Chronos cancels StickyBrain completely and replaces it with the more powerful SOHO Notes to focus its resources on a single product instead of two products. Perhaps Chronos is feeling the heat from BareBones (maker of BBEdit) competing product Yojimbo, which by the way, “Doesn’t Suck” either or the many shouts from many StickyBrain users, like myself asking for .Mac syncing.

According to Chronos:
SOHO Notes looks almost exactly like StickyBrain but has three significant features that StickyBrain doesn’t have:
1) SOHO Notes can synchronize notes between multiple computers using a .Mac account.
2) SOHO Notes can access multiple note databases simultaneously.
3) SOHO Notes is multi-user capable which means users can share notes with others over a network using the product’s client/server technology.

If you’re a registered StickyBrain 4.x user do the following you can download SOHO Notes 5.5 for FREE. If you’re a registered StickyBrain 1.x, 2.x, and 3.x user you can purchase SOHO Notes for a $25 upgrade.

I have been a long time StickyBrain (digital junk drawer) user, but have not paid for the $25 upgrade to version 4 as of yet. I was not happy with what version 4 had to offer for the relatively high upgrade price. I have been testing Yojimbo that offers flawless .Mac syncing between my Macs. Yojimbo, does have less features, but works flawlessly and integrates nicely with Quicksilver, a great productivity app for the Mac. StickyBrain has gotten a bit bloated and slow over the last few versions.

My main reason for checking out BareBones Yojimbo was for the .Mac syncing and lower price. Yojimbo is just $39 for a single user/multiple Macs. SOHO Notes’ price has dropped to $39.99 to keep it more in-line with StickyBrain’s previous price, as well as the competition like Yojimbo and DEVONthink. SOHO Notes does offer several features beyond Yojimbo, like the ability to import and catalog almost any type of file, sending notes to your blog, a DockNote feature that allows to get info easily, audio recording of notes, full-screen editing, a Daily Journal/Diary category that can automatically date/time stamp notes, etc.

Frankly, an application like StickyBrain was crying for .Mac syncing to be truly useful for multiple Mac users like myself. It bothered me that Chronos was insisting that I upgrade to SOHO Notes just for that. Competition is a good thing!

So, now I have reconsidered the upgrade, paid my $25 to Chronos, downloaded SOHO Notes, installed it, and YUCK, $%*& the thing would not convert my StickyBrain database! Now I have no StickyBrain or SOHO Notes working. I visited the support site as Chronos suggests in the “error” message. I find no information to even try to fix this, no patches or information whatsoever. I can not post to the boards as I was not previously registered, and Chronos moderators must “approve” you before you can even post. I registered, still waiting!!

The boards on the Chronos support site is full of people frustrated having the same problem without a resolve yet. Wish I read the support site first. I emailed the product feedback section complaining. I guess I will have to wait…

Not a very good start. When I tested Yojimbo, I easily imported my StickyBrain database to Yojimbo and it all worked flawlessly. I have three Macs synced via .Mac, no problems at all. Not a very good start for Chronos winning over users. If you are planning to do this upgrade, Chronos does suggest that you back up your StickyBrain database before you start the SOHO Notes install, I “HIGHLY” suggest you do, I did thank goodness!

Hopefully they will have a fix for my broken application soon. Since Chronos support site says they charge for email support, I am not so happy. Let you know what happens.

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