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Updated Monday, February 13, 2012 0:06 am TWN, By Tobias Hanraths,dpa

The Galaxy Note smartphone with integrated S Pen is displayed at the Samsung booth at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Nevada, ...

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Smartphones double as notepads

BERLIN -- Flight details, phone numbers, addresses, shopping lists and jokes — all of them are at risk of being lost if you don't write them down.

In this digital age, if you think carrying a notebook around is too old-fashioned, there's the option of noting or dictating these thoughts into a gadget you're likely to have with you — your smartphone.

The right apps mean you don't have to settle for using your mobile phone as a scratch pad. There are also functions to get you organized or turn your phone into a dictation device.

Notebook functions are nothing new for a smartphone, as mobile phones have offered simple notebook functions for ages. “But I can only save information locally this way,” says Tobias Arns of Bitkom, a German IT industry association. “It only gets exciting when I truly make use of the possibilities of a smartphone.”

That means utilizing the phone's internet access. Programs such as Evernote (for iOS and Android), the iOS app Simplenote or Catch Notes for Android devices mean notes don't just stay on the mobile device, but are synchronized across computers, laptops and tablets.

And the flow of information isn't just from the mobile phone to the computer, but also the other way around. Evernote makes use of the assistant program Web Clipper. The browser expansion stores interesting websites in a note-compatible format. Thus, a recipe a person happens to stumble across can quickly be turned into a shopping list.

Web Clipper is available for Firefox and Chrome. With Internet Explorer and Safari, the assistant is integrated with the installation of the main Evernote program. There's another advantage of specialized note apps. Entries don't just appear chronologically, but can be organized into groups or folders.

“That makes big chunks of ideas manageable,” explains Arns. Expanded functions are even possible with a smartphone's satellite navigation chip. An app could note when a person is in a supermarket and remind him of items he might want to purchase.

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