I’m pretty excited about this…don’t remember how I found Nilvec, but thanks to a pair of blogs on their site I’ve been able to integrate dispatching of emails directly into Note To Me (this feature isn’t yet available for the version in the Android market) so the user doesn’t have to go through the Gmail client, very slick.  Check out these posts…

Sending Email Without User Interaction In Android

Email Sending Example

They packaged the Apache classes very nicely and made it easy to get the email set up and running.  Now for all the other features that are needed because I’m implementing my own email client…ie, making sure the emails are sent later if there is no wireless connection.

NoteToMe is a simple tool which helps me capture thoughts and ideas as they migrate through my brain and compete for attention.

I consider myself a pretty heavy Right Brain person, I try not to label any of my ideas are stupid or outrageous.  It seems that the more ideas I entertain, no matter how crazy,  the more ideas pop into my head.  I’ve been working awhile on a system or workflow to improve the collection and storage of these thoughts so I can action on them at a later date.

The first problem is having a place to hold these ideas so they won’t be forgetten. Enter Gmail…I use my Gmail account for lots more then just recieving spam.  I capture ideas, reminders, todos, and links just to name a few, it’s my catch all.  I’m constantly emailing one liners to myself, because I know that I have a much better chance of revisiting the topic if it’s in my inbox.  It’s certainly not a perfect workflow, but something I continue to improve.

So the next challenge is getting the thoughts from my head into my inbox. I started by having a shortcut to my email on my desktop.

This kinda worked, but I still had to enter some marking or tag to help filter the clutter and a subject.  The subject is moot in my book, it’s the meat of the message I want to get to and capture before I forget it, and move onto the next one which is bubbling to the top.  Instead I’m screwing around trying to “think” of a subject as opposed to just letting the thoughts come streaming out.

These where some of the first requirements for NoteToMe.  Quickly allow me to get thoughts out of my head, and allow me to quickly mark them with predefined tags.

So now I have a NoteToMe Application Shortcut on my main screen which brings up the app allowing me to instantly capture my todo/thought/next big thing and  send it on its way.

The current version still goes through the Gmail client so it could still be trimmed down a bit as far as number of button clicks, but it seems to be working into my workflow so far…but maybe that’ll change.

I know that NoteTeMe has lots of competition out there.  Apps that are much more feature rich when it comes to note taking or todo lists, AK Notepad, Note Everything and OI Notepad are a couple that come to mind.  But NoteToMe fills a little different niche in my opinion, kinda geared specifically to how my brain works.  So if you’re brain kinda works the same way, I hope you give it a try and let me know how it goes…good or bad.  Any type of comments at this stage are appreciated.

Click here to see more screen shots of NoteToMe…come back soon, I got lots more ideas!

And again, thanks for your support, all proceeds go towards my bootstrapping effort.

In between my new contracting gig, family life and the new dog I found room to put together a quick Android application which I just uploaded to the market.  It’s my first attempt at a paid app and more information can be seen on the app link, NoteToMe, at the top of the screen.  It’s a small one feature app, but I’ve got a couple more ideas I’ll be putting into it when time permits…bootstrapping is tough stuff!

Just wanted to put a quick message together to put out the news, thanks for taking a look at it if you get the chance.