TheBrain 9 is now available as a beta:

http://www.thebrain.com/products/thebrain/thebrain9/download

I've been using the alpha "preview" throughout the 123 preview releases over the past several months. It's shaping up to be a good app -- brand new interface and new features. There is a document available at the page linked above describing the changes. Not yet "very good". Just good.

My take is that the product is 75% ready. The iOS version is still primitive and has not been updated. The web version is in the same state. And there are some major features of version 8 that have been ignored so far -- especially the ability to "crawl" a brain and select all related thoughts. In a very large database this is a major miss, for me. The new search and reporting features make up for this gap somewhat. Not completely.

I trust that the product will continue to evolve during the beta phase. The development team is very responsive and the alpha forum has been one of the best I've participated in.

Forgot to mention. No JAVA!

Also, however, no calendar integration -- a major heartburn for many testers.

TB9 has tabs -- the same database can be opened in multiple tabs and different databases in different tabs.

Thanks, Paul.

I am looking forward to the day TheBrain 9 is out of beta. I rely on TheBrain 8 every day and some of the features of version 9 are really appealing:

- having multiple brains open at the same time and instantly accessible via tabs
- focus on notes and new notes editor
- faster performance (no longer Java-based), so less ponderous

I hope the webbrain sync will be faster, too.

Have they given any ETA for when they hope to go live with version 9?

Steve Z.

Steve, I haven't seen any word on the release date for TB9 final. Since the preview process was very long, and the product is pretty stable (albeit needing some features, IMO), I'm guessing the beta will not be long.

You can run TB9 side-by-side with TB8. The format for the databases are different so if you import a TB8 brain into TB9 you'll get a separate copy.

Thanks for this news, Paul. Less clunkiness/"ponderousness" will be a major improvement for me.

But all credit to the developers for going ahead with such a big re-build at this stage in the history of the application.

Just my 2 cents here:

I switched to TheBrain v9 four weeks ago and I do not regret it. It was a bit risky but I have no issues. I don't miss the calendar to my own surprise. I am using MindManager for reminders instead.

Further, TheBrain v9 has a
- much faster and very reliable sync process
- very fast indexing system and search engine
- nice GUI which looks exactly the same on macOS and Win

The notes editor is ok and you have to get used to it. It is based on HTML and CSS and I am sure that we can create our own notes template in the near future. You can open the same brain in several tabs what is very useful.

The development process of v9 was slow at the beginning but there are updates every two to three days in the meantime. The slow process has one big advantage: TheBrain v9 is very stable now and the developers are really listening to the feedbacks of the beta testers and do fix critical issues within a few days.

The long development time proofs that the company is really keen on keeping the product alive. Such a huge technology change has a big impact and bears a big risk for the company as they have written v9 completely from scratch. This investment is very wise as TheBrain v9 is based on proven and reliable technologies (C++, HTML(5), CSS, JavaScript etc.).

All the best,
Dominik

There was an interesting thread in the v9 beta forum the other day between an IBM Watson Group team member and the v9 developer lead exploring the possibility of using v9 as "discovery" "concept navigator" for relationships that Watson might have found in a large corpus of documents. The discussion went offline, so it will be interesting to see if something develops on this front. v9 uses JSON as input and Watson produces JSON as output -- so the possible interface is enabled by the technology upgrades that the v9 team is working on.

Now, I have no plans or the funds to put a Watson in my garage, but it interesting to see potential cooperation at this level -- for me, it underscores the commitment of TheBrain to its new product direction and continued expansion of features -- albeit in a direction that is mostly of interest to corporate and governmental clients. We ordinary folk might get some of the shine, too.

I would rather have the developers focus on core usability issues and shipping the new release in a stable state?
Arguably, another distraction that further slows down development is the last thing TheBrain needs right now - perhaps the goal is to sell off the company to IBM and call it a day?

Paul Korm wrote:

There was an interesting thread in the v9 beta forum the other day
between an IBM Watson Group team member and the v9 developer lead
exploring the possibility of using v9 as "discovery" "concept navigator"
for relationships that Watson might have found in a large corpus of
documents.

I more find it hard to believe that IBM doesn't already have something like this?

I was at a tech conference in 2007 where someone demoed his side project, which was similar. His demo was feeding it raw data from Wikipedia and showing how editors were connected. It looked almost exactly like The Brain, too.

moritz wrote:

I would rather have the developers focus on core usability issues and
shipping the new release in a stable state?
Arguably, another distraction that further slows down development is the
last thing TheBrain needs right now - perhaps the goal is to sell off
the company to IBM and call it a day?

Paul Korm wrote:
There was an interesting thread in the v9 beta forum the other day
>between an IBM Watson Group team member and the v9 developer lead
>exploring the possibility of using v9 as "discovery" "concept
navigator"
>for relationships that Watson might have found in a large corpus of
>documents.

TheBrain 9 beta is available for all users -- with a 30 day trial period.

http://www.thebrain.com/products/thebrain/thebrain9/

I started using TheBrain 9 a couple of weeks ago. I like it so much that I've shifted to using it as my daily info manager. I did have a brief scare this morning when, after updating to the newest version, it appeared all my notes had gone missing, but then I found that just closing the brain and restarting it solved the problem.

So far, here is what I like:

- The tabbed interface means you can switch instantly from one brain to another. This is a game changer for this application, because it makes it much more practical to have more brains for different purposes instead of putting most of your information into one brain.

- The notes tool is more useful, because it is nimbler. That is, it behaves more like a word processor -- though it is still not close to that.

- It looks better and runs more smoothly (with the exception of a few glitches).

Noticeable missing features:

- Can't open a note in a floating window

- Can't drag an Outlook email file into the Brain (I expect this to be added... if not, that's a problem).

- The calendar -- I will miss this, but can make do without it

I've also had trouble syncing a brain to a second computer. I have to look into this and see what the issue is... maybe it's just not a completed feature yet.

Steve Z.

I agree this product is ready to replace v8. I've mentioned before, I've used v9 since the first alpha release and it has come a long way in a relatively short period.

If you have issues or suggestions send them to the support team at TheBrain. They are responsive and have molded the product based on customer (tester) comment and suggestion.

You can import an Outlook file if you drag it from Outlook to the Desktop and then from the Desktop to TheBrain 9.

Thanks for the heads up. TheBrain has always fascinated me but not being able to sync the content between computers (let's ignore mobile devices) using anything but a proprietary service based in the US has taken away much of that fascination (for me personally).
1) Is there any way to keep two computers in sync using a self-hosted solution?
2) Is the content accessible to other programs, e.g. can the documents be indexed by say Devonthink?
Thanks
Prion

What what what?

No use without providing The Brain's developers with lots of personal details through a required login?

That's me gone. How I yearn for the days when "cloud" meant a big fluffy thing in the sky and we were allowed to store our own data locally.

Well, I managed to work around the login screen, but Jeez, folks, that software is buggy! I found three bugs in the notes area within about a minute (which resulted in data loss) and one crash after about 4 minutes.

They have a lot of work to do. I wouldn't have released it as a public beta in its current state ...

Graham Rhind wrote:

What what what?

No use without providing The Brain's developers with lots of personal
details through a required login?

That's me gone. How I yearn for the days when "cloud" meant a big fluffy
thing in the sky and we were allowed to store our own data locally.

Does anyone know if, when finally released, TheBrain 9 will continue to be cloud-based only?

"Brains" (databases) can be stored locally and optionally synced to their proprietary cloud service. "Thoughts" (nodes) can be private or public.

Geoffrey Miller wrote:

Does anyone know if, when finally released, TheBrain 9 will continue to
be cloud-based only?

TheBrain's iOS version as of today is TheBrain 9 -- so now on desktop and mobile platforms TheBrain 9 is the default.

TheBrain 9 iOS is pretty good -- not great -- there are syncing limitation with attachments, and the technology is stuck several iOS releases back -- not handling well iOS 11's slide-over, shelf and Files features.

Greetings - first post, I think. I don't think I've ever signed up before. I've lurked quite a bit.

I've found TheBrain, sadly, to be unreliable in past incarnations. I think I got in at version 5 or 6 - maybe, long time ago - and it was awesome.

Around 8, I started losing nodes and having rough edges crop up enough I didn't want to use it. I'm afraid version 9 may have some of the same problems.

Is there anything else that incorporates TheBrain's concept of jump thoughts?

In other words, I'd like a note taking application that would let me link to another node in a bidirectional way. If I navigate to a note/node that other things have linked to, I'd like to be able to follow those links backward.

Anything like that out there?

Welcome to the forum!

If you're on Windows, you could give ConnectedText a try. It's more text-based than visual, but it does have a "Navigator" view that is somewhat similar to the Brain, showing a visual representation of links among your notes.

Try TheBrain 9. It has been completely rewritten. The versions you tried before were all Java-based. They've abandoned Java and have written native applications for Mac and Windows. I use TheBrain 9 on both systems and it works very well, and the sync has been vastly improved. If you like the idea of TheBrain, you should give the new version a run. Although I also endorse Chris's recommendation of ConnectedText.

Steve Z.

Amontillado wrote:

Greetings - first post, I think. I don't think I've ever signed up
before. I've lurked quite a bit.

I've found TheBrain, sadly, to be unreliable in past incarnations. I
think I got in at version 5 or 6 - maybe, long time ago - and it was
awesome.

Around 8, I started losing nodes and having rough edges crop up enough I
didn't want to use it. I'm afraid version 9 may have some of the same
problems.

Is there anything else that incorporates TheBrain's concept of jump
thoughts?

In other words, I'd like a note taking application that would let me
link to another node in a bidirectional way. If I navigate to a
note/node that other things have linked to, I'd like to be able to
follow those links backward.

Anything like that out there?

Thanks for admission into your rare company, I appreciate the chance to participate.

I crave, for some undefined reason, software for organizing and depicting knowledge.

I bet TheBrain 9 will be the answer. With respect, I think I'll wait until it's out of beta, but it sure sounds promising.

The genius in TheBrain, I think, comes from two things.

First, the jump thoughts, like WikiWord links except bidirectional. That encourages topic-based, hierarchical organization with interconnects.

The other comes from the limited view, which sounds counterintuitive, but I think plays on a magic aspect of our own internal organization.

There is a thing called the door effect. When you walk through a doorway from the office to the living room, you do a context shift. You're no longer thinking in office mode, now you're in living room mode. I suspect the same context phenomena is how chess masters can play multiple games.

When you click on a node in TheBrain, it becomes it's own little context. A traditional mind map can display too much, if there's any substance in my theory.

In fact, when people laugh at the old guy who can't remember what he went to the kitchen for, they are actually laughing at an unwanted symptom of otherwise highly evolved, perfected context switching.

Personally, I've had that "problem" as long as I can remember. It's not dotage, it's muscular cranial organization at its best.

So, when, um, what was I going to say? Dadgumit...

I believe TheBrain 9 is about as non-beta it can be while still be called a "Late Beta" by the company. It's the default download. If you go looking for TheBrain 8 you see "Although no longer supported, you can still download version 8 and earlier."

I'm not a sales rep for TheBrain, but they offer a 30-day trial.

TheBrain yesterday issued an update to v9 (b231) that re-introduces two-way sync with Google Calendars.

This feature has been on vacation since TheBrain 8 and it's good to see it come back.