The Bear 2 Beta has released

Software
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41

Try Filen.io German, e2ee fast and stable. Many sync options. Selective folder sync, no special folder needed if set up properly. Reasonable upgrade cost and policy.

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hi @chrisecurtis I have very much the same problem ever since Ventura 13.2 was released, a few months back.

I had to switch off iCloud Drive and it’a major pain for so many applications!

I will follow up in a separate thread as this is now a major issue for me.

Thanks, Luca

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Bear 2 ought to be live in a week, per ProductHunt and the Bear developers!! --squeal–

I really hope I’m right.

1 Like
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Are you on the beta? If so, what are your impressions? How different is it from Bear 1.0?

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Bear 2 is different in features, not slower in speed nor harder to use. It’s pretty solid, and I’ve been using the beta as my daily driver for a month or two (I know, I know). It has only crashed once, and they fixed the crashing bug in a day.
There is a new menu hidden under the BIU button, especially on mobile, that reveals 21 buttons for everything from tables (!) to horizontal lines to lists and quoting. Just remember that long presses give a flyout menu with more choices. Experiment. Much faster mobile editing than before.
Markdown is now CommonMark, and not their own PolarMark style. Markdown formatting can be hidden, or not. Markdown formatting always appears when the cursor is on a line that contains formatting.
Images can be resized in app, headers can be folded, Right to left formatting is supported, brand new search routine, footnotes and [[backlinks]], with special TOC and backlinks sub-panels added to the Info Panel.

2 Likes
46

Very interested in Bear 2. Have used Craft for the last year for PKM, various work related notes and newsletters. I like it, but looking for something else. Bear 2 might be it.

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In addition to features listed in comprehensive sgtaylor5’s post, these new features make Bear 2 good for PKM (in my opinion):

  • Unlinked mentions
  • Wikilinks aliases
  • OCR for images and PDFs (Apple Vision framework)
  • PDF preview

There are also tables (finally!) and rich link preview (optional)

2 Likes
48

Sounds like a solid upgrade of the software! There was a lot to like about Bear when I first tried it long ago. What put me off was the Polar Bear Markup Language which just added to the syntax ambiguity that already characterized Markdown. For that reason, it never stuck with me. I’m impressed that so many seem to have been waiting for a new release.

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Thanks for the details sounds like the developers have focused on some good improvements. I’m interested in seeing what kind of uptake it will have in a crowded notes app space.

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Within the iOS /iPadOS Appstore there is now an event (next Tuesday (July 11, 2023) - 9:00AM ) for the release.

2 Likes
51

I really like the Bear 2 beta. It has everything I’ve wanted in a note app; which I haven’t been able to find for quite some time

  • pleasant to use and polished
  • reliable sync
  • write in markdown but get WYSIWYG automatically
  • tags for organization AND wiki-links for in-line block references
  • automatic table of contents
  • native app
  • great iOS app
  • easy to attach different files
  • easy export
  • folding
  • the elastic bounce when you hit the end of the viewport when typing

Some minor quibbles with the handing of backlinks but it does everything I want “good” or “better”

1 Like
52

Thanks, sounds good. Will certainly try it out. How is the security?

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It syncs via CloudKit and you can encrypt notes. Their FAQ section goes over it.

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Updated on Mac!! A little over an hour to update iOS.

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Updated on all devices here :slight_smile:

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I moved to Craft a few months ago and forgot to cancel my Bear subscription. I currently moved my Evernotes to Bear but slowly moving everything to Craft.

Just saw the update and I don’t know why, but I’m excited to go back to Bear when I saw they have FOOTNOTES!

FOOTNOTES!!

3 Likes
57

The new promo video on https://bear.app is amazing.

I’ve been using Bear 2 since the beta first launched. I believe is the best markdown app in the Apple ecosystem right now.

1 Like
58

Tried a bit on my iPad and iPhone. Seems a bit buggy so far. Export to pdf rarely works and I cannot import pdfs from Safari at all. Still like it a lot so far.

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Do they have a web interface yet?

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60

2.0 looks great. I’m happy the Bear developers pulled this off!

1 Like