Still not a peep from Devon re embracing portable technology. Contrast this with the Omni Group’s blog
blog.omnigroup.com/2010/01/29/ipad-or-bust/
Would Devon’s president like to enlighten us in similarly expansive terms? 
There are already plans for an iPhone app in the works.
An iPad version is likely.
They have not been silent about it. See
… which a simple search for iPad easily finds.
Come on guys, step back from this and get real. Compare that derisory post from DEVON with the full and frank explanation of the iPad deal for Omni product users.
I’m really not convinced you bothered to read it, so here it is again.
blog.omnigroup.com/2010/01/29/ipad-or-bust/
No wonder DEVON get away with their needlessly secretive policy when they’ve got apologists like you.
And the level of detail planning presented by OmniGroup was? I didn’t see much.
“We started working on iPad adaptations of OmniGraffle and OmniFocus as soon as the SDK was made available Wednesday afternoon, and we’re hoping to get started with OmniGraphSketcher for iPad within the next few weeks.”
The iPad has just been announced. It is not yet for sale. Steve Jobs has an iPad. Neither DEVONtechnologies nor OmniGroup has one. The initial SDK released to developers is not an iPad, and for evaluating performance of operations only approximates how an actual iPad will perform.
OmniGraffle and OmniFocus are much simpler applications than DEVONthink, and so much easier to ‘port’ to the iPad. Will OmniGroup beat DEVONtechnologies to introduction of an iPad app? I wouldn’t be surprised, as their job is much easier.
DEVONtechnologies is well along in development of a DEVONthink app for the iPhone. Given the limitations of the iPhone operating system and its hardware horsepower, is it possible to implement a full-fledged version of DEVONthink (even DEVONthink Personal) on the iPhone? No. There is simply no way that my main DT Pro Office database with tens of thousands of documents could function on an iPhone, with the suite of Services, scripts, plugins and artificial intelligence features that I use all the time.
A functional DEVONthink app for the iPhone can, however, allow one to make portions of a Mac DEVONthink database synchronize with a DEVONthink database on the iPhone so that documents in a Mac database can be sent to the iPhone for ‘mobile’ use, and documents created or edited in the iPhone DEVONthink database can be synchronized back to the Mac database. Much of that functionality would have been impossible in the earlier versions of the iPhone operating system.
I can easily read a text file sent from my DT Pro Office database to my iPhone. But I find reading a PDF document on the iPhone is an unpleasant experience, because the screen is so small. It takes a lot of horizontal and vertical scrolling at a reasonable font magnification, to read a PDF reprint of a paper from Science Magazine, for example.
The iPad is exciting precisely because it is a much more practical device for reading documents. Even the initial release will have more horsepower than does the iPhone. But the initial release of the iPad will still have much less ‘horsepower’ than does a full-fledged Mac, so a DEVONthink database app for the iPad still must be adapted to the imitations of its host. Some of the procedures I use on my Mac DEVONthink databases that are very responsive in that environment would be impossible or excruciatingly slow on an iPad. (As the iPad evolves in the future, I would expect some of those current limitations to disappear.)
The DEVONthink app for iPhone should run on the iPad with little or no tweaking, and become immediately practical for mobile use of content, including interaction with DEVONthink databases on a Mac. When will it be released? When it’s ready. As Eric has noted, there have been several internal releases to a test group, and progress is being made. iPhone OS 4.0 should provide further maturing of the operating system (and compatibility with the iPad).
I remain puzzled as to why you persist in saying that DEVONtechnologies is secretive, by contrast with OmniGroup. The development for the iPhone means that, simply put, there is also ongoing development for the iPad, QED. I think the iPad will be a hugely successful new product for Apple. I will order one as soon as possible (I won’t wait for the second generation, which is usually advisable), but so far I’ve only seen pictures of iPads.
Thank you so much for that somewhat grudging clarity, Bill. You have to admit, though, until now what passed for keeping your user base informed on this topic was pretty poor when compared to the blogs by Evernote and the OmniGroup. It’s a shame one has to stamp one’s feet to get a few more crumbs of information on the development of DTPO for iPhone and iPad and the complexities of the work. 
I’m starting to get the feeling that I’ve accidentally strayed into using Mac software that’s meant for stuffy desk-bound academics, and this forum is some sort of gentlemen’s club. Sorry if I ruffled a few feathers, but at least I now have an answer to my question. 
I hadn’t really thought much about DEVONtechnologies before, but it’s clear that you’re really just a small bunch of guys, and development of your software will always be slow. Still, I look forward to seeing (and buying) the iPhone/iPad apps as and when…
No grudge here, and no offense taken.
Yes, DEVONtechnologies is a small group. It’s products concentrate on helping users collect, manage and make use of documents, especially those with text content. Those users tend to include a number of academics, as well as a broad spectrum of people who work with documents, such as lawyers, medical professionals, researchers, journalists, writers, businessmen, students and others. Perhaps some of us are stuffy, but the forum holds lots of examples of lively and impassioned arguments and disagreements.
Is development slow? Depends on what you look at. The public beta period (now nearing the end) of the DEVONthink 2 applications has been going on for more than a year; that looks slow. But if you compare beta 1 to the current beta 8 there have been more changes during that year than would be typical of most software developers, and the forthcoming next release will further build on the feedback of users. In that sense, development has been much more rapid than in, for example, OmniGroup, Adobe, or Microsoft application releases. Christian and Eric have a vision of what can be done, and have systematically pushed the envelope to move towards that vision.
Obviously, the highest priority of a small organization like DEVONtechnologies has gone to the objective of reaching the ‘final’ release of the DEVONthink 2.0 applications and DEVONnote 2.0. But in this process the needs of users to integrate their databases with mobile uses of information on the iPhone and (more promising) the iPad have received attention. There will be more to come on those fronts!
Of course, when the ‘final’ DEVONthink 2.0 applications are released, that won’t spell the end of further development of those applications. Christian has frequently noted on the forum improvements that will be incorporated into 2.x releases. The companion Web application, DEVONagent, is also scheduled for enhancements.
At least for the sake of future searchers/readers, does this topic really need/deserve to have the generic “iPad” title?