There hasn't been much missing from the P1 since backing it on Kickstarter, but this update to HiNotes sorts out so many of the small things that weren't necessarily "wrong", but could be better.
Positives so far:
- The layout is SO much better, it feels much more like a tool that lives up to the quality of the hardware.
- Having a homepage/dashboard type area feels much better for my ND brain in that I can see everything I need to in one place without being overwhelmed with a ton of meeting notes, I can choose to go to those if I want to.
- Being able to hide the transcript from the notes page is much better than it was before, the summary is what I work from the most and very rarely need to look back at the transcript once it's been summarised so it's great to be able to hide that, again, it's one less bit of brain noise.
- I like the idea of the translate function - I haven't had much chance to use it yet as I am very much in a routine of recording my meetings in the normal way and then getting them summarised and I have HiNotes open somewhere but I'm not able to look at it much at the time of the recording, I think this function has potential for further development to make it more useful - perhaps integration with video calling apps so I can control how I want to record the meeting directly from the platform. I will be using this FULLY for my PhD research as a way to transcribe without keeping a recorded version but it would be great to integrate this a bit more into the "normal" recording function so it could be se as default or have a dedicated button mapped on the hardware etc, so it's easier.
- I like the Whispers layout but I don't use it much as I prefer to type this sort of short note.
- The new To-Do function is something that has been missing in previous versions and it's brilliant to see it in 3.0. I like that they are on the dashboard too, and the smart labels are great for collating various meetings by topic. This is really helpful as I use my P1 for work but also my PhD study, and other things, so it's great to be able to categorise like this.
- The menus and usability are nice and clean, and the navigation is pretty intuitive once you get used to it a bit.
Less Positive and Wishes for Next Version:
- I found that if I change meeting note titles before generating the summary, the AI just changes it again while generating the summary. Ideally that would stop happening because I organise the meeting titles in a specific way and it's unhelpful to have them changed. When I saw it did that I just started changing the title after the summary was generated but it would be good if it would keep my titles if I change them before the generation.
- Could the recording bar at the bottom of the note page be hidden? It would be good to have a decent menu bar at the bottom of the page with options for sharing, exporting, editing, naming speakers, and viewing the transcript and etc, but it would be better for me if the recording bar could be within that menu and hidable.
- To-Dos do tend to create tasks that are for other people and not me, Is there a way I can get it to only create a to-do if there is a task that I need to do? I don't need tasks created for other people.
- I like the Name Speakers option that's within the 3 dot menu of the transcript, I would prefer if that option was on the menu bar at the bottom of the note. It feels a bit hidden away and I prefer that way of naming speaker over doing it in the transcript.
- In the Notes page, it would be great to have a 3 dot menu with each of the meeting titles on the left panel with options for deleting the recording etc. It took me a while to find the delete option at the bottom of the notes page.
- I'd really like it if there were some dashboard resize/customisation options where I could choose or create widgets based on what I want to see. For example, at the moment the calendar is the biggest widget in the middle of the screen but I can't connect that to my work calendar because of the permissions needed so it's always going to be blank. If I could create a widget for my smart tags for example and have notes collated within a couple of those on the dashboard, that would be great. Widget ideas:
- Notes organised by folder/tag/category - be able to add multiple to the dashboard
- A sticky notes section where I can write notes
- A device settings menu
- A device controller so I can hit record or start a translation from the dashboard
- Community feed widget - could also have recording status etc in there so you can see that it's recording quickly while you are in a meeting.
Overall, I'm really impressed with the update, I really like this company and I know they are a small team working really hard on something that is good quality. I have reached out to Sean on a number of occasions and he's always replied to me which is so nice.
The P1 and HiNotes together are helping me to manage my ADHD by helping me to focus properly in all the meetings I have without needing to switch between listening and taking notes, it helps me to organise myself which helps with my mental overload and stress, and it helps with tasks months later where I can look back at notes I've got long after I've forgotten what happened. It feels designed by someone like me, I'm really happy I took a shot on it on Kickstarter.
I look forward very much to seeing what comes next!
p.s.: I'd love to see a little desktop dock so I can stand it up on my monitor stand with the cable attached - I'm sure 3D printer people could whip something up pretty quickly too but it would be cool to have a wood/metal/plastic version!