Ask HN: What would you choose today as your note taking device and app

I don't mean to self-promote, but I built my own perfect note taking app by mistake.

No slow modes, or toolbars – just click anywhere and start typing, then drag to move or connect thoughts/cards together

(It's called kinopio and you can use it with signing up, https://kinopio.club)

Nothing can be better than regular paper and pen or pencil. No problem with battery and no police will arrive if you will write inappropriate things into it. I recommend using the most expencive paper possible for writing really important memories. Supports more symbols than even utf16 has and also images and no freaking animations because of fundamental reasons.

I made my own. I like markdown a lot, and also want to have full control over all of my notes... Most importantly, I want to track my ideas with tags, and also have the ability to cluster text semantically.

... so I built my own tool. I call it NonConOS (non-consensus operating system)[1]. I haven't opened it up to other people yet but if you want to give it a shot, I'm always happy to let others try it. The idea is: use markdown but enable tags as well! Simple.

[1] https://nonconos.com/

Pen and paper. It’s the only thing that can keep up with me! No changing modes, never have to select or delete anything, plus I can draw arrows and diagrams that are often way more helpful than the words I’d use to describe them.

Microsoft OneNote on various devices (iOS, macOS, Android, Win) and a common sync via Cloud.

I used various apps and paper based means in the past. OneNote is the tool I use for 5(?) years now.

For purely note taking, Remarkable 2 can't be beat. The problem is everyone wants that and the kitchen sink in a single device. If you want a multiple purpose device that _can_ take notes, an iPad is likely the best choice.

Use what you use for taking notes currently.

If you don’t take notes currently, a device for taking notes probably won’t change that.

Note taking is a habit not a technology. It is a way of thinking. Not a set of tools.

For example, no device can replicate writhing notes in the margin of a book. Not even other pieces of paper. An underlined sentence can only happen where the sentence occurs.

If you want a new Surface buy one because you want one. Don’t pretend that it will cause you to take up note taking.

I use a small moleskin pocket ("cashiers"?) journal and Zebra F-402 pen.

It's not obnoxious to pull out and jot something down as it would be to take out a digital device would be. I have a record that's easy to look through. I line-out items that I don't need anymore. If it's a large block of text or picture that I've transfered to somewhere else, I 'X' through the whole thing. It looks neat and clean.

Work stuff Obsidian. I can only use my work laptop for work stuff so it doesn't matter if it syncs or not.

Private stuff DEVONthink with DEVONthink to go. Great search and sync across all my devices.

This is purely a want and not anything realistic, but

I'd love a device with a reflective LCD screen since I find that my eyes hurt after staring at bright screens for so long. Ideally it would be color, giving it a distinct advantage over eink. TCL NXTpaper looks very interesting for this reason.

As for apps, I'd be happy if it ran Obsidian, Sublime, Scrivener, and Office (or really anything powerful enough to let me write my papers with proper Japanese support and do code snippet highlighting).

Having a pen input might be nice for diagrams and mindmapping.

I guess I really just want a reflective iPad.

I'm using Vimwiki, and pushing everything to a gitlab wiki repo. I've gone through just about every knowledge base/note taking app and service out there and this is where I've most recently landed. Using plain markdown files ensures that everything is portable, and if one day I want to move it elsewhere, I can. Pushing the markdown files to the gitlab wiki means that it's also available on all of my devices. The added benefit of having a well documented and diffable history of all changes is pretty nice, as well.

I prefer by far taking handwritten notes, because of how easily I can add structure, arrows, and diagrams when I need. My problem with pen and paper is managing older/long running notes, as it's difficult to keep the organised. I recently got a boox note air and for now I find it great - I can have everything in just one device, organised in folders and subfolders, and I can much more easily reorganise things with copy and paste.

My only doubt for now is if it will pass the test of time.

I recently got a Supernote tablet and I absolutely love it. It does a great job as a notebook, works quite well as a PDF/eBook reader and the company has been very responsive to feedback and questions. It's more pricey than the Remarkable but from the sounds of it, the Remarkable folks are pretty slow to listen to customer feedback.

I'm a big fan of the Rocketbook line of notebooks. You get all the benefits of paper and pen, and then you use the mobile app to scan your notes to email or DropBox or Google Drive or wherever. When the notebook is full you get a wet cloth and wipe it clean.

My only complaint is that they weren't around when I was in college.

I found the Remarkable quite good. I have a problem where I lose my notebooks, or have multiple notebooks for the same topic. The Remarkable is nice in that I can put it all in one device.

Also the writing experience is 90% of the way to natural writing, and the battery life is amazing.

Not an ad, I just like the product.

I'm still using tiddlywiki (tiddlywiki.com), the key features being portability, search, and linking between notes. It's free open source too and has a large community of users who contribute plugins (like LaTex interpreter that I use). I've been using it for 10 years and have found these features to be essential, almost a super power, for the kind of work I do (research). (BTW I believe the name to be a derivative of TLDR, which is the only reasonable thing I can come up with to explain what is otherwise a kind of lame name). Also, worst case you can read the file with a browser, or view it in a terminal since it's essentially markdown. Back it up in Dropbox and you can be sure that you'll never lose it or lose access to it.

The downside is that browser security updates almost killed it, since in its simplest implementation it's a single file that lives on your computer, accessed and saved via the browser. Browsers no longer allow modification of local files in a simple way. I found the best method for saving the file, of the several listed on the website, to be to run the Ruby server (a minimal server using Ruby Webrick, point your web browser at http://localhost:8000 to view and save the file).

Obsidian and DEVONthink look interesting for many of the same reasons, but I don't want to commit to something that dies in a few years (and I'm hesitant to pay). DEVONThink has been around for a long time now however, probably because it's a paid product.

The best two note apps are standard notes and Joplin. They are almost identical. Standard notes has a few extra features, but I think Joplin is minutely faster iirc. Both are encrypted and then synced via other cloud providers

Everytime this question is asked, it leaves me more confused than before.

Finally I just settled for RemNote.

My answer is, just try out the alternatives out there and choose what suits you. There is no ONE alternative that fits everyone's requirements.

Started using emacs this year and org mode is awesome.

I am using `doom emacs` config and `spc + X`

My simple answer because I have a synology NAS is the synology note app with my iPhone and desktop web app.

The app works well, works offline with sync, secure notes, hierarchical notes in folders…

Very good solution if you already have synology.

In the circus of electron, subscription, messload of features and all I gave up and just decided to stick to Simplenote and Notes.app. And paper notebooks/journal which I've anyway used since school.

Apple iPad, Apple Pencil, and Notability App.

A paper notebook, mechanical pencil, and eraser.

A large whiteboard sheet pinned to wall, colored markers, and whiteboard eraser.

Each has it's own use case. There is no one tool that applies in every situation.

Something like a palm pilot. Perhaps an app to add that function onto your phone, that would be that simple and easy to use. There seems to be a lot out there, but they don't seem to work that well.

ObsidianMD on any/all devices, Syncthing to sync it.

I have been using Joplin + WebDAV.

Multi device, conflict resolution

Another good tool is ZimWiki but the limitations of desktop only applies .

But to me cross device Joplin works brilliantly.

I use Obsidian

iPad Mini + Apple Pencil. Although I would wait until later in the year for a revision w/ 5G.

I have built an app to email yourself notes in one tap : https://boomerang-app.io.

Works with Siri and share extension and is available for free on iOS and Android.

I have released it 5 years ago as a side project and keep updating it since then, motivated by the organic traction and (lot of) positive reviews !

Pen and paper and zim-wiki.

I use a combination of pen and paper, and sticky notes on a wall mounted detective board for things to do immediately.

I also use Simplenote. Free with markdown support, sync, and publishable links.

I use Samsung Notes for trivial stuff, like chores or shopping list.

If I want to easily sketch inside a note app, OneNote is the best. But it is weird in a sense that there are two OneNotes- one that comes with Office, and anotherthatcomes with Win 10. But OneNote is buggy and slow. You can barely use it in mobiles. I don't use windows that much.

Which brings me towards Obsidian. Best data policy, custom plugins, and what not!?

I am using it everyday. I am using another sync service to sync between devices.

My vote would to to-

Obsidian + Simplenote.