If you’ve got ideas circulating through your head, or constantly find yourself in the position to brainstorm – MindNode is an app for you. MindNode is what’s known as mind mapping software, similar to programs like XMind and Curio. Mind Mapping programs are designed to make it easy to lay out ideas, brainstorm, and organize ideas.

Mind Mapping software works by allowing you to create a web of ideas. You start off with a central topic in the middle of your screen and create “Nodes”, or subtopics, to branch off of your main idea. Each node can have another set of subtopics, and so forth.

Interface design is extremely important when using a mind mapping application. In my opinion, MindNode got the interface right. It’s incredibly simple with only four buttons in the toolbar, and a blank canvas for your utilization. What’s also great is that the canvas will automatically expand with the addition of each node. The nodes are also color coded, which is customizable.

There are three pop out control panels – Inspector, Fonts, and Colors. The Inspector panel gives you miscellaneous options such as line thickness and color, background color, as well as an entry panel for adding Spotlight metadata. You can customize the line and font color of each node, as well as the size.

MindNode comes with the ability to “auto save” a document down to the second, which is always a plus. Each canvas can also hold multiple “root nodes”, or central ideas. The app will also check grammar and spelling on-the-go for you. Also, the addition of a new node is animated.

A Pro version is available for $14.95 and includes a few advanced features. The interface remains the same as the free version, but the preferences and inspector panels are vastly improved. For instance, you have greater control over the style and design of nodes, keyboard shortcuts, and the ability to add hyperlinks in your mind map.

MindNode is definitely a nice application, and worth a try. The freeware and Pro version is available for download at MindNode.com. If you like the free version, I’d suggest upgrading to the Pro, not only for the features, but to support the developers – especially if you want to continue to see updates.

Blogo is a new blog editor for Mac. It has a super simple interface and some really great features. I am fairly new at using it, but so far so good. I really like it. Great job guys! For those wanting to see more, there are some screenshots here.

Live Video Streaming is a new phenomenon hitting the internet by whirlwind. However, watching these streams has been mostly limited to watching at the desktop. That all changes with the release of the new Ustream.TV viewing app.

There are two main functions of the Ustream viewing app – watching live streaming and chatting. Broadcasting Live from your iPhone is not available, yet. The video quality is decent, and connecting to a stream can actually go quite fast. The chatting function is decent, and can be viewed either at the bottom or to the left of the video stream, depending on which orientation you’ve set the iPhone at.

As well as the app works, you can only use it when connected to WiFi. Forget watching a live stream via 3G or EDGE. While this could be an annoying decision, network speeds are probably too slow to watch live video.

Upon original 1.0 release, Ustream did not include support for full screen viewing, but have since included that in a 1.1 release. Navigating and viewing profile pages is currently not supported, and navigating to find recorded videos can be a pain. I’ve experienced a few problems with crashing, but not an excessive amount.

Available in the app store, the Ustream app is Free and definitely worth a download.

Now that Macworld and CES are over, and as January comes to an end, it seems as if tech news has come to a slowdown. Yet, the Apple news thrives on. Here’s a look back at this week:

• Apple sets new Company Records with Q1 Results
• The Mac Turns 25 Years Old (Link to Great Macworld Coverage)
• Quicktime 7.6 is released
• White Macbooks Updated to near-unibody Specs
• iWork ‘09 Goes Serial Number-Free
• Pirated copies of iWork ‘09 carry trojans
• Tim Cook makes comments on Apple + Netbooks
• Settlement Reached over iPod Nano scratch lawsuit
• Potential Apple v. Palm Court Battle?
• Seagate Hard Drives reported having Issues
• Despite Recent Health Issues, Steve Jobs is renominated for Disney Board
• Jony Ive will be featured in the documentary Objectified
• Ustream iPhone App Released

This Week’s iBAM Posts:

• iPhone App Spotlight: The Price is Right
• Slingshot: Keeping Your Files & iTunes Library in Sync

If you’re like me, you’ve got multiple macs and are constantly switching between them. There are a few things that I like to keep the same across both computers. Slingshot, an app from Martian Technology, promises to take care of this.

Slingshot works through publishing folders, or iTunes playlists, and then subscribing to these folders/playlists on other machines. You can also set up the published folders to receive updates from subscribed machines. In simpler terms, you can have the same files on both computers, without having to manually exchange files. The frequency of updates are extremely flexible, ranging from by the minute, a set number of hours, or daily. Manual updates are also an option.

The interface is extremely simple. There is a large field containing a list of subscribed stuff, published stuff, the time of last update, and the time for the next update. To the left, are two large buttons – Publish & Subscribe. There are also three smaller buttons – Folder Info, Stop Subscribing, and Update Now. It’s not the most gorgeous application I’ve ever seen, but It’s straightforward and gets the job done.

One of the key things that I like to always have with me is my music. I keep my music organized using iTunes, and Slingshot has the ability to subscribe and publish iTunes Playlists. It’s extremely simple and easy to do, the same way that you would publish and subscribe to published folders. I have, however, had a slight problem. It could just be me, but for some reason a select few songs and videos are duplicated – a lot. Even after deleting them, they continue to duplicate. Sometimes, the playlist disappears completely from my iTunes library. The songs still remain, but the playlist is empty. I’ve sent an email to Martian Technology Support, but haven’t received a reply.

It works quite well. I have it set to update 1 iTunes playlist and an array of folders every minute. It does so in the background, without my ever noticing it. As far as I can tell, it doesn’t hog up too many system resources, but it may differ on older or less powerful machines. Finding published folders and playlists is also simple. My only problem has been with the duplication of certain iTunes files.

Martian Technology also advertises SlingShot as a backup utility. You could have your mac send backups to an old computer or file server on your network. When sending files back and forth, two security measures are taken. For starters, you can password protect any playlist or folder. Slingshot will also apply 256-bit AES encryption on the network.

Thankfully, Martian Technology has a reasonable licensing policy. You only need to buy a $29.99 copy to enable Slingshot on all of your personal macs. There is also a discount available when purchasing Slingshot with Lifeboat, another product from Martian Technology. A 30 day trial is available as a download from the website.