Hi David,
I'm currently trying to get to grips with
DEVONthink, which I got free bundled with a
Fujitsu ScanSnap (great for getting rid of years of paperwork!). Although I like the desktop version, I have to confess that I'm really disappointed with the associated
DEVONthink To Go App (for iDevices), so IMHO, I'd recommend waiting to see if the App is brought up to spec. before making the investment.
I've given
Evernote a fair crack-of-the-whip, but it doesn't really tick any of my boxes and I have to confess to cloud subscription fatigue, what with
MobileMe,
Dropbox, etc. etc.
I should admit that, unlike you, I don't want to store locally, I want to be able to access large quantities of data pulled on demand. I'm using
FileMaker Go for work GTD and it's been a revelation to be able to access our own server, which holds hundreds of gigs of data, whilst on the move.
At the moment, I'm a big fan of Underscore's
Notify App for iDevices. I found this by accident (it was a Genius recommendation) and was seriously impressed. I like creating 'scrapbooks' for notes, which can incorporate anything from audio, pictures, an Excel spreadsheet, etc. as well as text. Notify has a couple of unique features, such as being able to record a meeting while you type notes (and have each note linked to the timeline of the audio) and you can browse the web in Safari (or
Atomic and
iCab) and clip all or part of the webpage to a notebook whilst maintaining a link to the source. Notify also supports Send to OmniFocus (maintaining a link in the Notes field of an Action to the associated notebook), plus
TextExpander and
WritePad.
A few negatives! You need to watch the video tutorials, as it doesn't always follow conventions (ie. to scroll and pan, you use a two-fingered swipe), and some features (such as the customised keyboard) aren't immediately obvious how to set up. The handwriting recognition is powered by WritePad but requires an in-App purchase even if you already own the full WritePad App (I've had a rant (!) about this on
Phatware's forum, as this is their restriction). Also, the syncing isn't true syncing, what it does is keep an up-to-date PDF of a notebook in Evernote, Dropbox, etc.
However, Notify's developer is really responsive (I requested Send to OmniFocus, which was incorporated in the next release!) and there is a
Community Forum where you can post feature requests. It's a universal App and only costs a quid (couple of bucks), so even if you decide to give it a go and don't like it, hopefully it won't break the bank!
Hope the above is of some interest. :)