WWDC has come and gone and I saw Apple Notes on screen 3 times max.

I don’t think Apple mentioned the App at all in the keynote.

In fact, I specifically wrote down when they were talking bout improved search they said...”spotlight, photos and mail”

No Notes?!

I have to assume that semantic indexing will work with Apple Notes and after the fact there were a few updates that have me blowing my party blower in sarcastic joy.

Here is everything

Yeah seriously this is it.

It is hard to get excited about these basic feature updates. Sure they will help better organize new notes with clear divisions across sections, and copy/paste markdown will be helpful for those wanting cleaner inputs into AI models, but no table of contents or side bar style navigation or ways to visualize notes that are linked together, automatic backlinks and everything else that I pleaded for a few weeks ago.

It is still the best all around Notes app for most people.

BUT

It is quickly starting to lag behind competitors. It doesn’t have a good enough MCP layer, likely because Apple is going to rely on their on-device AI models for the masses.

Because of that a lot of the most interesting use cases that I have seen for AI revolve around time saving activities that would have previously been manual.

Like doing a weekly review of my daily writing. Sometimes I may have 20-30 pages of handwritten notes to review and pull out key ideas or possible action items that I may have missed.

A scheduled weekly task in Claude Cowork would solve this, however the connection to Apple Notes broke after a week and I was then given a nonsensical response.

Once that is more trustworthy it could be a huge help to my process.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Apple Creator Studio is being used as a test case for if there is a way to bundle pro features into other free apps.

Like we now see with Pages, Numbers, Keynote and Freeform, there is a possibility that Apple would add Notes, Reminders and Calendar to a business style subscription service.

I’ve totally made this up in my head and have no indication that this is the case, but I would be torn if they did this.

Part of me thinks that I would pull out my credit card immediately, but at the same time Apple has not yet proven the value of the Creator Studio Apps to me. We are still waiting for substantial Final Cut Pro updates to bring it out of the stone ages.

Apple Notes is much closer to the competition, but power users like me have a laundry list of improvements that wouldn’t be that hard to code up with AI and implement.

It’s likely time they strip Notes, Reminders and Calendar out of the OS updates and give the teams flexibility to ship updates independently like a software company should do in this day and age.

Other apps offering more control always catch my eye and one that I previously wouldn’t have ever looked at or recommended is starting to be top of the list. If I have to pay for it, I might as well look at a company that is doing what I want at the highest level possible, focused on that and nothing else.

Yeah, the notoriously slow and sometimes frustrating to use web app Notion is working to re-write its mobile app.

I just knew it!

I knew I was going to have to try out Notion this year. I had it on my list once I was finished with my Obsidian escapade that hasn’t really come to a close yet.

I’ve been bouncing between Apple Notes for quick input and journaling with the Apple Pencil, and Obsidian for writing my videos, while keeping iA Writer around for these weekly e-mails.

That has been a solid system, but I do still dream of having everything in one place.

Notion does meet all of my requirements.

Despite my criticisms of Notion and its mobile app, it has gotten much better over the years and a native experience may solve the speed of input problems, opening up more opportunities for shortcuts input in the future.

Their Notion AI TestFlight app also solves some of that as well. Instead of navigating to the right page, you can just pop open a chat and tell the AI where you want the thing to be saved.

I know I don’t really want the cost of Notion AI personally, but at least it has an MCP layer and they are working to have markdown support to and from Notion for easier agent access as well.

I’ve been intentional with my mornings lately.

I never liked rushing after waking up to eat breakfast, shower and get out the door to work as quickly as possible.

At the same time, this isn’t some multi-hour long “perfect” morning that you’d see from some online entrepreneur trying to sell you something.

This is my real life, balancing a job, family and side hustle, way to slow down and make the beginning of the day just a little bit easier.

That is it for today, see you next week, take it easy!