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   Neato Adds Note Taking to iOS 8's Notification Center

   Josh Centers

   iOS 8 gives developers many of the same capabilities that Google's
   Android operating system has had for years. One of those is custom
   widgets in the Today View of Notification Center.

   It's early days for iOS 8, and developers are still learning how to
   take full advantage of their newfound freedom. Developer Mohammad
   Khoman has released what is probably the boldest Today View widget yet:
   the free [1]Neato, which lets you jot down quick notes in Notification
   Center and share them with other apps.

   Apple forbids developers from calling the system keyboard inside a
   widget, so Khoman built his own. Tapping in the widget's text input
   area displays the keyboard, and tapping the keyboard button in the
   upper left hides it. There's also a Paste button to save you from
   typing, and a Clear button to delete what you've written.

   [2][tn_Neato.jpg]

   Neato does things Apple probably never expected widgets to do, so there
   are some rough edges. You can't hold and drag in the text input area to
   move the cursor or select text. Nor can the widget create notes longer
   than three lines; exceeding that limit opens a rudimentary editor
   inside the actual app. Oddly, you can't access this in-app editor from
   within the app itself; the only way to see it is to create a long note
   in the widget.

   [3][tn_Neato-in-app-editor.jpg]

   Once you've typed your note, tap the Send button to send the text to
   another app or service. You can send your note to Evernote, Dropbox,
   Mail, Twitter, or Messages. Sending a note to Evernote or Dropbox
   requires that you first have used the Neato app (not the widget) to set
   up links to those services (you only have to do this once for each
   service).

   [4][tn_Neato-send.jpg]

   Speaking of which, if you choose to link Evernote and Dropbox to Neato,
   be aware that anyone with your iPhone could send notes to those
   services even while the iPhone is locked, unless you disable Today in
   Settings > Touch ID & Passcode (or Settings > Passcode if your device
   doesn't support Touch ID).

   If you send a note to Dropbox, you can find it in your Dropbox
   directory in Apps > Neato. Likewise, notes you send to Evernote are
   stored in the Inbox. Each note is saved to its own document, named with
   the date and time it was sent to the service

   There isn't a way to add a note to an existing note. So if you wanted
   to add a book to a text-based reading list, you would have to add the
   note, then manually copy and paste that entry into your list later.

   Neato isn't the most powerful or refined note-taking app for iOS, but I
   salute its innovative approach. However, I wonder if Apple will let it
   remain in the App Store. James Thomson's PCalc widget was already
   threatened, but Apple quickly backed off (for more on that, see
   '[5]Apple Demands Removal of PCalc's Today View Widget,' 29 October
   2014). Neato pushes the limits of what widgets can do even more than
   PCalc, so it'll be interesting to see how Apple navigates these waters
   going forward.

   For more on Today View widgets in iOS 8, check out my new book, '[6]iOS
   8: A Take Control Crash Course.'

References

   1. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/neato-jot-down-note-save-to/id931243944?mt=8&at=10l5PW
   2. http://tidbits.com/resources/2014-11/Neato.png
   3. http://tidbits.com/resources/2014-11/Neato-in-app-editor.png
   4. http://tidbits.com/resources/2014-11/Neato-send.png
   5. http://tidbits.com/article/15198
   6. http://tid.bl.it/ios-8-crash-course-tidbits

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