GottaBeMobile - Doing Some Thinking About Evernote : Tablet PC & Mobile PC News & Video Reviews, and Tablet PC Forums

Saturday, March 29, 2008

« Weekend Find: Twitter Windows Mobile Client | Main | Evernote's CEO Responds to Some of My Questions an... »

Doing Some Thinking About Evernote

- Rob Bushway

I can't say enough good things about how well Evernote has implemented the seamless sync between multiple client platforms and the web. It's worry free - and that is a very important thing.

Here are some random thoughts on the Evernote beta.

I dug out my Samsung Q1P UMPC after not using it for 3 - 4 months. This was spurred on by finding the keyboard organizer in my car ( don't ask....) I installed the Evernote beta, and within minutes, all of my notes were automatically downloaded to the Q1P, including notes I had created on my MacBook. Any notes I create while playing my Q1P this weekend will automatically appear on my Tablet and Mac. The fact that I don't have to worry about doing anything to make that happen is HUGE!
I took a picture of my daughter using my iPhone, and emailed it to my Evernote account using a special email address associated with my Evernote account. Within 10 seconds, the picture was downloaded as a note to my Q1P - automatically. It'll be on my MacBook and Tablet PC whenever I turn them. It is available to me on the web, too.
Evernote needs to put some serious work into developing an auto import from OneNote to Evernote for those wanting to make the conversion.
I'm wondering why the Evernote web interface doesn't default to https? When forced to https, it'll stay there temporarily, but then switch back to http. I want my note information transmitted securely.
I really, really wish Evernote would allow mix of ink and text. I've asked them about it multiple times. Sadly, it is not a priority.
How much will Evernote, with all its syncing glory, cost? Are we looking at monthly subscription fees for the syncing or will it be free with the purchase of the client. Pricing is one data piece not being provided yet. I'd like to know what their pricing model is going to be like.
Evernote has done for notetaking and sync what Amazon did for connectivity and content access with the Kindle.
The web interface is not friendly at all at 800 x 480 . Update: Thanks to a reader, when using my UMPC, I'll start using the mobile version ( preview.evernote.com/m )
The iPhone mobile interface is totally awesome!
We need to hear from the OneNote team about their plans for seamless data integration between clients and the web. We have Office 2008 for Mac. What about OneNote for Mac? What about web access to the all those notes? What about mobile ( iPhone and Windows Mobile ) to those notes?

Evernote

3/29/2008 5:19 PM MST

Doing Some Thinking About Evernote Comments [6] | Digg This | del.icio.us | Citations

Saturday, March 29, 2008 5:40:45 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Why ar you not using the everonote mobile web interface fot 800x480 screen? That's what i'm doing.

valto

Saturday, March 29, 2008 5:46:02 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

good idea!

Rob

Saturday, March 29, 2008 6:58:07 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Hi Rob, great initial thoughts on Evernote.

It's bery cool that it syncs over the net, and is interesting how much the retail version will cost (great competition to see WHEN Onenote will offer this).

Having tested the Beta, my intial concern is that Evetnore doesn't allow text AND inking on the same entry. WHY NOT?! Onenote does..how can it not be a priority?!

Toby

Saturday, March 29, 2008 8:25:26 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Rob, Thanks for your kind words. I'm very happy that you're finding Evernote useful. Some comments to your comments, in-line: EverNote needs to put some serious work into developing an auto import from OneNote to EverNote for those wanting to make the conversion. Good idea. Or maybe, once we publish our APIs, someone else can do it for us. "I'm wondering why the EverNote web interface doesn't default to https? When forced to https, it'll stay there temporarily, but then switch back to http. I want my note information transmitted securely." Right now all user authentication happens over HTTPS. Large-scale SSL transmission of all note content is expensive (to us), and will be a feature available to premium subscribers, once we launch the premium subscriptions. "I really, really wish EverNote would allow mix of ink and text. I've asked them about it multiple times. Sadly, it is not a priority." It's very tough to do this while preserving portability and search across multiple platforms, but we've got a few options we're exploring. "How much will EverNote, with all its syncing glory, cost? Are we looking at monthly subscription fees for the syncing or will it be free with the purchase of the client. Pricing is one data piece not being provided yet. I'd like to know what their pricing model is going to be like." There's going to be a free subscription level that includes pretty much all of the features you see in the beta, including multiple clients. syncing, recognition. There's going to be a "premium" subscription level that includes things like much higher quotas, enhanced security, etc. We haven't really worked out the details on premium features, timing and price yet. "The iPhone mobile interface is totally awesome!" It's going to get a whole lot more awesome soon. --- Phil Libin CEO, Evernote

Phil Libin CEO, Evernote

Sunday, March 30, 2008 5:37:48 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Just a few words in defence of OneNote :-) While OneNote does not offer syncing over-the-web (which would be great indeed), it does offer syncing over local network. While that does not sounds too exciting it actually works very well as the syncing is not file-based but node-based - meaning that the same page/note can be edited on two different machines at the same time and the syncing engine handles it properly. The granularity can't be beat. This is also used for collaboration - in fact the collaborative functionality built into OneNote is very powerful if nearly unknown! I wonder if EverNote will look into something of the kind, too.

Bruno

Monday, March 31, 2008 6:51:23 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Having used EverNote 2 for quite a while I was disappointed when I saw various posts regarding the potential lack of features between version 2.x and version 3. However, after using the new version for a little while I can see that it's incredibly useful and pretty much the only game in town if you need to seamlessly sync notes between a Mac, PC and a Web client. I'm pretty sure the Ink/Text issue is due to syncing across multiple platforms.

I'm sticking with version 2 though, because I utilize templates and check boxes way too heavily in my notes to be able to adequately use the new version.

Todd

Comments are closed.