Comparison

First Living vs Nota6

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

First Living

Features
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Creating smart and convenience home in one click or one voice command! With First Living, you're able to setup and create automation of smart devices at your home and control them in one click or one voice command. First Living has various interesting features with following functions: 1. Device Customization and Automation - Control Multiple smart Devices using one command - create automation of various conditions using multiple devices in one command 2. Device Management - Added smart devices to be controlled smartly - Delete smart devices - Change device settings 3. Account Management - Changing profile - Notification settings - Change time zone and temperature unit - Account security settings

About

Nota6

Features
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Reader-first Markdown app for the AI era — with a built-in Reference Library so it's useful the moment you open it. BUILT-IN LIBRARY (12 references, all offline) The welcome screen has a "Browse Library" button. Tap it and you have 12 curated documents available immediately, in English and Simplified Chinese: • Markdown / GFM syntax references • Mermaid Diagram Gallery — 10 diagram types (flowchart, sequence, class, state, ER, gantt, pie, mindmap, timeline, git graph), each with source + rendered output • KaTeX Math Reference — symbols, operators, matrices, common formulas • Code Highlighting Gallery — Swift, Python, TypeScript, Go, Rust, SQL, and more (190+ languages bundled) • Reading AI-Generated Markdown — four shapes of agent output and how to read each • CLAUDE.md & AGENTS.md spec — how AI-instruction files work • README Patterns, Design Doc & RFC Patterns • Nota6 Tips & Tricks, iPad Keyboard Shortcuts, Themes Showcase These aren't placeholders — they're useful reading material for anyone who works with AI coding assistants and the .md files they produce. WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT FROM A BROWSER • Mermaid diagrams, KaTeX math, syntax-highlighted code, all rendered offline. No network requests during rendering. Safari Reader can't do Mermaid; Nota6 can. • Auto-refresh on file change with smart scroll anchoring: when an external editor rewrites the file, the preview re-renders in place and stays at the same heading even if the document length shifts. • Open files from anywhere via the system share sheet, Files, iCloud Drive, or the "Open in Nota6" action. iOS-NATIVE INTEGRATIONS • Shortcuts / App Intents: "Open Markdown File" and "Export Markdown as HTML" are first-class Shortcuts actions. Automate from Siri or your iPad keyboard. • iCloud sync: your theme, font, width, and Custom-theme colors follow you across iPhone, iPad, and Mac. • Workspace full-text search (āŒ˜ā‡§F) across an entire folder of .md files. • Bookmark self-heal: if AI tooling renames or moves files in your workspace, Nota6 reattaches by content fingerprint instead of breaking. READING EXPERIENCE • Quick Edit: switch to Source, correct raw Markdown, and save with Command-S on a hardware keyboard. Nota6 preserves the original encoding, BOM, and line endings, and warns before overwriting external changes. • 5 themes: GitHub Ā· Paper Ā· Notion Ā· Terminal Ā· Custom. Custom lets you pick body + monospace fonts and 4 colors (background, text, heading, code block) right inside the app. • 4 font sizes, 3 reading widths, Light / Dark / Auto appearance. • Outline panel with live filter and scroll-synced active heading; floating breadcrumb when the outline is closed. • Per-file reading-progress dots in the workspace sidebar. • Click-to-zoom for Mermaid diagrams and images; long-press to Copy or Save as PNG. iPAD HARDWARE KEYBOARD Full shortcut set: ⌘O Ā· ā‡§āŒ˜O Ā· ⌘F Ā· ⌘P Ā· ⌄⌘O Ā· ⌘R Ā· ⌘[ / ⌘] Ā· ⌘W. Press-and-hold ⌘ for the discoverability HUD. EXPORT PDF or self-contained HTML via the system share sheet — straight to Files, Mail, Slack, Notion, or any other destination. PRIVACY No analytics. No third-party SDKs. No network requests unless the document itself references remote images. Rendering libraries (KaTeX, Mermaid, highlight.js) are bundled offline. English + Simplified Chinese.

Screenshots

First Living4 screens
Nota64 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Nota6 at every 3 days against First Living's every 13 months. First Living's advantage is iOS requirement (11.0 vs 17.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price Ā· Rating Ā· Positive reviews Ā· Number of ratings Ā· Update frequency Ā· Ads Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Monetization Ā· Best chart rank Ā· Devices Ā· Requires iOS

CostPrice Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Ads Ā· Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

First Living ships an update every 13 months, Nota6 every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences Ā· 4 level
First Living versus Nota6: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFirst LivingNota6
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 13 monthsEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, Mac — better
Requires iOS11.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size190 MB11 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperFirst Media笑天 刘

In-app purchases

None

First Living

No in-app purchases

None

Nota6

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is First Living free?
First Living is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Nota6 free?
Nota6 is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do First Living or Nota6 have ads?
Neither First Living nor Nota6 shows ads.
Which is updated more often, First Living or Nota6?
First Living ships an update every 13 months, and Nota6 every 3 days. Most recently, First Living was updated on October 15, 2026 and Nota6 on October 24, 2026.

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