Bear 2 is a major update to the popular note-taking app Bear, which was an immediate hit when it launched in 2016. The new version has taken a long time to build, over 5 years, as the developers decided to completely rewrite the underlying text editor to enable features like tables, GIFs, and footnotes. The developer says building a great text editing system proved more difficult than expected due to edge cases and complications. While Bear 2 has many new features, the developer wants to stay focused on the needs of average users rather than power users, and is skeptical of AI assistants in note-taking apps for now. Based on my experience with the beta, Bear 2 still captures what made the original great - it’s simple and fast like Apple Notes but with more powerful features.