As many other edubloggers may admit, I am occasionally sent a press release by companies that are hoping to tap into the “power of the blogosphere” by spreading the message of their fabulous new software to us bloggers. The assumption is that, we try out the software or website, write about it, and the company gains instant “street cred” with teachers for their product. In order to protect my readers, and fellow educators, from the consumerist propaganda of software that is too expensive or underpowered, I usually file all of those press releases in my digital trash can.
And then I read through an interesting press release from EverNote & Hitachi (yes, I usually read them before banishing them to oblivion). While I wasn’t terribly concerned with what Hitachi was doing (trying to sell a product), I was immediately fascinated by EverNote, a website that I hadn’t encountered previously. So I click on over, and found an amazingly powerful tool for middle and high school students, especially ones that are doing research and want a single digital place to keep all of their notes. resources, and websites. With Evernote’s FREE download (man, I never get tired of using that word “free”), you can save text, pictures taken from a camera phone, entire webpages, handwritten notes from a tablet PC, and text and images from online news stories in one convenient digital notebook. EverNote makes it all search-able, so you can flip through the resources like a digital scrapbook, or use keywords to find exactly what you want. It basically takes all of the random, unorganized information that anyone would gather while doing research, and puts it into an organized electronic notebook.
What’s so special about that, you say? You use Delicious to organize your bookmarks? This is so much more than just bookmarks. “Clipping” digital articles, incorporating your own typed notes, and then connecting them with pictures you’ve taken that relate to your project is a powerful way to connect different digital media. EverNote means you don’t have to place everything in one crowded folder, and open 6 different windows just to view all of your work. It’s a shame that it’s a download and not an online solution, but I’m sure that option is coming, and I’m eager to start using EverNote to start piecing together unit plans that would normally require me to save bookmarks, documents, and images in various locations on my computer.
Read the full press report below if you feel the need:
Sunnyvale, Calif. November 11, 2007 EverNote Corporation today announced a software licensing and bundling agreement with Hitachi, which will see all new Hitachi StarBoard interactive presentation and communications systems shipping with the entire suite of EverNote software and technology. Each StarBoard system will include ritePen® advanced handwriting recognition engine, EverNote note taking productivity software, and a number of other EverNote technologies.
“StarBoard has been sold since 1998 and has been sold all over the world for education and business use. StarBoard enhances teaching, presentation and meeting, and has been upgraded to fulfill customers’ needs.” said Yutaka Usuda, General Manager of Hitachi Software Engineering. “StarBoard first met EverNote in 2006. We are so pleased that Hitachi takes advantage of EverNote, and provide their innovative technologies to our customers.”
By licensing and integrating EverNote ritePen into the StarBoard system, Hitachi enables its education and corporate customers to use their electronic whiteboards just as they would traditional ones â by writing freely and continuously directly on the surfaceâ but with the additional benefit of full handwriting recognition. With ritePen, all information written to the StarBoard is captured, recognized, and converted to clean text that can be used in various software applications, such as Microsoft® Word, Excel®, and PowerPoint®.
â Our goal at EverNote is to bring products and technologies to market that ease the burden of capturing and recalling information,â said Phil Libin, CEO of EverNote. â There is a kinship between our vision and that of Hitachiâ s leading StarBoard products, which makes the technologies a perfect match. We are very excited to continue to support Hitachi with our embedded products and software bundles.â
In addition to ritePen, StarBoard systems will be bundled with EverNote note taking software, an application designed for individuals who wish to capture, organize, and later find various important information from their daily lives. Built using some of the same technology present in ritePen, EverNote enables users to create notes in numerous formats and then runs the notes through advanced recognition and indexing tools to make them all searchable â note types include text, handwriting, images with printed or handwritten text, as well as internet and application clips. The bundling of EverNote note taking software marks an expansion of the EverNote relationship with Hitachi, which previously centered on embedded technologies.
About EverNote Corporation
EverNote Corporation is a provider of information management, digital ink, and advanced handwriting recognition software and technologies for the PC, mobile, and wireless device markets. Please visit www.evernote.com for more information.
About Hitachi
Hitachi has a unique position in the marketplace by manufacturing and developing its own core technologies to provide consumers and businesses with optimal product
performance in each of Hitachi’s product categories. For Starboard Products, they are manufactured by Hitachi Software Engineering, one of the major subsidiaries of Hitachi Ltd. Hitachi brand business products are connected through Hitachiâ s OneVision program, which makes it possible for any Hitachi business unit dealer to sell Hitachi products from other Hitachi business units.
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This seems to be a big expansion of my use of ONE NOTE.. I liked its idea of all notes in one place, and organizable.. but this does so much more, and the amount of information one keeps accumulating means search is the only way to really retrieve everything that you’ve forgotten that you had.
Thanks.. I look forward to using it.
That was my first reaction as well….this is a LOT like OneNote……except a lot better. Among the things that always bugged me about OneNote was that it clearly was carefully crafted NOT to replace any of the other Office apps. At $25 a copy for ed users, you could see why Microsoft wouldn’t want to replace Word. But this is very much more powerful and made to fulfill the users’ needs rather than fill a niche.
But it also brings a lot of that function to desktop units also, in a nicer way. Tablets will rule one day…….
But I meant to note also….it’s only free for sixty days. After that it’s $50 if you want to keep using it, so it isn’t even exactly cheap. But I would call it a good value.