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EN 3 Changes and a Market Overview
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Posted by Daly de Gagne
May 6, 2008 at 11:07 PM
I can’t recall whether we had much talk here about EverNote 3 beta and the developer’s plan to create a program that would integrate hardware and web, and truly be able to function as an external brain wherever one was.
There are big fears—groundless or not I do not know—that EN 2.2 which saw the product as a pretty sound top of the field web clipper, and information manager may no longer be supported, that functionality will be lost, and people who do not wish to be will find themselves having to store data on the web.
I think this may be worth talking about for a few reasons, because of changes we’ve seen in the field and what it means to us users:
* I am declaring ADM as deader than a doornail and no longer on the market until either Ed or Arne have the courtesy to let their form loyal and trusted testers know to the contrary. For all we know, their Chinese dealings may have earned them so much they don’t need us, or got them into so much trouble they don’t have time for us.
* MDE Infohandler, once one of my favourite tools for the way it handled categories, took a major paradigm shift in design that many people hate, and many of us cannot quite understand. I suspect, given the lack of discussion on the list that it could be in a tough position keeping market.
* UltraRecall has great—though slow and not as good as Evernote’s—capabilities as a web clipper, plus metadata features and other ways of massaging information. A strong player, and one that showed the ability to shift in mid stream when user pressure resulted in a hoist feature. Way to go Kinook!
* MyInfo’s developed its metadata capability, created an approach to columns that is more intuitive, though less flexible than UR’s, but in spite of user requests did little to improve web clip capability and did not agree to develop hoist.
*Whizfolders markets itself as a writer’s program, and a note-taker, and has developed a sophistication over the years with keywords, tehmplates, and now in its last version, the ability to hoist and to appear as one-pane outliner.
*Whizfolders and EN have a feature I find very useful, and that is to be able to open a separate window so that two sets of material may be seen side by side. This is helpful when writing.
* InfoSelect has made a few attempts to come into the modern edge with smart folders and a half-hearted hoisting mechanism which essentially involved saving the Selector in different configurations. But it is still as quirky as hell, and recent speculation on the group was Yuri is running the show pretty much by himself. Don’t look for much in the future from IS, except that it will go the way of Infohandler and ADM as its users—often a well brainwashed group who are unaware of the power available in the competitor’s products—realize it feels good to stop hitting your head against the wall and find software that does at least 90 percent of what it is designed to do.
* Zoot has the most raw potential of any of the products—but the question is whether the Admiral will be able to out maneuver the cigarette boats zooming around in Floridian waters. He has the best software design capabilities of anyone that I have ever seen—but the reality is that he may have to start replacing sail power with horsepower, and get a couple 2500 HP inboard diesels and a power boat large enough to put some other programmers.
* SQL Notes has risen rapidly over the last years from ECCOs ashes, following a squabble among ECCO freaks that resembled a bunch of Trotskyist tendencies fighting it out at common front unity rally. SQL Notes looks impressive, and may end up doing both what the old ECCO did (which it somewhat resembles in appearance), and a whole pile more related to metadatam manipulating information, storing information, itself.
* Some of us like these program as well because they let us bring different resources together. Most the programs mentioned already let you do, to set up project files or a dashboard of sorts. In addition to the outline type programs, there`s Syncon IDEA!, which hasn`t been updated for a few years but is pretty elegant if not attractive, and OMEA Pro, both designed to bring everything together. Mindmap programs can be set up to those functions. Two mindmap variations, Topicscape and Personal Brain have taken some interesting approaches, but neither turn me on completely.
Treepad is an old standby, but Henk for some reason turned his back on information management, and went more for web site application of the product—it was too bad because he was one of the first to have a real nice approach to use of icons, recognition of the need for word processing capability, etc. His Treepad group used to be active, but now it is pretty dead.
* I do not know enough about MyBase to say anything, except that I used it some years ago, before going to TreePad, found the developer helpful, and know from the reports of at least one of our members that it seems like a strong product with a responsive developer.
* GemX`s outliner program and PIM both seem to be underwhelming although they have all the eye candy one might expect to find in a Dutch confectionary.
I don`t know what I left out by way of an overview.
My hope is that Evernote doesn`t screw itself, and that if there are people here who are concerned they might, that they ought to hit the forums.
Daly
PS And let us know of any Arne or Eric sightings.
Posted by Thomas
May 7, 2008 at 01:20 AM
That’s a really nice summary.
The only you didn’t mention that I could think of right away is InfoRecall. (Last time I used it was over 10 years ago.)
Just few notes:
As for MyInfo, it was more like that they were reluctant to implement hoist in current version, due to it being too hard to implement. Which I can understand. The way they have implemented the tree control, from what I could understood, differs from most other products and is non-standard, that might be a factor as well.
Treepad group is IMHO dead because it’s on moderation, and it’s not much supported - Henk seems to prefer other communication channels, doesn’t promote the group much and isn’t actively participating except answering the questions.
I actually liked GemX products, except the bugs and the way of their communication and handling loyal users. Do-Organizer while buggy and weak in some aspects, had great potential.
Usually toilet paper works for me, but couldn’t figure it out with Evernote. It was the only thing that didnt’ work for me with EN, unfortunately substantial one.
Posted by Cassius
May 7, 2008 at 01:24 AM
Daly said, “... often a well brainwashed group who are unaware of the power available in the competitor’s products.”
One should remember that many of such users have so much invested/saved in their current PIMs that they are loath to change.
I find it no longer possible to consider Zoot as viable. I purchased it many years ago (Ver 3, I believe) and found it so limiting that I never used it beyond testing it. It has lagged so far behind everything else that it can only be pitied. As far as I can tell, except for Outlook compatibility,GV can do virtually everything Zoot can do and a lot more.
-c
Posted by Dominik Holenstein
May 7, 2008 at 05:36 AM
Daly,
Thank for your great market overview!
Just my 2cents:
When I look at development speed, communciation, listening and bug fixing then I end up with these three applications:
- UltraRecall
- Whizfolders Pro (or Deluxe)
- SQLNotes
Personally, despite some CRIMP attacks, I always end up in in using UltraRecall. I don’t love it, I like it. And sometimes I miss ADM.
Dominik
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
May 7, 2008 at 02:08 PM
Daly,
A few notable applications you left off your list:
* OneNote is quite powerful, though it is quite different than most of the information managers discussed here. It has the support of the titan behind it. I believe one reason for EverNote’s change in direction is that version 2.2 was competing directly with ON… and even though EN was cheaper (in fact free), it appears to have been losing that battle. The biggest issue with ON is that it still does not play as well with its own siblings (Word, Excel) as it could.
* The Brain… which I do not know much about… Is it an information manager or a mind mapper?
* Personal Knowbase… I know it doesn’t have much of a following on this forum, but it has always appealed to me in its simplicity. A keyword based note card system… a stripped down version of InfoHandler. Still has a loyal following.
And as long as you’re mentioning Treepad, we should probably mention the other long-in-the-tooth two-pane outliners: Jot+, ActionOutliner, Maple and BlackHole Organizer. These were exciting when they first came out six or seven years ago, but now have been passed by. I must say, however, that I still use Treepad Lite fairly often. It is quick and easy to use, is a single executable file (so can be used from a USB drive), and the lack of bells and whistles is just right for some jobs.
Steve Z.