Evernote ignores customers – releases 3.5

Posted on 22/01/2010 by DannyDPX

Evernote has just released version 3.5 of their Windows note taking app. Unfortunately, the first screenshot you see here is not the UI for the new version, but a mockup I put together in order to offer suggestions in their beta test. The discussion relating to the UI is one of the busiest threads on their message board for the beta.

Not the Evernote UI

The actual UI looks like this:

screen

Which looks like a bad Java applet from the XP days, instead of a WPF-based app for a modern Windows platform (yes, that shitty UI is built on WPF). Throughout the beta, the Evernote devs have, through a profound lack of communication, repeatedly ignored its’ testers/customers, failing to fix bugs that were brought to their attention, and straight out lying when they said they were going to fix the issues that we, as customers brought up. On top of that, a lot of the functionality that was in previous versions was simply dropped, with little explanation.

I will be removing Evernote from my PC, iPod and my family’s Macs, I won’t be resuming my Premium subscription with them. I shall now be researching alternatives. Fuck you Evernote!

About DannyDPX

I'm a IT enthusiast, sometime actor, husband and beardy-guy based in London. Loves sci-fi, beer, chicken and my wife (not necessarily in that order!)
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  • Kevin
    Amen. Evernote really botched things with 3.5.The dropped functionality with no appropriate substitute, the crappy looking interface, the buggy and slow implementation. You just have to wonder what they were thinking.

    After a week of using 3.5 I converted all of my online notebooks to local, cancelled my Premium subscription, and uninstalled Evernote from my iPhone. I will use 3.1 as a standalone notebook from now on. I will no longer support their product in any other way - neither by paying for Premium nor recommending it to friends.

    I join you in turning in the general direction of EN headquarters and saying "Fuck you Evernote!"
  • bil0
    All you can find wrong with Evernote is aesthetics? Really? With so much that is wrong under the hood (aside from cross platform syncing), 3.5 is the first version of Evernote that -doesn't- look like a bad java applet (for one), and two it actually has a somewhat fluid feel to it compared to the pre 3.5 days.

    As much as I hate that clunky overhead toolbar (the only real change in your mock-up version over theirs), it isn't half as bad as the previous version.
  • DannyDPX
    There's already been plenty of ranting going on over at the Evernote forums regarding the numerous functionality and performance bugs, I saw no need to go over those again myself.
  • I hate to say it, but this is par for the course for Evernote. I used to be a serious evangelist for them, back in the 2.2 days. But they switched to 3.1 and a new paradigm that focuses on more users with less knowledge, rather than on the functionality that the few power users loved. There are still power users who haven't moved from 2.2 Myself, I made the switch to 3.1, but only because I had stopped doing serious research work with the tool. Now, I'm going to hang onto 3.1 as long as possible, because 3.5 seems to be crap, even less powerful than 3.1. Sigh.

    Let me know if you find a good substitute for capturing/organizing random stuff!
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