
What’s New in Evernote 5 - benguild
http://evernote.com/evernote/whats_new/mac/
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ianstormtaylor
I've never been able to get into Evernote. I think my problem with their
approach to design is that they try to solve all of these random different use
cases with random different features. And when you do that, you end up with a
really fragmented app and features that never get touched by 99% of users.
(Those Firefox heatmaps come to mind.)

On the opposite end of the spectrum is something like Trello or Workflowy.
They decided on several core abstractions: cards for Trello and nodes for
Workflowy. Then, as the user, you figure out how to bend those core components
to fit your needs. And the product itself remains incredibly basic.

I realize there's also a danger in abstracting things away too far, but it
just seems like the other direction degrades into feature chaos way too
quickly.

~~~
guga31bb
Seconding WorkFlowy. I started using it a couple months ago and haven't turned
back since. I showed it to my (not very technologically savvy) wife, and she
loves it too. It's great for sharing the mobile interface is nice, and I like
how simple it is.

(sorry if this sounds like an advertisement but it's great to actually have a
to-do list manager that I actually _like_ )

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veidr
I really love Evernote. It has absolutely changed my life for the better.
Every single significant piece of paper in my life, be it physical (e.g.,
parking ticket) or virtual (e.g., airline e-ticket) in my life goes into a
feed scanner which directly inputs it to Evernote, then into the shredder. It
has spared a lot of cumulative hours of my life from being wasted on crap-
work.

Having said that, the Mac app totally SUCKS. Big time. It abruptly loses the
cursor and keyboard focus so you can't type. It sometimes pauses for a
looooong time. It crashes. Outlining is buggy. Keyboard shortcuts buck the
standard Mac conventions. It has egregious design flaws, including completely
wrong/insane behavior for the basic functionality of _creating a new note_
(Cmd-N opens an insanely huge bloated master-detail view of all your notes,
search field, notbook list, multiple toolbars, and activity monitor, requiring
that you find the new untitled note in all that crap, double click it to open
the new note in a note window, and then close that bloated behemoth (necessary
even if you don't mind a huge unnecessary second window being open, because
several editing operations cause crashes when two views on a note are open
simultaneously)).

It is one of those apps where the actual function is so beneficial/important
that you deal with the app itself being a total piece of crap.

So I look forward to a major new version, although pre-announcing software
that isn't available is annoying, and there's not much in this post to
indicate whether or not the severe problems with Evernote 3 have been fixed in
addition to adding all the glitz.

~~~
jwr
I tried to use Evernote, many times. I tried hard. But I just can't — there
are seemingly minor problems with the Mac app and the iOS app that just make
it unpleasant and annoying to use it on a daily basis.

I now keep my PDFs in Yep, other notes in Yojimbo, and suffer those apps'
limitations — I still prefer them over Evernote.

Also, my trust in the company did not improve after I saw what they did to
Skitch. A great app was basically ruined. So, until they hire a decent
usability & UI design expert and start seriously improving the usability of
their apps — I'll wait.

~~~
veidr
I understand. I also prefer the UI of Yep or Yojimbo (or any of a bunch of
other programs).

However, the cloud-tastic fact that all my notes are available everywhere
outweighs the interface problems for me. (Even though I desperately would like
a better UI.)

The thing about apps with UI problems like this is that users can overlook the
flaws at first, if the app is really useful. But with time, if the program is
something you use every day, one comes to develop a deep-seated dislike,
almost a hatred. Or at least I do.

Therefore, I am inclined to try out every single would-be Evernote competitor,
where if their software didn't have such sharp, sucky edges, I would not have
time to do that. This is why I think making shoddy software can be really
harmful to a company in the long term, even if it is presently popular and
successful. If something else came along with the key features of Evernote
wrapped in a less sucky package, I would jump ship instantly.

However, for me those key features are a.) one-step scanning paper to the
cloud, b.) one-step print anything as PDF to the cloud, c.) API to get data
out so I'm not locked in, d.) reasonably fast and robust search across
hundreds of thousands of documents, and e.) Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, and
web apps to interface.

So far at least, there's nothing else.

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zaptheimpaler
I've never quite understood the point of Evernote. To Evernote users - what
kinds of things do you use it for?

~~~
jclos
As a PhD student, I use it to organize my research. Instead of having physical
notebooks, I have virtual notebooks that I use to note and track the evolution
of my ideas over time or when I need to write a report, because it syncs
between my lab computer, my phone and my laptop. I also use the web clipper
when I want to download and annotate a web page. I know that I could use a
combination of free tools to do the same thing but I like having all of it
bundled in the same package. The only big drawback is that they take my data
hostage - I can't access it using a third party client (at least to my
knowledge).

~~~
cing
Seconding that. I do computational research, so while I can't merge my code
repositories with Evernote very cleanly, I can drag in just about everything
throughout my day into Evernote to make a record. Also, the audio recordings
are extremely cheap (storage-wise) so I tend to record most conversations and
meetings I have. It's a vital part of my research and I don't even pay for
premium.

~~~
jclos
I never thought of that but now that you mention it importing and annotating
code would be a neat feature.

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lucian1900
Every now and then I try out Evernote, but every time I stop because they lack
a linux app. I wish they fixed that.

~~~
murrayb
Agreed. I've had reasonable success with NixNote/Nevernote
<http://nevernote.sourceforge.net/>

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dade_
For me, cross platform support and reliable backend are critical and these are
two places where Evernote excels.

Evernote really needs to focus on app stability. For example, the current IOS
app crashes constantly and has a glitchy interface. Over the years, feature
growth has been very messy from a UX perspective so it is good to see they are
working on a fresh approach.

I have been using Evernote since before it was a cloud app and I always loved
the cross platform support with the same data file. Once it became a cloud
platform, the broad platform support of mobile devices is truly fantastic:
BlackBerry at work, personal iPhone and iPad, Linux desktop (Web app / email
address to add notes), Windows 7 & 8 on VMware, and it works great on my Nexus
7.

Evernote is a key part of my workflow and daily life and I found my investment
in time figuring it out has paid off immensely.

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Bvalmont
This looks great.

I always wondered why they never seem to highlight their best feature, which
is the ability to search text in images or scanned documents. That has been a
huge timesaver in the past. One day I'll put all my important documents in
there.

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jvoorhis
I love Evernote as a productivity tool, and I do have a few decent recipes
buried within, but I have doubts about adding first class support for them (a
la Evernote food), or first class support for this or that.

Evernote have done an amazing job of creating the core experience for
creating, retrieving and synchronizing notes across devices. I don't know what
lessons their product team has learned along the way, but I wonder why they
are drifting away from their core strength.

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sabret00the
For the longest time I've been looking for an Evernote alternative that is
open source and able to sync my notes between Windows and Android (and desktop
Linux) but haven't found one.

I really hoped that Mozilla would diversify and offer something in this
regard. No such luck though.

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codex
I would use Evernote more if there were a private sync option, or even a local
LAN sync option (which would be usable from my iPhone via VPN). I don't trust
my personal data in Evernote's cloud, or any cloud.

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sutterbomb
Anybody notice how similar the promo video is to Apple's product intro videos?
The tone, pacing and even language come across as strikingly similar - all
they are missing is the stark white background.

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bravoyankee
Springpad <http://springpad.com> might be the best Evernote alternative I've
seen, but they aren't charging money so I'm a little worried about their long
term sustainability.

Personally, I can't seem to get into Evernote in a serious way. Springpad,
probably.

~~~
moystard
Trying it out and since you mentioned it, I have a question:

Something I like with Evernote is that it is quick to edit a note while on
Springpad it seems painful to do, especially if you want to follow your
progress on a note/task using comments. I don't like the social comments as it
does not seem to be effective, I would like to edit the note itself.

Any idea?

~~~
Leynos
On the Android app anyway, clicking on the note text brings up the edit box.

