PCWorld.com’s Mac Skeptic on getting Tiger-like tools today

Posted by Pierre Igot in: Macintosh
July 25th, 2004 • 12:29 am

Rebecca Freed, PCWorld.com’s “Mac Skeptic” columnist, has an article dated July 23, 2004 entitled “Jump on Tiger’s Tools” on how you can get today software that allows you to approximate some of the features that will be included in Tiger when it comes out (next year).

Well, get this: the article doesn’t even mention LaunchBar! LaunchBar is a perfect example of how you can approximate some of Tiger’s features today, especially in its version 4 incarnation (still in beta, but already highly reliable). For example, when you want to do a Google search, instead of first switching to Safari, opening a new window, and typing something in the “Google” field, you can just use your (customizable) shortcut to invoke LaunchBar, type “goo” to select LaunchBar’s Google search template, then hit the space bar and type your Google search query and hit the Return key. Bingo! A new window opens in Safari with the results of the Google search.

LaunchBar also lets you browse the contents of your Address Book, your hard drive, etc. — all by hitting a few keyboard keys. It’s absolutely fabulous, it will probably still be better than Spotlight whenever Apple releases it — and, as I said, I just can’t believe that Ms. Freed would neglect to mention it in her column. Instead, she spends an entire paragraph complaining about the fact that there’s no equivalent of Spotlight in third-party Mac software products today, whereas some Windows tools can approximate it.

With that kind of knowledge of the Mac market, it’s not wonder she’s a Mac skeptic!


2 Responses to “PCWorld.com’s Mac Skeptic on getting Tiger-like tools today”

  1. Pierre Igot says:

    Yes, I should have mentioned QS as well – a LaunchBar competitor which has the added benefit of being free.

    http://blacktree.com/apps/quicksilver/

  2. Stephen Hryncewicz says:

    She should also mention Quicksilver which can carry out the search examples you mentioned.

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