PersonalBrain 4.5 Released

I have written a great deal during the past year about the PersonalBrain and I am glad to announce that PersonalBrain 4.5 was released today with a slew of new features. Here are are new features that you will find in the PersonalBrian 4.5:

PersonalBrain 4.5 helps people mind map their Thoughts, ideas and information with new visualization, searching and editing features. New features include:

• Increased Performance - PersonalBrain's dynamic user interface enables one to visually navigate related information. All operations are now faster, from loading to creating information and navigation is up to 30 times faster. This increased speed opens up the ability to easily create Brains with hundreds of thousands of Thoughts.

• Advanced Search and Indexing - PersonalBrain features a powerful search that lets users shift focus to anything that comes to mind in seconds. Live search results appear as users type, prioritized based on usage data. Version 4.5 intelligently interprets requests so the initials of a person can be used instead of their full name for example.

• Superior Distant Thought View (http://www.thebrain.com/site/video/pbViews.html) - PersonalBrain's exclusive display engine makes it a powerful visualization tool for concept and mind mapping. The engine continues to evolve in version 4.5 with an optimized view of second generation Thoughts for easier reading and an even more intuitive visual browser.

• Merging Brains and Copying Thoughts - Users can now easily merge the contents of one Brain into another and use sophisticated copying functions to leverage a set of Thoughts and relationships in different contexts.

• Excel and Word Relationship Import (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV533xqxQl4) - Information structures from Word, Excel and other applications can now be imported into PersonalBrain. Outlines constructed outside of PersonalBrain are easy to import and are automatically visualized. The imported structures can be left as is or leveraged with the sophisticated tools available in PersonalBrain. Conversely, information can also be exported back out of PersonalBrain just as easily.

• Complete Undo and Redo Editing - PersonalBrain's intuitive drag and relate technology lets users create and link numerous ideas and Thoughts in seconds. Now with complete undo and redo capabilities, users can make connections even faster. If a change is made and then reconsidered the multiple level undo buffer makes going back a one step process.

Pricing and Availability

PersonalBrain 4.5 is a complimentary upgrade for all registered PersonalBrain 4.0 users. PersonalBrain is offered in three editions: Free, Core, and Pro (the most powerful edition). PersonalBrain Free is offered at no charge and does not expire. Download your PersonalBrain at http://www.thebrain.com/download. (http://www.thebrain.com/download) Using the free edition anyone can link unlimited ideas, notes and Web information on their desktops. Pro and Core editions are priced as follows: PersonalBrain Pro $249.95, PersonalBrain Core $149.95.

PersonalBrain 4 is compatible with Windows XP, Vista, Linux, and Mac OS X.

Awarding Winning Technical Support

If you have not experienced the PersonalBrain you really owe it to yourself! Here is a link to the Press Release.

Interview with Shelley Hayduck of Brain Technologies

I had the pleasure today of interviewing Shelley Hayduck from Brain Technologies, the developer of the PersonalBrain and BrainEKP. During the interview I had the opportunity to ask Shelley about the PersonalBrain and how it is being used to help solve real world problems. The PersonalBrain is a very unique software application that is ideal for information and knowledge management. The underlying technology allows you to create linkages to your thoughts, files, folders, and URL's in a very quick searchable database. If you would like to try out the PersonalBrain just go to their website and download the free version. I hope you enjoy this interview!

If you are interested in meeting Shelley, she will be presenting at the IQ Visual Mapping Conference on October 2-3, 2008. If you are a PersonalBrain user then please consider attending the conference, and who knows maybe there will be some new announcements:-)

Inside the Mind of an Educator: Using the PersonalBrain

Just a reminder join me for :Inside the Mind of an Educator: Using PersonalBrain for Your Classroom, Studies and Beyond
Special Web Event with Dr. Brian S. Friedlander

When: Thursday, April 17th at 11:00 am Pacific / 2:00 pm Eastern Time

What: Students and teachers deal with complex issues and concepts that have many relationships and connections. PersonalBrain offers a new and exciting way to bring your content to life and foster a deeper understanding of your subject matter. Teachers and school administrators can use PersonalBrain to organize lesson plans and activities. Students and instructors can organize key topics and ideas to see the big picture on key ideas and simplify complex topics to drive understanding and new insights.

Who: Dr. Brian S. Friedlander is a certified (licensed) school psychologist with expertise in assistive and educational technology. He maintains an assistive technology practice that provides assessments, workshops and individual trainings. His columns can be read at: http://vietnamtech.blogspot.com Dr. Friedlander is also an Assistant Professor of Education at the College of St. Elizabeth in New Jersey, where he teaches graduate courses in special education and educational technology.

Topics Covered:

• An introduction to visual learning and PersonalBrain for education
• Visually mapping and organizing ideas for enhanced understanding
• Classroom brainstorming techniques and creating interactive Brains
• Example Brains on lesson plans, research and course material from both student and teacher perspective

Register by clicking here

Using The PersonalBrain for Upcoming Web 2.0 Workshop

As I thought about a Web 2.0 workshop that I will be doing at the Middlesex ETTC, East Brunswick, NJ on October 19th, I wanted to harness the power of the web and share with teachers the changing landscape. I have been trying to move away from paper handouts when I do presentations and have everything accessible on the web. As I was planning the workshop I thought about how I could do this in the most user friendly and accessible way and decided to use The PersonalBrain to put together my presentation. Here was my thinking. I could easily add URL links to my web as well as PDF files that my participants could access. Similarly, once I put together my Web 2.0 presentation in the PersoanlBrain I could easily export it to a Sitebrain HTML and put it up on web. One of the key benefits to this strategy is that my participants can quickly go to sites on the Internet as well as download PDF files that I have embedded in my PersonalBrain. After the workshop, my participants can access the site and dive deeper into exploring the material that I put up. If you would like to see the Web 2.0 Brain that I posted click here.

PersonalBrain 4-Linking Ideas

I have been working with the PersonalBrain 4 for the past couple of weeks and have really enjoyed the way it keeps track of data in its relational database. It is easy to cross reference material that is stored in your PersonalBrain so that it can come into focus when you click on a thought. You will see in the video that I can link thoughts that have been already entered into the PersonalBrain so that the information is categorized the way I want it. In this screencast, I demonstrate how I can link mindmapping programs to the Windows thought, by just beginning to type the name of the program. When I link the idea you will see that when I click on the Windows thought, that all of the mindmapping programs associated with the Windows platform come into focus.

To read more about the PersonalBrain 4 you can read an earlier post that I did last month.