I’ve come across a lot of recommendations for replacing the iPhone’s default Notes app, but none have really sold me until now. Fast Writer ($0.99, iTunes link) is a basic text editor with one killer feature: it adds an extra row of customizable keys to the iPhone’s keyboard. Depending on how you customize the keys, this means you no longer have to switch screens to add punctuation or numbers to your text.
The row of 15 customizable keys appears above the normal keyboard. You can change which characters appear on the keys in the app’s settings menu. The keys can have numbers, punctuation, or a variety of other symbols you normally find buried in the keyboard’s sub-screens.
The app supports both portrait and landscape orientations, although in portrait you’re limited to only 10 extra keys instead of 15. We generally recommend typing in landscape anyways.
Other than the extra row of keys, the app has a few other features missing from the iPhone’s Notes app. One is customizable fonts. There are 30 font types to choose from (some are italics and bold versions of a single font), so you no longer have to be stuck with the Marker Felt font found in the iPhone’s Notes app. You can also change font color and size.
The app also lets you launch the iPhones’s SMS app by tapping a button (looks like a chat bubble), then copies the text you were writing for pasting into the text message. I can’t see a lot of people using Fast Writer to write SMS messages, but the feature is there if you want it.
You can also email your notes within the app. Tap the email button, and the text is inserted into an email. Enter a recipient and subject and tap send.
The app does have some missing features. There is no syncing of notes, so if you want to move your notes off the iPhone, you’ll have to do it by email.
Fast Writer is a $0.99 download from the iTunes App Store.