Pear Note 3 for Mac

April 26th, 2012

Pear Note 3 for Mac is now available

Yes, that’s right. Pear Note 3 for Mac is now out for all of you. Pear Note 3 for Mac adds several new features, including support for auto save and versions, full-screen mode, HD video recording, and support for taking notes on Skype calls. And, it’s a free update for all of you who already purchased Pear Note for Mac.

Optimized for Lion

Pear Note 3 adds support for several new features present in Mac OS X Lion. Auto save and versions are two features that work together to prevent users from losing data. Versions of a document are continually saved automatically as a user works. If there’s ever a problem, a user can browse back through history to see what the document looked like at any time in the past. Also, full-screen mode has been added.

Under-the-hood improvements

Pear Note 3 includes a completely new recording and playback engine when running on Lion or later. This is not something you can look at and see as a user, but it does enable things to get better in a lot of ways. For instance, it improves efficiency while recording. Also, it enables new recording settings including high bitrate audio and HD 720p video recording (assuming you have a HD-capable camera).

Skype integration

Pear Note 3 also integrates with Call Recorder for Skype from Ecamm to enable users to take notes on Skype calls. Call Recorder will record the call, including audio and video, while Pear Note synchronizes its timeline with the recorded Skype call. This means notes can be taken on virtual meetings just as they can be taken on physical ones.

Updated look

The look of Pear Note has also been updated, including a minor facelift to the app and a brand new icon.

Pear Note for iPad update

Also, Pear Note 1.0.4 for iPad is available today which brings improved compatibility with Pear Note 3 for Mac as well as Retina graphics for the new iPad and a new icon to match the new Mac icon.

Update

In my excitement I left out a couple important details that you should all know about:

  1. Pear Note 3 supports Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6) and later. If you’re still running Mac OS X Leopard (10.5), you’ll have to stick with Pear Note 2. Don’t worry, there’s a link to the latest version of Pear Note 2 on the website in case you ever need to re-download it.
  2. Pear Note 3 no longer includes in-app search. Previous versions of Pear Note had a search box to search your entire system for notes from within Pear Note itself. I wasn’t sure whether to create this feature in the first place given that Mac OS X already had a feature (Spotlight) that did the same thing. Ultimately, I decided that Spotlight just wan’t good enough and so created the in-app search box. Over time, Spotlight has gotten much better. As of Mac OS X Lion, Spotlight has become much more functional than and just as fast as the in-app search in Pear Note. Also, the App Store is about to require all apps sold in it to be sandboxed, and full system search is not permitted for a sandboxed apps. So, the feature has been removed, and you should use Spotlight directly instead now. For more information, see the help.

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Apps for Water

December 20th, 2011

charity: water

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.

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Pear Note for iPad

September 8th, 2011

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

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Coming soon to an App Store near you

August 31st, 2011

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.

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Pear Note on TeacherCast

July 21st, 2011

I was interviewed on the TeacherCast podcast about Pear Note’s use in the classroom. Thanks very much to Jeff for the talk and for spreading the word about helpful technologies in education. Check it out at their site or in iTunes.

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Pear Note in Lion

July 4th, 2011

A new major version of Mac OS X, version 10.7 dubbed Lion, is about to be released. I’ve gotten some questions about how Pear Note will work in Lion and I wanted to answer them here. First, let me say that Pear Note will continue functioning just as it does today on Snow Leopard when Lion ships with one exception (which I’ll get to shortly). So, feel free to upgrade away and don’t worry about losing Pear Note.

There are a bunch of new features in Lion that apps can take advantage of which many of you have asked about, including Resume, Auto Save and Versions, and Full Screen. While I would love for Pear Note to support some of these new features right away, they require some major reworking of Pear Note. So, Pear Note will continue working as it did on Snow Leopard and not use these features for a little while. Once I get the iOS version of Pear Note released, then I’ll look at incorporating some of these Lion features in.

Importing Keynote and Powerpoint slides

As I said above, there’s one thing that’s not going to keep working in Lion. The method I use to import Keynote and Powerpoint slides files does not work any more in Lion. The truth is, it never worked perfectly, and often had trouble with complicated presentations. So, Pear Note is dropping support for importing Powerpoint and Keynote files as of version 2.0.6 (just released). It will continue to work on Leopard and Snow Leopard as it has before, but it is being dropped as an official feature (meaning it won’t be advertised as a feature any more).

Don’t worry that you won’t be able to use the slides part of Pear Note any more, though. You just have to convert your slides to PDF using their respective applications before adding them to your Pear Note document. This is a much, much more reliable way of importing the slides, as Powerpoint is excellent at reading Powerpoint files and Keynote is excellent at reading Keynote files (it’s like they were made to do it). More detailed instructions on how to do this are available here.

Thanks for your understanding.

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Pear Note’s use in film

May 28th, 2011

On this week’s Mac Power Users podcast, they interviewed comedian, writer, actor, and director David Wain. You may know of him from The State, MADtv, Role Models, Children’s Hospital, or his upcoming movie starring Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd, Wanderlust. In the podcast, David describes his workflow for making a movie and the tools he uses along the way. One of those tools is Pear Note.

In the interview, he talks about using Pear Note for notes sessions on readings of the script as well as screenings with producers and studio personnel. He also talks about using Pear Note to keep track of what parts get laughs during early screenings. The whole interview is great (Pear Note’s part happens just after the 22 minute mark).

I love hearing different ways Pear Note is used, and I’m glad to hear it’s so helpful in movie making. I have to say, when I set out to make a note-taking tool, I was picturing classrooms and conference rooms. I never would have dreamed it would be used to help make a major motion picture.

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Pear Note 2.0.5

May 10th, 2011

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!

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Japan relief

March 17th, 2011

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.

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Pear Note on Amazon

March 15th, 2011

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.

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