It may sound rough compared to what we are used to today, but compared to what it was like back when our notes were drowning in skeuomorphic legal pads and Marker Felt, Simplenote was a glorious, cutting-edge breath of fresh air.

At first, the only non-iPhone access to our Simplenote notes was via the Web app. The initial appeal of Simplenote over AppleвЂ™s Notes app was two-fold: (a) Helvetica and (b) cloud sync. And I can think of no higher priority for finding a great app than when looking for the one which will hold my digital brain. But a great app encourages regular use the same way a crummy app discourages it. Simplenote is invaluable to me because of the notes it holds. If youвЂ™ve got a repository for where all your вЂњstuffвЂќ lives, then you know what I mean when I say if I had to pare the apps on my iPhone down to just one, Simplenote would be the app left standing. Some folks live and breath in Evernote, others with a different notes app which syncs via Dropbox. There are many options for those of us who have important bits of information we want to write down and have available to us regardless of if weвЂ™re with our iPhone, iPad, or Mac. This, of course, isnвЂ™t the sort of thing that only Simplenote can handle. Notes, ideas, information - just about anything relevant or important to me right now - is stored inside Simplenote. And itвЂ™s the app I rely on the most because itвЂ™s where my вЂњdigital brainвЂќ lives. Aside from AppleвЂ™s Messages and Phone apps, I donвЂ™t think any single app has been on my first Home screen for longer. To say IвЂ™m a fan of Simplenote would be like saying I kinda like coffee. And IвЂ™ve been using the latter ever since. I used AppleвЂ™s own Notes app until 2009, which is when I learned of Simplenote. My history with iOS notes apps is briefly recounted.

Simplenote alternatives