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by tammer 2154 days ago
I would argue that in a number of ways Apple Notes is one of the most advanced in terms of features.

Yes, it doesn’t bombard you with its functionality and at first glance is a simple place to jot notes (perhaps its greatest strength). But dig into the feature list, and perhaps help me find a similar application that:

1) can combine tables, rich text formatting, and in-line sketches 2) can store any file type in-line 3) can encrypt protect notes 4) can bulk share Notes + live edit 5) has a built-in complex document scanner

I know there are some alternatives that cover most of these but I think Apple Notes is king precisely because of these many layers of functionality.

2 comments

Big minus: Only works on Apple platforms :(

I use macOS and iOS all the time but I also use Windows, Android and Linux. So sadly most of Apple's services don't work for me. Even though I know they're really good. I really wish they'd expand their horizons a bit. Microsoft stuff works on pretty much everything so why not theirs?

I had no idea it was that good though, because of the above reason I never really used it.

You could still access it from web. The interface isnt bad, but it’s web, so no native UI.
The web version has an incredibly obnoxious bug when it comes to using Enter.

On Firefox on Ubuntu 18.04 hitting Enter once will not go to the next line. Hit Enter again and it will go down two lines.

Works fine in Chromium but there's no reason I shouldn't be able to use Firefox, especially when Apple pretends to champion privacy...

This drives me crazy too.
Sounds like it's a stone throw away from being packaged by someone as an Electron app :)
https://github.com/jiahaog/nativefier

I used this to create an Electron app for my entire iCloud account. It's the only way I can stand to use it from my Linux machines due to the aforementioned Firefox bug. I don't mind using Chromium as an Electron app for this purpose though. Combined with Alltray I got a nice little Apple logo in my system tray that I leave open.

Totally agree.

I get the markdown thing but it just seems to add a layer of complexity to a market crowded with productivity porn.