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The last time I tried Evernote it already had way too many features. It always felt like they were trying to way too many things at once, to the detriment of al

The last time I tried Evernote it already had way too many features. It always felt like they were trying to way too many things at once, to the detriment of all of them. Apparently this feature is the "most requested feature of all time", but I'd guess that half of the other ones aren't. For example, my impression was that Evernote was about being able to store all of your memories, files, photos, etc. for future reference. But then the biggest use case highlighted by this video is for teams working on task lists together... Seem like very different use cases. I can't be simple to design for that unfocused of a goal, and it shows.

cing 13y ago
Evernote is just a word processor front-end to cloud storage. The use cases are pretty limitless. I'm not really sure what you mean by "too many features". I use Evernote to store text, code, and figures related my scientific research and there isn't a feature I don't use. On the other hand, I'm a little skeptical that Reminders will be an improvement over my current Calendar/TODO set-up.
gmu3 13y ago
I strongly disagree that Evernote has too many features, but I think the main disconnect is I don't consider a feature synonymous with a use case. Sure there are a million use cases some of them better than others, but that is because they give you near total freedom to use Evernote and structure things however you want. Underneath it all the only real features are notebooks, notes, tags, and a powerful index. Admittedly this ability to do anything is kind of hard to market, because you have to be somewhat of a power user to structure things efficiently. If they built an app that was singularly amazing at storing files and photos for reference I think that would somewhat go against their ethos, and if you chose to use different specialized apps for all the use cases, it would naturally come at the expense of fragmentation.
rz2k 13y ago
For your purposes, something like Notational Velocity or nvAlt on a Mac, Resoph Notes on Windows, or PlainText on iOS might be much better products. They use SimpleNote or Dropbox for cloud storage and synching across devices.
- veidr 13y ago
  I've used those, and they fail for my use cases because you can't put all kinds of stuff in them. Most of my notes and code are textual, but sometimes I have to use rich text and colors and embedded pictures. Sometimes I need to store audio or embed arbitrary attachments in my notes. Things like Notational Velocity can be simpler because what they do is simpler.

cing 13y ago

Evernote is just a word processor front-end to cloud storage. The use cases are pretty limitless. I'm not really sure what you mean by "too many features". I use Evernote to store text, code, and figures related my scientific research and there isn't a feature I don't use. On the other hand, I'm a little skeptical that Reminders will be an improvement over my current Calendar/TODO set-up.

gmu3 13y ago

I strongly disagree that Evernote has too many features, but I think the main disconnect is I don't consider a feature synonymous with a use case. Sure there are a million use cases some of them better than others, but that is because they give you near total freedom to use Evernote and structure things however you want. Underneath it all the only real features are notebooks, notes, tags, and a powerful index. Admittedly this ability to do anything is kind of hard to market, because you have to be somewhat of a power user to structure things efficiently. If they built an app that was singularly amazing at storing files and photos for reference I think that would somewhat go against their ethos, and if you chose to use different specialized apps for all the use cases, it would naturally come at the expense of fragmentation.

rz2k 13y ago

For your purposes, something like Notational Velocity or nvAlt on a Mac, Resoph Notes on Windows, or PlainText on iOS might be much better products. They use SimpleNote or Dropbox for cloud storage and synching across devices.

veidr 13y ago
I've used those, and they fail for my use cases because you can't put all kinds of stuff in them. Most of my notes and code are textual, but sometimes I have to use rich text and colors and embedded pictures. Sometimes I need to store audio or embed arbitrary attachments in my notes. Things like Notational Velocity can be simpler because what they do is simpler.