I am having a bit of an organizational crisis these days which I do not want to delve into at the moment, but I was considering some possible ways to try and keep up with many matters at hand and was considering a Chromebook. It is mostly depends on apps, and what I would really like would be something similar to Awesome Note or Daily Note on the iPad. Does anybody know of any apps that are similar in design that will run on a Chromebook?

Thanks,

--Ken

Ken wrote:

It is mostly depends on apps, and what I would really like
would be something similar to Awesome Note or Daily Note on the iPad.
Does anybody know of any apps that are similar in design that will run
on a Chromebook?

I'm not familiar with Awesome Note or Daily Note, but I presume you're looking for some kind of a combination of a calendar, to-do list, and notes. Since the Chromebook is a Google device, the most obvious choices would revolve around either using Google services such as Google Calendar, Tasks, Notes etc. on their own, or in combination with some apps or extensions.

A popular one seems to be GQueues (though I haven't tried it), which seems to turn Google Calendar into more of a to-do app: https://www.gqueues.com/

Personally I prefer to keep these functions separate, so I use Google Calendar for scheduled to-dos, the Workflowy Chrome app for all other kind of tasks, projects, and short notes, and the iDoneThis service (email or web interface) for journalling.

In terms of the hardware, the main benefit of the Chromebook I find is that it's instantly on. My Google Calendar is always my first tab, so upon opening the lid it immediately shows my calendar. The other benefits are the full-sized keyboard, and long battery life (compared to other laptop/netbook formats).

You could try the charming MomoNote, which is also available as an iOS app and syncs happily between iOS and the Chrome app. I'm really rather fond of it! Probably the closest thing to Awesome Note.

Of course there are also many others, depending on which aspect(s) of Awesome Note you really want to focus on, e.g. Wunderlist, Todoist, Doit.im, SpringPad, SimpleNote, Workflowy, Gingko, Writebox, StackEdit, Cotton Notes etc. All offering more or less competent offline editing and in some cases, nice interfaces.

Cheers,
Bill

For those interested in Markdown apps, incidentally, WriteBox and StackEdit (both for Chrome) offer two very different views of a similar concept. WriteBox is a writer's app, vanishing away as you type so that the interface is minimized, but springing back with a user-friendly menu bar when you're ready to save/sync with Dropbox or Google Drive. StackEdit is also compatible with those two services (and others), but provides a full set of formatting features, including support for Markdown Extra, in a two-pane frame (Markdown on the left, preview on the right; to preview your Markdown text in WriteBox you use a discreet button in the pop-up menu).

Both very good for what they do.

Dr Andus wrote:

In terms of the hardware, the main benefit of the Chromebook I find is
that it's instantly on. My Google Calendar is always my first tab, so
upon opening the lid it immediately shows my calendar. The other
benefits are the full-sized keyboard, and long battery life (compared to
other laptop/netbook formats).

Thank you both for your suggestions. The above features are what are attractive about the Chromebook. The iPad offers similar features, minsu a built-in keyboard. Yes, there are great keyboards, but unless you are just typing text, I find the arrangement less than easy, as the only way that you can interact with programs is with your finger. I will have a look at Momonote and another look a GQueues. I still pine for Ecco, but as much as I love it, I am not too certain about reviving it, as much as it may be my favorite piece of software. I may reconsider the iPad, but whatever I use, I know that it will need to be light weight, have instant on, and good battery life. I am still open to further suggestions if anybody has more thoughts.

Thanks,

--Ken

Ken wrote:

I may
reconsider the iPad, but whatever I use, I know that it will need to be
light weight, have instant on, and good battery life.

It's unlikely that a Chromebook would be lighter than an iPad (my HP Chromebook 14 certainly isn't), though on the other criteria it is very competitive, especially if the objective is productivity, as opposed to watching movies on the couch (I've kept my old iPad 1 for that).

The other benefit is the speed of browsing. I don't use the Chromebook for capturing research information, but if I needed that I'd probably try some Evernote apps (I find Google Keep too slow and unsophisticated).

You could consider the Asus Transformer Book T100. A very modestly priced tablet + keyboard combination that has outstanding battery life, only weighs 1.1 kg (split more or less evenly between tablet and keyboard), a good keyboard (for small, refined fingers - like mine ;-)) and works perfectly well either as a simple tablet or as the equivalent of a touchscreen netbook (the tablet fits very neatly - and solidly - into the keyboard). Oh, and takes microSD cards, too. It runs Windows 8.1 (the full Monty, not the laugh-a-minute RT version).

I've played with them in various retail outlets, but so far, have resisted the CRIMPer's urge to buy one... so far...

Here is a thread from the official Chromebook forum about users' favourite apps etc. Might be worth looking through.

"Let's discuss: What are your favorite apps, extensions, and plugins?"

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/chromebook-central/Hx97eQizON8

A distraction-free writing app (online free, Chrome app paid-for) I just came across:

http://www.calmlywriter.com/

Writebox is now also available as a standalone Chrome app (as opposed to just being a Chrome browser extension):

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/writebox/bbehjmjchoiaglkeboicbgkpfafcmhij

Dr Andus wrote:

Writebox is now also available as a standalone Chrome app (as opposed to
just being a Chrome browser extension):
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/writebox/bbehjmjchoiaglkeboicbgkpfafcmhij

Woops, that was the link to the extension. Here is the app:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/writebox-for-chrome/gjiojfkjllkkkkcicbaiahobdgjfhkom

On the topic of Chromebooks, I'm finding that the Google Drive cloud is not terribly reliable. I would save a plain text file directly to Google Drive via the Caret app or drop a couple of small image files on the local Drive that is supposed to sync with the Cloud, only to find that it takes sometimes 24 hrs for the files to appear on the Drive when accessed from another machine. So I'll be sticking with Dropbox for mission-critical files for the foreseeable future...

One of the good things about the Chromebook idea (I don't have one, so I'm musing here, really) is that in principle, you can use any Cloud provider. OneDrive is now a very enticing option, because of the enormous amounts of storage space available to those with even a modest subscription (one terabyte) and the growing quality of Microsoft's web apps. Dropbox has improved recently (not least by adding full-text search). Our own business solution, Soonr, also offers full-text search, password-protected downloads and so on. I use a variety of Cloud-related apps on my iPad, and am increasingly impressed by just how much work you can now do online without resorting to Google at all.

As for Google - I fear they're going the way of Amazon: total world domination, despite the 'do no evil' thing. If they were more predictable/reliable (i.e. actually had something like a roadmap), I would, perhaps, trust them more. But after the arbitrary destruction of a number of my favourite services, I no longer use Google Drive at all.

Dr Andus wrote:

On the topic of Chromebooks, I'm finding that the Google Drive cloud is
not terribly reliable. I would save a plain text file directly to Google
Drive via the Caret app or drop a couple of small image files on the
local Drive that is supposed to sync with the Cloud, only to find that
it takes sometimes 24 hrs for the files to appear on the Drive when
accessed from another machine. So I'll be sticking with Dropbox for
mission-critical files for the foreseeable future...

Thanks for sharing this. I do not rely on Google Drive, despite their offering 100GB with my Chromebook. I mostly use cloud services for sharing files, and for storing PDF files for reading later. I suspect that if my work flow changed radically, I would have to reconsider, but I am happy not to have to rely on cloud storage for my daily work.

--Ken

Dr Andus wrote:

On the topic of Chromebooks, I'm finding that the Google Drive cloud is
not terribly reliable.

Looks like the problem was not with Google Drive itself, but with the syncing between the local copy of Google Drive (in my file manager) on my Chromebook and the cloud version of Google Drive. While stuff did save to the cloud (when looking at it directly from a browser), the local copy does not get updated properly, thus becoming outdated for several hours, making one mistakenly think that the cloud wasn't updated.

I'm not an active Evernote user, but apparently Evernote has just produced the first ever Android app that will work on Chromebooks. But it looks like one will need a premium account to use it offline and to see the notes in larger size.

http://chrome.blogspot.pt/2014/09/first-set-of-android-apps-coming-to.html

Dr Andus wrote:

I'm not an active Evernote user, but apparently Evernote has just
produced the first ever Android app that will work on Chromebooks.

Well, I just tried to install and launch it on my Chromebook, and the first thing Evernote wanted to do before allowing me to sign in was to gain access to my Google Contacts. I don't see why Evernote should have access to my contacts, so that has ended my very brief relationship with Evernote Android right there and then...

Dr Andus wrote:

first thing Evernote wanted to do before allowing me to sign in was to
gain access to my Google Contacts. I don't see why Evernote should have
access to my contacts, so that has ended my very brief relationship with
Evernote Android right there and then...

Android apps have this kind of "peeping" tendencies, as Bill (MadAboutDana) has commented elsewhere. It is one of the many reasons that I am gradually limiting the use of Android and moving back to more "traditional" environments.

That said, all Evernote apps, including web, provide a Share button enabling one to mail or post a note to a contact or social network. I expect that access to Contacts is requested in order to support emailing in particular.

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

Android apps have this kind of "peeping" tendencies, as Bill
(MadAboutDana) has commented elsewhere.

all Evernote apps, including web, provide a Share button

enabling one to mail or post a note to a contact or social network. I
expect that access to Contacts is requested in order to support emailing
in particular.

Thanks, I figured it must be something like that. Either way, I find this a heavy-handed approach to try to condition new users to be "social networkers," even at the cost of refusing to serve those who don't need or want those features...

An interesting review on the Chromebook experience by Rui Carmo of Tao of Mac:

"My Deep, Dark Secret"

http://the.taoofmac.com/space/blog/2014/09/28/1940#my-deep--dark-secret