Curio is Zengobi’s innovative note taking, mind mapping, brainstorming, and task management application for Mac OS X. EverNote is a unique multi-platform tool that enables you to to create, capture, and search for any and all of the information you interact with online (web clips, images, audio files and handwritten notes), on any device you have at hand. Evernote is available on the web, desktop, and mobile devices including the iPhone and Windows Mobile.

This means that Curio users can take data they’ve produced in Evernote and add it to their Curio projects. Curio 5.4 is a free update for registered users. Evernote is available in Free or Premium services; Premium costs $45 per year and adds synchronization of any file type, more upload allowance, enhanced security and other features.

This is exciting news for Mac users (of which I’m not one, unfortunately!). EverNote is the market leader in its type of software because you can access your data literally anywhere, on any platform. Couple that with Curio’s rich visual interface and flexible information handling, and I think you’ve got a real winner!

Before we get into the specifics about what’s new in this marvelous program, we need to tackle a few definitions. Everything will make more sense once you understand the terminology that Zengobi uses to describe Curio’s capabilities.

A project file can have multiple workspaces, called Idea Spaces in Curio parlance – quite literally, a canvas for your thoughts and ideas. This collection of Idea Spaces can be accessed via an vertical “organizer” pane on the left side of the workspace. Bracketing it on the right side of the workspace is the “inspector,” a set of tabbed dialog boxes where you can adjust the properties of individual items or assets within an Idea Space.

The basic building blocks of Curio Idea Spaces are mind maps, checklists and figures. Mind maps have been enhanced in version 5 to enable you to expand and contract map branches, as well as a way to view your mind map as an outline. Individual map topics can have task data attached to them; Curio 5 automatically “rolls up” changes to start and end dates of parent topics if you change the duration of a child topic – nice!

Inidivual items, called figures, can be added to an Idea Space, and then later joined together by connector lines – something like a concept map. As you move items around the workspace, these connectors adjust their shape and direction automatically.

One of the biggest additions to Curio 5 is robust project management tools. You can track hundreds of separate tasks, and quickly scan those that currently need attention using a new “status” module (see image at right) that gives you a color-coded visual indication of their status. You can also “tag” tasks to categorize them, using a set of ready-made tags (which include Getting Things Done tags!) or by adding your own custom tags. Tasks and events can also be synchronized with iCal.

In addition, you can create web page links within an IdeaSpace using Curio 5′s new WebView Figure. A preview of the web page is displayed along with the link. When clicked, it becomes a live view of the web page – nice!

Finally, Curio 5 contains a “Scrapbook Shelf,” where you can save commonly-used assets for future use.

This summary only scratches the surface of what Curio 5 can do. Check out the what’s new page on the Zengobi website for more details. I’ve watched this product develop for several years, when it was primarily as a mind mapping tool for the Mac. But now it has evolved into a full-fledged digital notebook and project management tool that you can use to capture and manage a wealth of information, ideas and knowledge.