This past weekend I talked about a great little application called Todos. While many passed it off as a novelty application with little use, thousands flocked to its unique approach as an application finder and launcher. The screen capture that Chris Messina put in his flickr photostream received over 10,000 hits in only a few days. Simultaneously, TUAW, TAB, digg and other sites picked up on Todos. It became an incredibly popular application seemingly overnight.
After receiving some exclusive information from Todos developer Dustin Bachrach, I can give you a sneak peek of the upcoming version of Todos. The next version of Todos will progress it from mere novelty to useful powerhouse.
Changelog
The most prominent additions to the new version of Todos include a dedicated preferences window, features that allow more control over what applications Todos displays, enhanced performance and a customizable hotkey (now you can ditch Cmd-Opt-Ctr-T!).
- Added command-clicking of an application to keep Todos active and in front.
- Simply clicking an icon opens application and Todos fades away.
- Added option-clicking of an application to remove it and block it from being displayed in Todos.
- Changed window to have a default transparency of 90%.
- When inactive Todos window fades to 75% transparency.
- Currently running app icons are stroked in green.
- Corrected a rescan bug.
- Added larger icon view and altered textual display (large text for app name and small text for path) for selected app.
- Flipped screen co-ords to start displaying from the top instead of the bottom.
- Made window draggable.
- Small box drawn around selected icon.
- Icons sorted by directory then app name.
- Added ~/Applications and ~/Desktop to default scanning locations.
- Slightly modifed some of the scanning code.
- Command-q now disabled.
- Sparkle Integration for In-App new version checking and installation.
- Improves window redraw speed for significant boost in performance and less cpu usage.
- New preferences window added.
- “Open Window” menu item now updates its parenthesis to the user selected hotkey
- Added setting to change transparency.
- Added sorting options.
- Added ability to specify directories to search for applications.
- Added ability to manage blocked apps within the preferences window.
- Added ability to customize the hotkey.
- Added ability to start Todos on login.
- Minor bug fixes and improvements.
Screenshots
The green boxes around certain applications indicate whether they are active/in use. A gray box highlights the currently selected application.
The new preference pane.
As you can tell from the extensive changelog and screenshots, Todos v1.5 will be a meaningful update. Many people have compared QuickSilver to Todos but you just can’t compare the two. Todos isn’t just a launcher. It’s the type of application you consult when you want to open that one app you hardly use, whose name you forgot, but whose icon you remember. It’s also a great visual indicator of how my gunk your Mac has and informs you of those apps you completely forgot you had. Version 1.5 might even have some spotlight integration, so stay tuned. If you have any feature requests, leave a comment and maybe Dustin will check them out for a future version. Thanks to Josue for hooking this up and Dustin for the info!
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Wow the app looks like it can do alot of things. Is there a Windows version in the works ? Is there something similiar for the Windows OS that people could recommend ? Always love to see new useful tools, specially if they help me stay organised, which a NASA super computer running 20million TODOs would have trouble doing.
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Looking forward to the release, it’s a nice application.
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Use Todos. Waste time trying to find the icon that goes with the application you need. Waste resources. Confuse yourself. Be unproductive.
Use Quicksilver. Instantly find the applicaion or applications. Be productive.
Todos is a one-trick pony. It’s pretty, and it might help you if you forget the name of an app and that app just so happens to have a distinctive icon, yet not so distinctive that it might help you remember its name… but it’s about as much like Quicksilver as a multiplication table is like a graphing calculator.
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It’s just another run-of-the-mill application launcher. Although, this one requires the user to try to memorize the icons, rather than already use the memorized application names. Which really doesn’t make sense. It’s nothing more than eye-candy to show off to your Windoze friends. Just like the Dock magnification or the shift+Expose trick.
Todos is bloody useless. Just some pointless eye candy.
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The only use for this application would be as the article reiterates – to see rarely used applications or to get ann inventory of what applications have been installed.
To compare Quicksilver and Todos is like comparing Apples and Oranges. To use Quicksilver *you have to know each and every application that you have installed* upfront but Todos just gives you entire list of applications at once. Other launcbars give you a similar functionality but it can get simply tedious since these menubar based launchers can quickly get overcrowded.
Especially if you just download the appication to try it out and then forget it.
So use your Dock for frequently used applications.
Use Quicksilver for applications that you don’t need to clutter up dock but you use frequently enough to remember their names and spell them !
Use Todos once in while if you forget what applications you have. You could essentially get the same thing if you browse the applications folder but Todos is cooler.
I agree with synd, I don’t believe Todos to be particularly useful. Having all those icons displayed at once is cluttered, confusing and serves no real purpose. I guess everyone’s jumping on the bandwagon for the novelty, but I haven’t tried Todos. I know there’s no comparison, but Quicksilver more than fulfills nearly all my launching needs.
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Yeah, it’s eyecandy, and we may not care much for it, but let’s admit it, eye candy sells for mr. and mrs everybody.
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Nuggetbro: You might want to try using the start menu, or the add/remove programs app in control panel to see what you have installed in windows.
The neat interface here is kinda gimmicky, kinda useful. Depending on how hoggy it is while up is ultimately the deciding factor. Is it always scanning for new apps, or only on startup?
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Cluster-clutter.
Even with the updates, I still can’t see too much use for it. When you have a ton of apps, it’s just too painful to look through all of those icons. If you forget the name and can remember the icon, you can just as easily open up your applications folder and find it as well.
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Is this App anything like Quicksilver and Launchbar?
A customizable shortcut would be a much better idea. Just an idea.
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I thought I was the only one sitting back thinking, “Yeah? So?” Glad to see I’m not. This doesn’t seem like a bad app – just nothing particularly compelling to make me download it. And a Windows version would be ugly. Big, pixellated Windows logos? No thanks.
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This seems to just be a larger version of the dock. That being said, I would use it in a second if it were a dashboard widget. There are a few alternatives out there, but they are not as easy for compiling all of your applications and don’t look as good. I would love to be able to click my scroll-wheel and have all of my apps appear along-side my other widgets. Sure, you could assign the application to one of your mouse buttons or a key stroke, but I would prefer to have it as a one-stop-shop.
If I’m seeing it correctly, with Todos you can define a few programs, I see those borders around icons and have them started in one click??
I hope this is true, that would be very useful.
Mostly when I start to work on a website, I need to open up to 5 programs, and I need to open them one by one….
But btw great app!
Good grief. You’re such a load of moaning zealots. I read an article this morning on why Bryan O’Bryan was ditching th MAC community because of people like yourselves. I don’t own a MAC and so had had no experience on these hoards of whining complaing people. If you don’t like it, don’t bother with it and don’t use it! I’m not sure why you’re wasting your time commenting on it here anyway! Didn’t your mother ever tell you, if you don’t have anything nice to say, keep your mouth shut?
Stop wasting your time writing such negative comments and go leanr to program yourselves and try do better or at least so you can then see what its like to get bitched at for makign something others might want to use!
@Peter – it’s amazing how you took the time to write such a negative comment moaning and whining about other people moaning and whining. Pot meet kettle.
I tried it, and felt that it would be more useful as a widget. But I agree with others here, all these icons in no particular order is a mess and makes for a difficult finding session of the application I’m looking for. I like the widget iLife Launcher, easy enough. This is something I will be erasing unless they can figure out a better system.
New Version is out of beta and available to the public: http://www.dbachrach.com/opensoft/index.php?page=Todos
Oh, and Peter, I just want to say thanks. Nice summary.
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Love Todos, thanks for taking the time to write it. As a visual person I do find it quicker to get to my apps using Todos, especially since bothering to take the time to set it up, which folders to scan and to set a shorter hotkey (Alt-A). I don’t want the control freakery of quicksilver and nor do I want a crammed dock or to have to drill through folders.
Cheers for Todos :)
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Ooops, cheers to Dustin that is :)
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