Filed under: Software, Productivity
SOHO Notes updated to version 6
SOHO Notes, the information manager/junk drawer application from Chronos, has hit version 6 and adds some nice new features. Perhaps in response to Yojimbo, there is new keyword and smart folder functionality. There's also new support for scanning directly into SOHO Notes a la Yep, as well as new custom forms for data entry and 256-bit encryption.I used SOHO Notes' predecessor, StickyBrain, before switching over to Yojimbo. While I prefer the latter for its use of Core Data instead of OpenBase, I do think Chronos does a very good job of seeing what sort of features its competitors are offering and integrating them into SOHO Notes, making it one of the most full-featured of the note-taking applications on the Mac.
SOHO Notes 6.0 is $39.99 ($25 for upgrades from previous versions, including StickyBrain) and a demo is available.
[via MacMinute]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Stephen P said 6:04PM on 5-26-2007
I've heard much hate for SOHO NOtes on the web, but I really don't get it. Having tried 30-day demos of it and Yojimbo, there's just no comparison. SOHO NOtes does so much more (colored backgrounds, check boxes) and I haven't had any bug/bloatware issues. And I feel kinda silly having a ninja dude on my computer at work.
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Shawn said 6:54PM on 5-26-2007
The problems with SOHO products goes well beyond features. Ask anyone who paid for $99 for SOHO Organizer 5.x and has battled a company that took its forums offline, refused to answer support questions, and now are asking $49 for an upgrade. Supporting developers is one thing, but screwing the customer is poor business. I have been with SOHO since StickyBrain 3.x (maybe even 2.x), but no longer. Buy this is you have many hours to spend figuring out an application on your own. You will get no support. The only email you will get will be a year from now asking for more money for an upgrade.
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Scott-O-Rama said 7:22PM on 5-26-2007
I've tried both SOHO Notes and Yojimbo. They both have their advantages and disadvantages. SOHO is more complete, which Yojimbo is quick and dirty. I just wished they had left the name of SOHO Notes as Stickybrain. Now *that* was a great name for a product.
@Shawn: While support issues are unacceptable, I see no problem with Chronos charging for the upgrade to SOHO Notes 6. Almost every other software developer charges for upgrades. It's how they pay for the development costs. To not charge would be a very bad business model.
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Cody Bryan said 8:12PM on 5-26-2007
I have used SOHO Notes when I received my free upgrade from StickyBrain. It has worked as advertised, and is one of the best software programs for notes.
The upgrade Chronos produced from Personal Orgainizer to SOHO Organizer was not very good. I tried their demo, and was shocked at how truly bad the program was for me. However, Organizer has received favorable reviews from MacWorld magazine.
I could recommend SOHO Notes, but not SOHO Organizer. This latest upgrade looks interesting.
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PM said 7:59PM on 5-26-2007
SOHO Org 5 was really a beta, IMHO. It went through many iterations (it was multiple apps and finally, without thanking users, they listened to the feedback, many months later, and merged most of the apps into one. It was incredibly buggy (still is from what I hear) and the developers support became more dismal as time went on, to the point of where it is now: No forums (for users to help each other or for their support staff to help many at once), 1-5 days for an email response to a tech support questions, or pay $10 an "incident" and wait 1-2 days for a response.
Why do they need to resort to the most pathetic support policies I know of for a Mac consumer app? Because there were so many problems and so many disappointed users.
To ask users to pony up again is clearly worthy of discussion and disappointment by many, especially given Chronos minimal tech support.
SOHO Notes has been around a lot longer (as StickyBrain) and it seems they were able to develop that product without all of the bugs that overwhelmed SOHO-Org.
I agree with Scott; Sticky Brain was a great name. IMHO, they should have kept the name and the separate product, and should sell SOHO-Org as a completely merged product (Notes should be merged with Org., so it is one completely integrated package).
But it takes a long time for the Chronos folks to listen to their (potential and otherwise) users. Their egos get in their way and they don't listen to their users, as illustrated by their tech support policies.
All just MHO of course.
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PM said 8:14PM on 5-26-2007
I have to say I agree with the CoreData argument as well, though I find Yojimbo's developers having some ego problems as well (they know best), and being a bit paternalistic in their relationship with their users.
Openbase has proved to be a problem if you have more than one app using it, and thus possibly different versions being installed.
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Dan said 8:46PM on 5-26-2007
As a user, I can say that Chronos - in terms of support, attitude, and respect for the customer - is among the worst I've ever dealt with. Soho Notes, until the recent 5.72 version, was horrible - it lost data on a regular basis (including data from OTHER programs, like iCal.) The 5.72 release has been quite stable. I like the program a lot, and I would hope that 6.0 would be even better. But I'll never know, because whatever improvements SOHO made don't make up for the fact that it treated customers with utter contempt. They don't deserve my dollars until they actually own up to the horrid customer service they've displayed in the past (and I'm not along in believing this.)
Your mileage may vary, of course.
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Merv said 9:17PM on 5-26-2007
very interesting and informative comments. i've already wasted money on "k.i.t."; then i found yojimbo and paid for it recently -- just before even hearing of soho notes, which seems to have more features. has anyone used "journler"? it also seems to have far more features than yojimbo does, and it like journler's option to point to original documents, rather than copying them into a proprietary, monolith file, like yojimbo.... i'd love to hear thoughts from other users on journler vs. yojimbo and soho notes. thanks.
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Michael Rose said 10:33PM on 5-26-2007
Merv, FYI, this week's TUAW podcast covers Journler.
http://podcasts.tuaw.com/2007/05/24/tuaw-podcast-24-journler/
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Shawn said 10:01AM on 5-27-2007
@Scott-O-Rama: Paying for upgrades is acceptable. However, SOHO is requiring users of 5.x to upgrade after using an application for a year of bugs, data loss, and non-response from customer support. They finally got the application to a reasonable state and WHAM! they're asking for another paid upgrade.
PM is correct. Don't release a beta in disguise and charge the customer. Then, when you finally have a working app, don't come knocking again asking for more money as an upgrade.
@Merv: I use all three. (I should say "used" when it comes to SOHO. Never again.) Yojimbo is great because of the .mac sync features. Journler is interesting, but I still don't know what it wants to be. A low-end DevonThink Pro (which I use, as well). Is it akin to MacJournal? What you can't argue about is that Journler is donationware, which unlike the greed of SOHO, I am willing to support whole-heartedly.
I guess all these apps are just looking for, in the words of George Carlin, "A place for your stuff."
They all have pros and cons. Since getting into the GTD methodology, I am looking for the proper and most efficient one.
All I can say is that SOHO has taken itself out of the picture with bad service and costs.
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niclet said 10:21AM on 5-27-2007
Hi,
I tried the 30-day SOHO Notes demo. It's definitively a full features notes app well adapted to OSX. BUT... it is not localized, for this price and since it's quite complex, it should be. I wrote to their Support dep. : no answer. Maybe localization is the last of their concern. Anyways, it's a neat app.
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Roger Rodrigues said 10:22AM on 5-28-2007
Every Chronos upgrade costs $25!. Too much for every upgrade
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Stephen Lang said 12:50PM on 5-29-2007
Journlr is great, and free. The developer is extremely responsive in the forums for that app too.
I now use a free program called SlipBox, which is the least flashiest but most effective for me.
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niclet said 7:38PM on 5-30-2007
Hi again,
Just want to be fair: today I receive a response from Chronos about localization. They would like to "... localize SOHO Notes into other languages such as French and German" but at this time, they "... do not know if and when this will happen".
So we'll wait ;)
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Tullio said 7:23PM on 5-31-2007
Do not see any smart folder...?
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Mikael said 12:28AM on 6-05-2007
I paid for the upgrade to 6.0, which promptly wrecked my database by randomly duplicating notes. The only avenue for Support was to e-mail, which I did, and received a reply a day or so later with a suggested "fix" that didn't. I was also told that there was going to be an }updated," 6.0.1, which has now been released. However, while it supposedly doesn't duplicate files any longer, it does nothing about those files that it previously duplicated. But it's okay, since Chronos Support says "Sorry for the inconvenience." I'm so impressed; can you tell?
Another thing you might want to notice is that while Notes supposedly synchs to your iPod, the contents of sub-folders are not synched. Does Chronos tell you about this? Nope.
I started using their product when it was Stickybrain 3. It looks like I'm going to either Yojimbo or Circus Ponies' product. I don't need a lot of functionality. I do need reliability, and a company that values its customer relationships. Chronos offers neither, in my experience.
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Erik said 2:17AM on 6-05-2007
I just completed a comparative review of DEVONThink, KIT, SOHO Notes 6, and Yojimbo. My conclusions might not match yours, but for what it is worth: http://maclawstudents.com/blog/product-reviews/devonthink-kit-soho-notes-yojimbo/
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Lauram said 7:46AM on 6-07-2007
As a mere humble user, I bailed on SOHO notes because it is so slow. What I want from a notes application at bare minimum is quick access to stuff like my frequent flyer numbers or the hours of my branch library. If you store anything important in SOHO notes you want to set it to backup fairly frequently, but the automatic backup feature launches *when you launch the application* and you can't use the app at all while it's running. So if I want that library schedule, and start up SOHO notes to get it, I have to wait not only for the app to launch but also for the backup to finish, and that can be as long as 2 or 3 minutes. I switched to Mori, which has the sense to do all that stuff when you quit the application. Beyond that, SOHO notes was otherwise slow in various small ways.
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ken said 8:01AM on 8-05-2007
just my two bits worth ... like others i'm really disappointed with this product. when it starts up it flashes 'opening the database' .... forever ... (oddly it doesn't freeze or switch to the spinning beachball, and i can examine the existing notes) finally i have to force quit - nothing is saved, so everything stands as it was during my first session. i can't even revert to the earlier version, which did work. i've emailed chronos 'support' but i've heard nothing from them. i had high hopes of SOHO notes: excellent clipping services, use of web kit, hierarchical and smart folders. i fell into the trap of paying for an upgrade, and i feel i've been taken for a ride. you think they'll get back to me?
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Mad Macs said 11:00AM on 7-07-2007
I wonder why they have no support telephone number, and what they'd do if people found out how to reach them by phone?
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