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Comment by paulsutter | Hacker News Reader

Evernote has me hooked on cross device persistent notes. And I will change to the first quality alternative that lets me import my existing notes from Evernote.

Evernote still can't handle even simple non-overlapping changes on two devices. Every time I close my laptop I have to wonder if changes were synched. Especially embarrassing because superb open source code is already available for conflict resolution (git, for example).

EDIT: someone should write a notekeeping app built on github.

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As a Linux user I have never used Evernote, but Google Keep has cross-device persistent notes and I've never had even the tiniest glitch with synchronization.

As a Mac and Windows user I've never used google keep as there is no native app.

There's a Chrome app, which is "native" enough for me.

That's great and I genuinely hope that it works for you. The point I was making was that there was no point. Text files and an ftp server are arguably as good, but ultimately meaningless in relation to the article.

I don't think I understand your point.

Google Keep works offline, it has seamless syncing when it is online and I can access it from all my devices (including my phone).

I guess you don't consider a Chrome App to be a "real" native app and that somehow makes it different for you, but I don't see any meaningful distinction.

Requires Chrome. I don't want to run Chrome to simply run an app. The actual point I was trying to make was that I dust get the point of your post. I should have just said that I guess. Not meaning to be snarky by the way.

Dropbox + .txt files. Never failed me. Just need to remember to save before you put away current device. Can use whatever editing interface I favor on whatever device I'm using -- usually Sublime on my Windows/Mac machines, I'm only viewing on my mobile devices.

Sublime has a "save on focus lost" option, so you don't even have to remember saving.

This. Personally, I like DB ` .md`. Edit/view from Editorial on iOS (or Byword) and BBEdit or Byword on the Mac. Or better, VIM from the CLI since that spins circles around any GUI. Markdown exports nicely to HTML 5 for web projects too.

Use the Chrome App Launcher and pin to the task bar (if using Windows). Makes using Google Keep more convenient

Just curious, what do you need a native app for? I ask because I'm usually suspicious of any company that has a native app when one isn't needed. I usually suspect they have some ulterior motive, spy ware, malware. Etc. Plus even if they don't have an ulterior motive installing a native app is one more vector for having my machine owned whereas a web site is not. (the browser might be a vector but it's a given I'm going to have one)

I think native apps qualify as the offline-mode for a platform like evernote. I don't user evernote personally, but I do ride caltrain for ~2 hours every week day during which I try to be productive offline. For me that means having a local development database and usually some documentation for whatever I'm working on. I can easily see this meaning evernote native for a fervent note taker. Granted you could have a web app using local storage but that's unreliable at best and they already seem to have a problem with syncing..

"works on an airplane" is an important quality for many.

Google Keep works offline.

Usually more responsive than a javascript interface in my experience.

Evernote native vs web Sublime Text vs Atom Mail Client vs Web mail etc.

Just looked into it and there is a Chrome app. It can be started from the Mac Launchbar and runs in its own window.

Not native, but feels close enough for this type of thing to me.

The thing I've become hooked on and am desperately trying to find a replacement for (just in case) is the functionality that adds a checkbox to a text file which can then be searched for with the todo: search parameter. For example "notebook:Pdcast todo:unfinished" will show me notes with things I still need to do (any unchecked todo checkbox will mean the note appears in that search)

I realise there's a billion and one todo apps out there, but being able to combine my ramblings and 3am thoughts with an in-line todo system is the killer feature for me. I think the next notes app that supports this will have to be a self-hosted option

I'm pretty sure that you could do that with org-mode…

Interesting and thanks for the heads up but I don't believe I'm quite compatible with that software. I guess I'm also looking for usable-at-3am features, web accessible, phone accessible (currently iOS), centralized or at least synchronised, and the only feature Evernote doesn't seem to provide - backup-able files/database

CLI, Linux.. emacs (!). I'm not sure I could manage to grasp emacs during the middle of a really good day much less a quick note at night

How much would you be willing to pay for this software? Available on all desktop and mobile platforms, with flawless synchronization and ridiculously good search capabilities?

How much are you asking? Evernote's pricing plans and features work for me, I'm looking for a viable alternative in case it vanishes.

Picking up some sarcasm in your comment, could you ask the questions or make the statements you're hinting at and I'll be happy to discuss!

Thank you for your reply.

No sarcasm in my statement at all. For the past several years, I've been looking for a personal knowledge management application that would work for me and now I'm seriously thinking about just writing it because I can't find one.

I'll probably write one even if I can't make a business out of it, because I need it. I'm also curious about the business potential and have been asking people in my personal network.

Evernote's pricing seems like a good benchmark - I heard that from several people already.

NValt uses (a possibly nonstandard) markdown notation for checkboxes. So a search for unchecked would be "[ ]", checked is "[\]"

apple notes works pretty well for me across devices

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