![]() ![]() ![]() At first, the only non-iPhone access to our Simplenote notes was via the Web app. The initial appeal of Simplenote over Apple’s Notes app was two-fold: (a) Helvetica and (b) cloud sync. And I can think of no higher priority for finding a great app than when looking for the one which will hold my digital brain. But a great app encourages regular use the same way a crummy app discourages it. Simplenote is invaluable to me because of the notes it holds. If you’ve got a repository for where all your “stuff” lives, then you know what I mean when I say if I had to pare the apps on my iPhone down to just one, Simplenote would be the app left standing. Some folks live and breath in Evernote, others with a different notes app which syncs via Dropbox. There are many options for those of us who have important bits of information we want to write down and have available to us regardless of if we’re with our iPhone, iPad, or Mac. This, of course, isn’t the sort of thing that only Simplenote can handle. Notes, ideas, information - just about anything relevant or important to me right now - is stored inside Simplenote. And it’s the app I rely on the most because it’s where my “digital brain” lives. Aside from Apple’s Messages and Phone apps, I don’t think any single app has been on my first Home screen for longer. To say I’m a fan of Simplenote would be like saying I kinda like coffee. And I’ve been using the latter ever since. I used Apple’s own Notes app until 2009, which is when I learned of Simplenote. We need more software like this.My history with iOS notes apps is briefly recounted. In this version of the cloud, data is everywhere. Add to that the ecosystem of apps growing up around Simplenote, and the interaction possible between them, and suddenly ‘cloud computing’ looks like much more than just keeping your documents on Google’s servers. Notational Velocity meets a lot of the needs I have in this kind of application: it is simple, fast, stores my data in an open, portable format and allows me to move it around to different devices seamlessly and straightforwardly. That’s pretty slick, though it is unwise to have two instances of Notational running and pointing at the same folder at the same time. You can even create new files outside of Notational Velocity and they will appear there when you next open it up or put the Notational Velocity file folder in Dropbox to sync with other machines. If you change one of those files in another application–a wordprocessor for instance, or Writeroom–it appears in Notational Velocity and from there on your iPhone. It also opens up all kinds of interesting possibilities. ![]() This means your work stays yours and is easy to manage. Unlike other similar applications it can be configured to save the notes as separate text files rather than locking them inside a database. Notational Velocity is focused on keyboard work rather than the mouse, it works in plain text or Rich Text Format, and it can encrypt notes. A full list of apps, plugins and extensions is here.įor me the best of the desktop apps on the Mac is Notational Velocity, a simple, lightning-fast open source notetaking tool that syncs with Simplenote almost instantly. Windows and Linux users should take heart from the Simplenote plugin for Google Chrome, a great replacement for the now more or less defunct Google Notebook (Update: Windows users might now also like to try Resoph Notes, or Notes, and there are continuing developments elsewhere too–thanks to David in the comments for the update ). There are currently four desktop apps (Mac only I’m afraid) that sync with the Simplenote web app. ![]() But the clever thing about it is that it allows other applications to sync too. Like a lot of iPhone apps Simplenote syncs with a web-based service. Synchronised data is a serious problem.Ībout a month ago I discovered Simplenote, a notetaking app for the iPhone/iPod Touch which has one simple aim: to replace the built-in notes app on those devices. In the course of my week I work on three different ‘full-size’ computers using three radically different operating systems and I use an iPod Touch for keeping on top of things while I’m on the move. In my ongoing and probably fruitless quest to find software that will do its job across platforms and devices I have been looking at notetaking applications. ![]()
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