MakeUseOf » Growl

Growl 1.3 Now On Sale In The Mac App Store [News]

Bakari Chavanu — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 18:01:26 +0000

Growl 1.3, a classic formerly free third-party notification application, is now on sale in the Mac App store for $1.99. With Growl on your Mac you can always know what’s going on with other applications on your system. It can tell you, for example, when you get new Twitter mentions or direct messages, when content is added to your Dropbox, and information about songs you play on streaming music services like Spotify.

Most advance third-party applications, like OmniFocus, Path Finder, Skype, SuperDuper, and Tweetie, support Growl, so there’s little to do in setting up activation. Growl provides a central location in Mac Preferences, where you can enable and disable notifications for individual applications. Notifications appear nearly unobtrusively on your desktop, and you can customize the display of notices. However, Growl doesn’t have support from native OS X applications like Mail, iPhoto, or iTunes.

In addition to a totally new user interface, the new 1.3 features include a Rollup window that displays one or more notifications instead of individually on your desktop. Growl has also made improvements in menu bar access, enabling users to pause notifications via the menu bar icon. In addition, the service app now provides a history of your most recent notifications, so you can review the ones you received when you’re away from your computer.

If you’re a Mac power user, Growl is among the most essential applications to have installed on your computer. It can also work with your iOS client app, Prowl, for the iPhone and iPad.

Source: tuaw.com

Move, Copy, Open, & Remove Files With File Sorter [Mac]

Bakari Chavanu — Fri, 20 May 2011 23:30:36 +0000

I’ve written several articles on Mac automation software, including Automator and Apple‘s smart technology folders and albums. Much of our purpose with computers is to get work done faster and more efficiently. To this end, there are several paid third-party automation apps on the market, including Hazel and QuicKeys 4.0, that require no knowledge or use of automation code, as with AppleScript.

Well, finally, there’s a free option that might make a useful introduction to bulk file and folder automation; it’s called FileSorter—a free download in the Mac App Store.

Let me say upfront, FileSorter is not the best app for what it does. It’s not even close. But it’s a useful introduction to folder actions if you’ve never used a similar automator program before. FileSorter requires no knowledge of automation code. It simply sorts files based on rules and actions you assign. It works fairly well, but as a version 1.0.2, it has many limitations I will point out later.

Setting FileSorter Rules

After downloading FileSorter, launch it, and in the welcome window click on “Create a new rule.”

There are three parts to creating rules and actions for moving, copying, or removing files. Here’s a practical rule you might find useful:

This FileSorter rule will move PNG files on your desktop to a designated folder. This rule can be used for any type of files that normally gets placed on your desktop, and that’s why you would want to have a quick way to move them.

First click on the green + button in the menu bar of FileSorter. Click on the “Filename” and then on the drop-down button, select “Extension.” Next, click on the second drop-down button and select “is.” In the final text box type “PNG” or any file extension, e.g. doc, pages, JPG, pdf, that you want to quickly move. Before moving to the next part, assign a name to this action.

The rule we’ve set so far means that FileSorter will only act on files ending in the extension you specify. Next, we need to create a folder in the Finder to move selected files to when activated upon by FileSorter. So for example, you might move all the png files to a PNG folder inside the Pictures Folder of your Mac. Since for some files, FileSorter does not allow you to create a new folder inside its application, you need to create one before we add the action in the next step.

Next, click on the “Add Action” button, and in the drop-down menu select “Move,” or Copy—whichever you prefer.

Now, click on the Edit button and select “Choose,” and then select the PNG folder you created for this action.

Now, to test it out, simply select PNG files on your desktop or anywhere in the Finder, and drag and drop them on top of the FileSorter icon in your Dock.

FileSorter will automatically move your selected files to your designated folder.

That’s the basic rule and action set up for FileSorter. This works for other type of files. For example, you can set up rules and actions to move items in your Download folder to various different folders in your Finder. This is a great way to sort say all those PDF and JPG files that get saved to your Downloads folder.

Similar Folder actions can be created using Automator as well. But again, since FileSorter is free, and if you have no experience with this type of automation you might want to download it and give it a try.

Growl Notice

In FileSorter‘s Preferences, you might to want to click the “Use Growl Notifications” which will inform you that FileSorter has successfully run your rules and actions. See more about Growl here.

Other Rules

Another practical rule may be for quickly moving old files to the trash or an external drive.

In this example, you might want to move all your Word doc files that were created last year to the trash.

When you click on the Edit button, you can select to move the selected files to the Trash or just Delete them all together.

The similar rule could be used for moving or deleting files in a folder that are over a certain file size.

Finally, FileSorter allows you to add Automator workflows as an action. This is useful for including complex actions that FileSorter can’t perform by itself. To add Automator actions, select “Open” as an action, click the Edit button and add the Automator application you want to run.

Limitations

There are some big limitations with FileSorter, especially when compared to a paid app called Hazel, which has been around for quite a while and automates rules and actions without you having to manually select specified files and move them on an icon in the Dock.

The biggest limitation to FileSorter is that if you include two or more rules that are similar to one another, FileSorter will run them both. So say you make two different rules to act on PNG files. Both of your actions will run whether you want them to or not. Also, another limitation to the program is that Creation and Modification Date rules are limited to specific days. It would be better if it included parameters like, “in the last ___days”, for example.

But again, if this type of Mac automation is new to you, FileSorter might well be worth downloading and trying out.

Let us know what you think about FileSorter and other similar Mac automation programs you use. Also, check out my free MUO PDF, The Awesome Automation Guide for Mac OS X.

How To Set Up A Motion Detection Surveillance System With iPhone Notifications

James Bruce — Wed, 11 May 2011 19:31:16 +0000

Living in a rather dodgy part of the UK, one thing I’ve been meaning to do is set up my always-on home server as a CCTV Surveillance System that sends alerts to my iPhone whenever it detects motion.

Though the results are fantastic, you do need a lot of free software to get the thing up and running properly. It’s a lot to download, but there isn’t anything inherently difficult about it – just be prepared to spend a little time on this. An easier possibility is one that Mark talked about back in 2007, which is to use Skype, although there is no motion detection involved with that method.

What You Need

A Windows PC that’s always on. I’ll only be covering the Windows process and software today, but if you know of similar software for Linux or OsX, let us know in the comments.
A spare webcam of some sort, one that is already working with drivers. (I’ll be using a PS3 EyeCam just because they’re great quality and affordable).
Mounting bracket and USB extension cable if you’ll be mounting it outside.
Free YawCam software (check out a review from Mark here) and the Java RunTime Environment.
Microsoft .net v.2 or higher.
Growl for Windows.
Boxcar App for iPhone notifications (needs free Signup), as well as Boxcar Growl Plugin.

1: Install Yawcam & Check Your Webcam

If you’re trying to use the PS3Eye like I have, you’ll need to install the CLEye drivers from here before you can use the camera in Windows. You’ll also need to download the JRE from Java.com before attempting to install Yawcam.

Upon launching YawCam for the first time, select your camera device from Settings -> Device -> Change To menu option. The preview Window should now show you the output from your webcam.

2. Set Up Streaming

Click the enable button on the main screen to activate streaming capabilities.

Then head to Settings -> Edit Settings to bring up the preferences screen. From the left sidebar select Connection -> What’s my URL? to open a webpage with both internal and external links to your new webcam stream. By default, the app will configure your router for you, but if not you’ll need to read the help guide on forwarding the correct ports.

3. Set Up Motion Detection

Click the button on the main Window again to Enable Motion. Then open the motion detection screen from the Window menu. The preview area shows blue when motion is detected, but if you’re pointing it on your garden you may find trees showing up when moving in the wind. To solve this, I set up motion detection for a single area – the table and chairs, instead of the whole image.

To set up tolerance and sensitivity, the auto-detect works well, but you might also want to make use of spouses or children to set it up manually. It also helps if you enable the “show image” feature too. In case you’re wondering, the blue bar beneath the image shows the threshold – the bar above is green and increases when it detects movement. Once the green bar goes beyond the blue bar, it fires a motion event.

Once you’re confident it’s sparking detection events correctly in the event view, just set it up to save images for now or play a sound for testing. Here’s a strange guy it captured in my garden!

4. Install Growl For Windows

In order to setup notification between various devices we’re using, we’re going to need Growl For Windows first, then Growl apps on anything you want to send notifications too. Today I’ll be showing you how to set it up on your iPhone using Boxcar, but you can easily set this up on other devices too.

To setup YawCam to work with Growl For Windows, first, open up My Computer and locate the growlnotify.exe in your Growl for Windows install directory, and move it to your root C: drive – I had problems getting it to work right when left in the default directory.

Head back to the motion detection screen. On the action list, enable the Run .exe option and edit the settings. The command we want to run is:

c:/growlnotifier.exe "Motion detected" /cu:"http://178.34.54.09:8081"

Change the IP address on the end to be the URL you used earlier to view the stream.

At this point, you should be getting a default Growl notifier in the lower right of your screen whenever motion is detected, and if you got the URL correct, clicking on it will open your browser to the stream page where you can view the intruder live.

Next we will try to connect this to the iPhone for alerts on the go.

5. Install The Boxcar Growl Plugin & Get A Free BoxCar Account

Head over to boxcar.io and make yourself a free account. Boxcar is basically a free catch-all notifications service we’ve shown you before, but I’ll only be using it for the Growl functionality.

You’ll need to enable the Growl notifications from the boxcar.io website, and be sure to download the iPhone app and login before continuing.

Next, install the Growl Plugin to connect the two.

If you’d rather be sending notifications to other devices, check out this great tutorial we showed you before, or you can get Boxcar for Mac OsX too.

Then to activate the notifier, open up the Growl for Windows application, and go to Network. Check the Forward Notifications to Other Devices, and click the green + button. You should see BoxCar listed on the bottom (don’t choose iPhone, as it’s designed for a paid app called Prowl).

Set up the notifier with your account login details, and you should be all set.

6. Set Up A Quick Launch Icon For Your Video Stream

Unfortunately, there’s currently no way to forward the URL to your notifications when motion is detected (though the boxcar.io forum assures me they are working on this). Until then, the easiest way would be to browse to your video stream from your iPhone, and create a quick launch icon for your homescreen that you can easily access when motion is detected. Click on the + button at the bottom of Safari to do this.

Now when you get a notification, just hit your new stream icon to see what’s going on!

Conclusion

I must admit it took quite a bit of fiddling to get this all working correctly, so don’t despair. Post in the comments if you have any problems and I’ll see what I can do to help. You don’t have to use Growl notifications – there’s many more options to just save a file if you want, or to email you – and there’s also a lot more you can do with Growl if you like it! I also suggest downloading some dog growling noises, and setting them to play when movement is detected…

Now it’s time to troll the neighbours!

Set Up Growl Notifications Between Different Computers And Devices

Jeffry Thurana — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 19:00:04 +0000

Are you one of those multi-gadget users? How do you keep up with everything that happens on all of your devices? Wouldn’t it nice if some kind of notification system could be triggered remotely between gadgets? For example, when something happens in computer #1, a notification could be sent to computer #2. Or, when the 3D animation rendering that you started in your office last night is finally complete but you’re already home, so a notification will pop up on your mobile phone.

If it sounds amazing, you are right. Everything could be set using the help of Growl. It allows us to forward notifications from one machine to another as long as all of them has Growl installed.

I’m sure some of you are familiar with Growl. It’s the notification system for Mac. But most of us might not know that there’s also the Windows version of Growl. And after playing with it for a while, I can personally say that in some aspects, the Windows version is better than the original Mac version. Since we have discussed the Mac version, let’s look at the Windows version of Growl remote notifications.

The installation routine goes just like any other Windows application.

But you have to tell Windows Firewall to allow this application to bypass the block. In case you are worried about security, don’t check the “Public network” option.

The app will reside in the System Tray. Windows 7 users have to dig a little deeper (or set it to be visible all the time) to access the settings.

Check the “Automatically start Growl at login” box so that the application will always available every time you start Windows.

This is also the place where you can set the sound notification and the user’s idle status.

Notify Me And I’ll Notify You

To set up the notification system to go off on several computers, click the “Network” tab. Then check the “Forward notifications to other computers” box to enable it, and “Subscribe to notifications from other computers” box to enable receiving notifications from other computers.

Then click the “Plus (+)” button under “Forward…” box to add the computer/iPhone/email address that you want to forward your notifications to. If there are other computers with Growl in the same network, they should appear automatically on the list and you can choose to link them.

Please note that Mac computers will not show on a Windows list unless the Windows machine has Bonjour installed. If you have installed iTunes and Quicktime in your Windows, Bonjour would have beeb installed along with them.

If you prefer to forward the message by email, you should give the setting a description and an email address. The default SMTP Settings is “Home (127.0.0.1)“. Choose the the priority and click “Save“.

The “Home” SMTP setting will only work if you have an email server installed on your computer. Further customization is available by clicking the “edit” link. Every system will have different email server configurations. Please consult your “knowledgeable acquaintance” about this matter.

Apply similar settings to other Growls on other computers. This is what it looks like on a Mac machine.

With A Little Help

Unfortunately, Windows machine can’t “listen to” a Mac machine by default. To be able to do that, you have to use the help from an application called “Growl Impersonator“. Find out more about the settings here.

To forward the Growl remote notifications to an iPhone (currently, this is the only supported mobile phone), you have to use help of other services. There are several options available: Prowl (paid), Howl (paid), Boxcar (free) and Notifo (free). Strangely, this “forward to iPhone” option is only available from Windows version of Growl (I just couldn’t find the way to do it from Mac).

The Windows version of Growl also enables its users to “listen to” notifications from web services like Twitter and GMail. To enable this feature, you need to integrate it with notify.io. We’ll discuss notify.io in a separate article later on.

Do you use a notification system? Can you mention other worthy alternatives? Please share using the comment below.

How To Customize Windows Notification Messages with Snarl

Saikat Basu — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 12:01:00 +0000

A snarl is something you would associate with a really cross guy. But the software which takes the same name does its job ever so silently.

Snarl is a universal notification handler for Windows. Under normal running, applications (or Windows) display bits of information in a comment balloon or a bubble in the area of the system tray called the notification area. They simply inform or suggest a course of action for us to follow ““ through the instructions or by clicking on the notification itself.

Windows offers very little by way of customizing Windows notification messages. You can, at the most, change the color by modifying the Tooltip color or disable/enable them from some individual applications. There is no universal notification manager.

Snarl is a freeware program which attempts to change that by giving some customizing power to the user. By the looks of it, it’s almost similar to Mac’s Growl (another huffy name!). Growl has a Windows counterpart too, which is in the beta stage now.

Is Snarl worth a shout? Let’s check it out.

Snarl R2.21 (V40.15) is a 5.9 MB download and, on installation, can be accessed from the Start Menu and the system tray. The first time Snarl starts up for your system, it tests the rate of blended images which your graphics card can render. A few seconds later, Snarl is ready to go.

Snarl operates in the background silently using a very light memory footprint. The interface can be accessed with a right click on the system tray icon.

Working with a Snarl

Snarl supports a variety of applications and manages their notifications from its centralized interface.Straight after an install Snarl supports system notifications like battery level warnings, system events, timer and on the hour clock alerts.

Snarl is extensible through many available extensions. Extensions are like small modules, each for a specific application or task.Snarl’s real use lies with the gallery of extensions. Extensions are like modules designed for specific applications. Installation and registration of these little extension files with Snarl’s allows the program to capture the Windows notification messages and display them through Snarl’s centralized system.

The extensions are grouped in various categories. They can be managed and disabled from within Snarl.
Snarl can display multiple notifications and does not take keyboard focus away when displaying a notification.Snarl brings all Windows notification messages for applications it supports under a common umbrella. Whether it’s a Firefox download progress or a Gmail notifier, a user knows where to look for all the info. The user can also select or deselect the types of notifications from a single program from the Preferences box.

Notifications can also be setup with sound alerts using Snarl. A “˜view only’ mode makes the notification box invisible to the mouse pointer, so the user can click any Windows program right through it.
Snarl allows the user to customize the appearance and the display characteristics of individual notifications.Snarl supports a variety of styles (23 in its gallery). The styles can be downloaded for use. Styles have themes which are like color schemes for each style.

Notification appearance can be customized by setting there opacity levels, duration of display and positions.
Snarl captures missed notifications.A right click on the system tray icon and you can access the Missed Notifications box in case you missed an important one.

So is it worth the shout?

As a notification manager, yes it has lots of bells and whistles. The real essence though lies with the extensions and the program’s extensibility to the wide range of applications out there. Some of the most used ones like Gmail notification, iTunes, Firefox, Sunbird, Google Reader, PidGin, Skype, Thunderbird and a couple of Twitter clients are covered. But definitely a lot more need to be added. Handling the app takes a bit of trial and error and though the Preview button on the program helps, a Help file would have been better.

Snarl is pleasing to the eye with its gallery of looks enhancing styles. It is very light and does act as an attractive shell replacement program.

Snarl is a free and open source program and is compatible with Windows XP/Vista

What are your thoughts on the program? Have you used Snarl or a similar notification alternative?

Facebook’s New Toy – Desktop Notifications for Mac OS X

Jackson Chung — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:00:06 +0000

A dozen of social networks have graced us with their presence but not all of them stood up to the test of time. Luckily, a small social network called Facebook has what it takes to keep us clinged on and socially addicted to pokes, growing gifts and those weirdly entertaining flash games.

As if it wasn’t enough that I kept being bothered by emails every time my friends decided to comment on my status or tag me in a photo, Facebook has now completely ruined my life and brought my productivity down along with it. They’ve introduced a new menubar application exclusively to Mac OS X — it’s called Desktop Notifications. And it does exactly that.

Like all Mac apps, installing is a piece of cake: drag it to the Applications folder.

Setting it up takes a few more clicks that usual because it requires you to authorize the app to access your Facebook profile.

Then I noticed something, perhaps one of the features that will be implemented in the future?

Once the setup process is through, the app will sit quietly on your menubar until an activity in your Facebook account triggers a notification. The Facebook icon will turn blue if there are unread notifications.

Currently, Desktop Notifications has only 2 purposes. Obviously, one of them is displaying notifications. Whenever a friend pokes you, sends you a game invitation, a message or a gift, asks you to join a network, a clan or be his/her neighbor in Farm Town, etc; you’ll receive a Growl notification. Unlike TweetDeck (an Adobe AIR application that connects to Twitter and Facebook), Desktop Notifications will not display your News Feed i.e. your friends’ status updates, posted pictures or videos, that sort of thing. This app is streamlined to showcase you. Your notifications. Your messages. Your profile. Your status.

Secondly, it will allow you to update your status from your desktop via a global hotkey, which is set by default to Control+Option+Command+Spacebar. Convenient as that is, it’s not really a breakthrough feature. But let’s not be pessimistic, keep in mind that Desktop Notifications is currently only a beta.

As you can see from the screenshot above, clicking on the menubar icon will bring up a list of recent notifications. Also, it will display a few messages from your inbox. And if any of them are unread, they will be labelled with a blue dot.

If you notice, there are options to read your News Feed, browse your profile and compose a new message but they are basically links. Clicking on any one of them launches your browser and brings you to the appropriate page. I’m actually hoping that the developers will allow us to browse the News Feed (at the very least) in the next version.

After scrutinizing it, I actually like Facebook’s Desktop Notifications, not mention grateful that they haven’t forgotten about us Mac users. The idea as a whole is great and this is definitely an attempt to hook us on Facebook all over again.

Try it out for yourselves! What would you change about the app? Any missing features? Facebook needs your feedback to ready the app for the world.

Lastly, I’d like to take this opportunity to remind you that we’re on Facebook. Check out our fan page and if you’re a fan, join us!

Get Front-Page Digg Stories on your Desktop with DiggUpdater

Jackson Chung — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 21:01:37 +0000

Inc.com labelled Kevin Rose as the most famous man on the internet. Just the mention of his name would probably make his fans, most of whom are men, follow him around like a horde of zombies and salivate profusely while waiting for him to say something juicy. Like what the next iPod will look like, for example. His creations have ridden on his fame and took off to stardom as well. Digg and Diggnation are both large household names on the internet.

If you have just come out from hibernation and have no idea what Digg means, allow me to shed some light. Digg is a website created by Kevin Rose which allows users to submit news and links of interests; and promotion of those submissions by voting or “digging”. If a link is heavily “dugg”, it will end up on the front page of Digg and thus, brought to fame.

Any story on the front page of Digg will carry a huge influx of visitors to the submitted links, slowing the website down to a crawl or decapitating it altogether – what we now know as the “Digg effect”. MakeUseOf is a common victim of said effect and we’re proud of it.

The front page of Digg is traversed by many links in a very short period of time. So, it’s very difficult to keep up with every little bit of news that comes through – unless you have the right tools under your belt. I recently found one excellent Digg tool – and it’s a keeper.

DiggUpdater is a tiny menu bar application which scans the front page of Digg and sends those submissions right to my desktop, making it a million times easier than browsing through the website for anything that could catch my eye.

When I first start this application up, it asks me for the kind of style I’d like my updates to be presented in: a Classic Digg window, a Slim Digg window, using Growl, or without any windows. I chose the Slim window since reading the titles of the submission is enough to tell me if I’m interested in it. Plus, I wouldn’t want the limited screen-estate of my 13″ MacBook to be hogged by Digg notification windows.

After choosing my notification style, the application launches properly and the 5 most recent front page stories are sent to my desktop. Wicked. Clicking on any one of them will lead my browser to the corresponding page on Digg.

Many users will stop here saying “Oi, this means I can’t digg a submission right from my desktop? This application is rubbish”. Hold your horses with the dissing. How do you know which links from Digg are worth digging unless you view them first? Do I make any sense?

Carrying on, DiggUpdate is pretty configurable. You can choose how many stories you’d like to display each time it refreshes, the refresh interval (I’d suggest a longer interval because the stories on Digg take a while to rotate, so searching for new stories every minute is a waste of time), you can even enter your Digg username to retrieve stories which were dugg by your friends. If you’d like to monitor only certain categories from Digg, you can select the ones you want from the story categories drop-down list. It gives you the option to choose a whole category group (e.g. Technology) or specific categories (e.g. Apple news).

When I first ran DiggUpdate, I constantly checked Digg and wondered why some stories have yet to reach my desktop. I was pretty irritated with it and started tweaking the refresh interval. Indeed, I realised that the stories will eventually come to my desktop. That’s when I learnt that I had to set the refresh interval slightly higher to get the best out of this application. Currently, I get a few new stories for me to sift through every now and then.

The Digg icon on the menu bar is pretty awesome. The “board-like thingy” beside the man figure turns yellow indicating that there are new stories which I haven’t taken a look at.

Like I said before, DiggUpdate is a keeper. It’s available for free on both Mac and Windows. Give it a go and let me know what you think of it, especially the Windows version. I have no idea how the Digg notification windows look like on XP, so please let me know in the comments.

If you’re an avid Digg submitter, check out Mark’s article about monitoring your own submissions; and if you’d like to rise to fame in the Digg community, Mark will show you how.

Facebook Updates sent to your Desktop via Subsume [Mac Only]

Jackson Chung — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:26:31 +0000

A relatively unknown experimental freeware called Subsume provides you with Growl notifications every time your Facebook and MySpace friends update their statuses. When I first started writing for Make Use Of, I covered MoodBlast, which sends out status updates to popular social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook but this application does the opposite, mainly.

Subsume currently only supports updates from Facebook and MySpace friends. It integrates nicely with Address Book, showing the picture attached for the contact but is optional and you can have Subsume work independently from Address Book. Besides that, every time a computer joins or leaves your network, Subsume will let you know; and can even automatically send out status updates for you on Adium and iChat when you watch something in VLC, Joost, Miro or DVD Player (so your friends know to leave you alone!)

More specifically, Subsume will provide you with alerts regarding:

New Notifications from Facebook
New Wall Posts
Status Updates from Facebook and MySpace
Connected/disconnected computer son your local network (Bonjour)

Subsume is more or less for the people who enjoy checking out what their friends are up to. This is the kind of program which you turn on and leave it on in the background, if you know what I mean. Since it works with Growl, Subsume pretty much feels like it is part of the system, not a separate application and doesn’t really bother me or decrease my productivity. My only gripe is that I can’t get the Subsume Dock icon to hide when I run the application. It also sets itself to start on login, so that saves a bit of trouble.

Subsume hasn’t been updated since November last year but still it is quite functional and does the job. Maybe if there were more Subsume users, that would encourage its creator to focus more attention and time into the project.

Subsume is compatible with Tiger and Leopard and again, it’s free.

(By) Jackson Chung is a full-time medical student attempting to perform a juggling act with relationship, studies and his future.

Manage Your Time Effectively Online With Slife [Mac Only]

Wez Pyke — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:02:32 +0000

Slife is a free time management and tracking tool for Mac OS X that you can use to visually see what applications that you have running and the length of time that they have been active for. If you want to see what kind of applications you generally have open throughout the day and the amount of time you spend using each application, or you want to set goals, then Slife is the perfect tool.

Slife is also the perfect tool for business professionals who bill their clients by the hour. By monitoring your online time usage of software, you can have a more accurate picture of how much to charge your clients.

Features

Growl Notifications
If you have Growl installed on your Mac then Slife will notify you when you have or haven’t completed activity goals so you can keep up to date with things.

Tracking
When you load up Slife, all the applications that are open will then start being tracked automatically so that you can easily keep track of things. Slife will tell you how long you have had an application open and how long you have had a document or webpage open. If you’re using Safari it will tell you how long you have spent on each webpage and if you are using Microsoft Word then it will tell you how long you have been working on each document.

Within Slife you can choose to view tracking by day, month, application, web and documents, activities and goals.

When tracking by day, dots and lines will show you how much time you have spent on an application. By clicking the dot you will see the document or webpage you were at, how long you spent at the webpage or how long you had a document open for. Each time you switch between different applications dots are created.

When viewing by month, you will see the dots which represent each application by using a different color but you cannot click them and view the information like when viewing by day.

Viewing by ‘Application’ will show you how long you have had Slife open for and what applications you have had open for that period of time by highlighting a grey bar in red.

When viewing by ‘web and documents’ it is displayed by viewing each application but shows how long a document or webpage was open for each application.

When you set activities you can choose which applications you want to be monitored under each activity. The default activities for Slife are checking email, preparing budget, designing web pages, reading news and doing online research. These can be deleted or modified and of course you can create your own. If I was to check my mail using Apple’s Mail application, Slife would monitor how much time I spent checking my email which I could then look at later.

When you create an activity you can set whether it is a goal or not and if you set it to be a goal you can then select whether you want to spend more or less time using certain applications. Once you have completed your goal you will get a notification through Growl telling you that the goal is completed if you have Growl installed.

If you use many applications and have browsed many web pages while Slife has been open then you can use the search function within Slife to see how long you spent on a particular webpage, how long you had a document open or how long you spent within an application.

If you want Slife to stop tracking your use of applications then you can click ‘Private Mode’ within the icon on the menubar and it will stop tracking. To start tracking again just simply press ‘Private Mode’ again and tracking will then resume.

So what do you think of Slife? Do you see yourself using something like this? Or is it more trouble than it’s worth? Think you know something better than Slife? Let’s hear about it….

(By) Wez is a student studying computers, also does programming and video tutorials and writes about technology, software and websites, check out his blog @ www.TheTutorialBlog.com