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i've bought too many note taking apps already, and so far they all kind of suck. is there any chance we can try out a lite version? i'd love to buy it if it works well enough.
 
agreed. needs a more aggressive price out of the gate. it's not that 1.99 is going to bankrupt anyone, but you have to realize the marketplace you're dealing with. people will pay more but only after a landslide of solid reviews. the best way to get the most people trying the app is to make it .99
 
Just bought it. I like it. I was waiting for it to be approved, glad I did.

Has been stable throughout my use of it.

Only prob I have so far is that to write well you need to zoom in and it doesn't leave much room to write. So my vote for auto advance and return.

Great app!
 
agreed. needs a more aggressive price out of the gate. it's not that 1.99 is going to bankrupt anyone, but you have to realize the marketplace you're dealing with. people will pay more but only after a landslide of solid reviews. the best way to get the most people trying the app is to make it .99

I disagree. 99 cents is the "bargain basement" of the app store. especially when most of the competition in this department is around $5. it's not a crappy app so it shouldn't be at a crappy price. If people see 99cents they automatically think "garbage". If it were me, I would advertise "Only $1.99 for a limited time!! Special introductory price 50% off!!" Then when it starts making a name for itself bump it up to $3.99. That is still lower than most of the note taker apps. That would be good to continue to draw in people, plus it is lacking many features. Then when 1.1 is released with new awesome features (1-2 months from now??) BAM have a one day 99 cent deal promoting the update. That's all I got so far :p but of course I dont' have any background in advertising/marketing so that's just my opinion...

i've bought too many note taking apps already, and so far they all kind of suck. is there any chance we can try out a lite version? i'd love to buy it if it works well enough.

I do love me some lite versions. Maybe only allow 1-3 notebooks in the lite version?
 
It won't have audio recording any time soon, mainly because the current priorities are
  1. Auto advance and return
  2. Image annotation
  3. Overall experience (A new version with speed improvement will be uploaded soon after the app is released)
I had some more time to play with the app this evening. My overall feeing is that you are off to a strong start. I love the simplified interface which I think is one of the key differentiators between this app and other note taking apps. I like the direction your headed with the next update. Adding ancillary features such as audio, nice as it might be on occasion, is not going to separate eNote from the rest of the crowd. Sticking to the ideal of a clean interface may be what makes eNote a better solution for many of us.

I do agree with StevesCat that the palm rest needs work. I also found that it moved around quite a bit, not enough to stop me from taking notes but enough to be a distraction. I'm not sure I agree with him on relocating the palm rest on/off to the main menu bar. It would make for easier switching but the relative lack of controls in the menu bar is one of the things I like most about the app.

I'll try to get a review up on the App Store in the next day or two.
 
Will we able to copy text?. Also, it would be nice if we could e-mail notes. So far This seems like a smoothe program.

It doesn't support text copying at the moment, can you explain how you gonna use text copying?

First impressions after 10 minutes use.

The palm rest is giving me a slight problem. Because it can be moved up and down on any part of the grey area, not just at the top edge, for instance, my hand is moving it when I write. This is very distracting and annoying. Also, to turn palm rest on and off, you have to go through three presses. Personally, I would rather have the on/off button on the main menu bar. The other issue is with moving through pages. There's a delay while the content redraws at high resolution.

Very impressed with the clean, stripped down appearance and very easy to use.

Steve

Yes, I am fixing the palm rest now. You can just drag it to the bottom when you don't use it and drag it back up when you write. Image rendering speed will be greatly improved in the next version. I am so glad you like it!

But that also means that you'd have to use a proprietary file format which isn't ideal also, since you can't use Adobe's API for PDF with embedded audio. Wouldn't that be the only choice if one was to implement the functionality?

Yes, it could be. That's why I am unsure about supporting audio recording...

I disagree. 99 cents is the "bargain basement" of the app store. especially when most of the competition in this department is around $5. it's not a crappy app so it shouldn't be at a crappy price. If people see 99cents they automatically think "garbage". If it were me, I would advertise "Only $1.99 for a limited time!! Special introductory price 50% off!!" Then when it starts making a name for itself bump it up to $3.99. That is still lower than most of the note taker apps. That would be good to continue to draw in people, plus it is lacking many features. Then when 1.1 is released with new awesome features (1-2 months from now??) BAM have a one day 99 cent deal promoting the update. That's all I got so far :p but of course I dont' have any background in advertising/marketing so that's just my opinion...



I do love me some lite versions. Maybe only allow 1-3 notebooks in the lite version?

I might put up a lite version after auto advance and dropbox support are added. Need to focus on the core functionalities first. ;)

I had some more time to play with the app this evening. My overall feeing is that you are off to a strong start. I love the simplified interface which I think is one of the key differentiators between this app and other note taking apps. I like the direction your headed with the next update. Adding ancillary features such as audio, nice as it might be on occasion, is not going to separate eNote from the rest of the crowd. Sticking to the ideal of a clean interface may be what makes eNote a better solution for many of us.

I do agree with StevesCat that the palm rest needs work. I also found that it moved around quite a bit, not enough to stop me from taking notes but enough to be a distraction. I'm not sure I agree with him on relocating the palm rest on/off to the main menu bar. It would make for easier switching but the relative lack of controls in the menu bar is one of the things I like most about the app.

I'll try to get a review up on the App Store in the next day or two.

Thanks! You feedback is very helpful and I feel much encouraged.
 
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I disagree. 99 cents is the "bargain basement" of the app store. especially when most of the competition in this department is around $5. it's not a crappy app so it shouldn't be at a crappy price. If people see 99cents they automatically think "garbage".

Personal opinion only...

I buy most anything remotely interesting for trial when it is on sale for $0.99, but would not buy even at $1.99 introductory price - and have done so with a lot of apps.

Some of those apps I like and keep using all the time, some I don't and just put aside.

It has nothing to do with being a crappy app, just "on sale" to introduce to gain exposure. A lot of top apps do this regularly to capture customers who sit on the fence, or induce compulsive buys.

It is especially important at the beginning to gain as much momemtum / mass as possible to... a) provide fee-back on bugs/feature requests/etc, and b) gain high positive reviews to push the app over the threshold to be a top app.

A single extra dollar is not going to break me, but it shows that the developer also want to meet me 1/2 way to introduce his new app by reducing the price at the begining. A promise to push the price up later when becoming more popular ($1.99 now, $3.99 later) actually piss me off... ;)

Again, only personal opinion...
 
Personal opinion only...

I buy most anything remotely interesting for trial when it is on sale for $0.99, but would not buy even at $1.99 introductory price - and have done so with a lot of apps.
FFS. I would like to assure all devs out there that this kind of cheapskate is very much in the minority!
 
Personal opinion only...

I buy most anything remotely interesting for trial when it is on sale for $0.99, but would not buy even at $1.99 introductory price - and have done so with a lot of apps.

I don't think it really works for lesser known introductory apps. Especially apps with a particular niche, like handnote writing apps. And especially when all the other apps and still more then double 1.99. I just don't see a lot of random joe schmoes being drawn in just due to the .99 introductory app. especially when it hasn't really proven itself. You really get the impulse buys from a huge one-day price drop. "Oh man this app is 75% off? Only 99 cents? I think this is worth a look!" There are a lot of people that watch for the price drops (myself included).

Then a few weeks after that post a lite version and that's how to attract all the final hesitant buyers.
 
lately uPad has gone to crap, I have no idea why, a simple launch and it's been jacked up and hasn't resolved itself. Considering eNote but like others not sure I wanna drop any more cash just to be disappointed, I use auto-advance alot and dropbx etc. So that holds me back, but I think it looks very nice.
 
Nice clean app! What about text boxes for those whose finger writing isn't quite so nice and clean?
 
To email a single page from a multi-page notebook.

The only way at present to do this, as far as I can see, is to export the notebook to iTunes, then import the notebook to have a duplicate. Open this and delete the pages not needed, leaving the single page to email. A bit clumsy, but a solution nevertheless.
 
Yes, it could be. That's why I am unsure about supporting audio recording...

Fair enough. Personally, I think audio recording is a must have feature for students and business people for lectures and seminars but for most people it might not be as important so I think it's good as is for the price right now.

A few observations in using the app:

It was a lot of labor to get to a new line after getting to the end of the line, and I agree as mentioned before that the auto advance feature is much needed.

Also, when I'm wringing with the palm rest up, often I found that the palm rest would come all the way up and actually block the writing area as I'm writing. I like that it's always adjusting to new positions as you move your palm around, but I think there should be a restriction as to how high it should go. For example, you could have it so that the palm rest wouldn't go any higher than the line that you're writing on.

Moving the page around with two fingers would often trigger the zoom in/out function and it was cumbersome to zoom the page back to the prior size. If you could implement three finger gestures for moving around the page only, I think that would be good.

Again, I think you have a solid app for the price and the writing itself was much smoother than some of the more expensive note apps. It just needs a small refinements here and there. :cool:
 
I like that eNote Taker has a spartan and non-exotic interface. Some of the other note taking applications look weird or have way too many buttons.

Here are some observations and suggestions:

  • When I first opened a note it wasn't immediately obvious to me why I couldn't edit it.
  • I like Note Taker HD's behavior where you tap the gum tool, erase, and then upon lifting your finger, the pen toon is reactivated. The square that is visible when erasing something in Note Taker HD is nice too.
  • Auto-advance or some other way to move around the document when zoomed-in is really needed.
  • When I make a large zoom-out gesture I don't mean to zoom to 25%. I mean for the entire document to be visible (i.e. 100% in portrait mode).
  • Currently, when trying to delete a sheet if it's the only sheet in the notebook, an error message pops up. IMO, better behavior would be to delete the sheet and then straight away (re)create an empty sheet.
  • Tapping-and-holding the pen/marker buttons should make the floating option windows pop up.
  • Export to Evernote would be nice
 
Eraser

Can anyone see the eraser outline when using. Someone in this thread said that it was visible. If so how?
Thanks
 
I would like to e-mail a single page, is that possi ble
To email a single page from a multi-page notebook.

The only way at present to do this, as far as I can see, is to export the notebook to iTunes, then import the notebook to have a duplicate. Open this and delete the pages not needed, leaving the single page to email. A bit clumsy, but a solution nevertheless.
I will include the option to copy the page to a new notebook. That should solve the problem!

Nice clean app! What about text boxes for those whose finger writing isn't quite so nice and clean?
Text input will not be supported any time soon, need to do dropbox integration and auto-advance first. I need to think about how it should be done in eNote Taker.

Also, when I'm wringing with the palm rest up, often I found that the palm rest would come all the way up and actually block the writing area as I'm writing. I like that it's always adjusting to new positions as you move your palm around, but I think there should be a restriction as to how high it should go. For example, you could have it so that the palm rest wouldn't go any higher than the line that you're writing on.
The palm rest will stop moving as soon as you start writing in the next version, should solve the problem. Yes, I should restrict the height of the palm rest, will be done.

Moving the page around with two fingers would often trigger the zoom in/out function and it was cumbersome to zoom the page back to the prior size. If you could implement three finger gestures for moving around the page only, I think that would be good.
I found that annoying too, that's why I added the option to turn off pinch-to-zoom gesture. Then I use tap-and-hold zooming gesture instead and use two fingers to drag the page. Having three finger gestures could confuse some users...

  1. When I make a large zoom-out gesture I don't mean to zoom to 25%. I mean for the entire document to be visible (i.e. 100% in portrait mode).
  2. Currently, when trying to delete a sheet if it's the only sheet in the notebook, an error message pops up. IMO, better behavior would be to delete the sheet and then straight away (re)create an empty sheet.
  3. Tapping-and-holding the pen/marker buttons should make the floating option windows pop up.
I have planned to support zoom to fit the page width, is that what you want? I agree that we should be able to delete the only page, I will fix that. Tapping-and-holding the pen/marker buttons to bring up the color/thickness window is great too, will add that. Thanks for the great suggestions!!

Can anyone see the eraser outline when using. Someone in this thread said that it was visible. If so how?
Thanks
It is not visible, the eraser size (about the size of the fingertip) will stay the same regardless of the page zoom scale.
 
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