If you’re an Emacs user who has an iPhone or iPad, I’d be willing to bet that you’ve been yearning for an implementation of Emacs on iOS/iPadOS. I know I have. Sadly, I’ve haven’t seen any movement in that direction. What we do have, though, are various projects to bring Org-mode to our Mobile devices.
For many people, that’s probably what they really want. No one, I’m sure, is wishing they could edit files on their iPhones or Android-based phones. A better case can be made for Emacs on the iPad but, really, what many (most?) people want is a way of viewing their agenda, capturing new data or tasks, and closing out completed tasks on their phones.
The two projects that I hear the most about are Orgzly for Android and Beorg for the iPhone. Now there’s a third contender: Organice. Alain M. Lafon, who gave that excellent talk last year on Playing Emacs Like an Instrument, has another nice presentation, this time on using Org mode from the browser and smartphone. Organice is meant to be an implementation of Org-mode that’s independent of Emacs. You can use it on your desktop/laptop in the browser or you can use it on your mobile phone. It works with both iPhone and Android phones.
This looks like a really interesting project that may go a long way toward scratching that itch that all Org-mode users have: a desire to take Org with them when they’re away from their computers. Organice’s introduction gives everybody at least two choices for Org-mode on their phones. It also gives those poor souls not using Emacs access to one of our editor’s killer features.