Yay! Evernote finally available in Market Place

[mjschmidt]

Edit: Booooo.... Evernote does not allow viewing notes offline! For shame.

yay! Rejoice! Evernote is out of beta, and finally available in the Market Place!

Let's hope it's actually really good. I am off to install it now to test it.

Evernote Makes Its Official Debut in the Android Market - Evernote - Lifehacker

Evernote v1.1.5 Application for Android | Productivity

 

[SamFen]

It looks fine, except that I wasn't able to complete registration using the Droid's default browser. I would type in the fields and nothing would appear. I tried this several times.

Using the Dolphin browser worked, however.

Now we'll see if I start preferring it to Note Everything. My guess is that I'll still use NE for checklists, but start using EN for regular notes.

However, one thing that I'm not sure about is that all notes appear to be stored only online. I took a photo note and then tried to view it immediately, and it took several seconds for it to re-download the photo I just took so that I could see it. It would have been worse if I weren't on wifi. I wonder if there is a setting for this.

 

[alostpacket]

They have a great idea and a great service but there are two things I just can't get past.

1) Lack of support for normal file formats vcf/txt/xml whatever due to use of proprietary (though published) api

2) Forced cloud sync through them with 50mb limit (for free service).



If they did something like xmarks/foxmarks where you could use your own server to sync I might reconsider. But as they stand now, despite a published api, they seem to make their users too reliant on the company.

I can definitely see why people like them though, it does appear a useful service. It's just not for me given the above concerns. Of course you could say the same thing about google making people use their "cloud." But hey, it took me almost 10 years before I could trust Google (still don't entirely!)

 

[stevehoffman]

I also have found NE (Note Everything) useful for regular notes, but don't know of a way to sync them with my desktop. Looking at NE's website, it doesn't seem to offer that.

So I've started using Google Tasks (desktop) and gTasks (Droid) quite a bit for simple notes -- it's designed primarily for "to-do" lists but you can use it for any sot of brief notes & reminders ....

Google Tasks is a great little app - there's a link (often ignored by users) to it in the left-hand window whenever you open GMail or Google Calendar (if you assign a due-date to a Task it'll show up on Calendar, but you don't have to do this). I find Google Tasks very user-friendly.

gTasks, available from Droid Market, puts the equivalent app on your Droid. It doesn't auto-sync, but you simply press Menu, then press Sync.

Obviously, Google Tasks and gTasks don't let you do all the things Evernote does, but for jotting down and syncing simple notes, it works great!

 

[mjschmidt]

Argh!!! Stupid Evernote! They had me all excited, and now they piss me off!

So apparently with this version of the Evernote app, you can _create_ notes while offline, but you can not _view_ those notes, until you go online and upload them to the server. after you upload them to the server you can see them, but if you go _offline_ again, you can no longer view them!!!

Hello, Evernote? STUPID!

I'm off to the Evernote forums to complain, and to leave a nasty review note in the Market.

 

[SamFen]

Argh!!! Stupid Evernote! They had me all excited, and now they piss me off!

I'm coming to the same realization vis-a-vis the lack of offline storage. I don't think it's going to replace Note Everything for me at this rate.

 

[mjschmidt]

I've started a thread in the Evernote forum here: Evernote User Forum • View topic - Evernote for Android won't allow _OFFLINE_ notes!

According to "Heather"...

"This is actually standard amongst all of our Mobile Phone applications - the iPhone being an exception in that notes you mark as Favorites are viewable offline.

We know it's a pain, but we also don't want people to end up with $2000 cellular bills because of data usage, so, it's a fine line we're walking here."

LAME! Guess I'll be uninstalling.

 

[SamFen]

"We know it's a pain, but we also don't want people to end up with $2000 cellular bills because of data usage, so, it's a fine line we're walking here."

HUH?!? But if I have to re-download every single note I want to read every time, that's what's going to use data. If I just save it on my card, why would that use any data? That makes no sense. It's backwards!

Plus, aren't unlimited data plans becoming the norm now? (...but not that that matters! It's still backwards!)

One other peeve: why should it take two clicks to get to my saved notes? (Menu, then Notes). There's a big open space under the four New Note icons (at least on my Droid). Couldn't they place My Notes there?

But.... that said... now that I've downloaded the Firefox extention, I do love that I can instantly take a snapshot of any page and have it appear on my Droid. BUT, why can I not then go to that page from my Droid? With the desktop app it saves the url and lets you click on it. Not so for the Droid??? <sigh...>

 

[phwaap]

Took about five minutes before I uninstalled.

• No offline storage
• Syncing too slow (and this is really the only good feature about it.) Consequently, viewing notes is slow as well.
• Note options limited, e.g. no lists of any kind.
• No reminders
• Settings are almost non-existent
• Do I really need yet another snapshot feature? If I want to take a picture I'll use a true camera app and upload the picture.
• No real edit feature, only "Append text" lol
• To view notes you have to go to settings first
• No view by tag or group

Really made me appreciate NE more.

 

[SamFen]

Took about five minutes before I uninstalled.

• No offline storage
• Syncing too slow (and this is really the only good feature about it.) Consequently, viewing notes is slow as well.
• Note options limited, e.g. no lists of any kind.
• No reminders
• Settings are almost non-existent
• Do I really need yet another snapshot feature? If I want to take a picture I'll use a true camera app and upload the picture.
• No real edit feature, only "Append text" lol
• To view notes you have to go to settings first
• No view by tag or group

Really made me appreciate NE more.

Please post that list on the EverNote forums. They are all good points.

I get the impression that this app is for people who already use EverNote in their daily lives. They already have the desktop application and they use it lots, and so they see the mobile as a bonus -- whatever functionality it has is bonus stuff that they wouldn't otherwise have. "Wee! I can add a new note from my phone!"

I think that this release of EverNote is clearly not targeted at competing with existing Android memo applications. It is just too limited compared with what is already out there for pure memos. Consequently, I don't think they're going to win over any Android (iPhone as well, if it is similar) users who aren't already EN users.

 

[lekky]

The camera doesnt actually take a picture either (gsm Hero).

I'm very disappointed, not only with the app, but why anyone would want to use it anyway with such a data restriction for free accounts. Just so not worth it in my eyes (uninstalled).

 

[phwaap]

@SamFen

I agree that this must just be a little window into Evernote from android for existing users. As a memo app in itself it's really one of the more ill-conceived apps I've tried. So many examples out there of what to do and not to do that I don't see how they could have come up so short. Not even in the top 5. If you want to re-post my list feel free but I don't have any desire to really help them improve it, especially in light of lekky's last comment which I forgot to mention.

 

[mjschmidt]

Actually, I use Evernote daily at work to keep track of projects, lists, and misc info. I was looking forward to this app specifically so that I would have the functionality of syncing the notes on my phone to online, but I still want to be able to see the notes I choose to keep on my phone!. It's just plain dumb.

Apparently the iPhone version allows you to set favourites, so that those "favourites" get synced, but are also viewable offline. Apparently they didn't think we deserved it. :-(

 

[chuhsi]

i've been looking for a functional notepad program. this app would be perfect for me...except the lack of offline access kills functionality. back to 3bananas.

 

[katahdin]

i've been looking for a functional notepad program. this app would be perfect for me...except the lack of offline access kills functionality. back to 3bananas.

How do you get your existing notes into 3bananas ? That was my issue.

I had 400 + memos in palm 4.1 - thanks to the developer at Note Everything - he wrote import app to take the export from palm.

Then evernote had import from txt files.

 

[jasnmb]

is 3bananas better than Note Everything?

 

[Dabrador]

is 3bananas better than Note Everything?

Yes

 

[mjschmidt]

is 3bananas better than Note Everything?

3Bananas is _different_ from Note Everything.

- 3banana syncs to online account. Note Everything does not.
- They both export to SD
- Note Everything _imports_ from SD. 3banana does NOT import from SD
- 3banana uses # tags to organize. It does NOT use folders.
- Note Everything uses _folders_ (and sub-folders) to organize. It does NOT use #tags.
- They both do photo notes.
- Note Everything does voice notes (with Pro version)
- They both allow you to share notes via FB, twitter, email, etc.

Personally I use both. I use 3Banana for a quick note that I want to be able to sync online, but I use NE for the majority of my note taking.

For me it's about organization. I like using Folders and Sub-folders for my notes. It's like having Binders and Notebooks (I also use MS OneNote on my PC), or Filing cabinets and file folders. That's how my brain works best at organizing. I don't really like to use # tags to organize.

I use this analogy: Using 3Banana is like a person whose office is an absolute mess, but who knows exactly where to find anything in the piles and piles (# tags). Note Everything is like the person whose office is all completely tidy, organized, and labeled with separate boxes, folders, and binders for each and every topic, all alphabetized. Neither is better because it depends entirely on how your brain is wired.