Moodboard can insert pictures from your library or web captures using the built-in browser, overlay text and notes, and gives you a multi-touch way to quickly organize your "moodboard" by rotating, pinching and zooming, stacking and moving individual pieces. I'm working with the Pro version - some of the features I mention may not be available in the Lite version. It comes in a free Lite version, and a $4.99 Pro version. There are a few apps that do a great job of combining these modes, and Moodboard is definitely one of them. Brainstormingįor me, brainstorming is both visual and textual. I'm hoping the Pro version, when it arrives, will provide the few missing features that would make this a number one pick for me. This lite version is free, and there's no "Pro" version, as of yet. Beyond that, it works like a loose concept map and is a really fast way to brainstorm with both pictures and images, connect ideas to each other and organize information. The main reason this version isn't fully satisfactory to me is simply that you only get one "map" to work with. It's not, in my opinion, a fully-usable app yet, but it shows great potential. The last app I'll mention in this category is popplet lite. I have fewer nice things to say about the desktop version of iMindMap, but that's a story for another time. It's only $2.99, so it's definitely worth a look, especially if you want one app to use on both an iPhone and an iPad. It has a "lightning" entry mode for very fast entry of ideas and thoughts. I'm not putting it at the top of the list only because it's not iPad-specific and doesn't play as nicely with the range of formats that iThoughts does, but it's a very slick app and makes beautiful maps. It's iPhone-only right now, but it looks great on the iPad and is very intuitive to use. I would be remiss if I didn't mention iMindMap Mobile Pro from the father of mind mapping, Tony Buzan. Its overall aesthetic isn't quite as pleasing to me as iThoughtsHD, but it does the job well, and for a couple bucks less.īy subscribing, you are agreeing to Engadget's Terms and Privacy Policy. It auto-colors your branches, which can be handy when speed is of essence. Its interface may actually be a little more intuitive than iThought's, and it only lacks a couple of export options (it handles MindNode format, as well as FreeMind, PNG, text outline and OPML outline). Next in line for me has been MindNode ($5.99), which is also available on the iPhone and Mac desktop platforms. Read on for more mind mapping and note taking apps for you and your iPad. When it comes to formats, it handles just about everything I can personally think of, including Novamind, MindManager (6 and 8), iMindMap, XMind, Freemind, and others, as well as multiple image formats. It can import and export maps via WiFi transfer, Box.net and email attachment. You can add new child and sibling nodes by tapping and dragging, or use handy buttons at the top of the screen. It can expand and contract nodes, branches can inherit their parent's options, and you can manually or automatically organize and space out your map. It makes it relatively easy to jot notes in a mind map format, with options for node color, icons and organization. One of the best I've found is iThoughtsHD (US$7.99). It's hard to beat a pencil and paper, or even a screen with a full keyboard and keyboard navigation, but some touch-based apps do it just about right. Mind maps are the easiest and most intuitive way for me to take notes and brainstorm ideas, so that's what I look for first. The first few on my list are mind mapping applications. This is not to belittle them, just to keep things fresh. Evernote), mostly because they've already been covered on TUAW, often repeatedly. I'm skipping over some of the apps that I consider to be obvious (albeit excellent) choices (e.g. I haven't had the time (or money) to hunt down and experiment with every note-taking app in the App Store jungle, but I wanted to highlight a few that have stuck out in my search for the quintessential app for idea capture and retrieval. I'm not alone, judging from the outcropping of specialized apps for doing just this. The iPad is great for a lot of tasks, but one area of potential appeals to me more than any other: brainstorming and note taking.
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