Trunk

By Gary Lucero on February 25th, 2009
Our Rating: :: RECOMMENDED
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad

In a nutshell Trunk is a personal wiki. It gives you the tools to create interconnected web pages using the simple Markdown language as well as the more complex HTML tags. Anyone can create these pages using WikiWords, and pages can store links to other pages or external web sites, as well as formatted text. This simplicity belies the power of Trunk, though, as it represents a unique way for users of the iPhone to manage information.

Trunk is a personal wiki. It allows you to create connected web pages using either HTML or a variant of it called Markdown. But you don’t have to use complex tags to create these pages. You can instead use WikiWords, which are two words with initial capitalization concatenated together (WikiWords is a WikiWord, for example) to automatically create a new connected page.

Regardless of how you put it together, your personal wiki can house any type of textual information you desire, included numbered or bulleted lists, headings, and links to external web sites. You can edit it on your iPhone or through a web browser via a wifi connection. You can also share your wiki via wifi or e-mail specific wiki pages to other users.

By dispensing with some of the mystery normally associated with wikis, Trunk gives you a very simple way to put together what is essentially a relatively complex web site of your own. Since the iPhone doesn’t let you paste information from one app into another, and trunk lets you view and edit your wiki through wifi sharing, you can do this from any computer’s web browser. This can be secured by turning on authentication in Trunk, which forces anyone attempting to connect to it to type in a username and password first.

Anyone can create what is essentially a web site on an iPhone using Trunk, and this site can store information in a free form manner. Links can lead to pages of recipes, contacts, web sites, FAQs, or just about anything else you can think of. Since you can use HTML as well as the Markdown language to create your wiki, complex formatting can also be used.

While it’s easy to see this can be useful for individuals who like to be able to creatively store information, businesses can also use it to share knowledge bases or other static information with employees. Anyone could benefit from Trunk, but those who prefer the structure of an app dedicated to a single purpose would probably find it a bit overwhelming.

It can be intimidating to use if you’re not sure what you want to store or if you have trouble understanding HTML or the Markdown language. The app does provide some help, and the developer’s web site provides forums where you can ask questions, but otherwise you’re left to read up on these languages from other web sites or sources.

Regardless, Trunk is a unique app that gives you a fresh approach to storing information. That it allows you to easily create a wiki and then share it with others makes it even more useful, and the flexible languages it supports gives you a lot of freedom in defining and editing it.

Trunk Notes - note taking and personal wiki

Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Buy Now: $3.99

Our Rating: :: RECOMMENDED
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Released: 2009-01-20 :: Category: Productivity