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The world’s not lacking for note apps; there’s tons out there, enough that when Google recently released a new one, the world collectively yawned. There’s just so many ways to keep notes already. There’s the plaintext geek favorite Simplenote, the always stylish Springpad, and Microsoft’s OneNote — the desktop app that made quite the nice transition to the web.
You’ve likely got a notes app built-into your OS of choice, too. And another in your email client. Even Dropbox itself makes a pretty compelling choice, as you can store plain text files in it and edit them as notes anywhere.
And yet, Evernote remains the crowd favorite. It lets you take notes about anything, throw in files, pictures, web clips, and more, and search through it all effortlessly. It lives in the web, but also has native apps for practically ever OS out there. It’s even in a Samsung fridge. It seems cluttered, with everything in one place, formatted text mixed with plain text and PDFs and everything else. And yet, it works – and is beloved by millions.
So, for those of you who swear by Evernote, what is it about the service that you love the most? We’d love to hear your thoughts — or your dissenting views if you hate Evernote — in the comments below.
Google has tried so hard to get into the social networking game, but its first attempts were little more than failures. Let us count the ways:
- Google Wave, which promised to reinvent how we collaborate. Dead.
- Google Buzz, a social network inside Gmail. Dead.
- Orkut, an outright social network. Practically unknown outside of Brazil.
So then, Google practically had to redesign their entire company around their final social offering: Google+. It launched with fanfare, and even had some nice features, but ultimately wasn’t enough different to drag most of us away from Twitter and Facebook. Just about the only standout feature was Hangouts, group video chats inside Google+.
But Google has forged it deeply into Google search, making a Google+ profile rather necessary if you want your site’s search results to show off your author info. Plus, if you buy into Google’s other products like the brand-new Glass, you’ll get the best built-in sharing experience with Google+.
So, are you still using Google+? Or has your account languished without any recent updates?
Of course, if you do use Google+, be sure to follow us on Google+!
Google started out as a search engine, but over the years it’s amassed quite the set of web apps for dozens of purposes. If you use Gmail, Google Calendar, Maps, and Search, then Google has tons of data about you, enough to let it rather smartly predict what you’ll need to know and when you’ll need to know it.
That’s what Google Now, the new Android feature that’s finally come to iPhone and iPad users this week by way of a new version of the Google Search app, is. It shows you directions for how to get home when you’re supposed to be heading home, lets you find out if something else has happened about a news article you recently read, and so much more. In many ways, it’ll keep you from searching on your devices as much, and perhaps eventually on your browser as well since it appears to be coming to the web sometime soon.
It can be nice — some swear by it already — but if you don’t use Google’s services to run your life, it’s rather pointless. I’ve just tried it out on my iPhone, and was unimpressed when it didn’t even pick up the appointment I had this morning. It’s neat, still, but not nearly as lifechanging as many seem to think.
That’s why I’m wondering about your thoughts on Google Now. Do you like it, and do you think it’s something you couldn’t live without today? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
Several weeks ago, we asked our readers at Mac.AppStorm what Mac apps they couldn’t live without. The funniest thing is that tons of the responders — most, even — included a web app like Dropbox, Evernote, CloudApp, or Google Drive as an app they couldn’t live without. Turns out, almost everyone relies on web apps these days.
For me, I keep all of my files in Dropbox, my email is powered by Google Apps for Domains, my site is powered by Kirby, I use CloudApp to share files, Forecast.io to check the weather, WolframAlpha to discover more about the world, Google to keep me from seeming dumb, and App.net/Twitter/Facebook to keep in touch with friends and colleagues. AppStorm itself is powered by WordPress, our team collaborates with Basecamp and Google Docs, and our polls usually are powered by Polldaddy. I could honestly get rid of native apps easier than I could replace web apps these days.
So how about you? What web apps could you not live without? We’re looking forward to seeing your responses in the comments below!
It’s been a tragic week for the US with the Boston Marathon bombing, as well as the events that have unfolded over the past few hours with gunfights and more in Boston. There’s also been a factory explosion in Texas, ricin-laced letters sent to the president, an even worse bombing in Iraq, and more. Scary stuff.
There’s so many ways to get the news, and you’d always figure the internet would be the best way. Often it is; cable news seemed incredibly slow compared to Twitter, say, in the events of the past few hours. But local TV — which, incidentally, I watched over the internet — had some of the best coverage, as did Reddit, a site most of us wouldn’t trust for authoritative information (sorry!).
And then, if you were actually in the area of the disasters, authorities were requesting that cell phones be turned off, and during the marathon bombing the networks were nearly overloaded with calls, making internet use, at least from your phone, not such a good option. Suddenly, old-fashioned FM radio made the most sense.
It made me wonder what you turn to first when you need immediate news. Do you turn a dial on a radio still, or are you more likely to turn on the TV? Or is Twitter the first place you’d think to check?
