Notability Changes App Subscription Policy, Promises Existing Users Lifetime Access to Purchased Features

[Runequester]

Companies have no incentive to not try these stunts, because nobody can remember anything.

So they might as well and if they get away with it, they get to cash out. If they don't, who cares, show consumers a new shiny next week.

 

[Analog Kid]

The fear of being unable to access or modify 4 years of medical data put the figurative fear of god into me. I’ve got all my Notability documents saved as pdf’s and Notability deleted as of last night. On the weekend I’ll start the job of importing all of those files into Goodnotes.

I still don’t know exactly what counts as an ‘edit’ from Ginger Labs point of view, and to me that is frightening. I log medications, strength of dialysate solution, volume used, etc. and frequently I’ll moves stacks, columns and charts to do a temporal comparison on ‘how well I’m doing’. Makes the job of the dialysis clinic easier and they get a better sense of how I’m doing i dependently.

That freedom to freely manipulate the data that I’ve generated about my own health is what was at risk.

Tom

Another option here might be Numbers. You can use the Pencil to handwrite data into cells, and generate charts. I suspect it’s not a great tool for a running text journal though…

 

[Thomas Davie]

Another option here might be Numbers. You can use the Pencil to handwrite data into cells, and generate charts. I suspect it’s not a great tool for a running text journal though…

I had tried that route! Still trying. What I am doing now is to make an attempt at ‘neatly’ printing inside of Notability (now Goodnotes), using text conversion and just copying certain information over to Pages or MS Word. Using the pencil to cut, copy and paste is such a delight for me - I can’t type fast; but I can chicken scratch w/speed and most text can be recognized.

Tom

 

[Analog Kid]

I had tried that route! Still trying. What I am doing now is to make an attempt at ‘neatly’ printing inside of Notability (now Goodnotes), using text conversion and just copying certain information over to Pages or MS Word. Using the pencil to cut, copy and paste is such a delight for me - I can’t type fast; but I can chicken scratch w/speed and most text can be recognized.

Tom

Sounds like you've put a good amount of time into your workflow here, so you probably already know this, but just in case I wanted to point you to Apple Scribble. It lets you handwrite anywhere you'd normally type, and does the text conversion automagically. I have horrendous handwriting, and it does surprisingly well on mine. I've avoided handwriting recognition apps generally because I get such a low success rate-- but the Apple algorithm seems to do well for me. I assume if I worked on adapting to the machine a bit it would do even better.

In the Pencil palette, there's a pencil with an "A" on it, that's the magic one.

Just experimenting over the last day or so, I've been able to open Numbers, touch the pencil on a cell, and write numbers that the cell converts to actual numbers (the occasionally confusion of "13" and "B" notwithstanding). I didn't actually try handwriting formulas, but I'd guess they work as well.

In Pages, I can open a document and start writing freeform text that gets converted as I write. I can create tables within Pages that I can tap cells and handwrite numbers into. Pages tables are actually Numbers sheets, so I can add formulas and create charts within Pages. I can add drawings and sketches.

The one thing I can't seem to do is draw on top of the text, which I find rather frustrating. When I draw, it creates a separate "drawing" space. One thing I tend to do with handwritten notes is draw on top of the text for emphasis or reference, and I can't seem to do that within Pages itself. I seem to recall that being a limitation in Apple Notes also-- I can draw over handwritten notes, but not typeset ones.

Anyway, not advocating anything, you seem to have a firm understanding of what you need, but on the off chance any of this is helpful...

 

[MartyvH]

GoodNotes is on 50% sale

Well the 2 main features I wanted are converting Apple Pencil handwriting to text and auto-backup to my staff OneDrive and GoodNotes has both of those. Sold! Only paid $5.99 Australian each.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I may be in the minority here but, I am not going to praise GingerLabs for this non-apology. I see a company admitting that they didn't do an analysis of their current business model and took a chance on trying to slip the new subscription in place hoping there wouldn't be much backlash. It appears that they didn't even bother reading the App Store rules. If GingerLabs had bothered to make a real apology I would have continued using the app.

"Yesterday, we made a big announcement regarding our transition to a free app with an optional subscription. We heard the disappointment from our existing customers, and we want to correct our course.

Today, we are making some changes (coming soon in Notability version 11.0.2). Everyone who purchased Notability prior to our switch to subscription on November 1st, 2021 will have lifetime access to all existing features and any content previously purchased in the app.

We are a small company, so we designed the original one-year access plan as a precautionary measure since we were not certain if we could support lifetime access. We sincerely apologize for putting our current users in this position."

 

[ericwn]

I can tell you most likely Apple intervened, and threatened to not only remove Notability from App Store but terminate their developer account (with no refunds whatsoever) and potentially ban the company from owning Apple products for life.

And if Apple threatens company like that, best to not take this to the press and just comply.

Never heard of anyone being banned from owning an Apple device. Which examples have you encountered?

 

[Saladin12]

I can tell you most likely Apple intervened, and threatened to not only remove Notability from App Store but terminate their developer account (with no refunds whatsoever) and potentially ban the company from owning Apple products for life.

And if Apple threatens company like that, best to not take this to the press and just comply.

Never heard of anyone being banned from owning an Apple device. Which examples have you encountered?

And how exactly would Apple enforce the company being unable to own Apple products? Apple ID is the only thing I can think of but even then I’m going to guess something like that is illegal? (Just speculation on my part)

 

[ericwn]

I would rather pay such a useful app $30 and upgrade only when I need to (and therefore pay again for a new version, of course), than being forced to pay something every year because otherwise it would stop working.
I want to decide when I pay for what I need, not the opposite.

That is the path to new app versions where support for the old ones then drops off just like software companies have operated in the past decades. 30 bucks for life long support will never cut it, wether we like that or not.

In the pc and max space desktop grade software used to cost way more and worked for a while and then was replaced.

 

[ericwn]

How many times do you need to change a note taking app to warrant a subscription. It is getting ridiculous. The only thing I ever subscribe to are media consumption services like Netflix with new content daily.

Exactly, easy peasy. Let us know when you have developed yours.

 

[ericwn]

So it was just a PR trick...

Step one - Do something bad and you'll get the articles so that people will notice you.
Step two - Revert what you did bad and you get yet another headline, and people will likely praise you for doing the right thing.

Doubt that. It sounds rather like a crap idea caught in the act and now revert course.

 

[Abazigal]

The fear of being unable to access or modify 4 years of medical data put the figurative fear of god into me. I’ve got all my Notability documents saved as pdf’s and Notability deleted as of last night. On the weekend I’ll start the job of importing all of those files into Goodnotes.

Notability lets you backup your documents to dropbox, IIRC.

 

[ericwn]

Few years ago the notorious Tapatalk app creators took the different route of taking away the benefits of early purchases' by issuing a new app.
They gave us a few years of "free" subscription service after the new app was published, but eventually took the premium benefits away and asked us to pay again.
That's an example of bad costumer service.
I deleted their app, and I really hope other users, that bought the premium app early on, also deleted it.

Bought the Pro app a while ago and for a long time it lagged behind the free subscription based thingy they offer. At least no ads, but their support is horrible and forced features like Kin were telling…

 

[Thomas Davie]

Notability lets you backup your documents to dropbox, IIRC.

Yes. But if I can’t read the files b/c of an editing limitation then I would have to have the backups in PDF format as well as Notability format, no?

Thanks

Tom