Microsoft updates OneNote for iOS with more consistent syncing, iPhone 5 display support
Microsoft on Monday rolled out OneNote version 2.0, bringing some much needed changes to the note-taking and managaments app, including a consistent experience across multiple platforms and enhanced rich text formatting.
The latest OneNote fixes several issues that users were seeing when attempting to sync data via Microsoft's SkyDrive cloud computing service, one of the major features of the app created to work on Windows Phone, iOS and Android devices.
In addition, with version 2.0, Microsoft has improved rich text formatting and "Ink annotations" viewing for iOS devices. Tables can also be inserted into files, and users can now edit existing tables created on another device.
Finally, the app has been optimized to take advantage of the 4-inch Retina display found on Apple's iPhone 5.
OneNote for iOS is free to download from the App Store, and the 500-note limit imposed on older versions of the software has been lifted. Microsoft cautions existing users to back up their data before upgrading to the latest version.
The latest OneNote fixes several issues that users were seeing when attempting to sync data via Microsoft's SkyDrive cloud computing service, one of the major features of the app created to work on Windows Phone, iOS and Android devices.
In addition, with version 2.0, Microsoft has improved rich text formatting and "Ink annotations" viewing for iOS devices. Tables can also be inserted into files, and users can now edit existing tables created on another device.
Finally, the app has been optimized to take advantage of the 4-inch Retina display found on Apple's iPhone 5.
OneNote for iOS is free to download from the App Store, and the 500-note limit imposed on older versions of the software has been lifted. Microsoft cautions existing users to back up their data before upgrading to the latest version.
Comments
Can anyone tell what little increase in functionality mandates a 50-fold (not 50%) increase in the size of the app?
Does M$ try to make the available storage on iOS devices as puny as on their own tablets by installing an entire Win8 subsystem or something? This is a ridiculous size for anything but a media app that comes with lots of media clips and samples.
All apps are required to support the iPhone 5 screen now, even for updates. Annoying when you just need to put a quick bug fix or tweak in.
Holy crap! I just noticed that too! All for a note-taking app? No thanks, I'll stick to evernote.
Thanks.
OneNote syncs with SkyDrive perfectly. Since I make my living developing on Microsoft platforms, my dev notes are always available and updated regardless of platform I am on, including the OneNote web app. In my opinion OneNote is superior to EverNote in many ways. It really comes down to my personal preference and desire to have synergy with MS Office. As far as the "bloat", Keynote on iPad starts at 360MB. I do not see a problem with the extra MBs, especially with the functionally this update brings.
Ed
The difference is that Keynote's 360MB are mostly *templates* with graphics, backgrounds and wallpapers, it's not the size of the app.
Actually, seeing that I have my jailbroken iPhone handy: the actual size of the Keynote application is 23.7MB, the rest is templates.
More importantly: the upgrade only listed a few relatively small items as being new and improved over the previous version, but the size of the app increased from 5.2MB to well over 250MB. Not sure how much of that is the App, and how much other crap, because I don't have the need to install the app. Deleted OneNote a while ago from my phone, but it's still in my iTunes library, hence I see the size of the download, and the size of the old version which ends up in my trash can.
The issue is not the size per se, but the lack of explanation for this size increase. If the size increase comes with a "1000 new note templates added" in the release notes, I may wonder what I need all these templates for, but I'd have an idea where the size increase comes from. But if I don't see anything like that, then I get the feeling that they just decided to put an entire cross-platform library/runtime environment there, so they don't actually have to write and maintain a truly native app, which is the main reason most multi-platform apps suck: they are not based on a shared data model, and then are independently developed as native apps for each platform, but instead they are some LCD crap, with a somewhat native GUI slapped on top at the last moment.
Not saying M$ did this here, but devices with rather limited storage (8-128GB) can't just waste a quarter gigabyte for nonsense.
The cost of the bloat it not just the wasted space. Worse is the slowness. It's fitting that the screenshots above are of the splash screens, since you'll get lots of time to look at them. On iOS OneNote takes not a second or two to load, as you'd expect, but 10 to 20 seconds while the device reads the hundreds of megabytes of bloat from flash.