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Why would you pay for an application that does something that your BlackBerry can already do natively? I ask this question all the time, and even ripped paid apps that do this. So when I got an email from Electric Pocket about an application called BugMe!, I brushed it off. After all, my BlackBerry already has a note taker, an alarm system, and a task list app. Why would I want to pay even $3 for an application that just duplicates these? The answer is that I wouldn’t. BugMe!, however, takes these apps a step further. After playing with it for a bit, I wish that RIM would dump its current tasks and memo apps and replace them with BugMe!.

One of the primary functions of my BlackBerry is as a note taker. I have all sorts of memos set up, composed of this list or that. For example, when someone mentions a book I should read, I immediately enter it on the BlackBerry. For that type of note, the basic memo app suffices. But for urgent notes — say, that I need to buy paper plates when I’m at the supermarket, I could sure use an alarm to remind me. That’s the beauty of BugMe!. It gives you the option of adding an alert to any note.

Tasks is another frequently used app on my Berry. It’s kind of a pain that my notes and lists aren’t in one application — frequently, the lists in my memo application are actually tasks that I have to eventually copy over. But with BugMe!, it’s all there in one app. You can mark any note as Done, effectively crossing it off your to-do list. The only downside to this is that each note has to be a separate task. For instance, I can’t make a list within a note and have each individual line be a separate task. Hint, hint, Electric Pocket.

If, for some reason, you want to export a note to the Tasks app, you can do that. You can also copy notes to the Calendar. Want to send the note to a friend, but don’t want to retype the thing? You can email it to them, or even send it via SMS. There is an option to add a BugMe! line to menus, which is great but under-implemented. When I click on that from an email, it doesn’t add anything from the email to the note. You’ll have to do some old fashioned copy and pasting for that.

If you want to upgrade the note taking experience on your BlackBerry, you can get BugMe! at the BBGeeks Store for $2.99. It might duplicate some things you can do on your BlackBerry already, but 1) it does them more efficiently, making me wish it was native, and 2) the price is right. The app will work with all BlackBerry operating systems 4.2 and up.

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