Next Generation of PersonalBrain Released as “TheBrain®

TheBrain 7 Augments Dynamic Knowledge Connections to Increase Focus and Data Accessibility on Users’ Desktops and in the Cloud.

Marina del Rey, CA – April 23, 2012 – TheBrain Technologies, the leading provider of dynamic visualization and knowledge management software, announced its newest release, TheBrain 7. The software enables people to connect information into infinite mind maps, modeling thinking and relationships in the real world.

TheBrain software, formerly known as PersonalBrain, has been downloaded by over a million users who seek to organize, visualize and share information more intelligently. Over half of the Fortune 100 organizations use TheBrain for digital brainstorming, research, project management, and as a complete knowledgebase to find and connect all their stuff.

“TheBrain 7 builds on our company’s guiding principle of flexible and fluid information access by offering even more ways to connect and link information,” said Harlan Hugh, TheBrain’s CEO and Chief Technology Officer. “The ability to prioritize and focus on the right information in context is critical. Your digital Brain ensures that your best ideas are at hand when you need them.’’

 

TheBrain 7 eliminates information overload and searching for files by giving users a clear view of their ideas and information. Unlike standard folder directories and search lists a “Thought” in your Brain can have many connections and contexts. TheBrain displays your Thoughts by concept or project, linked according to how you think. Thoughts contain relevant notes, web pages, and files and can be synced for easy access from the desktop and the cloud.

TheBrain 7 has over 50 new features and enhancements including:

·         Next Generation Data Visualization and Mind Mapping – TheBrain 7’s updated user interface gives you the big picture on your information. New animated curved links make it easier than ever to connect and understand key relationships. Expanded preferences let you fine-tune your display, including the ability to customize links with more than 30 possible combinations.

·         Enhanced Linking and Relationship Mapping –; TheBrain 7 lets you add more meaning to your connections. Links are now first class objects and can have arrows showing directionality, notes and attachments in addition to labels, colors and thickness. These powerful attributes allow precise concept modeling and give everyone the ability to capture and instantly recall how and why things are connected. 

• Seamless Integration between Cloud and Client – TheBrain 7 features tighter cloud/desktop integration which includes complete access to all your online Brains from your desktop and secure synchronization of data with TheBrain Cloud.

• Increased Performance and Improved Database Backend – Unlike conventional mind maps, each Brain can expand to become a powerful database with thousands of topics. There is no limit to the number of Thoughts or links you can make. TheBrain 7’s increased speed lets users visually navigate and retrieve information even faster.

·         More Tools for Getting Things Done – TheBrain 7’s user interface has been optimized throughout for increased productivity. Highlights include an optimized instant activate that prioritizes tags and types, a new calendar display engine, faster and easier color selection, reorganized preferences and controls, and smoother, faster syncing.

TheBrain 7 Pricing and Availability

TheBrain 7 is available for immediate download at http://www.thebrain.com and is offered in two editions: Free and Pro. TheBrain Free is offered at no charge. The Free edition does not expire and lets anyone link ideas and Web pages on their desktops and in the cloud. TheBrain Pro offers unlimited file management, advanced search, secure cloud backup, and much more. You can purchase TheBrain Pro as a desktop license only for $219 or with both the license and one year of services for $299, which includes future upgrades and the full suite of online sync and other cloud services.

TheBrain 7 Upgrades

TheBrain 7 is a complimentary upgrade to registered PersonalBrain 6.0 Pro users who purchased after April 30, 2011 or $100 if originally purchased before April 30, 2011. Existing users can check for upgrade discounts athttp://www.thebrain.com/store/upgrade/

The company is also offering an all-inclusive software upgrade and cloud services plan for $159 per year. TheBrain Service Plan includes

·         All upgrades as long as your subscription is valid

·         Online access of your Brain from a web browser

·         Backup of your Brain online automatically

·         Synchronization of your Brain across multiple machines

For more information on TheBrain Service Plan, please visit thebrain.com store, call 310-751-5000 or email sales@thebrain.com.

About TheBrain Technologies

TheBrain Technologies helps people make sense of the wide range of information they need to organize and assimilate on a daily basis. We believe that two Brains are better than one. And if you extend and capture your thinking about your projects and life you can get some amazing stuff done.

TheBrain's patented user interface is so flexible and fluid that you can link any file or concept to anything else. Everyone is encouraged to download TheBrain 7 at http://www.thebrain.com to visualize their thinking or e-mail info@thebrain.com for more information.

Media Contacts           

Shelley Hayduk
TheBrain Technologies

310-751-5000
shelley@thebrain.com

Brigitte Senn
TheBrain Technologies
310-751-5000
bsenn@thebrain.com

New Releases: Mindomo 6 & MindMapper 12

Although I haven't had time to completely review some of the new releases this week, I wanted to let you know that the folks at Mindomo have released their web based mind mapping application Mindomo 6 which is a major release and rewrite of the application. Mindomo 6 is a very attractive application that at times makes you forget that you are using a web based application running through the browser. I will have more to say about the program but wanted to let you know that Mindomo 6 has been released and if you can give it a test drive. I am including an embedded Mindomo 6 mind map to give you an idea of what is possible. One of my favorite features of online mind mapping applications is the ability to embed your map online by pasting a bit of code into the blog post as you will see.




SimTech this week also announced the release of  MindMapper 12 a full featured desktop mind mapping application for Windows. MindMapper 12 now sports the Fluid Interface Ribbon common in many Windows applications making it easier to use. MindMapper 12 now enjoys many more user panes to make the program easier to navigate and use. MindMapper 12 offers users some very sophisticated mapping structures to accomplish brainstorming, project management, presentation of ideas, as well as root cause analysis. MindMapper112  incorporates project management features as well as Gantt Charts for those professionals who need to track ongoing projects. Once I have a chance to sit down with MindMapper 12, I will share with you some of my thoughts.

It is exciting to be able to cover this arena and to see all of the choices we have in the tools that we use for our business and professional work. Stay tuned for more thoughts about these applications. In the meantime- if you have a chance go to SimTech's and Mindomo's Website and trial each of the applications and let me know how you make out.

Printing my iThoughtsHD Mind Maps with the HP ePrint Technology

Just this past week I updated my version of iThoughtsHD to Version 2 on my iPad and had a chance to create some great maps for some projects I am working on. One of the really great features of iThoughtsHD is the fact that it can open and export to a wide range of mind mapping formats. So regardless of which mind mapping application you are using on your desktop you can be sure that you will be able to open it with the leading mind mapping desktop applications. After I created a mind map with iThoughtsHD I realized that I wanted to be able to print it out on my new Hp D110 ePrint Printer. Since iThoughtsHD does not support printing at this time, I simply emailed the map to my HP D110 printer and within seconds my map was printed. Every Hp printer with ePrint technology has a unique email address which makes it  easy to mail all kinds of documents to. When you are ready to print from your computer or mobile device simply enter the the Hp email address for the printer and your are good to go. Talk about an easy way to print your iThoughtsHD mind maps.

CS Odessa Announces that ConceptDraw PROJECT v6 Import & Exports to Microsoft Project

PR Contact: Olin Reams
Phone: (408) 441-1150
oreams@csodessa.com

ConceptDraw PROJECT gains ability to exchange data with MS Project

San Jose, California (PRWEB) 23, March 2011  - CS Odessa today announced that ConceptDraw PROJECT v6 now has the ability to import and export Microsoft Project XML files, with new PROJECT EXCHANGE. Because of this ability to exchange data between ConceptDraw PROJECT and MS Project; users have increased flexibility on how to exchange project information with all members of the project team. The exchange of project data across different project applications keeps everyone informed and allows for quality collaboration among team members, as well as 3rd parties that have involvement in your project.
The ability to exchange project information is key to a project’s success. ConceptDraw PROJECT 6 has the ability to save to a MS Project XML file format so that ConceptDraw PROJECT files can be shared with users of MS Project (2003, 2007, and 2010) as well as any other project management tools that can accurately import MS Project xml file format.  This allows users of ConceptDraw PROJECT 6 and ConceptDraw Office 2 (contains ConceptDraw PROJECT 6) to generate project content that can be shared with all team members.
Project participants also have the ability to import MS Project files into ConceptDraw PROJECT 6 and ConceptDraw Office 2. This gives users an excellent alternative on the way they manage projects, and assists in the interoperability of project information between team members who have Macintosh and PC computers.
The ability to exchange data between ConceptDraw Office and MS Project is a big plus for project members because they can then use the other the other project tools that are part of ConceptDraw Office. As an example, ConceptDraw MINDMAP 7, part of ConceptDraw Office 2, can be used as a project front- end to brainstorm, build processes, identify contingencies and organize information for presentations to brief team members and stakeholders. The PROJECT EXCHANGE can be found in the CS Odessa ConceptDraw Solution Park.
CS Odessa provides a range of professional project software tools that assist you during every stage of your project. ConceptDraw Office uses powerful ConceptDraw INGYRE2 technology to make all tasks as easy as pushing a few buttons. The top to bottom integration of ConceptDraw Office, which includes the innovative standalone ConceptDraw PROJECT 6 product, are valuable tools to help Project Managers work towards their organization’s success.
In addition, CS Odessa also provides many project management solution add-ins that can be downloaded from ConceptDraw Solution Park. The combination of ConceptDraw Product and ConceptDraw Solution Park, from CS Odessa makes for an unbeatable value in project management software tools.
For more information, visit www.conceptdraw.com.
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MindView 4 Adds Audio Sound Recording

Matchware Inc., has added a number of new features to MindView 4, but one of my favorites is the ability to quickly record and idea and attach it to my mind map. You know there are times when you are brainstorming that the ideas are just flowing and what better way to capture it by simply doing a quick audio recording. To record audio in MindView 4 you simply click on the idea in your map and then click on the Insert tab and Click on the Sound icon. This brings up the Recording palette and you are then ready to record your ideas. Simple and elegant. Watch the video below to see just how easy it is to add an audio recording to your MindView 4 mind maps. To try out MindView 4 click here for a full working Trial Version.

Matchware Announces Mindview 4

It just came to my attention that Matchware has announced MindView 4 which is chock full of new and exciting features. One of the hallmarks of this release is collaboration and the ability to share your MindView 4 maps in a shared workspace.This feature will certainly herald in new and innovative ways to use mind mapping in the work space. Matchware has also included some new formatting and styles that can qucikly be applied and there is now the ability to Export to PDF which looks interesting.I for one am looking forward to finding out first hand the ins and outs of what looks to me to be a fantastic upgrade. Hope to do a review soon!

Context Organizer for MindManager

I have been meaning to write about Context Organizer from Context Discovery for some time now and was recently reminded just how important this tool will become as we become increasingly inundated with information that we will be required to juggle in the work that we do. In my last post about, Wordle I received an interesting comment that made me think about Context Organizer and its value in the work that we do as information workers. Wordle is an online application that can pull out the keywords that are in the text and create a way to help us visualize the key content that is body of the text. One of my readers has been using Wordle to do just that- by copying and pasting text into Wordle it can quickly give you the context of the material entered. It was this comment that sparked me to delve more into the Context Organizer which can be used to summarize web pages and documents of different types to help you pinpoint relevant information.

I was first attracted to Context Organizer because of the fact that it is an add-in to MindManager 7 & 8. Using Context Organizer you are able to quickly get the context of attached documents as well as web sites right within MindManager 8, that are visually displayed as topics and subtopics. In the screen shot to the left you can see that I have a PDF document attached to the topic, Inclusion Times Issue.
With Context Organizer running it automatically created the rest of the topics and subtopics to the left of the topic Inclusion Times Issue, by looking at the content of the PDF file that was attached. You can see that it pulled out the 3 top keywords as well as the Summary which gives me a great idea of what I would find if I were to open the PDF file and readthe entire document. Context Organizer will also will give you more extensive summaries of the PDF that are included within the the MindManager 8 map as you can see from the screenshot to the right. Context Organizer is very easy to use and when you Right click on a topic the Context Organizer menu options are displayed along with any Options that you would like to set. Context Organizer can also be used for determining keywords from websites that are connected to your visual maps from within MindManager 7 & 8. If you are a MindManager 7 or 8 user and are looking for a tool to help you wade through piles and piles of documents and or websites than you should definitely take a look at Context Organizer for MindManager. Context Organizer works with MindManager 7 as well as 8 and is a very handy tool to help you find the context of the documents as well as websites right within MindManager. There is a free trial available at the Context Discovery website. So give it a try and post your comments here.

MindMeister 3.1 Released

One of the first mindmapping Web 2.0 applications that I tried awhile back was MindMeister and it continues to be one of the leading online mindmapping applications available. Just today MindMesiter released version 3.1 with lots of added features. One of the features which I feel will be a welcome addition is the ability to add relationships to your map. MindMesiter calls these graphic cross connections which are easily added by clicking on the Connect button on the Tool bar. You can see in the map below how I added the green connection arrow from one node to another one in the map. In Version 3.1 it is now possible to alphabetize the nodes and so that they are sorted alphabetically. If an individual who has been invited to collaborate on the map but has not yet entered the map a coffee cup icon will appear and by clicking on the coffee cup icon you can "nudge" them to participate. It has also just gotten a lot easier to take your maps offline. No longer do you have to wait for endlessly for all your maps to synch when you go to offline mode - a new dialog allows you to choose which maps you want to take offline. Very useful if you have a lot of them!So check out MindMeister and sign up for a free account. You will also find it easy to embed yourMindMeister maps on your website or blog to communicate your ideas. Below is an actual map that was created with MindMesiter that you can interact with. Let me know what you think.

XMind -- An Open Source Brainstorming and Mind Mapping Software!

XMind, a leader in mind mapping, visual thinking and collaboration software, helps you to think and create, and to collect and organize information with great flexibility.

Even more, you can also easily share your mind maps online with any people. As an Open Source software application , XMind also brings Web 2.0 concepts and community online sharing.

XMind will enable you to:

* Easily capture your ideas from brainstorming sessions

* Easily organize information for meetings and presentations with a wide range of formats

* Share your ideas and broadcast your knowledge to the world

MindManager 8 Web Services Video Up

Each month for the past year I have produced a video tutorial or tip for Mindjet Connections Newsletter and I am happy to report this month's video is up on the topic of Web Services, a new feature found in MindManager 8. MindManager 8 Web Services offers users some very powerful search features that can be accessed right within the MindManager8 without having to leave the application. In the video I demonstrate how you can use both the Amazon and Google Web Services right within MindManager 8. I hope you enjoy the video tutorial.

RobiNZ MindManager 8 for Kiva Auction

In the spirit of the holiday season Robin Capper who is well known to the MindManager Community is auctioning off a copy of MindManager 8 on eBay with100% of the proceeds going to benefit the community loan charity, Kiva.org. Here is more information on the Kiva Organization (http://www.kiva.org/), and on Robin's original blog post: http://tinyurl.com/62mo8h. Happy Holidays to all!

PollDaddy and MindManager 8

You probably know by now, that I like tinkering with new Web 2.0 services and decided to give PollDaddy a try. PollDaddy lets you create a free account and create polls and surveys free of charge. There are some limitations with the free account- but I decided to give it a try and see what happens. So if you can indulge me and fill out I the poll I created I would appreciate it.

On the heals of the release of MindManager 8 I thought it might be interesting to see what new features are most valuable to you and how you are using MindManager to accomplish your work and personal goals. I have also included some questions about your interest in training and what add-ins you are currently using with MindManager. So if you can take the time to complete it I will summarize the data and report back here with the results. Click here to go to the poll. Thanks- Brian

Mindjet Player Screencast

I am really jazzed up about the Export to Mindjet Player feature found in MindManager 8 because it opens up all kinds of possibilities for teaching and training. In the this screencast I demonstrate just how easy it is to share your maps using MindManager 8. You can click on the screenshot below to launch the screencast. Just a note once the Title screen appears you will need to click on the Play button to continue to view the screencast. Enjoy!

Embedding MindManager 8 SWF Files

One of the most important features from my perspective that is new to MindManager 8 is the ability to Export to Mindjet Player in a PDF or Flash File (SWF) format. Now I'm able to share my MindManager maps with just about anyone who has access to Flash or Adobe Acrobat Reader- which are found on nearly 98% of all computers. In this post I am going to embed a MindManager 8 maps which has been exported as a SWF file. You will see below the results of me embedding the map. You have complete control over opening and closing the topics and you can click on the links to take you out to the web sites. This is going to be a tremendous feature for me when teaching my graduate course. I will now be able to post my visual maps as a Mindjet Player PDF file and post it to BlackBoard for all my students to access. What is really great is that the links and Notes are preserved. This alone is worth the price of an upgrade.