AFFiNE vs NOTE TO TONE

AFFiNE is an open-source, local-first workspace for notes, docs, whiteboards, tasks, knowledge bases, Markdown, and AI. Built in public and trusted by a global open-source community with around 70K GitHub stars and more than 7 million downloads, AFFiNE gives you one place to write, draw, plan, organize knowledge, and keep control of your work. Whether you're capturing personal ideas, organizing class notes, planning a project with a team, building a second brain, or mapping a complex workflow, AFFiNE helps you move from scattered thoughts to structured work without switching between separate note, whiteboard, and task apps. WHY AFFiNE? OPEN-SOURCE AND LOCAL-FIRST AFFiNE started as an open-source project and continues to focus on transparent, user-owned knowledge work. - Work with a product built around openness and data control - Use local-first workflows for personal knowledge and project planning - Choose AFFiNE Cloud or self-hosted workflows for your workspace - Keep Markdown and portability at the center of your writing system NOTES & DOCS Write everything from quick notes to long-form documents. - Capture ideas, journals, meeting notes, class notes, and project plans - Structure information with flexible blocks and connected pages - Use Markdown for clear, portable writing - Turn rough thoughts into organized documents with AI WHITEBOARDS & VISUAL THINKING Switch from structured documents to an infinite canvas whenever ideas need space. - Create mind maps, diagrams, visual notes, and brainstorming boards - Plan product ideas, research flows, study maps, or team workflows - Connect visual thinking with written notes instead of keeping them in separate tools TASKS & PROJECTS Bring planning and execution into the same workspace. - Track to-dos, project notes, decisions, and next steps - Keep tasks close to the documents and whiteboards that explain the work - Organize personal workflows, student projects, creator work, and team planning AI FOR KNOWLEDGE WORK Use AI to help you write, summarize, and structure ideas. - Draft notes and documents faster - Summarize messy information into clearer outlines - Turn brainstorming into structured next steps - Use AI inside the workspace where your context already lives FOR PERSONAL USE AFFiNE works for notes, journals, study planning, research, reading lists, personal knowledge management, and second-brain workflows. FOR TEAMS AND SELF-HOSTED WORKFLOWS Use AFFiNE for shared project knowledge, planning, docs, visual collaboration, and self-hosted workspace needs. SYNC ACROSS DEVICES Keep working across iPhone, iPad, desktop, and web. Start with a thought on mobile, expand it on a canvas, and turn it into organized knowledge when you're back at your desk. AFFiNE is for people who want the flexibility of documents, the freedom of a whiteboard, the structure of tasks, and the trust of open-source software in one workspace. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

When an idea will not come. When you have been thinking about one thing for too long. Something entirely unrelated — a stranger's conversation overheard — can be what unlocks it. NOTE TO TONE generates words with no connection to anything, to work the stiffness out of an over-focused mind. ■ Random words, to loosen your head What appears is a short phrase that does not quite make sense. "a dry hourglass" — "unravel the heron" — "desperate for the layover" Look at it, and force yourself to find a meaning in it. The moment you try, your head starts looking down a different road. That is the whole point. ■ Words, music, and keeping them The words are random, yet now and then one arrives that somehow shows you a scene — one you want to keep. So you can stock them. And from that word, a piece of music of its own is made, and kept alongside it. The same phrase always makes the same music. ■ The music is built on the spot, by a synthesiser Each phrase is measured along six axes — light, motion, weight, grit, space and warmth — and the music is built to match. Nothing is a recording being picked from a shelf. The sound is made by the engine from our music app ARPJAM Studio, a serious synthesiser that plays itself. That engine is built into NOTE TO TONE in full, so you can hear the music without owning ARPJAM Studio. ■ How to use it - Open the app and a phrase appears - Press SOUND and music is generated for that phrase - Press KEEP to save the phrase and its music; look back from Stocks - Once unlocked, a download button appears. It saves an ARPJAM settings file (a JAM file) to edit in ARPJAM Studio, or to add to a playlist in ARPJAM Player ■ Unlock Free use gives you three phrases and their music each time you open the app. A single purchase unlocks unlimited phrases and JAM file downloads. Nothing recurring. ■ Good for - A brief that will not start - Circling the same thought - Resetting your head before a meeting - Finding a way into a piece of music - Looking at something meaningless before sleep May a good idea find you. --- Credits: PIANO: Salamander Grand Piano V3 — Alexander Holm (CC BY 3.0)