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Jerry Michalski: Lessons from 15 years using TheBrain
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Posted by Joshua Cearley
Jan 25, 2014 at 11:54 AM
I toyed around with an older version of PersonalBrain. I think its really cool in concept, but generally expensive for what it does. To top off the expense, the insistence for online activation is a major off-putting part; especially considering Storybook just disappeared out of the blue.
It seems like very little actually changes between versions except for small conveniences, and I really wonder if those conveniences are worth the hundred or so dollars that upgrades seem to cost. I might actually use this if it was more accessible, since the concept is neat.
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Jan 25, 2014 at 04:17 PM
Joshua,
(welcome to the forum by the way, unless I’ve missed you in much earlier posts)
I expressed a similar impression here http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/3223/5 but I believe I stand corrected. You might want to take a look at that thread and others on TheBrain in this forum.
The original ‘plex’ user interface itself remains at the centre of things and looks relatively unchanged, but there are actually quite a few improvements around. Whether they are useful to you as a user is another thing. Also, my impression is that during TheBrain’s history quite a lot changes have been implemented ‘under the hood’, gradually supporting, among others:
- Cross-platfom compatibility (re-engineered from the ground up in Java)
- Web access and synchronisation across devices, for the same user
- Collaboration between several users http://www.thebrain.com/products/teambrain/
The latter seems to be associated with the latest version of TheBrain (8). I had checked several times while 7 was the active version, and TeamBrain was always in beta.
Posted by Garland Coulson
Jan 26, 2014 at 05:58 AM
I looked at the presentation and found it interesting. I decided to give The Brain another try.
I was intrigued by the interface, but the lack of an Android app is a real killer for me. If I can’t use it on my mobile devices, it can’t replace Evernote for me.
Posted by Paul Korm
Jan 26, 2014 at 01:04 PM
It’s possible today with webbrain.com (theBrain Cloud Services) to work with a brain in a browser on a mobile device. I do not see this as an Evernote replacement, however, now or any likely time soon. I’ve settled for now on using a brain that I’ve created just for mobile devices—and then later back at the desktop harvesting thoughts from that and moving them into a main brain. This is because the mobile device displays are too small for me to work comfortably with a large brain in WebBrain.
Garland Coulson wrote:
>If I can’t use it on my mobile devices, it can’t
>replace Evernote for me.
Posted by Garland Coulson
Jan 28, 2014 at 03:43 AM
Hi Paul,
I often work offline on my smart phone and Evernote handles this well, just synchronizing when I reconnect. The webbrain.com service only works if you are totally connected, I believe.
So the lack of Android app really makes me cross it off of my list even though I would like to try it. I just can’t invest that kind of time building my personal knowledge base if I can’t take it with me on my mobile devices.
Garland
Paul Korm wrote:
It’s possible today with webbrain.com (theBrain Cloud Services) to work
>with a brain in a browser on a mobile device. I do not see this as an
>Evernote replacement, however, now or any likely time soon. I’ve
>settled for now on using a brain that I’ve created just for mobile
>devices—and then later back at the desktop harvesting thoughts from
>that and moving them into a main brain. This is because the mobile
>device displays are too small for me to work comfortably with a large
>brain in WebBrain.
>
>Garland Coulson wrote:
>>If I can’t use it on my mobile devices, it can’t
>>replace Evernote for me.