So, before I finally caved and bought my new favorite pet (The Samsung Galazy SIII –Love it!–the screen’s so big I can read my kindle books on it easily), I could often be found at 2 a.m. scrambling out of bed, frantically feeling for my glasses on the nightstand, and sprint-tip-toeing to the office to jot down an idea that had come to me.
At other times in the daylight hours, you might have found me driving my car, trying to retrieve a spiral notebook from my purse and fishing for a pen in the console, only to attempt to madly scribble down some thought or story idea on the steering wheel of my car while staying in the yellow lines.
Pedestrians (and my family members) may now rest easy. I have Inkpad now.
Now, there is no 2 a.m. scrambling, there is no husband rolling over grumpily. I simply reach for my phone, silence the volume, pull up inkpad, and type away to my heart’s content. Granted, the auto-spell feature leaves something to be desired, and I sometimes have to read the notes twice the next morning, but I can have the idea on virtual paper in minutes without ever leaving my bed.
As for other drivers on the roadways in my city? Never fear, Inkpad has a microphone recording feature. I can chat away while I’m driving, never having to look down at the screen. Cool, right?
At the very least, it’s safer.
So if you tend to cling to your notebooks like I did, recording your ideas with pen and ink, you might consider downloading Inkpad onto your iPhone or Android for at least those inconvenient times. Even if you don’t have sleeping spouses/children/pets to disturb in the middle of the night, I’m sure you’ve all faced the driving dillemma.
Are there any 21st century writer’s tools that you can’t live without? I’d love to hear!
Thanks for another toy to play with! I hadn’t heard of this one.
Sure thing. And…it’s free!
This is very interesti9ng to someone who has been known to crawl out of bed about 2.30am because he’s had an idea and must write it down before he forgets it.
I can totally relate! LMK if you try it out.
Hi Erin, this is such a great idea! I don’t know how many times I’ve thought of something after going to bed and debated whether to get back up and search out a notebook so I could write it down (have never quite figured out why I can never seem to keep a notebook right by the bed). Later this year I’m getting my own iPhone after having only a work Blackberry, and the first thing I’m going to do is download Inkpad!
Yay! You’ll have to let me know what you think. For me, it has simplified the whole “I need to scribble down an idea” process. Plus, I don’t think I mentioned it in the post but it saves a copy in a cloud too, so you can’t lose them and you can access them from your computer/iPad, etc.
Great idea, Erin. Way too often, I’ll have a thought, not get up and write it down, and by morning it’s gone! I’ve used my iPad that way, but I’ll download Inkpad to the phone so I’ll have that option, too. Sounds like a great tool! Thanks.
Yeah –I just use my phone at night because it’s always within arms reach. I used to use my Kindle Fire sometimes but I had to turn it on and wait, etc, and the phone’s always ready to go!
As a philistine, I will stick to an actual notepad for the time being, but I am intrigued…
You and Pam are rockin’ it old school.
I’m with writer fellow above, I’m keeping my toys to a minumum, remember ing Henry David Thoreau’s admonishiment to ‘simplify,simplify,simplify.’ (Besides that, I get intimidated my the new gadgets…)
You are so shaming me.
I feel like I need to go clean out a closet now. teeheehee
I’m going to check it out right now! Sounds awesome. I’ve lost many a great idea because I couldn’t wrestle myself out of bed to find the notepad. Maddening. Thanks for sharing!
I totally feel you! Anything to prevent having to find a pen and notepad in the middle of the night it worth it. LOL. I know a lot of people like Evernote too (Julia and Lauri use it).
Hey, Thanks for the tip. I will check it out. Is it similar to Evernote?
Yes, but it doesn’t allow for web-clipping. I gave up on Evernote because I hate the way it automatically pops up on my iMac at home. (I’m such a complainer.
)
Of course … there is the Samsung Galaxy Note II
Stylus and note software that will let you write anything from a grocery list to a mind map, meeting minutes, etc. I’m in love with mine. My hubbie loves his. It’s great when we both have the same mistress 
Woah –never heard of this. You guys rock! I am definitely going to have to check this out.
I have the Galaxy SIII, as well. It’s a great phone.
As for the text prediction, I can’t recommend SwiftKey highly enough. It’s the best keyboard replacement for Android I’ve used, and I’ve tried all of them. Normally, it would set you back $3.99, but it’s on sale right now for $1.99. (And no, I don’t work for them and don’t get any kind of kick-back. It’s just coincidence that it’s on sale right now.)
Ooh –is this a text predictor that’s better than the one that comes witht he phone? Just a better keyboard? I’ll definitely go check it out. You’re always got great tech tips, Adam!
It’s a keyboard with the best text prediction out there. I think the keyboard works better, too, but the text prediction is what makes it so impressive. Give it access to your email history, SMS history, FB and Twitter and it will even learn how you type/talk. There are times when I type a single word and it predicts the rest of the words of the sentence!
Yay! No more swerving! I use Evernote for the same reason. It’s a great program because I can use it across all my devices- phone, iPad, and computer. And, I can organize my notes into notebooks, I.e. blogging, WIP, writing tips. It has a dictate feature as well. I can also use the Evernote web clipper to “clip” interesting info from web pages and save to a notebook. It’s awesome!!
Yay to not swerving! Teehehee. Evernote is probably better than Inkpad but it got on my nerves because it was always “open” on my iMac at home, on my Kindle Fire, on my phone. I felt like anyone picking up any of my devices could just click on it and see all of my notes and clippings. But yes, Evernote squishes Inkpad in functionality.
*grins*
I’m pretty addicted to Evernote after you turned me on to that awhile ago. I’m hot on GIMP 2.0 right now = free photoshop. I don’t know photoshop but I’ve learned how to do fun things with GIMP. I can’t say it improves efficiency since I usually get stuck playing with it for hours, but I’m having fun!
Awesome –I haven’t tried that one out yet! I use Picmonkey for photo-editing right now (also free) but I’ll definitely check out GIMP.
I gave up on Evernote a while ago because I didn’t like how it automatically pops up on the computer. For a while I tried using it on my Kindle Fire in the same way that I use Inkpad now.
WHAT?! What… what is this mythical unicorn of an app? I must know if it is Android-only or if I can snag it for my iPhone. I’ve used the built-in memo pad in the past, but it frustrates me that I can’t title my notes.
One thing that it does, though–it AUTOMATICALLY emails to me my notes. So if I leave a note and then close it, the next morning, VOILA. It’s in my email. Which is crazy and awesome.
Though I probably wouldn’t need that function if memo pad actually worked like it sounds like Inkpad works.
Heeheehee. Inkpad is a lot like the memo pad –it automatically emails your notes to you. But you can title them.
Whatever you type on the first line automatically becomes your title. I always type my title and hit enter, beginning my note on the next line.
Now if they only came up with an app that whispered story ideas to me and edited my novels. LOL
I want one! Tag you’re it, come and visit.
Oooh –I will!!
You have given me a new app to download. Going now!! Thanks so much
YAY!!