If there’s one big advantage that Android has over iOS, it’s arguably the lock screen. Although it’s neat to customize the wallpaper on your lock screen with images of your uncle’s weird gun collection, it would be nice if you could see what you have to do for the day or check out a quick reminder. Well it turns out there is a way to do that via a quick workaround, as well as a way to have handy reminders on the lock screen.
It’s called Sticky Notes Pro, and it’s a cool little app that lets you do all that and more. It even comes with a handy video to show you all of the nuances of the program. So is it worth the low price? Good question. Fortunately, we have the answer.
The Basics
There are plenty of times when I wish I had a some sort of reminder on my iPhone that lets me know what I have to do for the day. But I wouldn’t want a boring reminder that just looked like a plain list on the screen, something cool would be much better. This is what Sticky Notes Pro does, with lots of options for customization.
Create and Upload Notes for Your Own Custom Notepad
You start by choosing the type of background that you want. The default image is a corkboard, but there are dozens of other choices as well, including rusted metal, painted designs, and more. This way you can make the lock screen look as cool as you want, and have notes on top as an added bonus. Once that’s done, you can add your notes. Choose a sticky note format, or you can do comic book style speech bubbles, or even calendars. Then just enter your text into the box and you’re good to go. Save the image on the camera roll, choose the image for the lock screen, and then you’re good to go.
Getting Advanced
Fortunately, that’s not all that you can do with Sticky Notes Pro, so let’s talk about the more advanced features of the product. Having one page of sticky notes isn’t very exciting, so the program has multiple folder options to choose from. To access the folders, just tap on the tab at the top of the screen and they cascade down from the top. There are five to start with, but you can add or subtract as many as you want in addition to naming them. So if you want one folder for school reminders and another for work, you can do that by clicking on the gear symbol and typing in your preferred title.
Multiple Folder Options for Sorting, And Various Calendars
Another nice feature is the calendar option. Even though the iPhone’s lock screen has the date and day of the week, there are plenty of times when you need to know a date two weeks out. Combine the calendar with a sticky note or two, and you’re good to go. Make your lock screen a to-do list for your GTD system, or just keep a calendar there for reference. If you’re not sure about how the image will look on your iPhone, you can preview it by touching the arrow on the top right corner of the screen, and then selecting preview. Alternatively, you can also send your screen to Facebook, save it to your camera roll, or any number of different options. Plus, there’s also an alarm option. If you have a time-sensitive note that you want a reminder for, just set an alarm and you’ll be good to go.
Alternatives
The sticky note field is full of plenty of contenders. There’s the similarly titled Sticky Note (by a different company), which looks similar to Sticky Note Pro but without the 3D vibe. There’s also Facenote, which gives you a sticky note for your contacts, or Fenix Notes, which does multiple notes in multiple sizes per page. Really, there are a ton of different options to choose from, depending on your needs. What makes Sticky Notes Pro stand out is the calendar feature, as well as the multiple note option, which not many of the competitors have themselves. Plus it’s cheap, as an added bonus.
Calendars and Sticky Notes can Live Happily on Your Lock Screen
The Verdict
There’s a bit of a learning curve with the program, but fortunately there’s a getting started video that kicks in when you first start the program. After 5 minutes or so, you can be a pro, and you’ll know all you need to about the app. Plus, there’s the added bonus of the alarm feature, making it more than just a screensaver program. The iPhone lock screen issue is something that many people have complained about since day one, and hopefully it’s an issue that Apple remedies in iOS 5.0 or even 4.3. But until that happens, if you want to customize your lock screen with special notes or calendars, Sticky Notes Pro is your best option.