I tried using Evernote over a year ago for that purpose. Maybe I didn’t give it enough time but it didn’t do it for me.

However, I am giving it another shot and am liking what I see so far. The web clipping tool they have it quite useful. It is quite easy to clip whole web pages or highlighted text to Evernote and tag it accordingly.

I do a lot of browsing on my iPhone so I downloaded the Evernote app and assumed it would have a similiar capability. I was quite surprised to find out they don’t have this feature.

After some searching on the web (it appears this is a feature a lot of people are looking / wishing for), there are two ways to get this basic functionality on your iPhone.

The first is to simply use your personalized Evernote email address to mail the link from your iPhone Safari browser. Of course, the problem with this is that you can’t clip the whole page or tag notes requiring you to duplicate efforts in Evernote Web or your desktop version. I am not of fan of doing something twice.

Larry Keltto over at The Solopreneur Life has instructions.

The second (and better albeit not perfect due to the UI) is to create a bookmark in your iPhone Safari bookmarks with the web clipping JavaScript bookmarklet.  Thanks to Chris Bray for the JavaScript (he also has the JavaScript for a number of other tools). Just copy and email it to yourself. Open the email on your iPhone and copy the code. Go safari and add a new bookmark. Go into your bookmarks and edit the recent addition. Paste the JavaScript into the URL and name it something you can remember like ‘Evernote Clipper” and there you go. All set. You will need to login to Evernote just like using the web clipper normally and the UI will only KIND OF fit holding the iPhone horizontally but on the plus side you can add tags, notes, and clip the whole page. NICE!

The Mergy Notes also has some general instructions: the mergy notes » Use the Evernote Clipper With Safari On iPad and iPhone.

via $150 Book Saver turns a 200 page book into eReader format in 15 minutes.

This is another option to research in the quest for digitizing books.

More information is available on the Ion Audio website. It looks like it supports pdf, epub, and doc formats as well. Does not specify camera resolution. One minor downside is that it can only scan 8.5″ x 11.”

I also wonder if the included software will address difference document sizes so a novel wouldn’t the extra whitespace (filling the 8.5″ x 11″ frame).

Also, the software doesn’t appear to include OCR. Not a big deal but OCR is definitely a feature some will want, including me but this is easily worked around using Adobe Create PDF.

1DollarScan works in the same way as Bookscan: after receiving physical books or other printed material from customers, the company scans the papers, and converts them into PDFs or DVDs. That’s what similar services do, too, but as 1DollarScan’s company name suggests, prices start at just $1 (for ten photos or 100 pages in a book, for example).

via 1DollarScan Scans And Digitizes Your Books For You “For A Dollar” | TechCrunch.”

Looks to be much more expensive than Book Scan US. They only charged $1 for a 300 page book. There are some interesting comments on TechCrunch, including something thinking once they digitize one book, they could use that copy for all future orders.

Hard to justify the $1/100 pages cost, if true. Will need to think more on that.

Books are cut to sheets for the scan.

Scanned data are converted to PDF.

PDF files are sent to online storage for your retrieval.

Book remnants are sent to local recycle center.

(Book remnants can also be shipped back to you.)

via Welcome to Book Scan US – Home.

Could be a nice option to add to tools to help in personal data management and productivity.

The files could be stored in Evernote. Might have to try this out.

You know those greats conversations you are having with a friend or co-worker that goes something like this:

“I read this great article about X, I think it was on web site Y, the title was something like Z. I’ll have to find it and email it to you.”

Finding that article again can sometimes be a near impossible task. Multiply that by 1,000 and that is how much useful information that can’t be easily recalled and shared.

I am going to start using “Press This” by WordPress on this blog as a tool to help me store information. It is mostly a personal endeavor so if you are reading this, that will be the reason why I am posting random links.

Apparently this can be done using the iPhone as well as seen here:

WordPress 2.6 “Press This” Bookmarklet Works Great on iPhone | Josh Bancroft’s TinyScreenfuls.com.

I, for one, don’t feel a compelling need to use Twitter but it already has gone in some interesting directions, such as providing real time data on unfolding events (Mumbai Attacks for example) Although, it is debatable how much relevant information was being micro-blogged, see Alexander Wolfe’s article. His opening line is poignant, “Never before has a crisis unleashed so much raw data — and so little interpretation.” For many, twitter is just one more distracting information feed in a sea of social media platforms; its value debatable. Fortunately all this raw data with little interpretation creates opportunities. A former colleague of mine, Demian Crumb, is doing some interesting stuff with data collection with Twitter. You can follow his efforts on Twitter, fittingly enough. 

Dan Hall