It's pretty barebones, as expected. I love the typeface, too. It's the same Nitti Light that looks so great on the iPad version of iA Writer.

I'm not too sure about the bar above the keyboard. It includes common punctuation — a hyphen, colon, question mark, period, and apostrophe.  It's there to keep you from having to access the secondary keyboard for punctuation. I'm trying to use it, but it doesn't stick for me. I activate the secondary keyboard and hit the punctuation needed without thinking. I don't need to hunt for the period or comma. My fingers know exactly where they are. I don't need a new way of writing punctuation. I'd rather have the additional line of screen space.

Speaking of additional screen space — just flick the keyboard down and off the screen. It hides easily, giving you tons of screen space. The ( few) options do appear at the top of the screen when you do this. You can email or copy the text, or print¹. You can also create a new document, or switch documents.

Really, though... I'm not sure I would change anything else. The app is simply beautiful, and the iCloud syncing is both as simple as possible and flawless. I've been a fan of Simplenote for a long time, and that's quite easy to set up. But this? There is no set up. Open the app and write. Pick up where you left off on your iPad. It could not possibly be any simpler.

Markdown

No fancy Markdown converting or text manipulation here. In a way that's a real shame, since I write exclusively in Markdown. But it's also not the end of the world. When it's time to convert from Markdown to HTML, there are a hundred different ways to handle that.

The Verdict

iA Writer will not become my primary writing app. I'm too firmly attached to nvALT and Simplenote. That said, I've already written several pieces in iA Writer. The typeface is really, really great. It probably shouldn't matter, but it does.

By now, you've certainly heard of Clear, the new and supposedly revolutionary list-making iPhone app. And you've probably ready a half-dozen reviews already. It's been out for less than a day, but Clear already has 689 ratings on the App store, with an average of 4.5 stars. All indicators seem to say that Clear is a killer app.

I'm not of the same mind.

What is Clear?

Clear is a very simple app that lets you make lists. It uses gestures instead of buttons for navigation.

What is Clear not?

Clear is not a task management app. Yes, it makes lists. Yes, you can cross things off your lists. But each list item is just a blurb of text. You can't add notes. You can't attach files. You can't schedule tasks. You can't make repeating tasks.

There's not enough power or flexibility to really handle all of your tasks and projects. Also, it's iPhone only today. It doesn't sync with your Mac, because there's no Mac app. It doesn't sync with your iPad, because there's no iPad app. It doesn't sync with iCloud or Dropbox. In fact, it doesn't sync with anything.

I need the ability to add, delete, complete, and adjust tasks from any of my devices. I need my tasks lists to stay in sync across these devices. Locking my task management system into one solitary device will not work for me.

Back to the lists

So Clear isn't good for tasks. Fine. It is good, however, for lists. You could make lists for books you want to read, movies you'd like to see, or even present ideas for your spouse. Lists of things that are not time specific in any way. Clear is good at this, though I still don't think it's the best.

If you're willing to add just a bit of complexity, Things is a much better choice. It's barely more complicated, and several orders of magnitude more powerful. Granted, the iPhone app is $9.99 instead of the $.99 for Clear, but the flexibility makes it easily worth the added cost.

A simpler alternative to Things, and arguably even simpler than Clear itself, is the built in Reminders app.¹ Using Siri to add things to a list is the simplest way that exists today. You don't get the fancy Clear interface, but you do get the benefit of iCloud sync and, well, reminders. That's an easy choice if you use more than one device.

The Interface

Simplicity with purpose is a beautiful thing. It gets rid of the fluff so that the essential is all that remains. It refines to perfection. It eliminates friction.

Simplicity for the sake of simplicity is another matter entirely. Removing essential functions from something just to make it simpler does not make that thing better. While it may be pretty to look at, it is less useful.

When it comes to Clear, the developers chose a novel new interface and simplicity for simplicity's sake. I applaud them for going bold with the navigation, but he app doesn't offer enough in the way of features for me to recommend it. Also, am I the only person on the planet who thinks it's downright ugly?

OmniFocus still lives in the dock of my iPhone, and there's nothing Clear can do to change that.

Last month I wrote about Notational Velocity, my favorite writing app for OS X. Notational Velocity's counterpart on iOS is the lovely SimpleNote. Completely and fully functional as a standalone app, SimpleNote is a very, well, simple, writing app for iOS. I use it daily on my iPhone 4.

To use SimpleNote, you'll need to create a free account. You can do this from the iOS app or on the SimpleNote website. It takes about 4 seconds - there's no possible way it could be easier. Set your email address, pick a password, and you're done. My kind of setup.

Once your account is set up, you can get started. Since it's your first time, all you'll see is a search field, plus sign, and a big blank white area. Once you start creating notes, they'll go in that space. When you want to create a note, press the plus sign and start typing. Your first line is the title, so no need to worry about that. When you're finished up, just press back. No saving - that's all automatic. Remember, this app is all about simplicity.

• No thinking of titles.
• No text formatting.
• No remembering to save.
• No organizing.

SimpleNote is as much about what isn't there, as what is there. There are no fancy organization schemes. There are no extra buttons. There is no clutter. There are no distractions. In fact, the latest version of SimpleNote added an excellent full-screen mode.

Search

When you want to find a note, whether for reference or to edit it, simply type a word or two into the search bar. All notes that contain those words will appear below in real time.

Sync with Notational Velocity

All your notes live on SimpleNote's servers. If your iOS device dies, you don't lose your notes - simply install SN on your new device and you're up and running very quickly.

Maybe the killer feature of SN is the ability to sync with Notational Velocity. Any notes that you create on your iOS device can be edited on your Mac using NV, and vice versa. If you use the NV DropBox storage trick, then all your notes live in three separate places: your hard drive, SimpleNote's servers, and DropBox's servers. That's one heck of a backup system - and it's all completely automated.

Versioning

Down on the toolbar of SN is a little clock icon. Press it, and you can choose between several older versions of your note to roll back to. Take a minute to think about how useful this could be.

Say you edit a note, and accidentally edit out a large portion by mistake. Unfortunately you don't realize for a few days. No problem with SN - just roll back to the older version - your hard work is back. If you have a tendency to edit a little too ruthlessly, this is a killer feature.

Sharing and Collaboration

Let's say you have a note written up, but you need some help with it. Rather than hand over your iPhone, SN has a much, much better solution. Press the icon in the bottom left to bring up your Sharing menu. Switch "Publish Web Page" to on, and an email appears. This email contains a link to your note in web page form - and this web-note syncs with your SN note. Send it to whoever, and get your collaboration on.

Final Thoughts

Simple Note is the best note-taking and text document storing application on iOS. Period. It is amazingly simple to use. The syncing options with Notational Velocity and DropBox mean your data is as safe as it could possibly be. None of this requires any technical ability - it's all dead simple. That's exactly why I love SimpleNote.

Instead of sitting around thinking "What pile of flashy new, semi-useful features can we add today?" , they instead seem to ask "What's the bare minimum amount of incredibly useful features needed to store notes?" The difference in philosophy is clear. SimpleNote makes writing on my iPhone a joy. It's simple. It's seamless. It works. And it works amazingly well. All the features I covered today are included with the free version of SimpleNote. If you have an iOS device, you have to try it.

Much has been said about Notational Velocity. This application is growing to be my favorite OS X app of all. If there's a better tool for pure writing on the Mac, I don't know what it is.

What is Notational Velocity?

A note creation and storage application. A very simple application at that. Open it up, and there are three sections. A search / title bar, a list of notes, and the writing area. If you want to find a note, start typing in the search box. The search is instant, and changes as you type. To select the note, use the down arrow key. The content of the note is displayed below, where you can edit to your heart's content.

Let's say you don't find what you're looking for, and want to create a new note. When you're done typing, just press enter. A new note is created automatically, and the cursor moves down to the writing area. Get to work.

How do I save?

You don't, of course. Notational Velocity saves automatically (Are you getting tired of that word yet?) every few seconds. You never have to worry about forgetting to save, or application crashes. You type it, it's staying put.

Keyboard Shortcuts

When you're in NV, the mouse could fall off a cliff and die, and it wouldn't matter a bit to you. Sure, you can use it, if you like working slowly and less efficiently. Instead, use these simply keyboard shortcuts.

• Esc – Exit your current note and go to the search bar; start fresh
• ⌘ L – Jump to the Title / Search Bar without exiting your current note
• ⌘ R – Rename your current note
• ⌘ B – Embolden your text
• ⌘ E – Export current note (in plain text, of course)

There are more, of course. These are the only ones I use, and they handle everything I need.

Backup and Synchronization

Notational Velocity has the best possible solution for backup and synchronization in place. All notes are stored as plain text files, so long as you select this option in the preferences. Plain text is the simplest format known to man, which means extremely low chance / zero chance of file corruption. There's also a way to keep your text files in your Dropbox account. The process is extremely simple, following these steps.

Simplenote

This is where NV really shines. You can synchronize your data with the lovely Simplenote.

Just put in your Simplenote username and password, and you're done. Any notes / edits you make in Notational Velocity are available in Simplenote, and vice versa. No fighting with configuration - it just works. And it works very, very well. I use the Simplenote app on my iPhone along with NV for the ultimate writing combination. The pricing of the combo is pretty impressive too.

Notational Velocity: Free. Simplenote: Free.

The best solution available, at any price, and it costs nothing.

This post, just like nearly every post on this site, was written in Notational Velocity. I love the interface, and it allows me to keep a backup of everything I write. If you write at all... whether in large volume or just tons of little notes... get NV and Simplenote. Thank me later.