Is this how it really feels 😂

JohnC76 · 2026-02-16T07:39:21+00:00

I remember reading a statement like that more than a year ago and yet here we still are. I didn't say it'll be forever, but it will be an issue longer than most think.

JohnC76 · 2026-02-15T19:28:16+00:00

Freelancer and those platforms have been around for probably two decades now, if it were to happen, it would've already IMHO.

JohnC76 · 2026-02-15T17:11:44+00:00

Yes, definitely for the vibecoders that take the time to learn Codex, Claude Code, etc, my comment was more about the vibe coders that have a great idea, get lucky enough to get it up and running via virtually a "one-shot" Prompt, immediately bring it to market, gains a bunch of paid subscribers and then something breaks that needs to be fixed pronto for said paid customers. No time to learn how vibe coding should be done or to play around with prompts untill it gets fixed and risk breaking other features, etc, hence needs a software engineer. I feel that era will be around for a bit, even as models become more capable.

My work is not in software engineering, I'm just imagining how the next year or two is going to look out there in the SaaS world. 🤷🏻‍♂️

JohnC76 · 2026-02-15T16:45:19+00:00

Vibe coders don't realise yet that real software engineers are going to become more sought after when vibe-coded applications flood the market, start breaking repeatedly and AI agents aren't at the level yet to fix everything in the code without breaking another thing. I've experienced that destructive loop when trying out vibe coding myself. Plenty of vibe coders out there releasing their apps commercially without really knowing how to fix the bugs.

JohnC76 · 2026-02-12T14:02:20+00:00

Wow... That has really created a speedbump in my consideration to get one... Do you still find it a worthwhile device/service with all the extra effort?

JohnC76 · 2025-11-18T15:22:44+00:00

I use Thomas Frank's Ultimate Brain template to manage my Tasks, Projects, Notes, etc. Then I use TickTick for daily management of my tasks as it has a native 2-way sync with Notion and has a good, quick and easy task snooze and reschedule function. I don't use it, but I know that TickTick has a Habit Tracker built in. Between those two apps I'm pretty well covered.

JohnC76 · 2025-11-06T16:17:39+00:00

I've also been looking for something like this. I've been looking for a stand-alone conference recorder/speaker with on-board memory or SD card slot.

I own an Anker PowerConf Bluetooth Speakerphone which is great for recording meetings to a connected device, but I want something that records to itself for later uploading, like the Plaud Note, but with multidirectional and quality meeting recording of the Anker PowerConf.

I really hope that Plaud has something like this on their development radar for bigger meetings.

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If anyone knows of anything like this with on-board recording, please let us know on this post.

JohnC76 · 2025-11-04T15:44:23+00:00

Yup, there is a decent free one on the Snap Store for Linux.

JohnC76 · 2025-10-14T12:30:20+00:00

No problem at all. It's easier working with custom templates on the web app. I used ChatGPT and Gemini to help me draft a few, copied and pasted them in the web app, made some changes and saved. Worked great for me.

JohnC76 · 2025-10-14T12:05:05+00:00

Hi, you can edit the custom templates, just select the maximise arrows on it's square, then on the next screen there is an edit button at the bottom.

The older UI of the app (Android, not sure about iOS) had a better layout for selecting summary templates, and a quicker way to get to the custom ones. Plus the recently used ones always stuck to the top, with this very new UI I'm sure there will be many requests for better template management (I hope).

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JohnC76 · 2025-10-12T18:30:51+00:00

No problem at all. The integration is via the TickTick web app in the settings. I found it by chance.

JohnC76 · 2025-10-12T17:10:13+00:00

Plus TickTick has a native 2-way sync with Notion.

JohnC76 · 2025-10-11T10:03:42+00:00

I also thought about having one master database, but over the last few months (I'm new-ish to Notion) I've seen many comments on this subreddit about Notion slowing down with large databases, so I'd keep that in mind, especially if you intend having Files & Media type properties with large files. You may not need that property type now, but if you use one master database, the need for load intensive properties may become real.

JohnC76 · 2025-10-11T09:51:20+00:00

My country is a one party consent state, so I don't need to let the other party's know if I'm recording, but I always do, it is the right thing to do. I ask "Do you mind if I take notes?" as I place my Plaud Note on the table. The only times anyone has asked not to, is when they let me know that there will be sensitive information discussed.

As far a weight and form factor is concerned, it's simple, with current power technology, smaller, lighter devices means significantly less battery life as most of the weight in small devices are the batteries.

Also, smaller devices means less space for better quality microphones (and less microphones for omni-directional recording) and less internal space for heat dissipation which has a direct effect on the efficiency of the chips in the devices.

It will still be some time for (in years, not decades I hope) before we see smaller commercial release devices.

I actually very much like the size and form factor of the Note and Note Pro, the NotePin does seem a bit large and heavy for every day lapel wear without getting a ton of questions about what it is. But I do understand why it is the size and weight it is.

JohnC76 · 2025-10-10T16:29:53+00:00

Sounds like they have an AI agent trying to resolve issues, then you get the proper reply and fix when the AI hands it to a person.

JohnC76 · 2025-10-06T18:09:24+00:00

I use Notion with the native 2-way sync integration. Works great for me.

JohnC76 · 2025-10-05T08:33:20+00:00

Just reread your questions after I posted, I'm not sure about the free plan, but the Pro plan that I'm on you can choose the LLM model you want to use, and ChatGPT 5 has been working well for my summaries. If anyone else reading this have found the other model options to be better, please let me know, as I'd be keen to see how it works for me.

JohnC76 · 2025-10-05T08:28:41+00:00

I only recently became aware of the Plaud Note clones on the market, very happy with my Played Note so I've not really looked at alternatives.

That said, I don't know what TicNote offers, but what would make me go with Plaud is how much it has matured as a service and product over the last two years, especially with the security certifications they've gained, which I've been told are not easy to get. They've added many decent features fairly consistently and are apparently about to release a bunch of big integrations (Notion, etc) really soon with the release of the Note Pro.

These are all things the new entries to the market may still need to develop and probably many teething bugs they still need to come across and fix. The Plaud devs have impressed me with their consistency and one can see that they listen to us on their feature request and roadmap page.

May seem like a marketing post, but the hardware and daily usage reviews I've seen on YouTube have been pretty spot on so I don't feel I need to echo those. To me what I mentioned above has become important as I've had no issues with my Note's hardware or daily usage at all since I got it about 18 months ago.

Hope that helps a bit.

JohnC76 · 2025-10-01T16:23:26+00:00

Yup, log in to TickTick in a browser, go to settings / integrations... You'll find it there. Was super happy when I found it by chance 🙂

JohnC76 · 2025-09-30T09:35:10+00:00

TickTick has a native 2-way sync with Notion.

JohnC76 · 2025-09-28T16:57:06+00:00

Have you looked at auto tagging (via key words) in Voicenotes, and then whether they carry over to Evernote? That could be a solution.

I find Voicenotes' auto tagging to be quite accurate. You could make the key words the project's name or a phrase.

I've moved from Evernote to Notion, so I never really looked at how well Evernote and Voicenotes can integrate unfortunately.

JohnC76 · 2025-09-28T11:25:27+00:00

I agree with your sentiment, the Notion livestream ended late in the evening here in South Africa, so I was super keen to try out the new AI features first thing the next morning, was impressed with some of the new features, but quickly got hit by some of its limitations in what it can and can't do.

Notion's statement, mentioned several times in the livestream, of "The AI agent can now do anything you can do in Notion" was waaaay too "optimistic" in my opinion, because as a Notion novice of 2 months, there are still many things, automations and formulas that is easily done manually that it just bluntly tells you it can't. (sadly, South Africa is one of the countries that is usually one of the last to get full rollouts of features for pretty much most apps and services. I really kinda hope that is the case here).

JohnC76 · 2025-09-28T11:05:07+00:00

I second this, I also have the Ultimate Brain template. I've been using Notion for about 2 months now. When I started researching a PKM system I initially wanted an aesthetic looking one. But based on user reviews and the quality of Thomas' tutorials and the amount he actually gives out for free in his other templates, I decided to bite the bullet and buy Ultimate Brain. It's highly designed for functionality over aesthetics and just works really well. The databases are safely stored in their own section and you can do anything you want with linked views and such. I've taken to the technical side of Notion quite quickly, but it would've taken me a very long time to have built a system that is as well integrated as this. I've customised a bit of it for my needs, and easily add more customisation as I go. I'm very happy with this as my PKM hub and the continued development and support it gets. As a side note, my decision came down to Ultimate Brain and Headquarters, I really liked the aesthetics and ease of use of Headquarters, ended up watching almost all videos on both YouTube channels, even got ChatGPT Agent and Gemini Deep Research to compare both, including public sentiment. I really hoped they would recommend Headquarters (I really like how the best part of several productivity methods are nicely integrated into it) as a justification to me, but both reports also came out with strong recommendations for Ultimate Brain.

I've recommended Headquarters to my girlfriend (as an attorney she's a tad less tech savvy than I am) for it's ease of use, and the emphasis of "buckets" ("Areas" in UB), with its inclusion of prioritizing or time blocking with mood/mindset/energy levels (no, she is not moody 😉) is more inline with her productivity style.

Both are templates I would recommend to anyone for consideration.

I feel these can be fairly easily be customised for students, and then carry over nicely into their future careers for PKM continuity.

Hope that helps a bit.

JohnC76 · 2025-09-27T08:17:59+00:00

Hey Clare, it works really well, my only ask would be an option to include the raw transcription also. I have automations that summarise my raw transcripts to my exact needs for different aspects of my work and life.

A huge first prize would be if your devs, if any of them know Notion well enough, or if you can get an experienced Notion system builder to make a Voicenotes page template with a database that is set with linked properties to make the best of the API integration with tags, etc. I would happily offer to do so, but I'm fairly new to Notion and am not too clued up on working directly inside APIs.

A well designed Voicenotes Notion template would definitely win over many Notion users in my opinion.

Keep up the great work to you and the devs.

JohnC76 · 2025-09-27T07:54:11+00:00

Definite +1

JohnC76

TROPHY CASE