Evernote in beta for Mac (and web)

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Posted by Chris Thompson
Mar 7, 2008 at 05:55 PM

Not sure how I missed this earlier, but it looks like Evernote is coming to the Mac and is already in beta:
http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun/2008/02/evernote-web-ve.html

Looks like a solid offering, though it’s entering a very competitive space… it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out. Nevertheless, probably of interest to switchers.

—Chris

Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Mar 8, 2008 at 06:42 PM

Chris, many thanks; I’ve actually entered my e-mail at the Evernote website for the related announcements but have received no news as yet. I assume that they’ll probably announce it when it’s official.

The Mac world might be competitive, but not necessarily the cross-platform one, as yet. Yet convergence is a rather unstoppable trend; being able to connect to everything from everywhere, i.e. to whatever info from whatever platform. Everrnote is moving that way by providing a main Windows (and now Mac) product, a Pocket PC version and a web interface. The Evernote ‘vision’, as presented at the website, includes being able to input images sent via e-mail or other systems from cell phones, for example. I.e., easy input and retrieval later on through its integrated OCR, time logging, filters etc.

I have the feeling that more and more applications will be providing cross-platform compatibility and/or a web interface. The ones that don’t will eventually find themselves at a disadvantaged position. Unfortunately, this probably means the majority of software discussed at this forum.

Cheers
alx

Posted by Chris Thompson
Mar 8, 2008 at 07:10 PM

I don’t see a lot of desktop software going cross-platform. Some form of web/phone integration, yes, but beyond that, I doubt it. I can’t think of a major app that’s gone Mac -> Windows in recent years (Tinderbox and Notetaker have both been promising this for a long time, but there’s only so long one can hold his breath). There’s been mild movement Windows -> Mac (Mindmanager, now Evernote, a few others) for a variety of reasons: more momentum, more people who buy software, increasing geek/programmer mindshare, etc. In fact, there’s surely a market for a good single pane outliner on Windows now that Notemap has ceased active development, but no one seems to be picking up the torch. That’s fine with me really… I’d rather see Omni devote more resources to new features in OmniOutliner 4 rather than engage in a massive rewrite just to pick up a few customers in an OS market that’s proven deadly to so many good products. There might also be a market for a good web-only single-pane outliner, but so far webapps have been pretty weak.

Everyone except Office is using generic file formats anyway these days, so it’s not difficult to move info between programs when you switch platforms or put things on the web.

—Chris

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:
>The Mac world might be competitive, but
>not necessarily the cross-platform one, as yet. Yet convergence is a rather
>unstoppable trend; being able to connect to everything from everywhere, i.e. to
>whatever info from whatever platform. Everrnote is moving that way by providing a
>main Windows (and now Mac) product, a Pocket PC version and a web interface. The
>Evernote ‘vision’, as presented at the website, includes being able to input images
>sent via e-mail or other systems from cell phones, for example. I.e., easy input and
>retrieval later on through its integrated OCR, time logging, filters etc.

Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Mar 8, 2008 at 11:03 PM

Chris Thompson wrote:
>I can’t think of a major app that’s gone Mac -> Windows in recent years

You’re probably right. Indeed, re-engineeering software built for a specific platform to support additional ones seems to be a huge undertaking, especially considering the time it has taken certain programmers ‘just’ to port a 16-bit Windows application to 32-bit Windows.

BUT, there’s a significant number of programs coming out that are cross-platform from the outset. For example, there are several cross-platform mind-mapping applications, e.g. iMindMap, NovaMind, Xmind etc. It’s no wonder that Mind Manager chose to offer a Mac version as well.

Developers starting out now have an obvious advantage, as powerful tools are now available to develop cross-platform and web-enabled applications. That’s why I believe that a lot of the software we talk about here—much of which has a long history of development for a specific plaatform—probably won’t make it.

alx

Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Mar 13, 2008 at 10:28 PM

Update: I’ve just received an invitation to try out the Evernote beta web client. Trial is by invitation only. Anyone interested can register here http://preview.evernote.com/ though there’s no guarantee of invitation is ‘seats’ are apparently limited.

Cheers
alx

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