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Show HN: Turtl – A secure, encrypted Evernote alternative

turtl.it

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Re: Show HN: Turtl – A secure, encrypted Evernote alternative

#11
post #5

I'm sorry but I don't think you should call this an Evernote alternative. - No iOS client (Although the site does say coming soon) - No Firefox webclipper - No Web interface - Large / heavy application - No Drawing / Diagram support - The app is not native, it's seems it's a web frame It's interface doesn't feel very snappy, it feels like it's built with in a Javascript framework perhaps? Evernote has been around for…

I'm seeing about 80% less power on a mid-2012 Macbook Air with a 2GHz Core i7 for Evernote vs. Turtl. I'm guessing more parallelization is even more beneficial on lower speed multi-core processors.

Re: Show HN: Turtl – A secure, encrypted Evernote alternative

#13
post #10
post #4

Evernote is so good that I just can't see myself transitioning. I wish the best services would offer strong encryption as a default.

This is the game these companies play - they provide a service so slick that people will use it regardless of the privacy concerns. And of course I am one of those people... I use Evernote because I can take notes anywhere very easily (in my browser, my OS, my phone) and then have access to them always in sync very easily, online and offline. Couple that with nested tags and saved search queries and I unfortunately s…

I'm in the same boat. I know the risks, but I've essentially entrusted my entire online presence to third-party services.

Why? Simply because they are better.

Ugh, this isn't acceptable.

Re: Show HN: Turtl – A secure, encrypted Evernote alternative

#14
post #10
post #4

Evernote is so good that I just can't see myself transitioning. I wish the best services would offer strong encryption as a default.

This is the game these companies play - they provide a service so slick that people will use it regardless of the privacy concerns. And of course I am one of those people... I use Evernote because I can take notes anywhere very easily (in my browser, my OS, my phone) and then have access to them always in sync very easily, online and offline. Couple that with nested tags and saved search queries and I unfortunately s…

Like almost all 'cloud' services, I treat all data in Evernote as non-confidential and thus don't keep private information within it and I take regular backups. Do I trust a hobby / standard web-dev project as any more secure just because they day it is and might have an extra layer of encryption - no.

Re: Show HN: Turtl – A secure, encrypted Evernote alternative

#15
post #11
post #5

I'm sorry but I don't think you should call this an Evernote alternative. - No iOS client (Although the site does say coming soon) - No Firefox webclipper - No Web interface - Large / heavy application - No Drawing / Diagram support - The app is not native, it's seems it's a web frame It's interface doesn't feel very snappy, it feels like it's built with in a Javascript framework perhaps? Evernote has been around for…

I'm seeing about 80% less power on a mid-2012 Macbook Air with a 2GHz Core i7 for Evernote vs. Turtl. I'm guessing more parallelization is even more beneficial on lower speed multi-core processors.

If it is a JS app of some kind that would make sense, I've been ranting a lot about JS apps recently so I won't go into it here - needless to say they're anything but efficient in my experience.

Edit: Also, I should note that I have many hundreds of notes in Evernote, where I created 15-20 in this app, I would have expected Evernote to need more resources to search such a large number of notes.

  ~/Library/Application Support/com.evernote.Evernote  % du -sh .
  608M	.

Re: Show HN: Turtl – A secure, encrypted Evernote alternative

#16
post #13
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the game these companies play - they provide a service so slick that people will use it regardless of the privacy concerns. And of course I am one of those people... I use Evernote because I can take notes anywhere very easily (in my browser, my OS, my phone) and then have access to them always in sync very easily, online and offline. Couple that with nested tags and saved search queries and I unfortunately s…

I'm in the same boat. I know the risks, but I've essentially entrusted my entire online presence to third-party services. Why? Simply because they are better. Ugh, this isn't acceptable.

Out of interest, do you think they are mostly better or easier?

I guess it comes down to weighing the cost of your time / effort into researching / using alternatives vs the risk of trusting random people from the internet - of course there's no one answer or solution so it's probably case by case depending on the data being transferred or stored IMO.

Re: Show HN: Turtl – A secure, encrypted Evernote alternative

#17
post #5

I'm sorry but I don't think you should call this an Evernote alternative. - No iOS client (Although the site does say coming soon) - No Firefox webclipper - No Web interface - Large / heavy application - No Drawing / Diagram support - The app is not native, it's seems it's a web frame It's interface doesn't feel very snappy, it feels like it's built with in a Javascript framework perhaps? Evernote has been around for…

TL;DR for parent comment: "It's not as mature as Evernote, and it has a bigger footprint." Therefore your comment is unfair: if provides a less complex evernote function that many could use.

Neither of these is unfixable over time, as the product develops, and some may be a function of the increased security implementation. None of these criticisms stops the app being usable, as far as I can see.

Re: Show HN: Turtl – A secure, encrypted Evernote alternative

#18
I'm glad of an alternative, mostly because Evernote being the last bad option to date, has terrible UX. And the search is substandard. I use it because I can use it on mobile and desktop, and back it up frequently to multiple formats in case Evernote dies, or wipes my data in error.

(Please everybody who uses note apps, back them up now to external files!)

Re: Show HN: Turtl – A secure, encrypted Evernote alternative

#20
post #5

I'm sorry but I don't think you should call this an Evernote alternative. - No iOS client (Although the site does say coming soon) - No Firefox webclipper - No Web interface - Large / heavy application - No Drawing / Diagram support - The app is not native, it's seems it's a web frame It's interface doesn't feel very snappy, it feels like it's built with in a Javascript framework perhaps? Evernote has been around for…

TL;DR for parent comment: "It's not as mature as Evernote, and it has a bigger footprint." Therefore your comment is unfair: if provides a less complex evernote function that many could use. Neither of these is unfixable over time, as the product develops, and some may be a function of the increased security implementation. None of these criticisms stops the app being usable, as far as I can see.

> Neither of these is unfixable over time

JS on desktop is never going to perform well.

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