Unfortunately, Evernote failed. It seems like a great idea. I had brief dreams of getting rid of my Tablet PC and going back to paper (my Tablet is currently on the fritz).

• The tablet's notes are not available online, Evernote is.
• The tablet is not on my mobile device, Evernote is.
• The tablet requires fancy hardware (which is heavy), Evernote requires a pen, paper, and a camera.
• The tablet requires expensive hardware (which I think is dying - so now would be the time to find a replacement), Evernote does not.

I had visions of going back to nice notepads (you can't beat the feel or reliability of pen and paper - though the Tablet, to date, has been amazing). There is something that "feels right" about a nice pen and paper. And I can always find it.

The troubles with pen and paper?

• It's not very search-able.
• You can't tag it
  Another way to organize & browse
• You can't back it up
  Without photocopying it (waste of paper) or going all 14th century and employing monks to manually copy it (waste of monks)

I thought about setting up a dedicated portion of my desk with a camera & light to capture. I'm sure I could rig a one-button snapshot & import.

But...

The Conclusion

It just didn't work.

Unfortunately, the first test that I gave it, failed. I jotted some notes (some harder to read than others - on purpose) and snapped a picture with my iPhone (there is an iPhone Evernote app). It synced at a reasonable pace and showed fine. I tried searching for words and found nothing. I tried 5 or 6 different words.

Zero.

It's amazing that the Tablet PC works as well as it does, I guess. The handwriting recognition picks up my chicken-scratch (I've had several awed onlookers gawk at my writing and be amazed at the recognition) and the Outlook integration is great.

Tah Evernote - it was not to be.