Hello
Anyone knows if the development of IdeaMason goes on? Their website myideamason.com looks like a new relaunch to do a version 4.0.
Anyone knows anything?
Thanks

It certainly does look as if a new version of IdeaMason is on its way. And that is underlined by the fact that they are now giving away version 3.1 as an unlimited trial. According to the trial downloads page, ?Lanus-Janus is a few weeks away from releasing IdeaMason 4.0, one of the most important upgrades in the company's history. . . . we know you will be excited to upgrade to the newest version, which will include Legal Bibliographical Styles, Custom Material Types, Versioning, and much more!?

I hope they fix the performance issues. The reason I stopped using 3.1 (after paying for a full version) was that it was just too slow. Of course, maybe after 4 years (!) it would perform faster on a modern laptop.

The following looks strange to me (taken from the TradeMarks/Copyrights link): ? 2005-2011 Lanus-Janus LLC

My license purchased 2007 says the following: Copyright ? 2005-2007 MasonWare LLC

As far as I remember, MasonWare LLC closed shop about a year after my purchase. Did Lanus-Janus already exist at the time? Did they purchase the rights to the software then? Didn't they also get the customer base?

The website is identical to the original IdeaMason website. Are they the same people with a different company name? In such a case, why the silence all these years?

I'm not a lawyer, so my bewilderment may well be a result of ignorance.

Interesting. I admired IdeaMason -- bought a license -- but found it cumbersome, and not just because it was slow. Still, it's good news that they are bringing IdeaMason back. I wonder what changed their minds, and if they are really committed to supporting the application now.

Steve

Hi.

Interesting news. I tried to contact Victoria Miller of IdeaMason but her email address is no longer working. So I wonder who the people behind Lanus-Janus are.

Franz

I've used their "contact us" button to send an e-mail asking what the deal is. So far no response.

Interesting news. I tried to contact Victoria Miller of IdeaMason but her email
address is no longer working. So I wonder who the people behind Lanus-Janus
are.

If it was ideamason.com address, it wouldn't work as that domain expired and has new owner, probably from Russia.
So that's probably why they had to go for new myideamason.com address. They also got lanus-janus.com registered, and don't ask for any money yet, so it's IMHO more likely legitimately looking resurrection so far. Let's see what they will bring.

Agreed about speed. No matter what bells and whistles they add, if it's not faster, I'm sadly not upgrading.

IdeaMason trial can still be downloaded from popular sites like Cnet http://download.cnet.com/IdeaMason/3000-2056_4-10398292.html?tag=mncol;1 which note Masonware as the company behind the product. An important omission IMHO.

Thomas wrote:

If it was ideamason.com address, it wouldn't work as that domain expired and
has new owner, probably from Russia.
So that's probably why they had to go for new
myideamason.com address. They also got lanus-janus.com registered, and don't ask
for any money yet, so it's IMHO more likely legitimately looking resurrection so far.
Let's see what they will bring.

I still have not received a reply to my inquiry to the new developer.

Frankly, I don't know of any instances where a change of ownership of software has had a positive result, no matter what good intentions the new developer has. It makes me even more skeptical when there is no transparency in the change over.

Steve

Today i got a new message from ideamason.

Yes the development goes on.
You can read it on:

http://www.myideamason.com/company/newideamason.htm

It seems to me that that statement from the new developers has been written with a degree of skill and sensitivity. It's a good start.

It's ironic that only a few weeks ago some of us were writing here regretting the application's passing, and noting that several rivals have effectively stepped into the niche.

Skill and sensitivity, indeed.

And a generous approach, making the existing version freely available to all as is, and then the new version for $25.

I had Idea Mason on my previous computer, but had not downloaded it onto the new Asus laptop - but it is there now!

I look forward to version 4. Citavi had intrigued me, but at $140 it is steep for my current budget.

Daly


Hugh wrote:

It seems to me that that statement from the new developers has been written with a
degree of skill and sensitivity. It's a good start.

It's ironic that only a few weeks
ago some of us were writing here regretting the application's passing, and noting
that several rivals have effectively stepped into the niche.

Version 4 is out: http://www.myideamason.com/products/version40.htm

Only $24.95! That's a lot of functionality for the price. I recall being impressed by the features and power of IM, but finding the interface cumbersome and slow. It will be interesting to see if the new developers address those concerns over time.

Steve Z.

Has anyone tried version 4 of Ideamson yet? I had version 3 and also found it cumbersome and so am hesitating before downloading the new version (it doesn't help that Norton deletes the set-up file every time I try to download it).

The content of a large proportion of the current website (myideamason.com) still seems to refer to version 3.

Regards,
Geoffrey Miller

I cannot say that I have tested it out extensively, but so far as I know, it cannot extract metadata from pdfs as Mendeley can. Therefore creating citations of so many pdfs as I have is a real turnoff. Moreover I was unable to import the xml file from endnote. I am also not sure whether it has an internal pdf editor like Mendeley has.