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EDITOR NOTES
The 'Download Now' link yields the Pro version, Standard version ($99) available in 'Related Links'.
DESCRIPTION
Curio is the premier brainstorming and project management application designed to promote visual thinking.
Using Curio's innovative freeform interface and tools, you can intuitively gather, associate, and recall your ideas, while easily managing all the notes and documents associated with your project.
The heart of Curio is the idea space. Think of idea spaces as your whiteboard, notebook, and sketchpad all wrapped up into one.
Within a Curio project, you can create an unlimited number of idea spaces where you can place anything anywhere on the page. Brainstorm or organize your notes with freeform collages of text, images, URLs, documents, Mail messages, movies, and sounds. Give the idea space a note paper or graph paper style, or perhaps a linen paper texture. This is your idea space, with your notes and ideas. Make it the way you want it to look.
WHAT'S NEW
Version 6.2:
- Curved and Orthogonal Lines.
- On-The-Fly Multipoint Lines.
- Plus Index Card Enhancements!
- Fixed several issues where figure styles were being reset to default style in tables, lists, mind maps, and index cards.
- We're now making sure all lines drawn in tables, etc, are nice and sharply defined.
- Curio is now much, much, much more memory efficient when printing or exporting to PDF.
- Fixed a bug where lines couldn't stick to specific positions on multipoint lines.
- Fixed problems where tag use counts could become out of sync thereby showing an inappropriately large number of active uses for a specific project tag (in File > Project Properties > Tags).
- When sending a stencil or idea space template to a friend to Zengobi we're now stripping tags from those items before sending.
REQUIREMENTS
Mac OS X 10.5 or later.
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| Curio User Reviews (31 posts) | Write A Review |
 | Nov 9 2009 |
DINGDONGDADDY This program works flawlessly, has a thousand features, and for the life of me, I can't figure out what to do with it. I know the answer is "it will be what ever you want it to be," but since I don't know what I want it to be, I don't know how to use it. Wish I did because it looks great and works great.
(Version 6.1) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
 | Sep 22 2009 |
JUST A USER I did pay for the update, I think it is fair to pay for something that really does work and what a developer actually spent some time, thinking and energy on. Curio is feature-rich software that can be used for a great deal of different stuff and I had no major bug issues so far. The indvidual sub-functions, like mind-mapping, are not as feature rich as in dedicated software, but that is not to be expected either. They DO work great as is and DO have all the important import and export options. Hope that program will be going strong for a long time!
(Version 6.0.1) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
| Sep 16 2009 |
KORM If the new features are worth the upgrade fee, pay it. If not, don't pay it.
(Version 6.0.1) | |
| [ 1 Reply - Reply ] | |
Replies:
| Oct 13 2009 |
ZX81 You mean that opinions are not allowed?
(Version 6.1) | |
| Sep 15 2009 |
SUNBURN OK, so here we go again. Looking back, we have: 7/2007, upgrade from 3 to 4: $39 8/2008, upgrade from 4 to 5: $39 And look, it's September 2009, and here's Zengobi, hat in hand, asking for another chunk of change. (I'm academic, so at least my upgrade fee is fairly modest, but I believe the non-academic upgrade fee is $70.) IMO, this is a really bad business model: punish your most loyal customers by hitting them up every year. Each new version has had some nice features, but not enough to justify the level of cost. If this was even every other year, I'd be OK with it. But annually? A little excessive, no? I don't even use Curio all that much, though for the things I do use it for, I can't imagine what else I'd use to do it. But at this rate, I'm going to start looking pretty seriously. I'll probably cave because generally Zengobi does a good job of keeping up on OS updates and I'll probably be missing some cool Snow Leopard only feature when 6.1 or 6.2 comes out... but maybe I'll just skip this one and wait until 10.2010 and go for version 7. It's a nice program--version 5, I mean, I haven't shelled out yet for version 6--but if you go for it, you're going to have to think of it like an expensive subscription service rather than a single purchase, because that's clearly the developer's model.
(Version 6.0.1) | |
| [ 2 Replies - Reply ] | |
Replies:
| Sep 16 2009 |
ANDREW SCOTT I just upgraded to 6. This is the second time Ive upgraded and again it feels like an incremental improvementand a relatively small increment at that. It feels like 5.2 rather than 6.1, mainly bug fixes and small refinements. I know there are some nice new features but theyre either minor or not something that matter to me. I use the mind mapping and list functions the most but with each major release they only get a little better. Mind mapping in particular still lacks most of the functions and graphical features of most dedicated applications. One big improvement is that you can now manually reposition cells or branches without changing the structure of the map. Apart from this Curio maintains a rigid auto-layout, so much so that typing into cells causes the whole mind map to judder and shake with each keystroke as the auto-adjust keeps trying to balance the map. Mind maps do seem more stable than in 5.x though. I havent experienced any more instances of a mind map just deleting itself unexpectedly. Working with graphical objects is still just OK. Itll let you do some very nice things but selection is often a bit fiddly. There is a reasonable selection of geometric primitives or shapes but it hasnt expanded in recent versions and isnt user-definable. There are straight lines but no curved lines, a la OmniGraffle, so linking cells across a complex mind map tends to get ugly fast. Trying to draw lines on top of a much larger background object is frustrating if sticky lines is on because things keep snapping to the background object. I never use the freehand scribbles functions even though theyre a great idea. Because scribbles exist in a common bitmap layer its cumbersome to move them deliberately and easy to edit or erase them accidentally despite the Option-select and Option+Command-select abilities. Im disappointed that the presentation function hasnt progressed. I would dearly love to use Curio as a quick presentation tool for lectures and meetings but it just doesnt give quite enough control. You can fit the canvas to the screen or view it at 100% but you cant zoom in to further control what is on display. I would really like to make the most of the unlimited canvas to lay out images and ideas and lead the discussion around the idea space. This isnt impossible currently, especially with jump targets, but its not as easy as it could be. Well, thats a lot of complaining. I should mention the things that keep me coming back to Curio. I love the unlimited sheets and the way I can have multiple sheets in a file. Nothing else allows me to mix text and sketches and mind maps and text outlines so easily or so organically. I do my lesson plans in it so that I can graphically plan a class. Its easy to distribute to my tutors via PDF or print to fit on paper. I also use it for committee and meeting notes, recording them alongside the meeting agenda and appendices. Mind mapping is good for meetings too, as well as brainstorming papers. Graphically its not as sophisticated as OmniGraffle but so useful when you can mix all of these things together on an unlimited sheet of virtual butchers paper. In summary, I really like using Curio but I wish the upgrade cycle wasnt so costly.
(Version 6.0.1) | |
| Sep 16 2009 |
INFOSEC I know how you feel. I purchased the pro version of 3. After not too long 4.0 came out. I paid the hefty pro upgrade price. It fixed some annoying bugs and added a few new features but I felt that the upgrade price was too much. I am still on 4.0. Considering what is included in each upgrade I don't know when I will upgrade again. If you own the pro version they try to squeeze $70 a year from you! That is crazy!
(Version 6.0.1) | |
| Sep 14 2009 |
XPLICIT Dear Curio Developer(s), "CMD " is for switching the application's windows. It's a default, pre-set shortcut. You shouldn't assign another command.
(Version 6.0) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
| Jan 19 2009 |
ROGER KATZ CAUTION - MacUpdate in NOT up-to-date at 7PM 19 Jan '09. The MacUpdate links do NOT give the Curio 5.4.1 versions. I used the MacUpdate links, and was only able to download Curio Standard 5.3.1 and Curio Pro 5.40. Nevertheless, I was able to successfully get the 5.4.1 versions directly from the developer's website.
(Version 5.4.1) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
| Nov 19 2008 |
N2ITV42 Can't say enough about this program - does it all for the creative professional. The price does seem high at first, but you get over that once it becomes a staple of your workflow
(Version 5.3) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
| Oct 5 2008 |
MAR6473 I've been using Curio for a couple of months now. Once you start using it you realize what a unique program it is. I looked at it before but the price turned me off right away. $149 seems like a lot when I was already using another note taking app that cost $35 for collecting info and managing research projects. Beyond being able to collect a lot of information and organize it, it lets you spread it out, move it around, interconnect it, etc... It's sort of like being able to spread all your bits of info out onto a big table to get a good look at everything. The mind mapping feature does everything I need and is great for organizing your information (There are other mind mapping apps that have more features than Curio. You just have to try it to see if it does everything you want. For me, there is a lot of strength in Curio's ability to do a bunch of thing within one document). Omnioutliner and Omnigraffle are fantastic programs but I can do everything I used to do in both of them in Curio. The developers are very responsive which has reassured my confidence in the app. For project organization, research, and collecting information on a given subject, it does everything I need. If you need advanced word processing tools, you can embed Word or Pages documents into your Curio project. They give you an extended 60 day trial so it gives you enough time to really try it out. If you just want to mind map, there are apps that just do that, if you just want something to dump bits of info into to collect over time, Journler is great. But, for general project and research management with a lot of flexibility that really helps you get organized, Curio really stands out.
(Version 5.1) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
| Sep 24 2008 |
TECHWRITER I think the important thing to look at here is the magnitude of the upgrades. Version 5 is really bristling with new, compelling features. Curio is turning into a virtual 'control centre' for my day-to-day work. It's open all the time, both in the office and at home, so the value of the product for me is far, far beyond a measly $70 per year. If the next version adds as many major improvements as the last one, another $70 will be a bargain.
(Version 5.1) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
| Aug 14 2008 |
ESPIRIDION At least they're consistent. With each version, their pricing/upgrade fees are absurd. Nice program, but I'm not paying for another upgrade.
(Version 5.0) | |
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