? I was all set to shell out $40 for the flash card program, which looks great, and all of their contact email addresses bounce. Bad company? Temporary glitch? And what flash card software is a better option?
I've had my eye on
Flash My Brain for a while now. The $40 price tag always seemed really high for a product that I couldn't even get a test version of, but after toying with the idea for about a year, I finally decided to go ahead and purchase it - it seems like a fantastic program. But I'm switching computers in the next few months, so I wanted to ask their support staff first if moving the program to a new computer will be a problem or not, so I emailed - and it bounced. So I found another address and emailed - and that bounced. That same evening I tried five different @flashmybrain.com addresses, all returned with the "there's no one here by that name," message. Gave them the benefit of the doubt, tried again in two days, figuring maybe it was a server problem - but no, the emails still bounce. Then I noticed there's no phone number anywhere - in fact, no way to contact the company but by email, or through the forums that you can only get access to once you buy the software. Sketchy, sketchy, sketchy.
A little Googling turns up some interesting results. Some people
like it, others
hate it (but admit that version 2, which just came out, has solved a lot of original problems). Weirdly, there is also
this archived conversation from 2006 that implies that there may, in fact, only be one person working behind the scenes on this program. Users who have bought the program and thus have access to the forum say that they're lucky if their complaints or problems are ever addressed - usually they are ignored in perpetuity.
So what's the deal? Is this a good program attached to a company that's hit hard times? Is it worth keeping an eye on them for a bit longer and perhaps buying in later on? Or are there enough red flags here to run away for good?
And if I don't buy this program - what should I use? I have exams coming up in the fall that I need flash cards for, and I have never managed to use the physical versions. A software program is exactly what I need, and the more powerful, the better - especially since I split my time between a Mac (at work) and a PC (at home). I started to use Mnemosyne, but it won't run on a Mac, so it's nearly useless for me. I need portability, multi-system support, and an user-friendly interface. So far, every program I've found hasn't offered that - except FMB. And boy do they sound like a nightmare.
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Here is a thread you may find useful: http://forums.macworld.com/thread/61482
I've only tried Genius version 1.5.4. According to versiontracker, it is now up to version 1.7.25. It's freeware and has a nice philosophy: http://web.mac.com/jrc/Genius/.
iFlash is a commercial product for $14.95. http://www.loopware.com/
They are both Mac only, however.
For cross platform, check out FullRecall: http://fullrecall.com/ It is $35 and has an intelligent repetition system based on what it calls an "artificial neural network." I also has a capabilities-limited free version.
For myself, I'd start with Genius and the free version of FullRecall and compare them to see if it would be worth paying the $35.
Good luck with your studying!
posted by ranebo at 8:01 AM on April 25, 2008