Note: DEVONthink To Go is not a notepad app.
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Couldn’t agree more (it is not a note app, it is not a spreadsheet app, nor a pdf mark up app ~ and yet DevonTechnologies seems to keep spreading out (notes, spreadsheets, pdf annotations) when they need to tend to business at home.)
Not a note taking app, yet of the most prominent features of the app. Add New Item > Text = Note.
I’m not sure what you’re referring to here.
PS: You can’t define the application by a single function. This would be akin to calling a car “a delivery vehicle” because you transport your groceries in it.
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Well, as you know we don’t force anyone to buy our products. Especially not the worthless ones.
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Most of the users use it as the interface to the DevonThink databases (where comes the real value of the app)
As more and more of our lives move to mobile devices would be nice to have some kind of features parity between mobile and desktop but I don’t expect that because of iOS limitations. Some users would like to use DTTG as first choice note taking/pdf reader app for the data stored in the databases, and from there comes their frustration and confusion.
We know that. And we’re moving towards mobile ourselves more and more. When the groundwork is done (speak: the next larger release) we’ll turn our attention towards the built-in editors. We might never reach the level of dedicated editors but we want DEVONthink To Go to be a reasonably good note-taking app.
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For me personally DTTG as it is today have a great value and it is priced accordingly to its features.
The other part of the discussion is about subscription model which always will arouse emotions for every product and usually produce kind of backlash against the app. Setting apart my personal preference as a user (don’t like subscriptions) I hope and wish for developers that their decisions about pricing model be good for them and for the app (whatever the decision will be)
This is more a comment for other users - it’s much more about Apple pushing for subscriptions in general than developers being greedy or not respecting its users (which is not the case here). The dev of IA writer have interesting remarks about that
https://ia.net/topics/subscription-or-no-subscription
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I always saw DTTG as a complement to DT to access data, and to capture data.
I’d rather wish for DTTG becoming really good and fast at these functions, not to become a full DT on the iPhone. Simple EML capture, for example. Better searching and especially sorting. And yes, a decent markdown editor (with, you know, new bullet point item after hitting enter while entering a list, etc.). Faster syncing (i.e. allow for order of databases for syncing to be defined, sync inboxes first, …)
Typical use case where DTTG still fails for me, unfortunately: Incoming phone call while on the go: “I have a question about this invoice from last quarter” … getting to this result fast on my phone while on this call (even if it hadn’t been synced previously), would be a tremendous help for me.
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An expression from an old movie…do not remember the name of the movie.
Essentially a family lost its farm (livelihoods, lifestyle etc) because the the sons were out chasing other things before (instead of) tending to the family business. One chasing women, another chasing a lifestyle and such and the entire family went into ruin.
Tending to the family business means sticking with the making the app experience great before branching out into other endeavors.
Totally agree w/the vehicle analogy. Focus on making the driving experience fantastic, solid vehicle and less focus on some of the whistles and bells such as blind-side flashers or fancy license plate led lighting, window tinting.
I am seeking a companion app that allows me to manage/store data of all kinds (mostly screen grabs) on the home computer. DTTG fits in the realm of possibilities. Terms of iOS limitations, I am not seeing how that would be getting in the way in the situation here. There are ways to accomplish the same goals w/o hitting the limitations of iOS.
So it is about storing and managing data. Much of that data also happens to be in the form of notes. It would be a crying shame to use one app to manage data, another app to manage note data. The information needs to be together regardless if it is a screen shot or scribbled note or iOS note… often these things are of the same subject matter and belong together in one place.
One of the self-imposed hard fast rules is not to store the data online. (dropbox is a step to testing sync but real data will not be handled through dropbox, unless that data is meta only…mabye not even then). So long term goal would be synching w/webdav.
Devonthink and DTTG are both very important parts of my work flow. I would gladly pay a subscription fee.
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I hate being forced to do software subscriptions. I have absolute no problem paying full price for an app I use and need. I payed full price plus IAP on DTTG day 1 and do not regret it. That said, I’d seriously examine my need to upgrade if I had to go to a subscription model. I’ve dropped good apps because of this (looking at you TextExpander). I’d personally happily pay each year/other year for upgrades than to do subscriptions.
I think for most people it is more about control and/or security. I know, for example, what money I have now and can make a simple investment. I don’t know what money I may have in the future (COVID, etc.). If I pay now, I get to keep. If I do subscription, I may have to lose. On an app like DevonThink and DTTG, where if you use it, you really use it, then to potentially lose it is not appealing.
I’m not saying that I wouldn’t pay a subscription (like as an annual purchase or something), but I’d be loathe to do it. I do for 1Password because I use it for my family, for example. But I tend to avoid subscription based software wherever there is an alternative.
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I think that’s where a lot of people landed on DT in the first place.
Unless there is a marked improvement in development priority towards the iOS app a subscription model would be insulting to customers.
I would be massively disappointed to see DTTG get subscription based.
I use it very passively, as final storage for stuff and while I like it beside all the many lacks of features and the many problems, it is a valuable encrypted safe for my data.
But I would never ever be willing to pay monthly for it!
I could live with any pricing variant that let us buy NEW versions of DTTG with lots of new features (a really new and big release), so that may I can opt to buy a major new version every year or two.
But with lacking development and none of the so important features ever showing up since many years, a subscription model would make me leave!
Subscription is a bad model anyways, which was often discussed.
Better is the above model, where the developer creates major new versions with major new features and sells them as new version!
This way the customer can decide if he wants to new version (which needs to be a new App in the App Store!) or if he continues to use the older version.
If the developer manages to update the App in a good way, most customers will follow and buy!
This is the way to go! It benefits both developer and customer.
Or the Agenda model - subscription gets you all updates as they appear. If you cancel the subscription, you get to keep whatever functionality was delivered during the subscription period. That would be my preference.
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I tend to disagree. The model is not bad in itself - lots of services use subscriptions (phone, newspaper, water, streaming etc.) Nowadays, software subscription is ubiquitous (think clou services, Adobe, Microsoft), and the older “maintenance” fee model is not really different: companies paid up front for a software license and then a regular fee for “support” and “updates”. Which in many cases did not materialize.
You never “buy” software anyway, you simply acquire a “right to use” it, aka a “license”. Which is basically renting for an unspecified time (unless they go out of business, the software doesn’t run on the next OS release, the next hardware …) it with a single payment.
Subscription models help software companies to generate a predictable cash flow. Which is probably more important for smaller companies like DT than for the giants like MS and Adobe. So it helps to keep them in business, which should be in the interest of those using the sofware.
Obviously, many people feel more “locked-in” by a subscription model than by buying a license. In my opinion, there’s not much of a difference. How much a software locks one in depends on the software itself, not on the licensing model. Apples Notes for example is completely free of charge. However, getting notes out of it and moving it to another product (e.g. DT) is a PITA at its best, impossible at its worst. Which is, I think, entirely the fault of the Notes developers and has nothing to do with the licensing model.
On the other hand, DT does not hide your files away, you can always export them as they are (or simply access them directly via the file system). Admittedly, some of the metadata might vanish in the process, though. You might want to compare that to other products that are mentioned here regularly.
This is not a real choice: Old software will eventually stop to work (new hardware, new OS – think of the switch from 32 to 64 bit on Macs or now from Intel to ARM). Old software might contain security flaws that are not fixed anymore. Only sovereignty over your data offers you real choice so that you can possibly use them in another app.
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And this is meant as an argument for subscription? Quite the opposite I’d say: You use a software on a computer with an OS. Then the next OS comes and your machine does not run with it anymore or you decide not to upgrade because of important software does not work on this OS. This is, especially in Appleverse, quite a common situation where you have to decide what you are willing (and financially able) to do: Stick to the old stuff or invest. Old stuff that, by the way, will not stop working until the hardware finally breaks.
If you decide not to run the latest stuff and you have a subscripted software chances are good you pay for new features and improvements you won’t see in your older hardware and software environment.
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That’s exactly the same.
My interpretation of the model gives you an App and each new major version would be a new App, so different Apps with different feature sets.
Your interpretation tries to do the same with the same App, that keeps getting new features whole are only allowed to use those that you pay for,
Those versions work practically in the same way, but mine would be much easier to implement, as the developer can simply work on a new App and can forget about the old App. Implementing such different feature sets in the same App may prove to be extremely different, if not even impossible.