Evernote Launches New Features, Apps

Evernote, which makes a note-keeping product I rely on so much that I went to work for the company for a period between 2012 and 2013, today announced a new mobile scanning app, Scannable; a major revision of its handwriting/sketching app, Penultimate; and several new features for the main Evernote note-taking client apps. The company also put into public beta a completely new version of its Web interface.

(Disclosure: I still own shares of Evernote, but I was not briefed in advance on any of these announcements. Also, for the record, I drafted this article, like I do all my articles, in Evernote.)

(Photos by Rafe Needleman/Yahoo Tech)

At the Evernote Conference on Thursday, Evernote CEO Phil Libin described these new products and features.

Scannable
Scannable, which should be available for mobile devices this year, is a document scanning app. When the app is running, you simply put documents in front of your smartphone’s camera, and the app captures them automatically. You don’t even have to press the camera button. The app will also categorize documents by type, as it knows the difference between items like business cards, receipts, and so on.

The new Scannable app can also control the $495 ScanSnap Evernote Edition scanner: You will be able to initiate scanning documents from the scanner, and they’ll appear in your mobile app. Libin said multiple people will be able to share a scanner if they all have Scannable on their smartphones.

Penultimate
Libin said the tablet sketch app has been completely redesigned to be “more simple and elegant.” As before, it will work well with the stylus Evernote sells in its Marketplace, the $75 Jot Script Evernote Edition Stylus.

Libin did not demonstrate or show screenshots from the new Penultimate during his keynote, however.

The new Evernote Web client
Evernote has made available a new version of its Web client. It’s now much cleaner and more modern looking. Libin said it’s “built for focus … to eliminate distraction.” When you begin to write a note in the Web client, most other interface elements fall away. The options are all still there, he said, adding, “It only reveals its power when you need it.” Like the text editor in Medium, the options writers need appear only on a click or hover; otherwise they’re hidden.

The beta of the client is available now: Log in to your Evernote account on the Web, and you’ll get an opt-in so you can try it.

Presentation mode
Libin is not a fan of either meetings or PowerPoint, and the Evernote client app has been getting presentation features for a while. Next month, he said, Presentation mode on both the desktop and mobile clients will be improved again, with new features for displaying artwork, for collecting multiple notes into one presentation, and for sharing presentations with co-workers.

Evernote Context
The Evernote client is also getting improvements to its Related Notes feature, which so far has only been able to pull up notes from your Evernote account that are related to what you’re writing or reading at the moment.

With Context, the app will now also display dossiers on individuals mentioned in the note, through a partnership with LinkedIn, or news articles from authoritative publications, like The Wall Street Journal. Other content partners include Inc., TechCrunch, and Factiva.

With a news article displayed, you’ll now be able to clip a selection from the story (or the whole story) and save that information, nicely formatted, into your Evernote notebook.

Context will launch next month, Libin said.

Work Chat
People working with Evernote in a group will soon be able to see who else on their team is viewing a note that they are. From the Evernote client, Libin showed how users would be able to fire off a quick chat about that note to one of those co-workers — or any team member the user wants to communicate with. It’s called Work Chat.

It appears that Evernote still does not allow users to collaboratively edit a note in real time, however.

Evernote Market additions
The company also announced a new paper notebook through its partnership with Moleskine. It’s a day planner, and items entered under particular day headers are automatically filed by date when you snap a picture of the pages with your Evernote mobile app.

Evernote also added other new physical products to its Marketplace, including desktop monitor stands and other desktop accessories, additions to its Pfeiffer collection.

Rafe Needleman can be reached at rafeneedleman@yahoo.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @rafe.