Demo 2008 -Livescribe Pulse Smartpen in Action

Demo 2008 is a unique conference that hosts the latest and greatest technology companies. This year 77 companies from all different markets were invited to demonstrate their latest technology offerrings. At Demo 2008 Ceo Jim Marggraff demonstrated the Livescribe Pulse Pen. I for one am really excited with its potential and thought that you would like to see the live demo.

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GyroQ to the Rescue

First I would like to thank Nick Dufill from Gyronix for providing me with a copy of GyroQ to review. GyroQ is a simple and elegant application that compliments MindManager and makes it easy for you to stay on task. I for one always have my MindManager maps open so that if I get a thought or an idea I can enter it into the map. With GyroQ I can continue to do work on my tasks and if an idea or an action items comes into my mind I can quickly open GyroQ and add the idea to the queue without breaking my stride. GyroQ has a number of built in tags that lets you categorize your entry as you quickly type it in. Some of the tags included are: Idea, Information with Clipboard, Action Item, I Owe, and I'm Waiting for. When using GyroQ you simply press the Control-Q to bring up the GyroQ window, select your tag and then press enter. Now you can return to your work and not be distracted by looking for just the right MindManager map to place the information into. At the end of the day you simply open up your GyroQ Daily Capture Map and click on Send Queue and all of your ideas, actions and entries are automatically consolidated and added to your mind map. GyroQ is a wonderful addition to MindManager and its power is in the simplicity of the application. You can download a trial version of GyroQ at the Gyronix website.

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Spinscape Announced at VizThink 2008

For those of you that read Jonathan Sapir's Blog, MindMapping 2.0 today he announced in a post that he has been working closely with BOSSdev in bringing Spinscape, a mindmapping 2.0 product to market. This is a description that I found on the Spinscape Blog about the product.

Spinscape™ is a collaboration tool that introduces a completely new way of gathering and managing information. This tool provides a compelling solution to the problem of finding, visualizing, organizing, and sharing information by enabling individuals to collaborate and navigate over the web.

With an easy-to-use interface, users have the ability to auto-discover information from multiple digital sources, create meaningful relationships between nodes of information, and then securely share and collaborate over those nodes with selected users.

Spinscape is in private beta at this time but if you are interested in an invitation to the beta, please send an email at jasapir@gmail.com.

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Livescribe Pulse Smartpen to Ship in March

A couple of months ago I reported on the development of the Livescribe pen and its unique features. I just learned that the LiveScribe Pulse Smartpen will begin shipping in March and there will be two different versions, a 1 Gigabyte version ($149 dollars) that can store up to 100 hours of audio and a 2 Gigabyte version ($199 dollar) that can store 200 hours of audio. This has the potential to be a great tool for students who have difficulty with note taking. The Pulse pen will include a Getting Started Guide, a Notebook, Docking unit, and Ear buds with built-in microphones. As part of the system students will be able to share their smart notebooks over the web as well as be able to search their notebooks for specific information. I for one am very excited with the platform they are building and the potential for this tool. Watch CEO Jim Marggraff talk about the Livescribe Pulse pen during an interview with a CNET reporter.

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ConceptDraw MINDMAP 5.3 Creates Visual eBooks

I received this email today from CS Odessa about some new features in ConceptDraw MINDMAP 5.3 that I thought would be of interest to you. You can upgrade your copy of ConceptDraw MINDMAP 5.X for free at the Odessa website.

CS Odessa’s ConceptDraw MINDMAP 5.3 Creates Visual eBooks

Odessa, Ukraine, January 29, 2008 – CS Odessa today announces the release of ConceptDraw MINDMAP 5.3, a new version of CS Odessa’s mind mapping business productivity software. The 5.3 update adds a new unique capability of creating visual eBooks based on mind maps and several other important additions.

Visual eBook is an electronic book where all the information is presented as a mind map rather than text paragraphs. Each page of a Visual eBook is a mind map that is grouped by chapters and paragraphs like in a text book. Visual eBook is a great solution for preparing learning materials within academic and business environments.

ConceptDraw MINDMAP 5.3 has everything that users need to create Visual eBooks. The software features a comprehensive visual mapping toolset that gives customers the ability to create multi-page maps with hyperlinks to other mind maps as well as a PDF export that creates multi-page documents and preserves all of the links between maps and topics. Visual eBook creation guide can be found at
http://www.conceptdraw.com/pg?id=mm_5.3_press-ebook

Yury Varbanets, Product Manager of ConceptDraw MINDMAP notes, “The ability to easily make multi-page PDF documents from the mind maps with all the hyperlinks and interrelationships preserved is essential for many coaches and educators. We’ve developed ConceptDraw MINDMAP 5.3 to help to convey information in a format that is easy to learn from by creating a visual book.”

There were other additions introduced in ConceptDraw MINDMAP 5.3. These are the ability to send a map via email from inside the application and the option to turn off the background from printing. Map style presets were also redesigned and now they look more professional. All the enhancements can be found in both the Macintosh and the Windows versions of the software.

ConceptDraw MINDMAP 5 is an easy-to-use tool that supports mind mapping and brainstorming techniques, as well as many other personal productivity methodologies. It is supposed to provide businesses and individuals with creative way to increase the efficiency and productivity when organizing ideas and projects, or when communicating with people.

More information about the ConceptDraw MINDMAP 5 can be found at:
http://www.conceptdraw.com/pg?id=mm_5.3_press-about

The update to ConceptDraw MIDNMAP 5.3 is free for all registered users of ConceptDraw MIDNMAP 5.x. ConceptDraw MINDMAP 5 is available at the price of $199 USD for the Professional edition and of $119 USD for Personal edition at:
http://www.conceptdraw.com/pg?id=mm_5.3_press-buy

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Buzzword Has Been Updated

For those of us who are moving toward more collaborative tools on the Internet then you should take a look at Buzzword, a collaborative word processor from Adobe. I had a post earlier last year about the features and my first impressions but now it looks like with the support of Adobe that it is really becoming a unique product to take a look at. Once you are in the Buzzword environment you will find that the application is both fast and very visually attractive. I just received and email today about some feature enhancements which I thought you would be interested in knowing about.

New features in Buzzword Preview 7

Remember to clear your browser cache
before you try out the new version. If you would like instructions on clearing
your cache, go to: http://about.buzzword.com/support/emptycache.html



Colors in Tables

You can now add color to tables in
Buzzword - the background color can be set cell-by-cell or for the entire table.
You can create the look you want using both border colors and table cell colors
to enhance the contents.



Text Highlighter

Highlighting
text is one of the new features many of you have requested. Select the highlight
color from the font menu - for any color in our palette. It's a useful way to
draw attention to words, phrases or sections either for you, for others
co-authoring or reviewing a document.



User Information on Shared
Documents

When you're sharing documents, it's sometimes important to
know who has opened the document, which version they read, and so on. You can
now find that information by hovering over each user icon on the collaborator
bar. The new information tells you whether the person has opened the document
and, if so, whether he/she opened the current document or an earlier version. If
you want to send out a quick reminder, copy the document URL and email or IM
your team to remind them to read the document or review changes.



Sharing Invitation Links

Sometimes email inviting
colleagues to share a document can be delayed, or even worse, caught in a spam
filter. There is now a quick, direct way to invite people who are new to your
sharing list. On the collaborator bar, you'll see the option to copy the link
when you hover over the user's icon. Once you've shared a document, any new
documents you share appear in their Document Organizers automatically.



More Import and Export File Formats

Great news -
Buzzword now imports and exports .docx file formats for Microsoft Word 2007.
We've also added import/export plain text (txt), and export to HTML so that you
can use Buzzword to create documents that can be used with Wikis, web pages and
other applications.



Some Small Features and Tune Ups We Hope
You'll Like

Buzzword is a work in progress. We've made a number of
improvements based on user feedback. For example, the Font menu shows a sample
of the font; we've added strike-through; and Buzzword remembers the sort order
in the Document Organizer from the last time you used Buzzword.



And, there's a very cool new list type - check boxes. The list
gives you empty check boxes when you first create the list. You can check things
off just by clicking on the check box!



And, please, keep the
feedback coming!

We're very interested in your feedback - not just the
good news, but also any areas you think we need to improve. Please let us know
what you think! (http://forum.buzzword.com or feedback@buzzword.com.)


The Buzzword Team

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Google Updates Presentation

Google quietly added two new features to Google Presentation recently which I wanted to share with you. Now it became easier to share your presentations by allowing you to export your presentations to PDF. This is a good stop gap measure until we get the ability to export our Google Presentations to PowerPoint format (ppt). Google Presentation has also added the ability to add vector based shapes to your presentation. You can now add speech balloons and arrows to your presentations to bring attention to your points. Take a look at the presentation below.

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No Limits To Learning

It came as a real surprise to me, when I read one of the comments posted today on my blog; to find one of my former students from Pendleton, OR write a post about me in his blog. About 3 years ago, I taught an Introduction to Assistive Technology class for Lesley University and had a chance to speak with Lon over some lunch. We chatted about what he was presently doing and I remarked that once the district learned that he had knowledge of assistive technology and that he was working toward his Master's degree that they would put him into a leadership position. Sure enough this is what happened and Lon is overseeing a large region providing assistive technology services to students. Lon is passionate about the work that he is doing and is blogging about it at No Limits To Learning. It is always exciting to hear from your students that they are doing great things! If you have the chance you can read his post by clicking here.

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Kidspiration 3 Announced

Today Inspiration, Inc. announced that Kidspiration 3 will be released on February 6th. Kidspiration 3 adds lot of new features which really make this a very substantial upgrade. Kidspiration 3 will now allow students to use the expanded Symbol Library with over 3000 pictures as well as searching the symbol library for pictures when connected to the web. Kidspiration 3 now included Word Guide which is an online dictionary and thesaurus which is great for language development. Kidspiration 3 now includes an extensive visual math tools which makes it an ideal tool for interactive white boards. Teachers will have access to color tiles, pattern blocks, base ten blocks, fraction tiles and fraction boxes. Once I have had a chance to use Kidspiration 3, I will give my thoughts

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MindManager Tip: Using the Paint Formatting Tool

I read today's Mindjet MindManager's blog post about using the Paint Formatting Tool and decided to create a screencast using Camtasia Studio 5.1 to show you how it is done. This tip was shared by Roger Parker noted author and mind mapping expert-who has done a great deal of work with MindManager in the course of writing and consulting. Click on this link to view the screencast.

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Dictate for the Mac to Be Released Soon

One of the areas which Windows based computers really excelled was in speech recognition- but that could all be changing with the soon to be released Mac product called Dictate. MacSpeech and Nuance Communications, the developers of Dragon Naturally Speaking have teamed up to bring Dictate to the Mac with a whole new rewrite of the underlying speech engine. Dictate requires Mac OS X 10.4.11 or higher, and requires Intel-based Macintosh hardware. Coming with your choice of headsets, Dictate will be priced starting at $199 and is expected to ship by February 15, 2008.

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., January 15, 2008 - Macworld Conference and Expo 2008, Booth #607 – MacSpeech, Inc., the leading provider of speech recognition solutions for the Mac, and Nuance Communications (Nasdaq: NUAN), developers of Dragon® NaturallySpeaking®, today announced an agreement to bring the world's best speech recognition solution to Mac users worldwide.

MacSpeech, Inc. has licensed underlying dictation technology from Nuance Communications, Inc. for its new MacSpeech Dictate™ product (see today's related announcement).

"MacSpeech, Inc. is the authority on speech recognition for the Macintosh," explained Andrew Taylor, president and CEO of MacSpeech, Inc. "Nuance provides an exceptional dictation technology engine that lets us focus on what we do best, which is to provide the user experience Macintosh users expect. Nuance is a class organization with a best of breed technology, and frankly we're thrilled to work with them to bring great speech recognition software to the Mac."

"We are pleased to help MacSpeech provide a dictation solution, powered by Dragon NaturallySpeaking technology, to users that require a native Macintosh dictation application," explained Peter Mahoney, vice president and general manager of the desktop dictation business unit for Nuance Communications. "MacSpeech has intimate knowledge of the Macintosh platform and deep understanding of Macintosh users. This collaboration brings an unparalleled opportunity to provide the world's best dictation technology in a solution that is 100 percent Mac."

For the first time, MacSpeech, Inc. today began conducting live demonstrations of its upcoming MacSpeech Dictate product, powered by dictation technology from Nuance Communications, in Booth #607 on the Macworld Conference and Expo 2008 show floor.

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MindManager 7 Mac Now Leopard Compatible

Mindjet has announced today that they have released an update to MindManager 7 Mac that now supports Apple's latest operating system Leopard. The release now supports Quick Look which allows users to preview the mind map without having to open the file. The Service Pack is a free upgrade and is available for download at the Mindjet website.

For those of you who will be attending the MacWorld 2008 event you can stop by Booth #S1443 and say hello to the folks at Mindjet, Inc and see the latest version of MindManager 7 Mac in action. Mindjet will be exhibiting in partnership with AEC software, the developers of Fastrack Schedule 9.2 a full featured cross platform project management software application for the Macintosh. You can check out the review of Fastrack Schedule 9.2 that I did this summer to see how it integrates with MindManager 7 Mac. Likewise, you can read my review of MindManager 7 Mac that I did earlier this year.

If anyone is going to MacWorld 2008 please feel free to email me with your feedback about new products that you see.

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Zink Pocket Printer

One of the products that was featured at CES 2008 was the Zink (Zero Ink) Enabled Printer that will become available in the Fall 2008. The first Zink Pocket printer which should be available Fall 2008 is joint collaboration of Zink, Inc and Polaroid. The Zink Mobile printer uses crystal technology which is overlayed on the paper that then gets exposed to heat with a thermal head within the printer. The Zink Pocket printer produces borderless full color 2"x3" peel-and-stick ZINK photos from digital cameras and camera phones. The Zink Pocket printer has built in Bluetooth and will support PictBridge This means that you will be able to print pictures from your cell phone using Bluetooth technology as well as print from your digital camera using the PictBridge USB cable. I suspect that this will be a hot product and one product that you will want to keep your eyes on. See it in action at CES 2008.

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A Reader's Comment

I wanted to share with you an email that I just received from Roberta today which inspires me to continue the work that I do on the blog. Roberta lives in Italy and has been an avid mindmapper in all realms of her life. I hope you enjoy this glimpse into how she is using mind maps and take the time to visit her blog. It is exciting to know that mind mappers all over the world are enjoying my blog. Enjoy Brian

PS; If anyone else is interested in sharing their mind mapping experiences and how they are using it in their personal, business or professional life just shoot me an email.

hi brian s. friedlander

my name is roberta
and i live in rome, italy

i love mindmaps !

i don't speak english very well
but i try to read your fantastic blog

this is my life map n.0
and this is my story

One day i got on a special train and started a research trip. During this trip i have discovered that my thoughts must not necessarily run straight like a train, but they can simply follow their natural course according to a radial structure similar to the one of the brain neurons. Now, thanks to the mind maps, i look at what happens around me from different points of view: not only the logic, rational one, but also the emotional and creative one i can think and write in a different way, effective and amusing:i can turn the sheet of paper from vertical to horizontal, pass from the linear to the radial writing, use all the colours i want free my creativity. Since 2004 i have been using the mind maps daily to organize my work: plan new processes with my colleagues, synthesize books and above all take notes during the meetings, lectures, brainstorming sessions. Thanks to the technique of the mind maps i have begun to slow down the train of my thoughts: looking at the landscape outside my window discovering myself like this!

if you want read all my story
Story of a thought which from linear became radial again
http://www.complexlab.com/Members/rbuzz/articoli/pensiero%20radiale

this is my blog
http://mappementaliblog.blogspot.com

today I have written this post
http://mappementaliblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/mind-map-library.html

i hope that you want to dedicate a post to my story

thank you
ciao
roberta

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