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Microsoft pushed out a native iPad version of the company's OneNote productivity app today along with enhancements to its existing iPhone counterpart. The popular note-taking utility allows users to create and edit documents on Apple's tablet, syncing them across devices via the cloud by way of Microsoft's SkyDrive. OneNote goes beyond simple text entry by offering checkboxes and bulleted items for easy composition of to-do lists, and photos can also be imported from the iOS camera roll to further personalize your work. A Windows Live ID is required to use the free-to-download app, though you'll only be able to create a total of 500 notes at no cost. An in-app purchase is required beyond that point, and is priced considerably higher on the iPad — $14.99 as compared to $4.99 on the iPhone. A new tabbed interface is also included among the new features, along with expanded language support. OneNote is available now on the iPhone 3GS and newer models running iOS 4.3 or greater, as well as both iPads.
Thanks, A.R.A!
Comments
It is good that Microsoft is suddenly taking the cross platform route. They are first and foremost a software company. Now I’m also glad they’re charging their competitors. I can’t imagine windows 8 users will have to pay for this seeing as it works in the browser and esp if you already purchased the office suite. Also chances are Microsoft might make a tablet office version available like the fabulous one note client on Windows Phones free for wp7 users.
Its a good strategy iOS users see greener and freer pastures on the other side. :)
TeamTech - December 12, 2011 via mobile
Hopefully we will get the rest of Microsoft Office on iOS. It would make me buy an iPad.
Xavdog - December 12, 2011
That’s apparently the plan for 2012 http://www.thedaily.com/page/2011/11/29/112911-tech-news-ms-ipad/ . I’m hoping iPad 3 will have a high res “retina” like display. These two together making a compelling case to buy in.
A.R.A - December 12, 2011
Possibility one
-MS brings their (pretty unified) gestures from Metro to iOS and gives Apple a needed kick in the pants in terms of unified gestures.Possibility two
- MS decides to do the same thing on iOS that they’ve done with every version of Office on Windows -- create some weird FrankenUI of their own that doesn’t use any of the standard Apple UI elements and that behaves badly every time the OS is updated.Which do you think it will be? I honestly have no idea.
name99 - December 13, 2011
At first I was miffed they’re charging for what was free functionality at first, but then I calmed down and realized that it’s worth the asking price. Cause OneNote is Microsoft’s most useful and underrated piece of software.
philkv2 - December 12, 2011
Microsoft must hate cutting Apple $4 for each copy sold.
Ouch.
heelo - December 12, 2011
It’s probably not too different from how much Best Buy or someone gets for selling their software.
darkcrayon - December 12, 2011
Apple must hate sending Microsoft royalty cheques!
Roadtalker - February 10, 2012
Now I just need “Print to OneNote” on the iPad and I’d be set.
SeNiLe - December 12, 2011
Can it take screenshots and dump them in onenote like the Windows+S shortcut does on Windows? Having onenote on iOS must be as refreshing as giving a glass of ice water to somebody in hell.
I have turned so many people on to OneNote at work. I feel like I should be getting a cut rather than apple.
JonnyUtah - December 12, 2011
Ahahaha, I see what you did there.
No, you can’t have OneNote capture screenshots directly (Apple does not allow that kind of access), but you can add pictures to a OneNote page either directly from the camera or from the photo library on the iDevice. So a workaround would to be take a screenshot as you normally do on an iDevice, then switch to OneNote and insert the new screenshot.
Entegy - December 12, 2011
you obviously haven’t seen the vast range of note apps for iOS some which work with OneNote too
TechPreacher - December 12, 2011
there are only two that work with OneNote and neither of them let you create new notes. And MobileNoter will turn you into a gibbering lunatic with its incessant sync issues.
Roadtalker - February 10, 2012
ThinkBook is rather sweet too…
lancelott - December 13, 2011
Just downloaded it and it’s terrible. Was hoping that it would have stylus support and handwriting recognition like the excellent OneNote I used to use for my Toshiba tablet PC, and it doesn’t even have stylus support period.
For now I will stick to the completely awesome “Note Taker HD” app. I’ve probably paid $50 buying various note taking apps, and Note Taker HD is by far the best I’ve found so far.
mehmehmehmeh - December 12, 2011
Hmm i’d image the weren’t expecting the vast majority of iPad users to use a stylus. However perhaps you could submit a feature request here. http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/officeversion_other-onenote?tab=all
A.R.A - December 12, 2011
Its called reading the description. If it did not mention handwriting support it probably doesn’t have it since its a big enough feature that companies will tout it. It’s common sense. Don’t hate on a product for not having a feature it never promised but you expected it to have.
I know I acted like a condescending fuck but you deserved it.
BumpyClock - December 12, 2011
Not trying to start a flame war, but if you were on android, you could have gotten refunds for all of those apps.
gonintendo - December 12, 2011
i think you are forgeting something: steve jobs hates the stylus.
(which does bring up a great point: if the iPad had stylus support it would be an amazing note taking device…)
somnia - December 12, 2011
Those pogo pens actually work fairly well.
supermankd - December 13, 2011
This is one of the best features of Windows 8 tablets. Microsoft requires active digitizer hardware support and Windows has one of the best handwriting recognition engines in the world built in for any third party developer to take advantage of.
Chefgon - December 13, 2011
One note vs Evernote? I love Evernote and it is free for the most part. Why use One Note?
supermankd - December 13, 2011
Outlook and Office for Windows users. The execs at our company use OneNote a lot. The iPhone app is a dream for them. Of course, now if they could only support sorting, I could stop hearing their main complaint about the product.
martymankins - December 13, 2011
I have to support OneNote for the execs at the company I work for. I’m a die hard Evernote user, which has a big advantage over OneNote: it sorts. Maybe this new update will fix it. Then we wait for a OneNote 2010 update that adds sorting, too.
martymankins - December 13, 2011
Evernote doesn’t let you manually order pages as far as I’m aware, which makes it 100% worthless for my note taking needs. I just can’t use it at all.
Chefgon - December 13, 2011
Need Onenote for OSX before it is of use to me
Boghog - December 13, 2011
Its not even close to OneNote version for PC. They should use a different name for this app.
iPad users expect more functionality, not just scaled version of iPhone app with limited functionality. Especially with iPad app price 3 times higher than iPhone counterpart.
Its a shame for MS that their competitors have much more advanced products. Take a look at Aqrate Outline, it’s streets ahead. It displays your notebooks exactly as they are on PC. Isn’t it what a OneNote user would expect?
Joshas - December 13, 2011
You can’t add notes to Outline. What the hell sort of note-taker is that?
Roadtalker - February 10, 2012
MSFT are too late. Evernote is way , way better in terms of cors-OS operation, usability. ON has great Ms Office integration but was locked into the Wintel ecosystem… I used to be a heavy OneNote user (eben crated OneNote addon app for digital pen) , but then moved to Android phone, iPad, Mac OSX and virtually quit using WinOS.
davidbubu - December 13, 2011
I’d like to see a native OSX version. However they do have the web app version which works OK when using OSX or Linux, however it’s obviously not as rich of an experience as you’d get with a native desktop version. My guess is that they have an iOS version due to user requests from that user base. I first started out with evernote but I moved to OneNote 2010 because I liked the usability of application better. The content you can add to notes and formatting capabilities were much better. This was some years ago now so I’m not sure how much evernote has improved in this area. However for cross platform support, evernote is indeed one of the most ubiquitous note take apps out there.
A.R.A - December 14, 2011
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