Mac Software

Posted by Hugh
Apr 17, 2008 at 09:42 PM

Stephen Zeoli wrote:
>Two additional Mac PIM-like apps cropped up from the references you all supplied
>me:
> >1. Curio (http://www.zengobi.com/products/curio/)
>2. SOHO Notes
>(http://www.chronosnet.com/Products/sohonotes.html)
> >Anyone have any
>experience with these? If so, what do you think? (Should I infer from the fact that no
>one mentioned them yet that they fail to make the grade?)
> >Thanks!
> >Steve Z.

SOHO Notes is in theory one of, if not the, most feature-rich of the “note-taker-type” Mac apps. In practice, unfortunately, the review boards contain numerous complaints about the alleged instability of the software and the unresponsiveness of the developers to requests for technical support. To be fair, there are also some users who say it’s stable, it works and it’s very good. I think many of the complaints seem to date from one upgrade that corrupted pre-existing data. But possibly not all. I downloaded a trial and deleted it but still have bits hanging round my MacBook.

Curio, by contrast, is a stable and excellent but sometimes overlooked programme, for which I have a licence. I don’t know of a direct Windows equivalent. The best description of it that I can think of is that it is a hugely-extensible virtual whiteboard, on which you can place files, text-boxes, images, simple mind-maps, freehand witing and drawing, all graphically linked and supported by a database and a web browser dedicated to searching image-banks. I use it for brainstorming, when you throw stuff at the wall to see what sticks. I wouldn’t use it for outlining factual composition, where the logic of the material often tends to impose its own form on it, and there are other requirements as well. But for anything freeform, it’s pretty useful.