Stepan is the man who first had the idea to create EverNote and what a job he has done on it alongside some excellent programmers. Here we stole a few minutes of his time to see what he really thinks of the reaction to EverNote so far and we even have a screenshot of it running on a PDA! You can download the desktop version for free from www.evernote.com. Currently the PDA version is not available and I have no idea of proposed pricing for this. Our extensive review of EverNote is at http://www.clieuk.co.uk/ever.shtml
1) Who had the original idea to create EverNote and what inspired that idea?
[SP] It was me: I was looking for an application which would help me overcome a few shortcomings of the Outlook: folder metaphor, which doesn’t allow you to easily place a note (e-mail) to many different folders; I also badly needed a more flexible To-Do manager (it has not been implemented in EverNote yet). EverNote’s “endless tape” had been inspired by the Apple Newton.
2) How long did the development for the desktop version take and how long have the PDA versions been in development?
[SP] We spent six months with one engineer to prototype EverNote, and then almost two years with a few more to develop the desktop version. In parallel, digital ink support and handwriting recognition technology has been developed. HTML engine had been licensed from Terra Informatica. Smartphone and PDA versions (Windows Mobile and Palm) are in the works for almost a year.
3) Does EverNote have a schedule for development completion or can you see it continually being enhanced?
[SP] EverNote is an endless project and we see a lot of interesting tasks on our roadmap (search through camera snapshots of images with handwritten and printed texts; search through voice notes; attaching location as a category; new metaphor for “assisted search” based on auto-categorization, and much more, mostly based on AI and fuzzy logic).
4) Has it been as successful as you hoped?
[SP] Not really 
I had a plan to release smartphone and PDAs versions (including Symbian) six months ago…
5) What’s the best book you have read and the best song you have heard?
[SP] It is so difficult to pick one! OK:
1) Michael Bulgakov’s “Master and Margarita” (unfortunately, all translations are very far from being perfect, try O’Connor)
“Oft denk ich, sie sind nur ausgegangen ” by Gustav Mahler with Kathleen Ferrier and Bruno Walter
6) Tell a bit about yourself and your involvement in the company.
[SP] I am a founder of the company and the current CEO, I am 53 years old, I hold Ph.D. in computer science from the Moscow University, have three children, I don’t like Putin and all his current friends (starting with Bush and ending with Berlusconi); I love my friends and all (literally all!) kind of arts (Thomas Mann, Gurdjieff, Hartmann, Schönberg, Mozart, Keith Jarrett, Leonard Cohen, Shen Wei, Angelin Preljocaj, Pushkin, Bob Dylan, Shakespeare, Beatles, Pink Floyd, Tarkovsky (both father and son), Pasternak, Kandinsky, and many many more)
7) What’s the best piece of feedback you have received to date concerning EverNote?
[SP] I was told that “EverNote is more than one note” 
Lots of people are desperate to see the PDA version. Can we see a screenshot to show them what it looks like?
[SP] Generally speaking, EverNote on PDAs looks almost the same as the desktop version with the closed category panel. My wife and I use our smartphone version (on iMate SP3) for more than 6 months and like it very much. We had to delay the public appearance because of the massive work on different sync options.
9) How do you feel knowing that some people are getting massive benefits from your program (I suspect I am saving an hour a day with it)?
[SP] This really makes me happy!
10) Anything you would like to add?
[SP] EverNote is about the memory. Memory is not only about search – a good “photographic” memory is also about capturing! I believe that in the near future, a cell phone will become a kind of extension to human memory: capturing and recoding everything we would like to remember. EverNote is a tip of that Iceberg.
M: This hour, my friend, shall stir your senses…
The things … are something more than magic’s empty show.
