First impressions (no S-notes)

Connert

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I stopped by my local Verizon store today just to have a few minutes hands on time with the new Note 8.

I'm surprised a bit by the shape, I was uncertain about the new thinner, taller profile. I have to say I like it a lot. It felt very good in hand, as best I could tell with the security tether attached.

I went straight to the app drawer to see if I could find S-notes with no luck. I kinda expected this to be the case. So I opened Samsung Notes and I'm definitely disappointed that it doesn't seem to have been changed much from the version on my Note 7. If any of you remember, Samsung Notes is a joke compared to S-notes. I hope I'm wrong and I can find the same Action Memo type features baked in or on the way. I still have the S-notes apk that worked on the Note 7. I'm hoping it will work on the 8 also.
 

Katrina White1

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What a shame. Samsung offers awesome features and takes em away for other junk. S Notes and Action Memo (link to action) were 2 of THE best features. I'll be waiting on a way to get it on the N8.
 

amyf27

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This came up automatically with the pen the other day at the store. I didn't dive too far I to the pen applications as I was just doing an overall check out on it
b9a0f1e8258e3fdc58ec1820d7b9c72d.jpg
 

Connert

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I think that's it on the top right
I didn't go very far into this. I pulled up Samsung Notes and went through the menu but couldn't find any Action Memo or "link to action" option. Maybe I just didn't look in the right place. I also went to Samsung Notes in the Play Store and looked through the app write-up. Didn't see anything about action in this area either. I did find my old review (one star) bashing them for removing the best features from the app. Also many other more resent reviews that still bash them for not adding the Action Memo features back. Some from just last month. This is very disappointing.
 

sandra_17

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... Maybe I just didn't look in the right place.....
Nope, you didn't miss a thing. I am so angry about this. As I've posted before, I'm very heavily invested in S Note and Action Memo thru all my Notes (3, 4, 5, 7, soon-to-be 8, tablets N10.1 and N12.2). I have over 700 Action Memos and over 300 S Notes between all my devices past and present.

With the Note 7 we had a work around that I first saw from you Connert (linked to here - https://forums.androidcentral.com/s...728648-fully-featured-functioning-s-note.html), which solved the problem with the N7. I did spend quite some time with the Note 8 in my VZW store today. Looked everywhere, was so pissed off when all I found was Samsung Notes.

I tried installing our N7 work around, and while all components did install, when opening a S Note, it crashed every time I tried any of the functions. Action Memo was nowhere to be found. For a second I got excited when I saw the "Create Note" icon, remembered all the Play Store comment replies from Samsung, promising a new version of Action Memo by September....October....November....never. All that did was open a small pop-up type note that for a second I thought might be an updated Action Memo. It was not. No "Link to Action". No set reminders. Nothing.

For those who've never used S Note, especially the "Link To Action" of Action Memo, you cannot understand the loss of productivity by the downgrade of the piece of crap Samsung Notes. I didn't waste my time seeing if Samsung Notes still creates basically one long .jpg in place of the elegance of a S Note, which is enriched with so many features. There's got to be some way to organize and communicate this to Samsung.
 

Amele

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The apk for s notes is somewhere on xda forum. If I recall you have to make sure you don't have auto updates enabled in the Samsung app store to keep it. I am hoping the apk works on note 8 as well as it did on note 7
 

jamesrick80

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If Google Keep or Squid don't have the same shortcuts as Action Memo, there IS a need for S Notes. Also a previous poster has hundreds of notes and memos as do others. Yes. There is definitely a need for SNote.
Well you should have started using Google keep years ago when it was first released. I have built up 3 years of notes, reminders, and tasks perfectly saved in the cloud since I use Google keep. It's the first widget and app I install on any Android device.
 

Connert

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Well you should have started using Google keep years ago when it was first released. I have built up 3 years of notes, reminders, and tasks perfectly saved in the cloud since I use Google keep. It's the first widget and app I install on any Android device.
Well, I do use Google Keep, Sheets and OneNote. None of which have any of the "Action Memo" functionality. This was a serious productivity tool for the Note line. Sad to see it's gone.
 

Katrina White1

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Well, I do use Google Keep, Sheets and OneNote. None of which have any of the "Action Memo" functionality. This was a serious productivity tool for the Note line. Sad to see it's gone.

I've learned from the forums that some people just don't empathize with people who aren't in the same situation. Jeez... You should have done this, you should have done that. Well SAMSUNG shouldn't have taken that functionality away. SAMSUNG shouldn't have put out faulty devices TWICE. But yet, here we are making the best of what we have. :)
 

toenail_flicker

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and frankly, google for my searching is about all I want them to be in charge of. not my docs or my notes. I don't like the interfaces of other note apps except lecture notes. action notes and lecture notes work extremely well for me. now it will just be lecture notes. not the best solution, but losing action notes sucks.

didn't they take it away in the note 5 and then put it back? maybe they will again if enough concerned users contact them.
 

sandra_17

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Well you should have started using Google keep years ago when it was first released. I have built up 3 years of notes, reminders, and tasks perfectly saved in the cloud since I use Google keep. It's the first widget and app I install on any Android device.

I don't care for "cloud" storage.
 

sandra_17

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The apk for s notes is somewhere on xda forum. If I recall you have to make sure you don't have auto updates enabled in the Samsung app store to keep it. I am hoping the apk works on note 8 as well as it did on note 7

This is what I did at the VZW store, and it does not work. The link I posted above is to the topic with full instructions on installing S Notes and all its features (linking both to the S Note .apk on XDA as well as the other S Note components on apkmirror). I am going to post what I did on XDA and hope someone who has their N8 soon might be able to help get around this again.

I just cannot understand what drove Samsung to dumb down such an incredible set of tools to a glorified drawing pad. Ridiculously iPhone-ish.