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Note & Share for iOS: Markdown, Dropbox, Evernote, and more
With the tide of plain text editors showing up in the app store, I'm getting a little soggy, and I know you might be, too. However, I have another one for your consideration: Note & Share (for both iPhone and iPad) adds some unique features to the standard mix, primarily from the "Share" half of the name. First, like the recently-covered iPad app Edito, Note & Share supports Markdown and can render it for some of its output options, which include syncing the rendered HTML output to Evernote or sending it by email. The Evernote sync is of interest to me as an Evernote fan, but so is the Dropbox sync that it provides. Dropbox -- which is quickly taking the lead as the preferred method for both syncing and sharing -- works superbly for text files because, among other reasons, they end up fully-indexed in Spotlight on your Mac. Note & Share can also send to Twitter or Plurk and save to its own database. Of interest to Japanese users is its support for ATOK, a fast Japanese input method, to which it can send files and then retrieve them after editing. It also has a bookmarklet for Mobile Safari that will send a shortened URL to your document for linking. The app lacks the super-handy, extra Markdown toolbar of Edito, but its developers tell me that they're exploring the possibilities there. Beyond that, the Markdown support is great. The sharing options only show buttons if you have them enabled, so your interface only contains what you need, not a bunch of grayed-out options. At US$1.99, it looks like a great option for handling your iPad (and iPhone) text editing, especially if your notes need to go to more than one place. Give it a shot if you haven't already nailed down your editor of choice.
Edito, Markdown editor for iPad
Edito is a new Markdown text editor for iPad. It's a simple app that does one thing well, and that's edit Markdown (a plain text markup language with a simple syntax, which can render text to myriad formats including HTML, LaTeX, and PDF). It adds a few features to the mix: An extra row of keys on the keyboard for Markdown syntax, including pairs for square brackets and parenthesis, asterisks, and other keys, which are vital but a pain to get to on the iPad keyboard iTunes file sync A desktop-like UI A built in Web browser for copying links The ability to mail the plain text or HTML rendering of your document A variety of CSS styles for preview and render Built-in Markdown cheat sheet TJ recently covered MarkdownMail, which does much the same thing, but it's sorely lacking the extra keys on the keyboard. He and I (and several more at TUAW) are Markdown fans (I'm editing this post in Markdown right now), so we have a keen interest in these applications. Personally, I have a wishlist.
MarkdownMail 2.0 now a universal iOS app, fixes a few bugs
MarkdownMail lets you send email that has been formatted using John Gruber's Markdown syntax. The newest version has been updated to be a universal app for iPad or iPhone/iPod touch devices. It's US$4 for new users, or a free upgrade for existing users. The new version also fixes some bugs and updates to the latest TextExpander touch SDK. The iPhone version looked good, but I knew that I wouldn't want to use it scaled up on my iPad. As soon as I saw it was available for iPad, I grabbed it. The price has increased from $2 to $4, but hey, sometimes being an early adopter pays off. Those who jumped right in showed the developer there was interest in the app, and that interest helped support the development of the iPad version. I like the fact that it will preserve the Markdown formatting when sending (rather than converting it to HTML before sending). It also has a nice preview button to show how the text will look when it's converted. Despite the name, you don't have to email the file when done. There is an option to have MarkdownMail convert your text to HTML and copy it to the clipboard right from the app. I'm still putting it through the paces, but let me know if you have any questions. So far, it looks very handy for folks who like to write Markdown on the go.
