Skip to Content

Captio: The simple app that just might change your life

by Josh Helfferich Sep 30th 2010 at 10:00AM


Anyone who knows me will tell you that I have the worst memory. I also have a bad short-term memory. This makes it tough to remember the things that pop into my head throughout the day, and it makes it especially hard to keep track of tasks and other actions that I must take. I've wanted to use my iPhone to "bottle" these fleeting thoughts for years, but nothing on the App Store allowed me to do this without some sort of distraction.

Enter Captio, a new app from Ben Lenarts of Boonbits. It's a small note taking application that allows you to capture thoughts, ideas, tasks, and other tidbits of information as they come to you. You may say, "But there are a million of those apps on the store, Josh, you handsome man!" Given, but Captio has one killer feature that everyone else has failed to deliver on: nothing. For example, here's how it works:

Step 1: You open the app.

Step 2: You type what you need to remember.

And that's it. Your idea is in your email inbox. That's what makes Captio so great. You can add a quick photo before Captio whisks the idea out of your mind, but the feature is hidden quite well under the keyboard (as not to distract you). It's one fast app, too. I don't mean that in the same way that reviewers normally say it, either. Captio could outrun Usain Bolt strapped to a rocket cheetah. My iPhone 4 loads it from a cold start in about a second, and it's even quicker when loading from multitasking memory.

If you're looking for something to capture everything you need to remember (and capture it quickly), I highly recommend picking up Captio. It's available now on the App Store for a fantastic $0.99. Just be prepared to break the news gently to your iPod icon, though; he won't be happy to lose his spot on the dock.

View Tags

Related Stories

Categories

iPhone App Store App Review iOS

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I have the worst memory. I also have a bad short-term memory. This makes it tough to remember the...
 

Add a Comment

Sign in »
*0 / 3000 Character Maximum Comment Moderation Enabled. Your comment will appear after it is cleared by an editor.

35 Comments

Filter by:
Brett

Really? I mean, I guess it's a decent idea... I just don't think that it justifies a cost.

October 11 2010 at 1:56 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jpmtrabbold

Another quick app, but for Calendar Events:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/quickcal-add/id386211040?mt=8

October 08 2010 at 1:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Joshhsoj1902

I don't know, i usually just email myself reminders with the mail app, it's free...

October 01 2010 at 7:15 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jamie

If you like this app give HiFutureSelf a try. I've had it for weeks and it's really handy.

October 01 2010 at 2:27 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tammy

This sounds like a great little app. Your article reminded me that I've been on the quest for a voice-recording app that does the same simple act - I click record, click stop, and the app sends the recorded note to my email automatically. Does anyone reading this know of one that is that simple? Thanks!

September 30 2010 at 5:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jim

Simplenote for iPhone + Notational Velocity for Mac > Capito.

September 30 2010 at 3:38 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Bill

Uh, no thanks. I'll keep using Evernote.

September 30 2010 at 3:00 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mike

Sorry, not unique. This app already exists. I had this idea a year ago so my iPhone dev friend wrote it for me.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/note2inbox/id343926169?mt=8

September 30 2010 at 1:22 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Andrew

It is very fast, like the author says. Unfortunately, I find that it's also very buggy. For example, when you first start the app it asks you what email address you want to send to. You can change that later by modifying the field inside Captio's preferences tab inside Settings. Unfortunately, it's difficult to get that adjustment to "stick". I had to make the change three times before the messages actually started getting sent to the new address. Worse, though, if you type in some text before you take a picture in the app, the text you entered is lost when you take a picture. It's very frustrating. Basically, if you're going to make some notes about something you see, you must remember to take the picture first (a slow process on an iPhone 3GS) before you enter the notes. Hopefully the author will address these issues in an update and, more to the point, perform more thorough quality assurance before its release.

September 30 2010 at 1:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
alansky

Personally, I use my iPhone's voice recorder for this task. No typing required, and it works while driving with minimum distraction—whereas typing in any sort of note-taking app while driving is absolutely irresponsible. Voice memos are automatically transferred to iTunes when I sync the iPhone. Of course, if your memory is so bad that you can't remember to sync your iPhone...

September 30 2010 at 12:56 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Buy an ad here

Hot Apps on TUAW

Tweets

© 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.