Normal Notes vs Kakesu

Normal Notes is the fastest and easiest way to keep a daily journal and a personal knowledge base. Built on plain Markdown and compatible with Obsidian vaults, it opens straight to Today's Note with heading pre-filled. Supports tags, suggests older notes worth attention, view vault pins on a map. Share anything from anywhere so you don't lose it. No account or subscription, and no tracking. No lock-in — your notes stay as ordinary .md files you own. DAILY JOURNALING • One tap to today's note. Yesterday and tomorrow are a swipe away. • Auto-headings with date, place, and journaling prompts. • Capture by voice — record a memo and it's transcribed straight into today. A KNOWLEDGE BASE THAT CONNECTS • [[Wikilinks]] and live backlinks, so notes link themselves together. • Related notes surfaced automatically. • Pin places to notes and see them all on a map. FAST AND NATIVE • Best-in-class Markdown editor experience — headings, checklists, formatting — that stays out of your way. • Instant search across your whole vault. • Share text and images into today from any app. PRIVATE BY DESIGN • Your notes sync through your own iCloud. Nothing is collected. No trackers, no ads, no analytics. If you've wanted Obsidian's plain-text freedom with the speed and polish of Apple Notes, Normal Notes is it.

Toss links in, dig them out later. That is the whole app. The jay hides each acorn in a different place and remembers what it hid, where, and when, so it can dig them out later. Kakesu is named after that bird because it does the same job. SAVE FIRST, TITLE LATER The moment you send a link from the share sheet, it is already saved. The page title and image are fetched afterwards. Even on a bad connection, the save itself does not fail. NO ACCOUNT No email address, no password. What you save goes into your own iCloud. Sign in with the same Apple Account on another device and your list is there. TOOLS FOR DIGGING THINGS BACK OUT - Search titles, URLs, tags, notes and page text together - Filter by tag - Separate unread and favorites - Reorder by dragging - Mute what you do not want to see (by a string in the URL or title) - Thumbnails appear only when there is one. No empty frames ASK, ON THE DEVICE ONLY Ask about what you have saved, in your own words. Try “what have I saved lately?” and the bookmarks behind the answer are listed underneath. Follow up with “when did I save that?” and it answers with the earlier exchange in mind. It runs on the device's own model, so neither the question nor the answer leaves the phone. Available on devices that support Apple Intelligence. DECIDE WITH A SUMMARY, BEFORE YOU READ Press and hold an item and choose “Summarize”. You get a summary drawn only from that page's own text, and you can keep asking about it. It is there to help you decide whether the article is worth reading. The summary and the conversation are both made on the device. Available on devices that support Apple Intelligence. KEEP IT PRIVATE If you ever hand your phone to someone, turn on the app lock. Opening the app then asks for Face ID / Touch ID, or your device passcode. It does not ask when you come back from a link you just opened. Off by default. YOU KEEP A COPY Once a week the whole list is written as JSON into iCloud Drive. You can open it in the Files app, and it stays there even if you delete the app. It is only read back when you ask for it in Settings. WHAT YOU SAVE IS YOURS The URLs you save are your browsing history. They are not sent to the developer. There is no server to send them to. Syncing is left to Apple's iCloud.