Recces sought: wishlist app

[roisin and mac]

Hey all, I'm looking for a specific subtype of bookmarking app, one to save products. Consumer goods & gadgets. Nickel extractors, like my mom calls them. Stuff, in short!

It sounds like the totally obvious one is Pinterest, but I'm looking to see if there's any under appreciated gems out there that I should consider instead!

I have quite a lot of bookmarks (not products specifically mostly other topics really) & save new ones often, so I need to find a better system than just saving to my browser because that's pretty unwieldy. I will be posting a separate question later on asking for recces for research & annotation bookmark apps but I thought I'd start with the easier type, products.

I also have things saved using the 'Save for Later' or 'Wishlist' feature in various stores large (Amazon) and small. It would be nice to pull all of them into one place, esp. to include software recommendations (both in the App Store and off).

Pictures as visual aids would be great too! Even better if I can choose what goes in the tile or frame. I find pics really help jog my memory as to what was interesting enough about a specific link that I would bother to save it.

To make it easier to find stuff, it could be either tags/keywords, a search function (that would be luxury!) or even just different subfolders, like the 'boards' in Pinterest.

Finally wrt price: I'm not opposed to a paid solution, especially because I'd like it to be somewhat decent on privacy if possible, but would prefer no subscription models. It also doesn't even have to be an app I download! It could be just web based. I don't mind logging in to see this stuff.

Again I realise I am probably describing Pinterest basically, but I did want to check my options!

Thanks in advance

 

[chown33]

Please identify which Apple platform(s) you want the app to run on.

I assume from your statement "both in the App Store and off" that you want Mac apps, since that's the only platform that currently supports non-App-Store apps directly. This is also why I moved your thread to Mac apps. However, I could be wrong and you might be looking for something that runs across Apple devices, so clarification would be helpful.

 

[roisin and mac]

Thanks! Appreciate it, meant to state I wasn't sure this is the right place but forgot.

I'm fine with using this exclusively on my Mac laptop, especially as I''d be quite happy with just a browser-based solution (and might even prefer it, now that I think about it a little more). It's more in the functions than the platform for me. The only other platform I'd be interested in is iPhone, but again I'd rather a decent mobile site than yet another app.

But definitely the main way I'll use this on is my laptop.

 

[lpoolrob]

Have a look at https://raindrop.io/ - I think it will come close to what you are after.

 

[HDFan]

I'm looking for a specific subtype of bookmarking app,

Not exactly what you are looking for but Evernote allows you to clip a webpage and add it to a notebook of your selection in Evernote. Since the URL is saved as well this also serves as a bookmark. Once in a notebook there are search capabilities, and AI assisted searches are soon to be rolled out.

 

[roisin and mac]

Have a look at https://raindrop.io/ - I think it will come close to what you are after.

This actually could be good for the bookmarks I have that don't concern products, so thanks! Have you tried this yourself, or is this just something you've seen others talk about, or...?

Not exactly what you are looking for but Evernote allows you to clip a webpage and add it to a notebook of your selection in Evernote. Since the URL is saved as well this also serves as a bookmark. Once in a notebook there are search capabilities, and AI assisted searches are soon to be rolled out.

Do you use Evernote for bookmarks yourself? I've heard it can be a bit unwieldy to use unless you go all-in on using all the features, which I don't really want to do. But I DO like that it seems to have a web version.

 

[roisin and mac]

This is for mods (not sure how to call a mod to a thread, so I'm replying again to the previous message): I think I did a pretty lousy job describing what I need, and that's partly why I didn't get as many replies as I've had before on macrumors. Is it okay if I just post again with a similar subject? Sort of start over from scratch?

Or should I just edit the post here (it will be transformed substantially, but I'm not sure I can change the title of the thread so anyone who's seen it before won't be clicking again). How should I go ahead? Thanks in advance!

Please identify which Apple platform(s) you want the app to run on.

I assume from your statement "both in the App Store and off" that you want Mac apps, since that's the only platform that currently supports non-App-Store apps directly. This is also why I moved your thread to Mac apps. However, I could be wrong and you might be looking for something that runs across Apple devices, so clarification would be helpful.

 

[ignatius345]

I've just been using Notes for this. It works really well, especially with the rich URL previews it does now. Also supports hashtags, and you can attach as many photos or other info you want.

Any time I can use something stock instead of installing yet another app, I consider that a win.

 

[roisin and mac]

I've just been using Notes for this. It works really well, especially with the rich URL previews it does now. Also supports hashtags, and you can attach as many photos or other info you want.

Any time I can use something stock instead of installing yet another app, I consider that a win.

I feel the same way! existing apps is always where I look first, especially the ones bundled with my devices. How do you add in the bookmarks though - is one at a time the only way, like copy-pasting the link into the body of a Note? I would really appreciate it if you wanted to tell me more about how you use it as a bookmark manager, because I looked online a little and couldn't find a tutorial or anything like that.

 

[ignatius345]

How do you add in the bookmarks though - is one at a time the only way, like copy-pasting the link into the body of a Note?

I don't know if I'm using it as a "bookmark manager" exactly, but a link within a note will show a little preview of the page, like this below. When I see something I want to save to Notes, I use the share sheet from Safari and point it toward a new or existing note. I've got these organized into folders like "gift ideas" and such. Sometimes a bunch of things in one note, sometimes one thing per note. I'm using folders but you could also just use hashtags which are now supported. Goes without saying, but all of this syncs perfectly across iPhone, iPad, Mac.

 

[roisin and mac]

Wow. I...think I've pretty much found it?! Omg. I have looked so hard for stg that works. I don't really quite believe it yet lol. Sure, I'd like something that displays everything in a way that goes across the screen instead of one below the other, so I can view more than one or two links at a glance (because I'm on a 13" laptop, and I'm unlikely to ever get anything with a bigger screen to work on). But still - this is a thing that's likely to have way more staying power than just-about anything else out there, right?

But thanks!! I'm honestly kind of struck dumb because I hadn't thought of this and it's so simple and I just feel like it's gotta be too good to be true in some way I haven't yet spotted.

I don't know if I'm using it as a "bookmark manager" exactly, but a link within a note will show a little preview of the page, like this below. When I see something I want to save to Notes, I use the share sheet from Safari and point it toward a new or existing note. I've got these organized into folders like "gift ideas" and such. Sometimes a bunch of things in one note, sometimes one thing per note. I'm using folders but you could also just use hashtags which are now supported. Goes without saying, but all of this syncs perfectly across iPhone, iPad, Mac.

View attachment 2237206

 

[ignatius345]

I'm honestly kind of struck dumb because I hadn't thought of this and it's so simple and I just feel like it's gotta be too good to be true in some way I haven't yet spotted.

Like a lot of Apple's apps, Notes has been slowly but steadily getting better and better over the years. At one time it was really just a little text notepad, complete with fake handwriting font. But every release, it gets more powerful features. At this point I think it competes pretty well with any of the dedicated (and often subscription based) notes apps out there.

 

[roisin and mac]

Like a lot of Apple's apps, Notes has been slowly but steadily getting better and better over the years. At one time it was really just a little text notepad, complete with fake handwriting font. But every release, it gets more powerful features. At this point I think it competes pretty well with any of the dedicated (and often subscription based) notes apps out there.

I mean I knew that in theory just from skimming over the new features updates for each new OS, but I hadn't really thought to use it to collect links until you explained how! I still can't use it for organising my existing bookmarks, because there's too many of them to open one at a time & input into the Notes app. But it COULD work for these specific Wishlist/shopping links, since they don't even exist as bookmarks right now - I've just been writing them down in the back of my notebook.

But your last point about subscription note-taking apps is SO useful, because the marketing on this stuff honestly seems super pushy (makes sense with that subscription model I guess) so it's great to have this perspective in mind that the one you already have does a lot of this AND you won't be held hostage to the subscription.

 

[HDFan]

Do you use Evernote for bookmarks yourself?

I have 2 types of bookmarks. There are those which I use on a daily basis such as bookmarks to news sources, and there are those which refer to articles which I will want to find in the future but rarely use, such as Thunderbolt 5 specifications. These I save to Evernote using their Web Clipper. For the first category I use normal Safari folders. My news folder has maybe 30 bookmarks and the folder is easily accessible in Safari:



The seldom used ones I keep in Evernote. Given their number (~10000) Evernote makes finding a note that I created even years ago rather easy. Notebooks allows me to group similar items, and its advanced search features (filters, boolean operators, etc.) makes it easy to find things even when I only vaguely remember the bookmark. Since it saves the content in the note itself even when the original URL no longer works I still have access to the the deleted URLS content.

Since it syncs between devices I have access to years of bookmarks on my Mac, iPhone and iPads.

Only drawback personally is since their takeover the new prices are exorbitant.

 

[roisin and mac]

I have 2 types of bookmarks. There are those which I use on a daily basis such as bookmarks to news sources, and there are those which refer to articles which I will want to find in the future but rarely use, such as Thunderbolt 5 specifications. These I save to Evernote using their Web Clipper. For the first category I use normal Safari folders. My news folder has maybe 30 bookmarks and the folder is easily accessible in Safari:

View attachment 2237447

The seldom used ones I keep in Evernote. Given their number (~10000) Evernote makes finding a note that I created even years ago rather easy. Notebooks allows me to group similar items, and its advanced search features (filters, boolean operators, etc.) makes it easy to find things even when I only vaguely remember the bookmark. Since it saves the content in the note itself even when the original URL no longer works I still have access to the the deleted URLS content.

Since it syncs between devices I have access to years of bookmarks on my Mac, iPhone and iPads.

Only drawback personally is since their takeover the new prices are exorbitant.

Thanks!! This is exactly what I was wondering when I asked how you use it - I couldn't picture it properly. But the last note on prices is the part I'm worried about, I'm kinda worried about getting trapped into a system I have to keep paying or face losing so much work.