Appatic

The idea of SimpleText.ws is to take your notepad online. That and have it save every version you write of something. That means that every time you edit a text, it will still have the last version saved to offer you up all the revisions in a list. Another useful feature is that it will detect conflicts in text documents. Be it that the formatting is extremely wrong or that you are using characters that it cannot read or that don’t belong.

It uses Google for its logon so you will need a Google Account to use it. At first i thought that it was odd that it didn’t supported multiple logins like Live ID, OpenID or even Facebook Connect and Twitter Auth. But unless something went very wrong for me i found that unless you are using  Safari 4 or Chrome/Iron 3-4. You will not be able to use it. It don’t supports IE7-IE8, It is not very usable in Firefox or Opera.  So i guess it may have been designed with Webkit in mind. If someone tries it directly on a iphone, let me know if it works and that should confirm that theory.

Other Use

I know it is all the point to use it in a browser but the first thing i thought when i saw it was that it could be better to use it as a browser sidebar or as a SSB app. Unfortunately given that it only truly works well with webkit. That means that your only SSB choice is the weakest as it will only supports the “Application Shortcut” mode in Chrome/Iron 3-4.

The image you see here is the real size of the minimum size you need to use SimpleText.ws. So the sidebar idea was not only thwarted by the bad support of other browsers. But because it would also not resize properly. I think that is a serious missed opportunity. But it still works out as a SSB app in case you want to make it a little more useful. The real tragedy here is that it got such a limited use since it ignores the browser engines for 94% of the market and two uses that would interest to the users this app is try to target to by not resizing well, not being able to be used in other SSB app managers, more in the case of Bubbles that could truly make it a Light Desktop App. Not being able to be used as a Sidebar for when you got screen real state to spare and finally by being too simple since it don’t even gives you out support for bold and italics. But the idea is interesting and it an also be explored beyond since it got a API.

Conclusion

I like the idea, the execution not so much because it comes off as snobbish and not that well thought out. But the idea and the concept sure got legs to run on. More since it provides a alternative to those “Distraction Free” writing environments with a sensible neo-retro flavor.

Linkage

SimpleText.ws

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