5 ms·

Evernote acquires iPad app Penultimate

54 points by drx 14y ago

aristus 14y ago
Congrats, Ben!!
samstave 14y ago
This is going to sound strange at first, but hear me out: Facebook, if it wanted to be really disruptive, should buy evernote. The reason is that FB only offer superficial utility - the social utility layer of being able to track your friends lives and comment on them will atrophy over the next ten years. FB will need a way to really bring together the daily activities, information, interests etc of its userbase and make it matter on a wholly individual level. It seems that what FB does is interesting to its users on an individual level, but it is not. Without any friends at all on FB, the platform is useless. There are two directions that FB can go to solidify longvity; make the platform useful to an individual even with zero contacts/friends and to make the platform a utility that ca be used by a group of people. Think, the ability to create a company/group effort, with tools in the FB platform that the team can use to manage those activities. (There was a company called Huddle which was doing this - they seem to have good traction, though zero marketing/hype as I haven't heard anything about them in a long time, though they seem to be alive and well) Evernote would allow FB to build on the actual actions of their users from a data-mining perspective.
- awakeasleep 14y ago
  As a man wholly dependent on Evernote, I hope to God they aren't bought by Facebook. I shudder to think how much insight that'd give them on my life.
  - samstave 14y ago
    DISCLAIMER: I no way was I actually condoning this idea. But if FB had deeper vision, they would already be looking at this. I was shining light on a dark spot in what I feel is missing in FBs roadmap.
  - k-mcgrady 14y ago
    From everything I've read about Evernote and the CEO I think it would be very difficult to get him to sell. Facebook can obviously offer a lot of money (money that most people wouldn't say no to) but I think Evernote is in it for the long haul.
murrayb 14y ago
Nice to see that Penultimate is going to come to "other devices", I'm assuming that will include Android. I moved all my bookmarks to Evernote after the new owners broke^wenhanced delicio.us and haven't regretted it once. All I need now is a native Linux client for Evernote...
idan 14y ago
Sigh. Considering how much I love and use penultimate (Every. Single. Day), I'm hope that _this time_ acquisition won't result in a product getting a dose of its acquiring company spang in the middle of the interface, the simplicity, whatever. Congrats to the cocoabox team, though—if anyone deserves it, they do.
- pchristensen 14y ago
  Based on Skitch, I'd say the only changes will be to a) make it free and b) add options to make it easier to send content to Evernote. Evernote is the one acquirer who I do not fear as a user.
  - jamesgeck0 14y ago
    Readable also got a lot of improvements when it turned into Evernote Clearly.
k-mcgrady 14y ago
Good purchase for Evernote. Integrating Evernote into Penultimate would make me use it a lot more and Evernote's OCR/search will hopefully be added to it.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
augmentech 14y ago
I've been waiting for this sort of acquisition from Evernote. As an avid Evernote user, this is a feature that has been sorely lacking, especially for the tablet note taking format. Love it!
dkokelley 14y ago
I've always loved Evernote IN THEORY. It makes sense to organize your notes through technology, to attach an 'external brain', if you will. Still, I've never been able to really use Evernote the way they intend. I'll throw up a few notes, only to drift away, leaving the notes alone. There's no organization that I've been able to achieve with the platform. Maybe it's just a threshold of initial effort that I haven't crossed, or maybe I just don't take enough notes. Still, I'm glad for this purchase. I think it shows that Evernote understands their base and has a strategy in mind to improve their offerings. Maybe I'll start using Evernote more now.
- GiraffeNecktie 14y ago
  I didn't get Evernote for the longest time but then it made way more sense to me when I bought a tiny double sided scanner and started scanning and shredding all my paper, bills, documents. Then I started forwarding all emails with attachments to my Evernote account. Then I started sharing my folders with my wife and using the mobile app. Now it's the central hub for all my information. Since it's all OCR'd I find anything instantly. Of course I had to upgrade to the paid version but at 1GB of NEW storage per month it's a pretty good deal. The one feature I miss from MS OneNote is the ability to have audio synced to the text of a note which is fricken awesome for taking meeting minutes.
  - damontal 14y ago
    What kind of scanner are you using? This sounds like a great idea.
    - lzy 14y ago
      I'm doing something similar and I'm using the Fujitsu Scansnap S1300 which comes integrated with Evernote support.
  - samstave 14y ago
    Does it allow me to keep a budget and track expenses/info/receipts against that budget?

54 points by drx 14y ago

Congrats, Ben!!

This is going to sound strange at first, but hear me out: Facebook, if it wanted to be really disruptive, should buy evernote. The reason is that FB only offer superficial utility - the social utility layer of being able to track your friends lives and comment on them will atrophy over the next ten years. FB will need a way to really bring together the daily activities, information, interests etc of its userbase and make it matter on a wholly individual level. It seems that what FB does is interesting to its users on an individual level, but it is not. Without any friends at all on FB, the platform is useless. There are two directions that FB can go to solidify longvity; make the platform useful to an individual even with zero contacts/friends and to make the platform a utility that ca be used by a group of people. Think, the ability to create a company/group effort, with tools in the FB platform that the team can use to manage those activities. (There was a company called Huddle which was doing this - they seem to have good traction, though zero marketing/hype as I haven't heard anything about them in a long time, though they seem to be alive and well) Evernote would allow FB to build on the actual actions of their users from a data-mining perspective.

awakeasleep 14y ago
As a man wholly dependent on Evernote, I hope to God they aren't bought by Facebook. I shudder to think how much insight that'd give them on my life.
- samstave 14y ago
  DISCLAIMER: I no way was I actually condoning this idea. But if FB had deeper vision, they would already be looking at this. I was shining light on a dark spot in what I feel is missing in FBs roadmap.
- k-mcgrady 14y ago
  From everything I've read about Evernote and the CEO I think it would be very difficult to get him to sell. Facebook can obviously offer a lot of money (money that most people wouldn't say no to) but I think Evernote is in it for the long haul.

murrayb 14y ago

Nice to see that Penultimate is going to come to "other devices", I'm assuming that will include Android. I moved all my bookmarks to Evernote after the new owners broke^wenhanced delicio.us and haven't regretted it once. All I need now is a native Linux client for Evernote...

idan 14y ago

Sigh. Considering how much I love and use penultimate (Every. Single. Day), I'm hope that _this time_ acquisition won't result in a product getting a dose of its acquiring company spang in the middle of the interface, the simplicity, whatever. Congrats to the cocoabox team, though—if anyone deserves it, they do.

pchristensen 14y ago
Based on Skitch, I'd say the only changes will be to a) make it free and b) add options to make it easier to send content to Evernote. Evernote is the one acquirer who I do not fear as a user.
- jamesgeck0 14y ago
  Readable also got a lot of improvements when it turned into Evernote Clearly.

k-mcgrady 14y ago

Good purchase for Evernote. Integrating Evernote into Penultimate would make me use it a lot more and Evernote's OCR/search will hopefully be added to it.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

augmentech 14y ago

I've been waiting for this sort of acquisition from Evernote. As an avid Evernote user, this is a feature that has been sorely lacking, especially for the tablet note taking format. Love it!

dkokelley 14y ago

I've always loved Evernote IN THEORY. It makes sense to organize your notes through technology, to attach an 'external brain', if you will. Still, I've never been able to really use Evernote the way they intend. I'll throw up a few notes, only to drift away, leaving the notes alone. There's no organization that I've been able to achieve with the platform. Maybe it's just a threshold of initial effort that I haven't crossed, or maybe I just don't take enough notes. Still, I'm glad for this purchase. I think it shows that Evernote understands their base and has a strategy in mind to improve their offerings. Maybe I'll start using Evernote more now.

GiraffeNecktie 14y ago
I didn't get Evernote for the longest time but then it made way more sense to me when I bought a tiny double sided scanner and started scanning and shredding all my paper, bills, documents. Then I started forwarding all emails with attachments to my Evernote account. Then I started sharing my folders with my wife and using the mobile app. Now it's the central hub for all my information. Since it's all OCR'd I find anything instantly. Of course I had to upgrade to the paid version but at 1GB of NEW storage per month it's a pretty good deal. The one feature I miss from MS OneNote is the ability to have audio synced to the text of a note which is fricken awesome for taking meeting minutes.
- damontal 14y ago
  What kind of scanner are you using? This sounds like a great idea.
  - lzy 14y ago
    I'm doing something similar and I'm using the Fujitsu Scansnap S1300 which comes integrated with Evernote support.
- samstave 14y ago
  Does it allow me to keep a budget and track expenses/info/receipts against that budget?