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joeross.me

Civil litigation lawyer. Interested in the collision of law & tech policy. Prone to geekery.

Evernote

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    Evernote's desktop apps get integrated reminders and a task list, no love for mobile yet

    Evernote’s desktop apps get integrated reminders and a task list, no love for mobile yet

    Evernote’s reminders are great news, and something I’ve been waiting for since at least February, but here’s all that matters to me:

    We have big plans to expand the functionality, and to bring it to more platforms in the very (very) near future.

    I can’t wait to get this on mobile. I’ve long hoped that some day Evernote would become the one-app-to-rule-them-all for me. I already use it as a data archive, storage for manuals, occasional journal, research tool, and songwriting management tool. True, cross-platform task management would supercharge the service for me, and may even end my Any.do versus Wunderlist problem.

    In related news, Wunderlist has added hashtag support in its web incarnation, and so far I’m actually finding it’s very useful.

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    Google Keep isn't an Evernote killer

    Evernote will be just fine, despite Google’s recent announcement of a new note-taking app called Google Keep, currently available for the web and Android. Keep allows for text, audio, and images to be added to a single notebook and synced between the web and Android devices. You can even add stuff via Google Now. It’s neat, but it’s no Evernote killer.

    The two products cater to very different use cases, and Keep will not be able to replace Evernote for its core customers. Evernote had 1.5 million premium subscribers in November 2012. At 45$/year, that’s around $67 million annually, and the number of subscribers has been rising for years.

    It doesn’t make them profitable, at least at the moment, but it helps. Coupled with Business accounts and other endeavors, Evernote isn’t worried. For those premium users, who pay because they make the most of Evernote’s vast feature set, Keep won’t be good enough. And I suspect that even if every user of Evernote’s free tier left the product, Evernote would hardly notice from an operational standpoint (if anything, operational costs would decrease).

    Instead, makers of task management apps should be concerned. Google Tasks is as neglected as Google Reader was, and we all know what happened to Reader. Keep looks like an elegant upgrade to Google Tasks, and while Evernote has hinted at its own task management solution, I don’t think the future of their business will depend on it.

    It’s worth remembering: there just aren’t as many zero-sum games in the apps and services spaces as many, especially in the tech press, would have us believe. Design, feature set nuance, and adaptability to users’ current workflow all allow for multiple apps to be successful in the same space. The Keep/Evernote dichotomy is no different.

    This article was adapted from a comment I left on The Next Web’s post about Keep.

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    Whitson Gordon finally figured out Evernote

    Whitson Gordon finally figured out Evernote

    I’m not being snarky: he writes at Lifehacker about how he never “got” Evernote, until recently. It’s a great article and I can say I’ve made at least some use of every technique Gordon discusses. The most important? Use Evernote all the time, for everything, and it will become a powerful part of your workflow.

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    Evernote CEO hints at future task management integration

    Evernote CEO hints at future task management integration

    Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote, talking to Lifehacker:

    What’s your favorite to-do list manager?

    You know, I don’t actually have one. I use Evernote, which isn’t particularly great for to-dos yet. Yet.

    Despite having tried every task management app I can find, and settling on Wunderlist1Any.do for now, I’m very excited about an integrated Evernote task management solution.

    1. I can’t decide. It’s Any.do for now, as of February 25, 2013. Wunderlist has great native apps on most platforms, both mobile and PC, but Any.do is the best mobile solution I’ve found, and that’s where I really need a task manager. ↩

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    $85 million round by Evernote

    $85 million round by Evernote

    It’s one of my favorite services, and the first I decided to pay for on a monthly basis. I think Libin, despite his transparent business style and easy-going manner, is genius of the caliber of any CEO at a company ten times Evernote’s size. He built something awesome, gives most of it away, and amplifies the magic for a small monthly fee.

    You don’t get to 45 million users without being awesome.