Momento Review: One Diary/Journaling app to Rule them All…

App Name:	Momento
Platforms:	iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad
Publisher(s):	d3i Ltd
Version Reviewed:	2.3.2
Genre(s):	Lifestyle
Release Date:	November 21, 2011
Price:	$2.99
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If you’re in the market for a service to record what’s going on in your life, maybe some idea or thought you came up with, we’ve got something for you.

It’s called Momento, a neat little journaling app (I refuse to use the word diary; I’m a man) that lets you record a litany of “moments” in your life. It works just as you would imagine a journaling app to work by allowing you to select a time and date and input whatever is on your mind. Each entry is called a “moment”, and the more you use it, the more you quickly begin to realize this is so much more than just a journal.

In addition to recording your thoughts, Momento actually gives you the ability to curate pretty much anything you would have done on a number of social media services, and access them by date. With access to a number of social media services, you can take a gander at what you were up to on say, Twitter, a year ago. This is where the real fun begins, as it takes the journaling concept to a whole new level and allows you to exhaustively record your everyday happenings and thoughts.

The services Momento supports include:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Flickr
• Instagram
• Last.fm
• Foursquare
• Gowalla
• Digg
• YouTube
• Vimeo
• Web Feeds (Rss/Atom feeds)

So now it’s no longer a bother to go back and see what that photo of that one burger I made all the way back in the Spring of ’09 looks like, thanks to Momento. This is made easier by allowing the user to access specific dates by calendar view, which enables you to quickly jump to any moment in the past. The only services I have synced to the app as of right now are Twitter, Instagram, and Foursquare, so I can’t say how deep the integration with all of the others goes. Based on the integration I see with my services (all of my tweets, pictures, and check-ins are there), though, it’s safe to say it probably goes a long way and will make any journaling nerd quite happy.

The other great thing about all of this is that you have the option to search any of your imported and locally inputted moments. So if you were wondering what you had to say about the last election, search a few keywords and you’re good to go. Accessing your data is made incredibly easy by all of these features, and really enhances the overall experience for the user.

In case you’re worried about information overload, you have the option to limit what Momento imports. For instance, if you don’t want any tweet containing the hashtag #bigbutts (hey, some people have their weird interests), Momento won’t import that tweet. But if you ONLY want tweets with #bigbutts, it can import just those for you as well. So basically, you have a large amount of control over what goes into the app.

So, what’s good?

Read all of the above. In my opinion, Momento does a near perfect job of what so many journaling apps strive for, and that’s giving you, the user, complete control over your data and allowing you to access it in an incredibly easy manner.

In terms of aesthetics and design, I have zero complaints. The interface is intuitive and easy to navigate; and not to mention, gorgeous. d3i really blew this one out of the park, and I for one love it.

So, what’s not so good?

Ummm…you’ve probably already figured out that I’m an unabashed Momento fan, so I’m going to have to find something really obscure and nitpicky, but here goes: it’s not the same as pen and paper. There just isn’t much that compares with physically writing your thoughts down on paper and looking over what was more than likely a laborious effort. But given the added features and capabilities that you’re given with this app, it’s a more than fair trade off.

For those worried about losing all of their data should their device crash, don’t. Momento has a great way to backup all of your data via iTunes File Sharing, so you can rest assured that your “moments” won’t become just a memory.

By now it’s quite obvious that I give this app my full stamp of approval and therefore award it the first ever 5 out of 5 star review of my (very) young tech blogging career. The $2.99  tag is really a small price to pay when compared to sentimental value.

About the Author

Jared Murray is a freelance writer currently living in Phoenix, Arizona.

 

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