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"Keep It" -- replacement for Together -- in beta
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Posted by MadaboutDana
Aug 21, 2017 at 10:08 AM
Interesting - the new name is very close to “Keep Everything”, one of Together’s closest competitors.
Posted by MadaboutDana
Aug 21, 2017 at 10:13 AM
Actually, the updated Together (sorry, Keep It) looks quite interesting - the list of new features is fairly extensive. I’m delighted it’s under active development; Together is one of the better info management apps that sync between macOS and iOS. Others include, of course, Keep Everything, DEVONthink (ToGo) and Notebooks (and, I suppose Scrivener, if you regard that as an info management app as well as an authoring app). Oh, and I suppose you could include Readdle Documents in there as well, in view of its text note-taking function and fantastic file management. Aargh… CRIMP coming on….
Posted by Paul Korm
Aug 21, 2017 at 04:00 PM
I’ve gained access to the Keep It iOS beta app—anyone can request access, FWIW.
The older Together Mobile app has been removed from the iOS App Store—but is still available from your “Purchased” library if you ever had a copy of it previously. Good to look at both for comparison.
The new app interface, so far, looks like the old app with new icons. It can edit plain text, RTF, and markdown notes. Make new notes, import (via iOS Share Sheets) or sync via iCloud with the desktop. Many markdown editors offer a toolbar with common markdown shortcut (headers, lists, etc.). Keep It does not offer that kind of toolbar, as yet. For that matter, neither does DEVONthink. In fact the interface and editing seems similar to DEVONthink’s overall. Keep It iOS does not, as yet, offer PDF annotation.
I think the mobile app is more a file hub than a place to do intensive editing or writing or annotation work. Keep It iOS is a file provider in iOS document provider (iOS 9 and above), and will open documents from other document providers. Which I think a better strategy than trying to be a new entrant to the iOS editors feature race. Especially with iOS 11’s Files app coming along soon. Probably be able to drag files to / from Keep It iOS from other iOS apps
An advantage (for some) over DEVONthink to Go is Keep It iOS does on-demand sync via iCloud of your database(s).
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Aug 21, 2017 at 07:00 PM
I emailed Steve at Reinvented Software with a question and I also asked him about the design philosophy behind Keep It. He confirmed that it is intended to be more note-centric. Here is what he said (he gave me permission to reproduce his response here):
“Keep It puts more emphasis on notetaking, and even though it can do everything Together could as far as the document management goes, doesn’t shout about it. This is actually where Together had its roots, but back then people seemed far more interested in the document management, and I went along with it. Over the last few years that seems to have flipped, and doubtless apps like Evernote and even Apple Notes have helped there.
“All that said, a lot of Keep It’s approach is informed by the need to work more consistently across Macs and iOS. On iOS people don’t necessarily think as much in terms of files, so de-emphasizing them and taking more of a notebook approach seems much more appropriate. And really an app like Keep It should be all about looking at stuff in a different way, or you could just use the Finder.”
Steve Z.
Posted by Dellu
Aug 21, 2017 at 11:55 PM
My complain with this app is again the database. I always want to index my notes (wherevever I edit them) in Devonthink because I want to use the “see also” feature. The Keep IT app stores files as “kptinfo” file. I don’t know what these files are: and, not sure if Devonthink would understand them.