iPad App Review
Type – Paid App
Category – Productivity
Released April 4th, 2011 (Version 1.5)
Let’s get to the point…Audiolio is good. There’s loads of apps for note taking and recording audio but Audiolio does it very well indeed. Imagine recording a business meeting, a college lecture or even your own voice, then imagine typing notes based on any of the aforementioned and being able to bookmark your audio at any given point so you can jump (exactly like a CD) to any section you have chosen, then imagine being able to do it in an easy, intuitive way…welcome to Audiolio!
You can tell from the outset that a lot of thought has gone into Audiolio. The first time you open the app you’ll be greeted with the main area (the place where all your audio and notes are stored) that already has some audio and notes which explains how to use Audiolio. Within 10 minutes, probably less actually, I was up and running creating my own audio, adding bookmarks to it and creating notes without any issues at all.
Let’s put this into a real world scenario. You’re at a business meeting or college lecture, you tap the + button and then ‘New Recording’ button and Audiolio starts recording the meeting or lecture and at the same time opens up a note taking facility with the standard iPad keyboard. So not only is the entire meeting/lecture being recorded but you’re typing notes at the same time, that’s pretty cool huh? But wait, the meeting agenda changes and now you’re boss is talking about production for the next 6 weeks, no problem, just tap the + button at the top of your notes and Audiolio will automatically add a bookmark for you, continue recording and open a brand new note for you. Once the meeting is over tap the ‘End Recording’ button and you’re back to the main area with all your notes from the meeting and any bookmarks you added so you can jump to any point in the audio. You can also pause and resume recording at anytime, which can be useful if your boss is talking total rubbish as most do!!
Audiolio allows you to edit any of your notes and also add further bookmarks in your audio at a later stage. So let’s say for example you were so engrossed in a college lecture you forgot to bookmark the audio along the way, you can add bookmarks to your recordings at anytime even after the event.
You can send your notes and audio via email as well as sync with your DropBox account. When you connect your iPad to your computer you can transfer any files you have created with Audiolio to your HDD.
Conclusion
Audiolio is great, until you’ve used it for yourself it’s hard to explain just how well it works. There are so many things it allows you to do but with such ease, the interface is simple, it’s nicely laid out and it just works. It may seem like a simple app but that goes to show just how much thought the developers have put into it. The best apps are the ones that are extremely simple to use but incredibly complex underneath, Audiolio is one of those apps. If for any reason you need a note taking app then I suggest you look no further than Audiolio….excellent.
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