Evernote End of Year Blog 2023

[agsteele 2,951]

There is a new Evernote blog post for the end of year review and looking forward to new developments

https://evernote.com/blog/2023-recap

 

[WilliamL 654]

Some of that seems based in reality other bits less so, no acknowledgment of the on going support issues sadly. I think the biggest feature they could offer at the moment is timely top quality support which reflects the premium price of the product.

I still find the utter reversal of staff engaging here and responding to bugs to utter silence completely bewildering.

Maybe 2024 will bring change, that first begins by acknowledging the current mess and apologising for it IMO. 

[agsteele 2,951]

Historically, the presence of staff in the forums had been intermittent at best. 

[WilliamL 654]

21 minutes ago, agsteele said:

Historically, the presence of staff in the forums had been intermittent at best. 

That is true, it seemed to be changing tho, some good engagement between Evernote and users, then it all just stopped. No idea why, but the hunger that so many productivity apps have to give users good experiences, staff quick to engage with users etc, it’s utterly absent now with Evernote which is one of the more premium apps. 

It I contrast that with Craft where I’ve had Zoom calls, get regular emails from staff to ask about things, they engage frequently in the Slack group, less so in the Circle one, it’s so different. 

I guess maybe it’s different priorities, I am of the view if I’m spending money I want to know there is support and staff value user experience, maybe that’s less a priority for others. 

We all gotta pick what we are comfortable with in the end. 

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,968]

A couple observations.

Quote

We preemptively reset vulnerable passwords with an automatic password reset for accounts that didn’t have two-factor authentication. These accounts were particularly vulnerable to attacks through a weak or reused password. Affected users were then prompted to update their password the next time they opened Evernote. And again, I highly recommend setting up two-factor authentication!

This would explain the forum posts about unexpected requests to reset passwords. It could certainly have been communicated better.

Quote

A stunning new user interface, available for Desktop users beginning in January. With the new UI, users will enjoy the in-app experience they know and love, but repackaged into a lightweight and contemporary design. But don’t worry, we’re not moving buttons, rearranging features, or disrupting existing workflows.

... as requested by approximately no one. Stunning and yet not disruptive. I prepare myself to be stunned. At least there is this much of an advance announcement. Forum mavens, prepare for the onslaught! Esp. from people who have been complaining about the interface, but won't like the new one either.

Quote

We’ll release RENT, a new metadata sync process. RENT is a counterpart to the collaborative editing initiative from April 2023. While collaborative editing focuses on instantly syncing note content across multiple devices, RENT handles note metadata syncing. With RENT, users will see changes to note titles, thumbnails, dates, and note list content reflected across all their devices faster than ever before.

Could this mean that, at long last, thumbnails reflect current reality? Or even that we get to pick one? That might be the real stunner.

And BTW, could early experiments with RENT explain why today all of a sudden 3 notes I just looked at in the Windows desktop app got marked as changed? A week or two ago in the Android app I saw a viewed note or two get marked as changed, and then revert to their correct status.

[gazumped 11,677]

Don't know if its related,  but my area of the UK got flagged for a Tornado warning - if anyone wants me tomorrow I'll be in my bunker...

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,968]

23 minutes ago, gazumped said:

Don't know if its related,  but my area of the UK got flagged for a Tornado warning - if anyone wants me tomorrow I'll be in my bunker...

Yikes. Will keep you in thought--I grew up in tornado country; we had a doozy my senior year in high school.

[Dave Green 210]

5 hours ago, Dave-in-Decatur said:

(actually Dave-in-Decatur quoted:) With RENT, users will see changes to note titles, thumbnails, dates, and note list content reflected across all their devices faster than ever before.

Hopefully, tags will also be on this list.

[agsteele 2,951]

7 hours ago, gazumped said:

Don't know if its related,  but my area of the UK got flagged for a Tornado warning - if anyone wants me tomorrow I'll be in my bunker...

How is it for you? On our side of the Bristol Channel it was very blustery, wet but no twisters. Sympathy for those in Thameside affected by Storm Gerritt.

[agsteele 2,951]

4 hours ago, Dave Green said:

Hopefully, tags will also be on this list.

Which piece of the tags provision do you have in mind - given that tags exist and do most things? I presume you have a specific issue in mind.

[AlbertR 537]

10 hours ago, gazumped said:

my area of the UK got flagged for a Tornado

😀 my first idea was that you thought about a Tornado of news from Federico:

• Substantial improvements to the user experience. ...
• A stunning new user interface, ... 
• We’ll replace our custom client-side database with a more modern solution...
• We’ll release RENT, a new metadata sync process...

Most of these improvements will start in January. If this all will take place in time and with less trouble than last changes of user experience, user interface, client-side database and sync technology: Whow... 🙏 

[Alvin- 4]

I am not disagreeing with the above opinion, but how about if client side changes first? This is something that will meed time to build and be sent to App Store for people to update first. Especially when v10 sucks they need to rewrite from scratch.

I am not a fan of Evernote but during this year they did rewrite some parts of the apps (e.g. navigation). I don't know in the blog article if they implied there will be a native desktop version replacing current Electrons.

I just want to say Ian Small did a very worst job on launching v10: rarely unusable so that I can't find another app which is like Evernote! Bending Spoons has been every part of it is crapped and there is a long long long long way to go.

For me I just use other alternatives like Apple Notes in the short run. If the new Evernote is much better and if they introduce more options of import (other than enex and html) I may come back.

[gazumped 11,677]

6 hours ago, agsteele said:

How is it for you?

Weatherwise we're good (so far!) - didn't realise you were so close:  I'm in Newport,  just across the river.  As you say - windy, wet and miserable.  No very high winds yet...

As far as the software changes are concerned (and yes,  I was drawing a parallel there) - I would respectfully disagree that Evernote needs to apologise for their Support overload;  they're only human.  While it would have been good to anticipate the extra contacts and staff up in advance,  I suspect they didn't foresee all the upgrades they were required to make to an allegedly operational system. 

Regardless,  what's done is done and they'll make their own decisions as to the next step(s).

Beyond adding to the QoL points I don't think there's much benefit to jumping up and down and shouting for different new or improved features.  Evernote took on (though they clearly didn't quite appreciate it) an enormous job to get the app back on track in terms of operations and usability.  They already have a new UI in development and no doubt that will cause some reactions from users - I'm fully expecting a 'Save v10! - it was much better this new 11!!' movement soon...

Basically I'm still in 'wait and see' mode.  The v10 app works well enough for me in Win 10/11 and Android,  and I'm keen to see what else is going to be released in '24. 

Things should only get better from here....  

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,968]

11 hours ago, Alvin- said:

I am not disagreeing with the above opinion, but how about if client side changes first? This is something that will meed time to build and be sent to App Store for people to update first. Especially when v10 sucks they need to rewrite from scratch.

I am not a fan of Evernote but during this year they did rewrite some parts of the apps (e.g. navigation). I don't know in the blog article if they implied there will be a native desktop version replacing current Electrons.

V. 10 is the rewrite from scratch. I don't gamble, but I would bet actual money that there will be no going back from a framework (whether Electron or something else), which allows commonality across platforms, to individually programmed native apps that cannot keep parity and comparable UX among Windows, Mac, Web, Android.... "V. 10 sucks" is your opinion, and it would be helpful if you'd be more specific about what you don't like. It was awful when it first came out, not ready for prime time, but that was long ago, and now I like it much better than the old days of formatting and even features that appeared on one platform and not on another.

[Paul A. 624]

15 hours ago, agsteele said:

Which piece of the tags provision do you have in mind - given that tags exist and do most things? I presume you have a specific issue in mind.

Given the context I imagine he meant rapid tag sync. Something I am looking forward to, too.

[PinkElephant 8,126]

How rapid is rapid ? My tags sync with the notes, which is „fast enough“.

I am not sure this discussion takes a wrong direction (like this game of „My car, my boat, my house“). 

My question is different: Which will be the distinguishing feature set / use case that makes EN stand out again ? And what stands against this use case ?

A little faster sync is not the answer, I believe.

[s2sailor 2,207]

53 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

How rapid is rapid ? My tags sync with the notes, which is „fast enough“.

As I understand it, the new RTE sync currently only applies to note content, not metadata.  There have been several complaints where tag information can be very slow to sync.  I understood the blog post to mean that metadata sync will be brought up to par with note content.

[Dave Green 210]

19 hours ago, agsteele said:

Which piece of the tags provision do you have in mind - given that tags exist and do most things? I presume you have a specific issue in mind.

I have seen that tags don't sync down to an evernote-backup sync, so I am hopeful that better sync would help that.  I have also see tags slow to be reflected in multiple windows, etc.

[AlbertR 537]

10 hours ago, Dave Green said:

I have also see tags slow to be reflected in multiple windows, etc.

Not only between multiple windows: Today I tried (once more) to work with EN10 with my workflow:

• Tags reappeared at their old position in hierarchy tree some time after having been moved to elsewere. Tried this 3-4 time to get the tag moved really
  • => Syncing tags doesn't work reliable.
     
• Syncing at all is very slow and cannot be controlled (to get an "I'm ready" state) - compared to the old version. My app. 10 GB database was completely synced after few hours in Legacy. In EN I'm waiting for it since days 😞 (I've a TreeSize windows spotted to ...\Evernote\resource-cache\... and waiting for reach a stable ~10 GB count)
  • => Syncing at all should be improved a lot
     
• Search phrase "updated:day-1" shows many notes that have "Update"-timestamps > 20 years ago. It seems that the count of false listed notes goes down along with the time consuming sync
  • => Metadata for search operations is incomplete/invalid as long as data is not synced completely. In this case a search should be executed on server side...
  • I'll come back to this topic if EN succeeds to sync my ~10 GB 😉

And before someone comes up with "created/updated before > 20 years???? - impossible!" (because EN1.0 arrived around 2005 - see The History of Evernote in Screenshots - by Jon Tromans):

• It's possible because Legacy doesn't update the updated-date if it is not set so far and you change a created-date.
• This is important during scanning-session of old documents to set a created date...

[Bill Myers 458]

It hadn't actually occurred to me until I read this blog post, but 2023 was a really good year for Evernote under Bending Spoons' ownership. Syncing is faster and I can't remember the last time I had a sync conflict. Evernote is the most stable that I've ever experienced it to be, and I've been using it since 2012. For the first time in quite a few years, I feel fully confident in trusting Evernote with data I cannot afford to lose.

I hadn't even thought about it, frankly. Because I've just been using Evernote for my daily business and not worrying about it.

I know the under-the-hood work didn't come without some challenges, and some users experienced some pain. But I really feel Bending Spoons has done a good job making the product one I can trust.

I kicked legacy to the curb awhile back and I've come to like v10 better. I'm looking forward to seeing what Bending Spoons has up its sleeve for v11. New design, but keeping my workflows intact? I'm all for it.

I don't need Bending Spoons to be perfect, and I don't need them to cater to my every whim. I just need Evernote to be reliable. And now, in my estimation, it is. Well done, folks.

 

[dmd29 11]

I appreciate that the app is a bit more stable and performant now as it was literally going down the drain in these areas. Thanks for that.

But... I was hoping to see some support for hand-written notes on the 2024 list... I attempted to move to Apple Notes last year just for that reason (but it's too slow with the massive amount of notes I migrated from Evernote). I need some support for Remarkable or possibly just an iPad with Apple pencil. Been a premium member since 2008. Loved my first years. But I literally got zero new feature of relevance to me over the past... 10 years maybe? Not asking for Evernote to sport as many features as the new kids on the block. Give me the reliability and scalability of the existing app + 80% of other apps' features and I'll stick around. 

[agsteele 2,951]

The only pen support offered, in the past, was the Penultimate app for the Apple ecosystem. That's been withdrawn from sale since December so I suspect that's an indication that there's nothing coming.

Other pen users seem to recommend independent apps and then importing into Evernote.

[bmcl26 488]

I wave a Wacom Tablet and Pen, which can be used for handwritten notes, but I find using Rocketbook much better. for handwritten notes.

[VincentC 268]

19 hours ago, bmcl26 said:

I wave a Wacom Tablet and Pen, which can be used for handwritten notes, but I find using Rocketbook much better. for handwritten notes.

@bmcl26, me too re the Rocketbook.  And I can by cases of Rocketbooks for what one Remarkable costs!

 

Vinnie

[Bill W 0]

Maybe they don't all speak English in Italy.

[PinkElephant 8,126]

Why should they ? If you ever sat in an Italien restaurant with an Italian menu, you will understand that English is of limited use. The food however is delicious.