6 ms·

$1 per download isn't enough to pay the bills. That's not much more than a 99¢ game. It means people don't actually value the product enough to pay for it.

killjoywashere 8y ago
I spent my last two years of residency taking my notes in Evernote, but they really fall short in the transition between hand-written notes and that shift to research where you need to make high-quality handwritten notes over a PDF, like Notability, and then move those PDFs to the bibliography phase of databasing. Now that I'm out of training and doing my own work, that like of integration with my future self really killed EverNote for me. Now I need to figure out how to ensure all my notes are saved somewhere. These knowledge management systems really need to think about a human through their education-training-research-job lifecycle. I think DogPile + Notability + Evernote would be a great integration.
- tomrod 8y ago
  Geez, that's disturbing. To think Xournal does it more or less for gratis & libre!
  - komali2 8y ago
    Xournal comes so, so close. You gotta roll your own out of app organization/tagging scheme, which isn't a big deal in keyboard mode, but when my machine is in stylus mode, totally sucks. (I used folders to organize Xournal files. Hard to navigate via stylus. Compare to say onenote with good stylus/touch us) Also, the UI is just funky. Switching colors of the pen requires carefully tapping an extraordinarily tiny colored box. No way to paste images, you gotta clipart them in (so no roll-your-own stylus screenselect +paste functionality like onenote + windows 10). Scrolling only works sometimes, and leaves little penmark dots usually as it takes a second to understand that that wasn't my stylus. It only recognizes one of the buttons on my thinkpad stylus. If you're in putting text and want one word to be a different color, that single word needs to be an entirely different textbox, which is nearly impossible to do so close to other text. Also, no bold, italic, underline. Gotta roll your own sync, which doesn't bother me because onenote sync is so terrible it actually makes the software worse. Xournal is an incredible software but it's just soooo cloooose. I keep meaning to hunt around to see if it's open source and see if I can start contributing to get it how I want it.
    - tomrod 8y ago
      http://xournal.sourceforge.net/manual.html http://xournal.sourceforge.net/manual.html
      - komali2 8y ago
        Yup, that there sure is the manual. >The font and point size can be modified using the "Text Font" command in the Tools menu (or the toolbar button). Yup, just like I said. >Alternatively, images can be pasted directly from the clipboard (without having to select the image tool). Nope, non functional on Ubuntu 18.04, have tried countless times.
sxg 8y ago
One huge problem is that there’s a lot of competition that provides most of the same core features for free—like Apple Notes, for example. It’s also easy to repurpose apps like MS Word and Google Docs to achieve the same functionality. Obviously they’re very different apps designed for a different purpose, but many of my friends don’t seem to mind. They just want a reasonably functional way to take notes for free.
- wlesieutre 8y ago
  OneNote is a direct competitor and honestly a better one
  - Onawa 8y ago
    I swapped from Evernote to OneNote for all my note taking needs years ago. I can dump all of my random notes and thoughts into one notebook then structure them better than I ever could with just tags. Not sure if that's changed on Evernote, but lacking the option for both structured and unstructured notes is what drove me away from it initially.
  - copperx 8y ago
    The OneNote web clipper is a disgrace compared to Evernote's. How do you get around this problem?
    - wlesieutre 8y ago
      Not my use case I guess. I use it for my own notes and lists and sketches rather than a repository of stuff from other sources. Evernote was fine at the start but it seemed like they could never figure out what they wanted the UI to be, so they stretched it in too many different directions.
    - puranjay 8y ago
      Evernote's Skitch was absolutely fantastic and I still haven't found a better replacement
daveFNbuck 8y ago
I used to be a regular user. I never paid because they never gave me a reason to, not because I didn't value it. I'm not going to go out of my way to figure out how to give them money when I'm already getting everything I need for free.
- koliber 8y ago
  Agreed. The closest they've come was when they started limiting app access to the account to two devices. I almost pulled the trigger. If they lower it to one device, I will strongly consider paying. There is one big thorn in my side though. It is their synchronization. Way too often I end up with two conflicting notes. They get sent to different places and they are not linked together. Before starting to pay, I will give on the of the Evernote alternatives a try, solely because their synch sucks. I understand that synch is a difficult feature, but at least try to make the post-conflict user experience more pleasant. Cross-link the conflicting notes at least. Another problem for me is their text handling of lists. Eery so often, after I paste something in, bullet points appear or disappear. Things get merged in and are impossible to de-indent. It feels lie Microsoft Word from 1998.
TeMPOraL 8y ago
I would expect everyone who was in market for Evernote to already have Evernote installed. They've been a big name for close to a decade now. I got their Android app in... 2013, if memory serves. I mean, is this the point where Evernote realizes products eventually reach market saturation, and you need to start playing some bullshit business games like planned obsolescence or recurrent payments to keep up the growth curve (or, alternatively, realize you've done a good job, and move on to do something else)?

killjoywashere 8y ago

I spent my last two years of residency taking my notes in Evernote, but they really fall short in the transition between hand-written notes and that shift to research where you need to make high-quality handwritten notes over a PDF, like Notability, and then move those PDFs to the bibliography phase of databasing. Now that I'm out of training and doing my own work, that like of integration with my future self really killed EverNote for me. Now I need to figure out how to ensure all my notes are saved somewhere. These knowledge management systems really need to think about a human through their education-training-research-job lifecycle. I think DogPile + Notability + Evernote would be a great integration.

tomrod 8y ago
Geez, that's disturbing. To think Xournal does it more or less for gratis & libre!
- komali2 8y ago
  Xournal comes so, so close. You gotta roll your own out of app organization/tagging scheme, which isn't a big deal in keyboard mode, but when my machine is in stylus mode, totally sucks. (I used folders to organize Xournal files. Hard to navigate via stylus. Compare to say onenote with good stylus/touch us) Also, the UI is just funky. Switching colors of the pen requires carefully tapping an extraordinarily tiny colored box. No way to paste images, you gotta clipart them in (so no roll-your-own stylus screenselect +paste functionality like onenote + windows 10). Scrolling only works sometimes, and leaves little penmark dots usually as it takes a second to understand that that wasn't my stylus. It only recognizes one of the buttons on my thinkpad stylus. If you're in putting text and want one word to be a different color, that single word needs to be an entirely different textbox, which is nearly impossible to do so close to other text. Also, no bold, italic, underline. Gotta roll your own sync, which doesn't bother me because onenote sync is so terrible it actually makes the software worse. Xournal is an incredible software but it's just soooo cloooose. I keep meaning to hunt around to see if it's open source and see if I can start contributing to get it how I want it.
  - tomrod 8y ago
    http://xournal.sourceforge.net/manual.html http://xournal.sourceforge.net/manual.html
    - komali2 8y ago
      Yup, that there sure is the manual. >The font and point size can be modified using the "Text Font" command in the Tools menu (or the toolbar button). Yup, just like I said. >Alternatively, images can be pasted directly from the clipboard (without having to select the image tool). Nope, non functional on Ubuntu 18.04, have tried countless times.

sxg 8y ago

One huge problem is that there’s a lot of competition that provides most of the same core features for free—like Apple Notes, for example. It’s also easy to repurpose apps like MS Word and Google Docs to achieve the same functionality. Obviously they’re very different apps designed for a different purpose, but many of my friends don’t seem to mind. They just want a reasonably functional way to take notes for free.

wlesieutre 8y ago
OneNote is a direct competitor and honestly a better one
- Onawa 8y ago
  I swapped from Evernote to OneNote for all my note taking needs years ago. I can dump all of my random notes and thoughts into one notebook then structure them better than I ever could with just tags. Not sure if that's changed on Evernote, but lacking the option for both structured and unstructured notes is what drove me away from it initially.
- copperx 8y ago
  The OneNote web clipper is a disgrace compared to Evernote's. How do you get around this problem?
  - wlesieutre 8y ago
    Not my use case I guess. I use it for my own notes and lists and sketches rather than a repository of stuff from other sources. Evernote was fine at the start but it seemed like they could never figure out what they wanted the UI to be, so they stretched it in too many different directions.
  - puranjay 8y ago
    Evernote's Skitch was absolutely fantastic and I still haven't found a better replacement

daveFNbuck 8y ago

I used to be a regular user. I never paid because they never gave me a reason to, not because I didn't value it. I'm not going to go out of my way to figure out how to give them money when I'm already getting everything I need for free.

koliber 8y ago
Agreed. The closest they've come was when they started limiting app access to the account to two devices. I almost pulled the trigger. If they lower it to one device, I will strongly consider paying. There is one big thorn in my side though. It is their synchronization. Way too often I end up with two conflicting notes. They get sent to different places and they are not linked together. Before starting to pay, I will give on the of the Evernote alternatives a try, solely because their synch sucks. I understand that synch is a difficult feature, but at least try to make the post-conflict user experience more pleasant. Cross-link the conflicting notes at least. Another problem for me is their text handling of lists. Eery so often, after I paste something in, bullet points appear or disappear. Things get merged in and are impossible to de-indent. It feels lie Microsoft Word from 1998.

TeMPOraL 8y ago

I would expect everyone who was in market for Evernote to already have Evernote installed. They've been a big name for close to a decade now. I got their Android app in... 2013, if memory serves. I mean, is this the point where Evernote realizes products eventually reach market saturation, and you need to start playing some bullshit business games like planned obsolescence or recurrent payments to keep up the growth curve (or, alternatively, realize you've done a good job, and move on to do something else)?