A quick rant about Notes

YouNote: Nice handling of notes on the iPhone, but without sync it's another no-go. The suck value of Mail.app Notes continues to amaze me -- why would I want to send Notes to myself (and read them) as emails, rather than the note form I wrote them in? Equally surprising is that no 3rd party has come up with an app that elegantly bridges the gap between Notes on the iPhone and Notes in Mail...

This has been a sticking point for me as well. Coming from Palm/Treo for 10+ years, it was inconceivable to me that there would not be a Memo-type app in the iPhone.

I've been scouring the App Store since it opened, and I think I may have finally found a solution: YouNote. It allows for saving, tagging and searching of notes in several different formats, including text, picture, voice, and web, and can be connected to existing contacts and calendar functions. According to the web site, it backs up to your computer, but I'm not sure if it's editable on the computer.

http://www.sophiacom.fr/pages/iphone-us/younote-overview.html

I hope this is the solution I'm looking for, because my new iPhone comes in a few days.

Well, Apple did advertise Notes syncing with iPhone as a new feature of Leopard, then decided to pull it without a reason:

http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2007/10/25/leopard-backpedals-again-no-more-iphone-note-syncing

I love the Notes app.. but I need three things to be added/changed:

1. I need there to be some way of sorting notes other than date last modified. Either have folders you could put them in or at least a keyword search function - that searches not just the first line but the whole note - unlike the contact search, which only searches the names, not any contact notes...i digress.

2. I need to be able to add/edit notes from my desktop. This slows me down big time. Again, there should be no problem here. I wouldn't even care if the application to do so was within itunes. In fact, that would be smooth.

3. I have checked out all of the appstore apps and none of the todos, notes, productivity apps allow you to be totally unattached to the web. I need my notes to be accessible whether I have connection or not.


..o and the font is fun... but I wouldn't mind that to be a little more formal.

This is the kind of tidbit that drives me nuts about Apple lately. Such a small detail, and yet such a huge letdown in the world of expected seamlessness between Apple devices. Either they didn't actually test run their own device far enough, which I find hard to imagine, or they like f*cking with us.

In addition to the Notes rant, I would think a rant about other iPhone shortcomings would be in order...especially the ones Apple has known about ever since [and probably well before] the first iPhone came out over a year ago.

1 - No MMS?!?
2 - Terrible call management. [no call duration listed; can't tell if you called someone's work number or home number or cell number; incoming/outgoing calls aren't specified until you look at the call details; etc...]
3 - Can't customize alert sounds for e-mail or calendar alerts.
4 - And the biggest one, in my opinion: no option for using the keyboard in landscape mode in any app except Safari. The landscape keyboard is easier to type on, and I would gladly sacrifice the smaller screen real estate for more accurate typing for e-mails, text messages, and notes, just to name a few applications.

For Notes, a great idea is mentioned in the article. Use Contacts to store Notes.

I've been a Palm user since the Pilot 1000 and have just bought an iPhone 3g to replace a Treo 650. I was missing 2 features, Todos and Notes that would sync.

For ToDos I now use OmniFocus on the Mac and iPhone. It's great.

For example, always use a Last Name of Notes, and a first name that is a description of the Note. This way all the Notes will be stored in the same place in contacts. You could setup a group called Notes and move all the contacts in there.

Type your text in the Notes section of the contact. The great thing is the 2 way sync. It is a work around for a feature that should be in there, but it works and is very simple.

I'd like cut and paste to be put at the top of the Apple iPhone developers priority list.

How about syncing them with the "Notes" built into Mail.app.

They look the same...

Hey Guys!
What about Google Notebook?
I've been struggling with upkeeping SOHO Notes, but now I am determined to make GNotebook work. So far it's wonderful and I hope it'll be around for many years! If not I can quickly transfer my notes to GoogleDocs and then download them in bulk as a file (many file types to choose.) I am trying Evernote which is OK, but I waiting for them to charge for all their levels of service.

A-f*cking-men to THAT. I have no memory. I was born with out one. Carrying pieces of paper around with me have been the norm for years. I was so hoping Notes would sync.

*sigh*