Curio 5.3 [ MacOS ]

I'm currently working on a piece detailing exactly why Zengobi's Curio has become a favorite of mine, especially in the area of project management and brainstorming, but also in general as a truly enjoyable-to-use application. In the meantime, though, I thought I'd better get an announcement out for version 5.3, released today. For those unfamiliar, Curio is a note-taking, brainstorming, to-do managing, file-gathering application which works in a (surprisingly productive) free-form manner. It's similar in concept to Circus Ponies Notebook, but I find it to be even more flexible and powerful.

Version 5.3 adds to an impressive feature list with customizable print headers and footers, the ability to convert lists to mind maps and vice versa, as well as an importer for AquaMinds NoteTaker. Detailed release notes are available here. Version 5.3 is a free upgrade for all Curio 5 users, and upgrade pricing is available at the Zengobi store. The regular version of Curio is $99USD, and a Pro version is available for $149USD (find out what the difference is here). Academic discounts are available, and a free 15-day trial can be downloaded on the Curio page.

VoodooPad 4.0 provides WebDAV sync

VoodooPad got a major upgrade today; after an intense beta period, version 4.0 is live. For those of you not familiar, VoodooPad is a personal wiki, a brainstorming and note-taking tool and the ultimate "geek's notebook" (my term, not theirs). With the ability to import a variety of files and link others, it also makes a great project management hub. I use it in combination with one of my other previously-mentioned favorites, Curio. It's had a fair number of mentions here in the past, and the 4.0 update is certainly something to talk about.
Among the new features is the ability to sync using WebDAV. You can sync pages or entire documents in both directions, allowing for collaboration or just providing the ability to work on multiple machines. There are instructions available for setup on the Flying Meat wiki. I've been testing the sync feature for a while, and it works superbly. The web-publishing capabilities have been expanded, including iPhone-optimized output. There's also a new feature called "The Bucket" for gathering text -- via a system-wide hotkey -- from any application. PDF output, faster speeds, and a new layout for palette windows all add up to a great release.
Organizing notes and files is simple, and linking together pertinent pages, snippets, Address Book contacts and more is a breeze. For those of a scripting persuasion, the reason I call it the "geek's notebook" is VoodooPad's ability to execute pages as scripts (Python ... Lua is being deprecated), and also the ability to extend via a plugin API. This can be used to work in HTML, Markdown and Textile support, set up GTD systems, even publish a blog.
VoodooPad 4 is going for $29.95USD, and version 3 users can upgrade for $14.95USD. The Pro version is $49.95USD, upgrade for $19.95USD. There are free demos of each on their respective pages, and there's also a "Lite" version available for free, no strings attached. VoodooPad customers who purchased version 3 after August 1st, 2008 get a free upgrade. Check the full release notes for version 4 (and prior releases), as well as the features page for more information on VoodooPad and the 4.0 update.