Application Name: SpotPad
Description: Create simple location-tagged notes, show their location in Google Maps
Publisher’s website: SpotPad
Cost: Free (ad-supported)
Version/date reviewed: v.0.0.1 / 4-15-11
Phone/OS: Droid X / Android 2.2
Android Market (mobile app only)
Android Market (browser)
SpotPad lets you create a simple text note, and tag it with your current GPS location.
From the initial program screen, press your unit’s Menu buttton, and select Add note; the screen above will appear. Type in the text you want to save. In order to tag the note with your current location, you need to press the Update Location button; SpotPad will not automatically add that data. But if you like, you can save a note without location data. When done, choose Save from the menu options, or just use the back button. Your GPS only fires up when you’re in note editing mode, and turns off when you save the note – a nice touch that saves on battery life.
Available notes will be listed here; notes tagged with coordinate data will have a “pin” icon next to them, untagged notes will lack the pin. To open a note for editing, just tap on its listing here. The default note title is the first 25-odd characters of the note, but you can modify that when editing the note, using the Edit title option in the menu during editing.
But you can also bring up multiple options by doing a long-press on a note listing. Open just brings up a full view of the note, with the option to edit it. Delete removes the note (no recovery possible). Edit title lets you modify the title (which doesn’t affect the note text). Show location plots the location where the note was taken in Google Maps:
A tap on the “pin” icon brings up its title and coordinates:
Unfortunately, tapping on this information pop-up doesn’t take you to the note text directly; hope this is added in a future version.
Other issues: None; worked fine.
Final thoughts: Other apps, like Evernote, Catch Notes, and Springpad offer note geotagging with extra features like pictures, but with a somewhat more complicated interface, and no titles for plotted points. If all you want is just a quick and easy geotagged note app, SpotPad does the job.