In the spirit of Christmas, several developers have decided to band together to support a worthwhile cause. That cause is charity: water, an organization devoted to bringing clean, safe water to people in developing nations. While those of us in developed nations may take easy access to clean water for granted, unsafe water is one of the leading killers in developing nations. charity: water takes aim at this problem.

So, we simple app developers have banded together to form Apps for Water. For today, December 20, 2011, we will donate all income to charity: water. For me, that includes sales of Pear Note for Mac here on this site and in Apple’s App Store, as well as sales of Pear Note for iPad in the App Store. There are lots of other great apps to purchase as well, so make sure you check out everything else.

So, buy some useful software and help a great cause. You’ve only got until the end of the day.

Pear Note for iPad is now available on the App Store!

And, for a limited time, it’s only $4.99.

I won’t spend too much time talking about features here, as you can just click on Pear Note for iPad above to see that. The highlights are:

• Timestamped audio recording – just like you’re used to in Pear Note for Mac
• Rich text notes – yes, actual rich text notes where you can bold a word, make something a heading, highlight a key point, use bullets or numbered lists to make an outline, and more
• Dropbox syncing – easily move notes between your iPads and Macs automatically

Frequently Asked Questions

• What about the iPhone? – I wanted 1.0 to be a universal app for both iPad and iPhone, but the timing didn’t work out. I plan to make a future version universal, but it likely won’t be released before 2012. This is actually one of the reasons I decided to cut the price in half for now. So, buy it now while it’s a deal, then get the update to universal later for free!
• What about video? – You can play back video recorded in Pear Note for Mac today. I’m considering adding video recording to Pear Note for iPad in a future version if there’s enough demand. So, drop me a note to let me know that you want it if you’re interested.
• Can I use a bluetooth keyboard with Pear Note for iPad? – Yes
• Can I use an external USB microphone with Pear Note for iPad? – Believe it or not, yes, though you need the USB adapter from the iPad Camera Connection Kit

Pear Note for iPad is coming very soon. I can’t say exactly how soon, as Apple is in control of that. It has been submitted to Apple, and will be available for purchase on the App Store whenever they approve it. In the mean time you can learn more about what’s coming by looking at the new Pear Note for iPad page here on this site.

Also, Pear Note for Mac 2.1 is now available. The main change in 2.1 is an updated file format that is compatible with Pear Note for iPad. Pear Note for iPad can sync notes via Dropbox with other iPads or Macs running Pear Note. If you’d like to sync over old notes, you’ll have to open them with Pear Note for Mac 2.1 and re-save them. They’ll be updated to the new file format, making them readable in Pear Note for iPad.

There’s another small but very important change in Pear Note 2.1. Pear Note and Lion did not get along as well as I had hoped, resulting in a bug there that could cause recordings to disappear. I apologize to any of you that lost recordings due to this, but it’s fixed in Pear Note 2.1. If you’ve upgraded to Lion, I recommend you update Pear Note for Mac to 2.1 immediately to avoid running into this.

Pear Note 2.0.5 is now out. This is a maintenance release, and is now available for update from here or through the Mac App Store.

Pear Note 2.0.5 includes improvements to the web player created when you share your notes. These include compatibility with new versions of Mobile Safari on the iPad. This means that when you share your notes now, they’ll be playable on the iPad as well as in the browser. If you’ve had problems with your old notes playing back on the iPad, now you can just re-share them after updating to 2.0.5 and they should now play.

Pear Note 2.0.5 also has a new preference to set how much time to jump back when you hit the jump back button. 30 seconds is still the default, but if you miss the 10 seconds jump from Pear Note 1 or want something else, you can now set it to whatever you like.

So, update away and enjoy!

I’m sure all of you are aware of the devastation in Japan. I, like many of you, want to help out. So, I’m donating all sales revenue for tomorrow, March 18, 2011, to relief efforts. This will include revenue from sales here on this site as well as the Mac App Store, but not from Amazon (as I currently have no way of figuring out when sales at Amazon happened).

As I did last year with Haiti, I will be donating to UMCOR, the relief organization associated with the United Methodist Church. If you’re not into the church thing, don’t worry. This is an organization that is focused on helping people with their basic needs, as I’ve seen first-hand when I volunteered with them in the past. Even better, they get lots of volunteer labor, so funds donated to them can be used efficiently.

So please spread the word. Tomorrow is a great day to buy Pear Note. You’ll get some great software, and help those in need as well.

A few months ago, the only place to purchase Pear Note was right here. Then the Mac App Store gave you another choice. Now, Pear Note is also available for purchase from Amazon through their Software Downloads store.

Pear Note on Amazon

What you get from Amazon is identical to what you get here. The only difference is that you’re paying Amazon instead of me directly.

A plea for reviews

If you check out the listing on Amazon, please think about rating/reviewing the app there. I do not think you are required to have purchased the app through Amazon to review it there. So, please consider rating/reviewing it there to help Amazon shoppers checking it out.

Also, if you’ve purchased Pear Note through Apple’s Mac App Store, please don’t forget to rate/review Pear Note there as well. It’s a great way to help others find Pear Note.

I love hearing about people using Pear Note in different fields. Harry Brignull just posted about his use of Pear Note in user experience research. I know several others have also used Pear Note in fields that have interviews or sessions with individuals.

If you use Pear Note in some way beyond the norm, please let me know. I’d love to post about it here or have you write a guest post.