I’ve only been using Scratch since yesterday, but I have to say it looks to have ousted Drafts as my go to note/scratch pad app. In my testing it launches faster than Drafts, and offers a lot of little clever features.
For one, it supports Markdown with a special row of keys — but that’s almost trivial now in iOS apps. What’s really nice is that it has a special row of keys that give you other keys that would before cause you to tap and change the keyboard. In my case: the em dash is there. I use a lot — a lot — of em dashes, so for me this is a time saver.
What’s odd is that the app doesn’t have a new note button, instead a delete this note button. Which at first was annoying, but really it’s more like taking the current page of paper you are writing on and tossing it aside, only to see a new — fresh — sheet of paper.
Ok, before I wrap up this mini-review, let me point out two other features:
– You can append what you just wrote to a text file in Dropbox. Append people. Very cool.
– You can export just the text you select, again, nice touch.
Did I also mention you can customize that custom row of buttons?
The icon is blue-ish though, so that was a strike against it, but then I looked harder at it in my dock and the icon has grown on me. So note the time and date (July 17, 2012) because this is a blue icon that I like.
The biggest rub I have with the app is that when I export to Dropbox I have to navigate my entire list of Dropbox folders. I would love to setup the app so that exports to Dropbox always go to folder X and that when I append they always go to file X. That’s a nitpick though. What’s more impressive is how much this app does without ever showing a settings screen.
It’s [$2.99 in the App Store](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/scratch-your-quick-input-notepad/id533320655?mt=8) and I applaud them for charging a premium price. It’s not for everyone, but — right now — it *is* for me.