Have you used Evernote, and moved over to something different and are happy about it? I have a friend that need to gather all notes and links in an app on his iPhone. Can you recommend an app that hasn’t an expensive subscription?

@odd the Notes app on iPhone is pretty powerful now that you can embed links, videos, photos, drawings, and more.

@odd iA Writer

@odd I used to use Evernote, but have used Apple Notes for years. It's plenty powerful nowadays, and free.

@odd If they need a solid web page importer, Bear's is very good and so is the rest of the app.

@ohBananaJoe Thank you for your reply! I have to check out Notion I think. I forgot to say he also would like to have access to the data on a Mac, and optionally on a Windows PC also. 🙄 I guess that narrows it down a bit.

@sarcassem Thanks for the reply! I use Notes myself, but I would like for there to be possible to copy all notes, and importing them into Google Keep for instance, or exporting them to a file that could be used in an application on a PC. I like to keep my options available, but as I’m saying that, I had not yet had the need for it.

@odd Used Evernote for years. Have tried Notion, it’s awesome in that it’s very powerful and has a LOT of options. I’ve settled nicely on Bear, but with your comment about Windows access...Notion is probably your best bet.

@sander Thanks for the recommendation! I’ll forward it to him.

@AlanGMarz Thank you for your recommendation! Yes, the overpriced part is what bothers him the most I think. I use Notes myself, and are mostly happy with it. I think he’d prefer to also have the option of having access to the data on a PC, so maybe it’s not perfect for him. Since he asked me, I guess he doesn’t see Notes as the perfect match himself. He’s very computer literate, (more than me), so I think he’s considered that alternative.

@dejus Thank you for your reply! As I said to others that replied to my post, I think he also need to have access to the data on a PC also, though I’m not sure. I’m sorry I didn’t give that important information in my post.

@jessekelber Thank you for replying! Yes, I failed to say that in the original post, I’m afraid. Other people here have also mentioned Notion. I’ll point that out for him to consider.

@odd drafts?

@JohnPhilpin Thanks! Yes, that is what I initially thought of, guessing he had already considered Notes.app. But in his work I think he’s going to have to access his data on a PC, which I failed to mention, so he’ll have to export-import.

@odd If your friend wants his notes to be cross-platform and easy to move and backup, he really needs to look at markdown based solutions and not waste time with proprietary systems like Evernote or Notion. Something like Simplenote would be a great place to start because it is text-only with support for markdown, free, fully accessible from the web, and has decent apps for desktop and mobile.

@odd If he's primarily in the Apple ecosystem, and only needs to access the notes occasionally on a PC, using icloud.com's web interface to Notes might be acceptable.

@dejus Oh, I didn’t think of that! I never use the web interface for iCloud, so I forgot that was even an option. I have to check with him whether it’s a specific reason he’s not using Notes already.

@gregmoore Thanks, Greg! I think I’ve never heard about SimpleNotes before. Sounds like something that might be for him. I wonder, if I copy a link from the web, and paste it into SimpleNotes, will it paste as markdown? That would be awesome if it did!

@odd Thanks for all your recommendations for note taking apps! I think my friend has quite a bit to chew on now. @dejus @gregmoore @JohnPhilpin @jessekelber @mcg @AlanGMarz @sander @sarcassem @ohBananaJoe

@odd yeah I wrote a bit more about it on brain.vandragt.com/books/wor...

@sander I’m referring him there to get additional details, thanks 😊

@odd Would love to know what they choose. @Cm shared this article on notetaking personality types with me and I found the perspective very illuminating. I still have Evernote (it's still great for saving reference materials) and am trying both notion and obsidian for my own needs. I find I just use multiple apps for different needs even though I want one app to rule them all.

@odd Yeah $15/year. If they need access to notes on Windows, not a good choice.

@odd In Simplenote, pasting a URL still leaves it as text but the link will still work automatically.

@ChrisJWilson Thanks! I’ll check in with them later, to hear their choice. I’ll have to read that article later, sounds like a compelling read.

@ohBananaJoe There are a lot more choices than I thought there was. I haven’t heard back from him yet, he’s probably got a lot of things to check out now.

@mcg I wouldn’t think that’s a hindrance then. Very affordable.

@gregmoore Will it also add the URL’s description, (if any), or just the URL?

@odd It only adds the text of the URL that you paste into it. If that text is formatted as a full URL, it recognizes it as a link. It does not automatically add the markdown link formatting. (Brackets followed by parentheses.)

@gregmoore Ok, I see, thanks. 😊👍

@odd it's too bad that it has to be cross-platform because it does limit things. I moved from Evernote to DEVONthink and haven't looked back. It's not limited to text-based notes; it can capture websites as links or as PDFs or web archives. And you can save everything as a database or as just files in folders on your computer, so if you ever stop using DEVONthink, you can still access your files; they're not stuck in a specific ecosystem. So technically, if you use DEVONthink to capture the data and file it into a Dropbox folder, you can access the files on a PC. Oh, and it's not subscription-based.

@vishae Thanks. Yes, I’ve heard good things about DevonThink here on Micro.Blog. I went to their site just now, and it looks great, however I think it is that cross platform thing that makes it difficult for him to go in that direction.

@odd never knew that drafts wasn’t on the PC ... 🤔

@JohnPhilpin The site says iPhone • iPad • Mac • Apple Watch.

@odd oh you actually read the site ... I should try that 🤣

@odd if you used DEVONThink to index folders, you can access all the files cross-platform.

@JohnPhilpin 😊👍

@vishae Yes, that is great, but it seems my friend is looking for something simpler, mostly for notetaking. Actually he has now begun to look at the reMarkable tablet , which is not what I thought he were after. 🤷🏻‍♂️

@odd that tablet looks pretty interesting. 👀

@vishae @odd If I ever swap my iPad for a laptop, that tablet will likely be too tempting for me to ignore, even if just to see if it's as good as is promised.

@simonwoods I do have an iPad, and I think I’ll stick to them, as I like to do a wide variety of things on a tablet, and seldom need to read/annotate pdf’s or do extensive note taking, but I see this could be great for many people.

@odd is Evernote really over priced if (based on the responses here), it's a crossplatform (iOS, Windows, macOS) app that is capable of meeting the users requirements?

@khurtwilliams I don’t know, but the current tiers was a complaint my friend had with it.