To my surprise, as much as anybody’s, I’ve ended up using Apple’s Notes app a lot over the last several years. I use it when I want to jot down things about my novels, when I’m taking notes for podcast episodes, and even for making checklists.
But I don’t use it because it’s the most full-featured note application around, or because it’s even the most attractive. Simply put, the one thing that Notes has going for it is its ubiquity: I can guarantee that anything that I put in Notes will immediately be available across all my devices. And with the next updates to Apple’s platforms, that ubiquity just got a whole lot… more ubiquitous(?), thanks to the introduction of Quick Note.
Quick Note is a fascinating feature from both usability and philosophical standpoints. On the iPhone and the iPad, there’s nothing else that’s had this kind of systemwide support; and only Picture-in-Picture has boasted a similar interface: a floating window that can appear, hovering atop everything else, no matter what app you’re in.…