CuteTag – As Useful As It Is Cute

Cutetag iPhone App Review.

Productivity apps are in no way in short supply in the iTunes AppStore. ToDos, organization apps, note-taking, all you need is at the touch of your finger tips. A lot of them however offer perhaps too a complex solution for what is too simple a problem. If all you need is a way to write your ideas down and have an easy way to categorize each, then CuteTag Free might prove to be your answer.

CuteTag is a note-taking app at heart, but instead of relying on complex systems of categorization, it only does it one way: tagging. The developers' idea seemed to be that it "allows you to explore your personal information in a way your natural brain does, by logical links." (read full press release here). These logical links they assumed to be tags.

Tag like you've never tagged before

Other apps out there offer tagging as a way to keep track of your thoughts (the elephant in the room is perhaps Evernote), but CuteTag relies completely on this simple, effective way to write down notes faster. You don't need to create any account, so you can start using CuteTag from the second you open up the app. CuteTag starts you off with a simple interface - a screen that features a search bar, an add button and a couple of pre-created tags. Your first step is to add a note by tapping the plus button. The on-screen keyboard pops up, and away you go. Once you're done, select the tags you'd like to use for this note, by sliding the controls to "On" next to any of the pre-created tags, or create your own tag.

Finding your notes again is where CuteTag is, well, cute. The integrated search bar on the home screen will get you a long way when you've created a rather complex list of tags and notes.

Tags as categories

Think of tags in this case as categories. Tap on any of the tags in the list and you're greeted with a list of all the items in that "category." You get a preview of that note on a single line, plus the date and time it was created. There's not much else to do here, so in order to Edit, Email or Delete any one note, you'd need to tap it to enter the Edit screen.

There's an unlimited number of tags you can create, so organization can never be a problem with this system. Any one note can belong to one or more categories, but where the app falls a bit short is navigating from one category to another from the category list screen. Tapping on one tag from the home screen gets you to a list of all the notes with that tag. But if you've tagged any one item with more than that one tag, they are all shown underneath the list. You can then tap on any of them, but I wasn't quite able to figure out what that actually lists in your view next.

Deleting tags is also simple and intuitive. From the home screen, hold down on any one tag and the little red "x" appears next to them. Delete the ones you don't need anymore. Tags are arranged alphabetically, and there's no way to re-arrange them. I think this is a great plus, as it adds to the level of organization. Since everything is alphabetical, you're sure to find your way around an ocean of tags.

Writing, Recording, Taking Snapshots and, of course, Tagging

CuteTag offers you the ability to jot down notes, but also to save an audio note or take a snapshot and assign tags to them. Combination of these are also possible, so any written down note can be associated with an audio piece or a snapshot.

This is to the developers' credit. I would imagine infinite possibilities for these types of combinations. The first that comes to mind is remembering where you parked your car in the parking lot. Writing down some hotspots, taking a snapshot or two and perhaps even adding an audio note would save you the trouble of tracking down your car after you've done your shopping.

With a simple and useful interface, no bells and whistles and with future upgrades to the likes of being able to sync in the "cloud" and access your data from anywhere, CuteTag might be the beginning of a beautiful thing.

Screenshots