernote! I'm a customer care representative and I find this site very helpful!Not only the auto-save feature but also the history feature when you accidentally lost the information you just put in minutes ago or ten days ago!...I totally recommend this website for you all!"

Server Upgrades

2011-02-02T13:52:00.002-05:00

We've recently upgraded the UberNote Servers to account for our increased growth. Faster disk IO and more space!

With the new upgrades we hope to continue to provide a fast and reliable service.

Ubernote Power Tip: Run as Standalone Desktop App in Chrome

2011-01-26T23:27:00.010-05:00

I know that there are a lot of UberNote power users out there (myself certainly included - I hit 8,000 notes just a few days ago!), so I thought it was time to start a series of "power tips".

UberNote is an extremely flexible Web application as we showed you in the last post on single-note editing. There are a lot of tricks we can do to enhance our productivity. One of my favorites is running the main UberNote Web application in its own standalone window without any browser toolbars or anything else to get in my way. Another benefit of doing this is that I get a quick launch shortcut on my desktop.

The process I'm going to show you next deals with the Google Chrome browser. Other browsers can do something similar, but to keep this short, I'll only cover Chrome for now.

Step 1 - Browse to your notes in UberNote

This step should be reasonably self-explanatory, but double check that the website location looks like what is hightlighted in the screenshot below:

Step 2 - Create application shortcut

Refer to the following screenshot to bring up the dialog that creates the desktop shortcuts:

The dialog that comes up allows you to select several different shortcut types to create:

Step 3 - Launch UberNote standalone using the new shortcut

Double-clicking on the newly created shortcut will launch your notes immediately:

The standalone UberNote looks like this:

Pretty awesome, right? No toolbars or extra baggage, just pure note-taking goodness. Another advantage to having a separate window is that your notes won't get buried in the rest of the tabs that are open, allowing you to move back and forth much more easily.

Hopefully you've enjoyed this tip. Keep an eye on our blog - there is more to come.

Feature: Single Note Editing

2011-01-23T23:34:00.000-05:00

Recently we were asked about using UberNote as a replacement for Notepad. This person usually had a keyboard shortcut key to quickly bring up a Notepad window to enter a new note.

To use UberNote like this all you need to do is create a shortcut with this link in it: http://www.ubernote.com/webnote/client/StandaloneEditor.aspx?noteid=NEW_NOTE

The link will create a new note in the full editor, complete with autosaving and formatting. It's basically the same editor that is inside the app. Each time you go to that link a brand new note will be created and saved. (Be careful not to close the note too fast, there is a few seconds of time that has to pass after you start typing so UberNote knows when to save. You can see the text indicator in the top right to know that the save is complete)

Also if you want to access the same note over and over again, you can open a specific note and bookmark the link. If you are in the full UberNote app and have a note opened there is a icon in the top right corner of the note that allows you to break out the note into a standalone editor. The format looks a lot like the one above except is has the note ID in it. Just bookmark or copy that URL.

(If a note doesn't pop out, you may want to look into allowing a pop up from UberNote. For Chrome: http://www.google.com/support/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=95472
For FireFox http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/pop-up%20blocker)

UberNote Mobile Updated (iPhone, Android, Blackberry, iPad, Pre, PalmOS)

2011-01-17T00:26:00.000-05:00

We are happy to announce an major update to the UberNote mobile website.

There are significant improvements over the previous version. If you had the old one bookmarked, please update it to:

m.ubernote.com

Quick Launch

Simplified User Experience

Quick Launch Home Page; where you can easily search, add a note, Recent Notes
Simplified down to essential functionality

Mobile and Touch Friendly

Mobile / Touch friendly sized text and icons
Adjusts layout when switching to landscape
Compatible with major mobile devices and operating systems (iPhone, Android, Blackberry, iPad, Pre, PalmOS)

"That's great but where is the iPhone or Android App?"

Stay tuned, we are working on it. But in the meantime, the new mobile site works really well on the iPhone and Android. If you don't know how, we found this great resource that tells you how you can add a bookmark to your home/launch screens on the iPhone or Android.

Enjoy!!!

How UberNote helped me move across the country

2011-01-16T19:57:00.006-05:00

Moving can be hectic and stressful and you'll want every tool at your disposal to make sure that everything goes smoothly. One of the most important pieces of information during the move is what is in all of those boxes!

I just completed a move across the country with my fiance and here is how we used UberNote to track all of our stuff during the move:

1 - I created a new note and shared it with my fiance so that we could both edit the note.

2 - Every time one of us started a new box, we gave it a number and added the box to the shared note. It was easy to see what numbers were already being used since I could see all of my fiance's boxes too.

3 - The major items that went into the boxes were recorded so that we could find out where everything was once it came time to unpack everything.

4 - On move day, when the movers assigned numbers to the boxes, we added those numbers to the list as well so if one box went missing we knew what would be inside.

5 - When all of our boxes arrived and we started to unpack, we prioritized the boxes to unpack first since we knew what was in them all on our mobile phones thanks to having stored everything in UberNote!

Packing and unpacking is a painful process, but with the right mindset and the right tools, you can sail right through it. Let us know how UberNote has helped you with a daunting task!

Image source - mava

UberNote Mobile Beta Testers Needed

2011-01-14T20:25:00.001-05:00

~~We are looking for UberNote users to test the new UberNote Mobile site.~~

~~We've tested it on anything we could get our hands on; Android Devices, iPhone, Palm Pre and some other random mobile devices.~~

~~There are significant improvements over our current version.~~

~~Simplified down to essential functionality~~
~~Mobile / Touch friendly sized text and icons~~
~~Adjusts layout when switching to landscape~~

Before we release to the mass public, we are looking for some feedback on other devices we don't have access to. If you want to try it go to http://mtest.ubernote.com you can use your standard user names and passwords as it is connected to your normal account.

~~Any changes made here will be on your normal account as well.~~

~~Please send feedback to http://www.ubernote.com/webnote/pages/feedback.aspx or email us directly at feedback (at) ubernote.com screenshots are helpful!~~

~~Thanks~~

Thank you for your help! The latest version is now up at http://m.ubernote.com

Throwback UberNote Feature: Bookmarklets

2011-01-05T11:26:00.000-05:00

We've been a bit behind on our browser extensions updates. In place of making a Chrome version or updating our Firefox extension at this time, I thought I would take the time to mention an older feature we did a long time ago.

The UberNote Bookmarklet! It's an oldie but a goodie from back in the early days when Delicious was growing instead of being threatened of going down

We often forget about some of the great things we did years ago. The bookmarklet even allows you to do a bit of tagging after the fact! Check it out here.

Three Big Ways UberNote Can Help You Plan For 2011

2011-01-03T15:03:00.000-05:00

UberNote is the ideal tool to help you plan for 2011. Here are three big ways UberNote can help:

1. Keep track of your resolutions
UberNote is an ideal place to track your resolutions. Here are a few ideas of ways to use UberNote to track your resolutions:

Start a note with each of your new year resolutions
Update each resolution throughout the year so you can track your progress
Revisit the resolutions as you make progress or changes to them
Review them at the end of the year before you make new ones

2. Create more resolutions

Your past thoughts and notes are a great place to come up with new resolutions.

Read through last year's notes to see where your thinking was
Pivot from those thoughts to create attainable goals

3. Plan more than resolutions

UberNote is great for planning projects. Gathering bookmarks and your own notes for research on projects, helps to keep everything regarding a project together.

Plan home remodeling projects
Plan how you want to manage your garden next year
Plan meals and to do lists for that next big event

Should UberNote publish an API?

2010-11-18T10:45:00.000-05:00

We have internally debated the question many times since UberNote began: Should UberNote publish an API?

Many websites and web apps have had growth related to having an open API but we are not sure what people will actually do with an UberNote API. Only a few things come to mind, but mostly because we haven't developed them ourselves yet. Items like an offline viewer, iPhone App, Android App, Blackberry App are all good features to have.

There have been a few people who have contacted us and we reply and ask for more details about what they would like to do. So if any of you are out there please email feedback@ubernote.com with the subject "UberNote API" if you are serious about participating in API program.

Advertising Launched

2010-10-25T23:32:00.000-04:00

With the recent release of Supporter Version to UberNote. We have also added advertising in the web app for the free version.

Thank you to our first round of advertisers who placed ads pre-launch.

If you are an advertiser and interested in trying us out, please contact us here

Update: Supporter Version Launched

2010-10-18T23:59:00.006-04:00

We are pleased to announce the launch of the UberNote Supporter Version. For a cost of $29 per year you can upgrade your account to the UberNote Supporter Version and get the following features:

Secure connection
No advertisements
Warm and fuzzy feeling

With this update you'll also notice that free accounts now have advertising and all logins (free and supporter) are secure. Register Here

How Can I Support UberNote?

2010-08-30T19:39:00.006-04:00

Users often ask us how they can help support UberNote so it stays around forever. We've always responded with, tell your friends about UberNote! Soon there will be a better way to directly support UberNote and the team that has worked hard to develop and maintain the product so many love.

Supporter Version to Launch Soon (+ Ads in Free version)

Within the next few weeks we will be launching the Supporter Version of UberNote which will include:

- Secure encrypted connection (SSL / HTTPS)
- No advertisements
- A warm and fuzzy feeling for supporting UberNote

This will all be available for a small yearly fee. If you have questions or comments please make them on this form.

There is no need to worry, the Free Version is not going away. As you may have noticed we mentioned "No advertising". Once the Supporter Version launches we will be incorporating advertising into the Free Version of UberNote. We chose not to launch ads until we gave the users an alternative method to remove the ads (Supporter Version).

Any publishers that are interested in advertising on UberNote please read about it and contact us here.

Thank you for your support so far and by subscribing to the Supporter Version we can continue to make UberNote a better and better product. Until then one of the best ways to support us is to tell your friends and keep sending us feedback.

August 26th Update

2010-08-26T22:24:00.003-04:00

Improved Search
- Faster results
- Improved results (including tags and better matches)
- Cleaner layout
- Sortable results (sort by best match, modified date and create date)

Note Helper Sidebar
- Displays recently opened notes for fast switching between notes
- Displays recent searches for fast viewing of different search results

Layout Changes
- Search is now on the top (where everyone can find it)
- Wider left side bar for longer tags and text
- More items on your dashboard (by popular request)

Use Twitter to Add Notes to UberNote

2010-03-03T19:14:00.004-05:00

We have made some recent some updates to UberNote's Twitter functionality, for all you Twitter users.

You can now add @uberadd to any tweet and the tweet will be added to your notes.

If you've never used our Twitter functionality be sure to follow these steps:

1. Log into UberNote
2. Click on Settings and Tools in the top right.
3. Click on Twitter add/edit
4. Add your Twitter name
5. Tweet as normal then add an @uberadd
6. Your tweet should then show up in your notes within a few minutes

Remember, if you can tweet, you can add a note!

(The previous method of direct messaging DM @uberadd will still add a tweet to your notes.)