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Hi HN! I realize there's no shortage of note-taking apps, but I wanted to make one where you don't need an account, don't need to download an app, and your note
by jfoster 3y ago
Hi HN! I realize there's no shortage of note-taking apps, but I wanted to make one where you don't need an account, don't need to download an app, and your notes won't be sync'ed to the cloud, etc. I used to use Windows Notepad for this, but now I use a Mac and everything from Notes gets pushed into iCloud.
If you just need to write a shopping list or jot something down quickly instead of a note that you'll need to keep for a long time, Temporary Note might be useful for you:
- Accessible from any device with an internet connection & web browser
- Notes are not uploaded to the cloud, but keep in mind that they're in the URL, so they might make it into your browser history
- There's a few features for dictation, speech synthesis, fullscreen
- Am considering adding saving notes as txt files, but won't be adding any cloud sync or accounts; it's not that kind of note-taking app
Would love to hear any feedback on whether it's useful or not, or any feature suggestions.
- scriptdevil 3y agoWhy not just use localstorage rather than using the URL as a hack?
- jsf01 3y agoOne idea is that the url makes it immediately shareable. You can send your note to your phone in a text message without any uploads due to it being encoded in the url.
- jfoster 3y agoHaving the note text in the URL can be good in some cases. Storing the note as a bookmark becomes possible, as does storing a note in a URL shortening service. Opening a fork of a note from a different device also becomes possible this way. (eg. on Chrome, using "Send to Your Devices") Localstorage (as far as I know) isn't easy to move across devices or share, and notes being a bit ephemeral is part of the idea of this. I think anyone who wants to save notes indefinitely is probably better off with one of the cloud-based note-taking apps.
- cxr 3y ago> Am considering adding saving notes as txt files Why prioritize that instead of saving notes as editable notes (just the way it feels to use temporarynote.com, but from a file on your disk)? Output an HTML file instead of plain text.
- jfoster 3y agoI love this idea. Will get it done soon.
- mwexler 3y agoHtml is fine, but txt is really useful. Txt would also allow easy porting and reuse. But no harm in having multiple options.
- cxr 3y agoPlain text is useful, but getting it in that form is trivial—it's just a textarea (nothing fancy like contenteditable, so it's already in plain text) and every system that you could expect to use this from should have a functioning clipboard. A note with the look and feel of temporarynote.com calls for coordination from the author to modify their app to be able to output itself as a self-contained file.
- mariusor 3y agoWe've done it all before: * the original: htlm.org * my own attempt: original.littr.me
- mwexler 3y agoOn an iPhone, I turned on dictation but there was no indication on how to control (or stop) it. After giving permission, what is expected behavior? How do I cease dictation?
- jfoster 3y agoPermission is controlled by the browser. If you go into your browser settings, there will be something for controlling which websites have which permissions.