App Smackdown: Best App for Quick Notes
November 24, 2009
Simplenote vs WriteRoom... which will win?
Comments
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Showing messages 1 through 8 of 8.
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Two excellent choices
2009-11-24 17:05:37 mroutley [View]
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Simple Note is Great; Hog Bay WAY overpriced
2009-11-24 13:24:50 robthecomputerguy [View]
First of all, SimpleNote is very cool to use... and priced fairly. I downloaded a desktop companion app shareware that really is not very good, but with the open design structure, hopefully someone will design something good, soon.
There is no way the Hog Bay products will ever be THAT good that I'm going to pay their prices. Therefore I'm not interested in even trying the app. Ridiculous, absurd pricing!
Is the author a friend of Hog Bay because this is not a serious top 10 in either of its categories. -
Simple Note is Great; Hog Bay WAY overpriced
2009-11-24 19:27:22 Jesse.Grosjean [View]
Thanks for your feedback, though I'm not sure that your feedback has really given me or the simplenote guys anything to work on.
It's good to get it drilled into my head how price sensitive the app store is. At the same time is is only a 3 dollar difference. Not even being interested in the app because of a 3 dollar difference is pretty tough.
> I downloaded a desktop companion app shareware
> that really is not very good, but with the open design
> structure, hopefully someone will design something
> good, soon.
Simplenote has better autosync. But "open design" is somewhere that I think WriteRoom for iPhone competes quite well. In fact I've opened source www.simpletext.ws, the sync service that WriteRoom for iPhone uses. So you can self host if need be, or just take a look at how it all works.
I'm also working on a SimpleText for Mac client. It's free, and allows you to view your www.simpletext.ws documnts on your mac as plain text files. If you'd like to try it out email me (jesse@hogbaysoftware.com) for a download link.
> Is the author a friend of Hog Bay because this
> is not a serious top 10 in either of its categories.
As the author says, no. It's true there are a million notes apps. I think WriteRoom stands out somewhat because of it's focus on basics and simplicity. And because it's been in the store and updated for some time. And because I've been a mac developer for some time. -
Features vs price
2009-11-24 14:35:57 Josh Clark |
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Because you asked: Nope, I have no affiliation with Hog Bay. (But I'm pleased to see Hog Bay's Jesse Grosjean participating in the comments here; nice to meet you, Jesse.) I'm not sure that a $3 difference is "ridiculous, absurd," but the App Store has definitely ushered in an unprecedented level of price sensitivity for software that's worth considering when comparing apps. Thanks for your thoughts.
That said, price wasn't a major consideration for me when I chose these two apps for the smackdown. I chose them for their feature sets, elegance, and relative merits -- ease of syncing (Simplenote) and speed of typing (WriteRoom + TextExpander).
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I'd love some feedback.
2009-11-24 12:53:35 Jesse.Grosjean [View]
I'm WriteRoom's developer. If you are a SimpleNote user I'd love some feedback from you about why you choose it over WriteRoom. And if you are a WriteRoom user I bet they would like some feedback about why you choose it over SimpleNote.
Point is give us some constructive feedback and make both apps better!
Thanks,
Jesse -
I'd love some feedback.
2009-11-24 13:13:12 omightyisis [View]
I actually bought Simplenote first, and bought yours later because I like the Mac version of WriteRoom. I tend to use Simplenote more, however, because the syncing is so brainless -- just directly to Simplenote servers via my iPhone app or JustNotes on my Mac, no having to input my password into Google Accounts over and over (this may be my wonky setup, but with Simplenote this is zero setup, zero learning curve).
Having said this, I use WriteRoom for longer notes because of TextExpander Touch. That is a killer feature, IMHO... -
I'd love some feedback.
2009-11-24 14:11:18 Jesse.Grosjean [View]
Thanks, yes Simplenotes autosync is certainly something that is nice. I'll be adding autosyn eventually, but since I'm rather inexperienced at building/hosting web apps I wanted to start off slow and obvious... manual sync. I'm experimenting with autosync now in the SimpleText for Mac client, eventually I will get that into WriteRoom.
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Share your favorite
2009-11-24 12:18:24 Josh Clark |
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The App Store is chock full of great replacements for the built-in Notes app, and just picking two contenders for this smackdown was a tough call. If your fave note-taking app isn't WriteRoom or Simplenote, feel free to post your preferred notebook app along with why it's your favorite.
(Evernote fans, we left Evernote out of this smackdown because this "quick notes" category is aimed at featuring apps for simple notes, and Evernote is a bit busy with features. Don't get us wrong, we love Evernote, it just didn't fit the bill for this particular challenge.)
Josh
| Showing messages 1 through 8 of 8. |
Simplenote's great features are search and automatic sync.
WriteRoom's great features are TextExpander support and full screen mode. I also quite like the integration (although experimental) with the Mac.
I think WriteRoom is best for longer notes, while Simplenote excels at short snippets of text. My most common use case suits WriteRoom.