Dan Bricklin's® Note Taker App (a Software Garden® product) is an app for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch.

Note Taker makes it easy for you to quickly write down names, phone numbers, addresses, shopping lists, notes, and more. You write directly on the screen with your finger. No need to fumble with letter and number keyboards while someone is giving you information, or ask them to slow down while you try to edit typos. It's like having a stack of note cards and a pencil always with you.

You can write in large letters on the screen rather than trying to make tiny motions like a pencil. Note Taker automatically shrinks your writing so you can fit a lot of text on the screen. You just keep writing and Note Taker automatically adds new writing next to the old. To quickly correct mistakes, it has a multi-level undo button as well as an eraser -- just drag your finger over the page to erase the "ink" under it.

The "paper" your writing ends up on is equivalent to about a 3"x5" card. You can write anywhere on it, so you can cross out shopping items as you buy them, go back and underline, draw diagrams, and more. You lay out the page the way you want. Use any markings: stars, underlines, and characters in any language. Create multiple pages.

You can email your notes as JPEGs, or save them to a photo album.

With the full version, you can bring up a keyboard later to transcribe what you wrote into contact information that can be added to the Address Book with the tap of a button or pasted into other apps.

Note Taker was designed and programmed by Dan Bricklin, the same person who 30 years ago came up with VisiCalc, the pioneering electronic spreadsheet for the Apple II that made working with numbers on a personal computer so easy.

Dan Bricklin's Note Taker is available on the Apple App Store for only $1.99 in the USA. There is a FREE Lite version that only allows a maximum of 4 pages, doesn't have the keyboard and address book access, and that adds a watermark to emailed images. Search for "Dan Bricklin".

Here is a video of a demo:

The original blog post by Dan announcing the product and its genesis was on December 5, 2009 on the blog Dan Bricklin's Log.

Here are some screenshots:

Our support email address for Dan Bricklin's Note Taker is: support@softwaregarden.com.

As of December 29, 2009:

Version 1.0.1 Issues

• Note Take Lite version 1.0.1 is listed on the home page of your iPhone or iPod touch under its icon as "Note Taker" just like the full version. This can cause confusion if you upgrade to the full version and continue to run the Lite version. (The two versions keep separate page lists but have the same icon.) A release 1.0.2 of Note Taker Lite has been submitted to the App Store that changes it to be listed as "NoteTakerLite". There are no other changes in 1.0.2 and there is no Note Taker (full) 1.0.2 release.

Version 1.0 Issues

• We have finally, we believe, tracked down the case where Note Taker (and Note Taker Lite) 1.0 crashes when switching screens, such as when returning to the writing screen from setting the Page Info screen, and various other cases. It appears to be related to running on a device that is running low on program memory (not user data memory). Turning the device completely off usually restores the memory and then the crash is not usually seen again.
  
  While we have only seen around 10 reports out of many thousands of users, caution was advised. A fix to this problem that seems to address all of the reported symptoms is part of the 1.0.1 release of both Note Taker and Note Taker Lite that became available to users of 1.0 as a free update on December 28, 2009.
  
  We are really sorry for this issue and apologize if has been a problem for you.
  
  
• When you switch to 1:1 drawing by pressing the pencil button, the little "x" in the Auto-Advance area does not hide right away as it should. This is mainly a cosmetic issue and was fixed in the 1.0.1 release.
  
  
• Pages that are automatically created when you delete the "last" page in the list are not being initialized with the New Page Initial Settings as they should. This is a minor issue that is fixed in the 1.0.1 release.

• The most frequently asked question is: "How do I delete a page?". The answer is buried on the List of Pages Help page: "You delete a page by swiping across its row and then confirming delete by pressing the Delete button that appears. If there are no pages left after you delete, a new blank page will be automatically created." You swipe by dragging across the row with your finger.
  
  This method of deleting is similar to that used by the built-in Notes app that comes with your device as well as many other apps but may be new to many people.