Three Evernote Alternatives for Apple Users, New Software Updates On The Horizon

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TGIF! I hope you’ve had a great week so far. Here’s what I have for you in this edition:

• Three Evernote Alternatives for Apple Users

• Basic AF #34: Apple Event, the State of the iPad, and a Love of Photography with Chris Freitag

• Apple Software Updates Are Coming Soon

• Apple Earnings, iPad M4 Chip Rumors, and More News

 🐘 THREE EVERNOTE ALTERNATIVES FOR APPLE USERS

Evernote was once the 🐐 of note-taking apps, but years of mismanagement took a toll. In November 2022, Bending Spoons acquired the company and has made some improvements, but it recently raised prices dramatically and severely limited the free tier. As a result, many long-time users have finally hit their breaking point and are looking to get out.

If you’re shopping around (Evernote user or not), here are three great options for a new home for your notes.

BEAR

Bear is my primary app for taking notes. It’s a beautiful and elegant app with a strong set of features. It also supports a wide variety of formats for exporting notes.

• Runs on macOS, iOS, iPadOS, visionOS, watchOS

• iCloud sync

• Encryption for notes

• OCR search inside photos and attachments

• Linking to other notes inside of a note

• Powerful and flexible tagging system (similar to folders)

• Apple Pencil support on iPad

• No collaboration or shared notes

• Imports Evernote Export files (.enex files)

• Exports to Plain Text, Markdown, TextBundle, Bear Note, Rich Text, HTML, Word, PDF, JPEG, and ePub

Price: Free version (limited features), Bear Pro $2.99/mth or $29.99 /year.
Web: https://bear.app

CRAFT

I left Evernote for Craft in 2020, and I left Craft for Bear last year because I prefer Bear’s interface and it feels better to me. That said, Craft is a powerful app that focuses more on teams and collaboration but is still really good for an individual user.

• Runs on macOS, iOS, iPadOS, visionOS, Windows, and web

• Craft sync with support for local storage spaces

• Slash ( / ) commands to quickly insert tables, images, formatting, etc.

• Powerful collaboration and document linking

• Daily Notes with Calendar Integration

• To-Do lists with notifications

• Apple Pencil support on iPad

• Does not support Evernote Export files; you’ll need to convert to Markdown and then import

• Exports to Markdown, TextBundle, PDF, and Word

Price: Free version (limited docs allowed), paid plans start at $8/mth.
Web: https://www.craft.do

APPLE NOTES

Over the years, Apple has consistently updated the Notes app and it’s become an excellent app. And it’s free and comes loaded on every new Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Vision Pro.

• Runs on macOS, iOS, iPadOS, visionOS, and web

• iCloud sync

• Quick Notes

• Easy to share notes and collaborate with others

• Scan documents directly into a note

• Lock notes for privacy

• Apple Pencil support on iPad

• Imports Evernote Export files (.enex files)

• Only exports to PDF; this will make it difficult to get your notes out

Price: Free, but you may need to upgrade iCloud storage if you’re on the 5GB plan.
Web: Apple Notes User Guide

If you have any questions on Bear, Craft, or Notes, don’t hesitate to reply and ask away! I’d be happy to help!

🎧️ BASIC AF #34: APPLE EVENT, THE STATE OF THE IPAD, AND A LOVE OF PHOTOGRAPHY WITH CHRIS FREITAG

Chris Freitag is a long-time Apple user, photographer, and YouTuber. He joined us on this episode to talk about the upcoming Apple Event, potential new iPads, the current state of the iPad, his Apple gear, and shares his love of photography, which he documents on his excellent YouTube channel.

Listen now at basicafshow.com, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, all the other podcast apps, as well as on YouTube and YouTube Music. Be sure to follow us in your podcast app!

⚙️ SOFTWARE UPDATES ON THE HORIZON

Apple has been beta testing a new round of updates over the last several weeks. I expect we’ll see these next week right around the time of the event on May 7th.

• iOS and iPadOS 17.5

• macOS Sonoma 14.5

• watchOS 10.5

• tvOS 17.5

• visionOS 1.2

APPLE EARNINGS

Apple announced its financial results for its second fiscal quarter of 2024 this week. Revenue came in at $90.8 billion with profits of $23.6 billion. The breakdown:

• Mac revenue was up 4%

• iPad was down 17%

• iPhone was down 10%

• Wearables, Home, and Accessories down 10%

• Services revenue was up 14% (a record $23.9 billion)

Jason Snell has his usual, and excellent, breakdown over at Six Colors.

NEW IPAD TO SKIP M3 AND GO TO M4?

Mark Gurman at Bloomberg predicted in his Power On newsletter that the new iPads Apple will unveil next week will skip the M3 chip and go with the M4.

IS A SPEC BUMP REALLY WHAT THE IPAD NEEDS?

Whether the new iPads get the M4 or not, a lot of people, myself included, have been saying for a long time that computing power isn’t what’s holding back the iPad. David Pierce at The Verge wants more accessories and software.

APPLE WORKING ON A FIX FOR BUSTED ALARMS

APPLE WATCH AFIB RECEIVES FDA APPROVAL

Doctors have credited the Apple Watch’s AFib feature as a lifesaver and the Food & Drug Administration has recently announced that the device is approved as a Medical Device Development Tool (MDDT). This means it can now be used in certain clinical studies.

THE BEST PASSWORD MANAGER FOR 2024

Apple’s iCloud Keychain is excellent if you’re 100% Apple, but a third-party password manager may be better if you need cross-platform support or more advanced features. I’ve used 1Password for years, and it’s Engadget’s top pick.