dock posts

Customize your Snow Leopard dock with Dock Library

by Jay Hathaway Sep 13th 2009

When Apple introduced the new shelf-like dock in OS 10.5 Leopard, users were up in arms over how ugly it was, with some even switching their docks to the side of the screen to avoid seeing it. If you hate the shelf, or just wish you could make it look better, you should give Dock Library a try. It lets you replace your dock with a custom design, and works in both Leopard and Snow Leopard.

Sites like LeopardDocks.com and LeopardDocks.net have extensive libraries of designs you can download and add to Dock Library. Once you've got a few of them set up, it's just a couple of clicks to change to a new one, or go back to the default. To install a new dock, you don't need to expand the downloaded, just use Dock Library's "import" button and select the .zip file.

[via Sizlopedia]

Tags: customization, dock, dock library, DockLibrary, leopard, os x, OsX, snow leopard, SnowLeopard

Filed under: Utilities, Windows

Nexus: Easy to configure dock-style application launcher

by Brad Linder Jun 29th 2009

Nexus is a free application launcher for Windows that works a lot like the OS X dock. It's hardly the only dock-style program launcher for Windows, but Nexus is one of the most attractive and flexible options I've seen. The free utility comes with a handful of themes and offers live previews of your CPU and RAM usage and your local weather forecast.

There are a ton of advanced settings, many of which have to do with the program's animations and other visual elements. Adding programs to the dock is as simple as dragging and dropping them. You can remove shortcuts by dragging them to the trash bin.

The makers of Nexus also offer a commercial application called WinStep Xtreme which bundles Nexus with a desktop replacement called WorkShelf and a start menu organizer called Winstep Start Menu. If you shell out the $24.95 for WinStep Xtreme you also get a few extra features for the Nexus dock, including multi-level docks.

[via Life Rocks 2.0]

Tags: dock, nexus, winstep, winstep-xtreme

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware, Open Source

Appetizer: Open source, portable application launcher

by Brad Linder Apr 23rd 2009

There's no shortage of free dock-style application launchers for Windows. But there are a few things that make Appetizer stand out from the crowd. First, it's open source, which makes it easy for anyone to develop skins, plugins, or other features for the application. Second, it can run as a portable application, which means you can either install it on your Windows system or run it from a USB flash drive.

When you first run Appetizer, you're presented with an option to import shortcuts from your Windows start menu, quick launch menu, or your Portable Apps files if you're running the program on a computer with a Portable Apps-enabled USB flash drive plugged in.

You can also add program shortcuts manually and change the look and feel of Appetizer by adjusting the icon size, program transparency, and even orientation (horizontal or vertical). You can also download alternate skins for Appetizer. The program is currently available in about a dozen languages, although not all of the translations are complete.

[via Life Rocks 2.0]

Tags: appetizer, dock, program-launcher

Filed under: Fun, OS Updates, Windows, Freeware, Windows x64

XWindows Dock is a better Leopard dock clone for Windows

by Lee Mathews Mar 27th 2009

Windows users that are fans of the OSX dock have plenty of options - RocketDock is usually the one that gets recommended. XWindows Dock is one I hadn't heard of before, and it offers some features that might give it an edge over the competition.

However, one small failing right off the bat is that XWindows Dock doesn't support drag and drop - which might be a deal breaker for some users. I don't change my dock icons all that often, so I wasn't put off by the few extra seconds required to browse for my go-to programs.

PNG icons are supported, and the dock's effects are configured in myriad ways. Icon size, transition effects, transparency, zoom level, reflections, shadows, and much more can be precisely tweaked. You can also choose to display your dock in a 2D or 3D view.

Leopard's stacks feature is also built in, and the Dock will automatically choose the best viewing style. You can specify manually of course, with grid, fan, gallery (pictured), and list views available.

One other shortcoming of note is that you can't change the location of XWindows Dock - it sits at the bottom of your screen. Development is very active, though, so maybe we'll see drag-and-drop and repositioning options soon.

The developer states "no other Windows application of this class has so many graphical subtleties such as reflections, transparencies, shadow and blur in a single package," and I'm inclined to agree. If you're using RocketDock, try XWindows Dock and let us know how you think it stacks up [insert groans].

[via AskVG]

Tags: dock, rocketdock

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Productivity, Freeware, Windows x64

Magic Formation is a flexible circular (or not) dock for Windows

by Lee Mathews Mar 5th 2009

TokyoDownstairs' Magic Formation is a flexible, highly customizable dock for Windows.

If you're not into circular docks, fear not! Magic Formation can also display your dock icons in a straight line or in a completely manual layout of your choosing. As with any good dock app, icons for your programs can be selected from exe, ico, and png files (like the transparent Paper Mario guys I'm using).

To make your dock appear, just move your mouse in a circular motion. Actions are supported for both clockwise and counter-clockwise movements and you can change where your dock appears by clicking the center icon and dragging it to your preferred location. Magic Formation also supports hot keys, skinning, and a bevy of other options.

With the sensitivity turned down and more than half way, I had a very hard time getting my dock to appear - likely the result of using a crummy, 5-year-old optical mouse. The program itself worked flawlessly and was fairly light on resources (less than 15mb of memory in manual formation).

Magic Formation is a free download for Windows, and there's nothing to install - just unzip the files and launch the executable.

For a little more visual sizzle, you might want to check out Circle Dock, with its cool-yet-dizzying spiral effect.

[ via Shell Extension City ]

Tags: circle-dock, dock, launcher

Filed under: Utilities, Macintosh, Productivity, Search

Fresh manages your recent items, plus system-wide tagging

by Jay Hathaway Feb 26th 2009

Fresh is a great little Mac app from Ironic Software -- probably better known for their file browser, Leap -- that gives you easy access to "fresh" items on your Mac. When you click on Fresh, all your recent downloads and recently edited files are right in front of you in an attractive dock-like display. If you want to keep a file fresh, so it's always quickly available, just drag it to the "cooler" section of the Fresh dock.

You can customize what shows up in Fresh by filtering out specific files or file types -- if you never want Fresh to show you applications, for example. Everything in the Fresh dock can be dragged into other apps, like Finder or Mail. With a right-click on any file, you can also tag it. This is great because you can now find that file by tag either using Fresh or by searching in the Finder.

So, with Fresh, you get a recent file manager and a system-wide tagger in one. Not a bad deal, especially considering that you can have Fresh for free right now at Macheist. That's some smooth promotion by Ironic, because Fresh is even more useful in conjunction with their slick-looking system-wide file browser, Leap.

Tags: dock, file-manager, fresh, ironic-software, macheist, tagging

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Apple

Apple receives patent for the OS X dock

by Brad Linder Oct 8th 2008

Apple has received a patent for the dock utility for launching applications in OS X. Yes, the dock has been around for the better part of a decade, but Apple applied for the patent back in 1999 and didn't receive it until this week. The patent describes an interface for consolidating frequently used items in a "userbar." It also covers the way that items are magnified when you scroll your cursor over them.

In other words, it looks like Apple may be able to go after the makers of ObjectDock, RocketDock, sTabLauncher, Avant Window Navigator, Cairo Dock and others. Sure, those applications may not steal any code from Apple, but they're based on the same concept.

Now, I'm not saying Apple shouldn't have been able to patent the dock concept. I'm not going to take a position on that, one way or the other. But this is the sort of thing that can happen when it takes the US patent system 9 years to rule on a patent application.

[via The Register]

Tags: avant-window-navigator, cairo-dock, dock, objectdock, os-x, os-x-dock, patent, rocketdock, stablauncher

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware, Open Source

Circle Dock: Stop going out of your way to launch apps

by Brad Linder Aug 15th 2008

There are plenty of dock-style applications launchers for Windows. But most have one thing in common: You anchor them to the top, bottom, or side of the screen and then scroll your mouse over that portion of the screen to bring up a list of applications. Circle Dock is different, because this free application launcher it appears where your mouse already is instead of making you move your mouse.

Like most application launches, Circle Dock comes with a list of icons for frequently used programs, like the Control Panel, your default browser, and the recycling bin. You can add shortcuts by dragging them from your desktop or quick launch bar and customize to your heart's content.

Circle Dock has a ton of visual customization options as well. You can either display your icons in concentric circles, or as a spiral. You can add a rotating animation effect to the spiral to make yourself dizzy. There are a more than 30 skins to choose from. And you can decide whether the dock is always visible or if it disappears when the program loses focus or when you click an application icon. One other feature which I wish every application launcher had (and which many, but not all, do have) is the ability to select from a handful of keyboard shortcuts to show or hide the dock.

[via CyberNet]

Tags: application-launcher, circle-dock, dock, program-launcher

Filed under: Utilities, Macintosh

CPU History: ultra-lightweight CPU monitor for your OS X Dock

by Jay Hathaway Jul 9th 2008

What's red and green and only uses 96k of disk space? CPU History. It's a lightweight CPU monitor that sits in the Dock on your Mac, and gives you a quick visual readout on how hard your processor is working. It's customizable, easy to read, and won't put a big drain on your system.

So why not Activity Monitor? Well, if you're just going to use it as a display in the dock, it's using way more system resources than you need. Its Dock readout also isn't as customizable as the one in CPU History, which lets you set the update interval, the width of the bars in the CPU graph, and the size of the icon in the Dock. The latest version also shows separate graphs for multi-core processors. It doesn't really do much, but CPU History gets its very specific job done with minimal hassle.

[via Daring Fireball]

Tags: CPU monitor, CpuMonitor, dock, OS X, OsX, utilities

Filed under: Design, Fun, Utilities, Macintosh, Freeware

SuperDocker: Customize your Leopard dock and more

by Simon Kerbel Mar 10th 2008

Addicts of endless customization, rejoice! SuperDocker is a free program designed for Mac OS X Leopard that gives you the ability to customize your Leopard dock and more, all in a very easy to use package.

It seems like everything you'd want to change about the dock can be done in SuperDocker: you can change the dock from 3-D to 2-D, add icon transparency, and add customized separators in the dock.

Also, when you edit the dock background, separator, and active application indicator (the blue glowing thing at the bottom of running applications), the SuperDocker interface gives you a real-time preview, so you can perfect the dock inside SuperDocker before you apply the changes to your system.

SuperDocker also has a few preferences for items outside of the dock. You can modify the menu bar, the default screen capture format, the boot screen, and more. And thankfully, all of these customizations can be undone with a single click.

SuperDocker is free, and Leopard only.

[via Cool OSX Apps]

Tags: dock, Leopard, superdocker

Filed under: Design, Developer, Utilities, Productivity, Web services, Yahoo!

Welcome to a new world of widgets, Yahoo! Widgets 4

by Chris Gilmer Mar 22nd 2007

We've got the hot scoop on Yahoo spicy update to widgets; their newest release of Yahoo! Widgets 4. This version offers users and developers improved features and capabilities including a new Widget Dock, new and improved widgets, improved performance, streamlined installation, improved authoring tools and automatic updates.

I recently had the opportunity to load up this new version and take it for a test drive. The big differences noticed in this release are the Widget Dock, Improved performance, and some intuitive new widgets from the Yahoo team.

Check out some great screen shots after the jump...

Tags: dock, flickr, konfabulator, note, picture, widgets, yahoo, yahoo widgets 4, YahooWidgets4

Filed under: Design, Utilities, Windows, Freeware, Mods

UberIcon - Works great with RocketDock

by Jason Clarke Aug 22nd 2006

A couple days ago Ryan brought us RocketDock, the best Apple dock emulator I've seen so far. While using it, I noticed that it has a setting in the options that allows you to turn on "UberIcon" support. At first I was confused, as I wasn't sure if that was just a mode in RocketDock, but since it didn't appear to do anything, I went looking on Punk Software's site. And lo and behold, I found that UberIcon is its own standalone utility.

UberIcon immediately won me over due to its complete simplicity - all it does is to zoom an icon quickly and smoothly when you double click it from your desktop or anywhere within Windows Explorer. It might not sound like much, but it definitely adds a bit of spice to an otherwise fairly two-dimensional XP desktop. And of course as soon as I had UberIcon installed, RocketDock respected the setting and started to zoom icons when I launched them in the same way they do on my desktop. Sweet!

Tags: dock, icon zoom, icons, IconZoom, RocketDock, UberIcon

Filed under: Design, Developer, Utilities, Productivity, Apple, Shareware, Open Source

Display all of your OSX apps in a pretty collage

by Chris Gilmer Jul 25th 2006

Apple users love pretty things. And nothing is prettier than getting all arts and crafty and displaying your awesome collection of downloaded apps in a sweet collage. Best of all, no work is involved.

This Mac application called Todos opens all of your application icons in a panel. Choose the application you want to open, and hide the panel. That simple. No more cramming all of your applications on the dock. There is a nice hotkey feature to easily open and hide Todos as well.

Tags: apple, apple applications, AppleApplications, dock, hotkey, mac, todos

Filed under: Internet, Macintosh, Web services, Freeware

Pyro: Desktop Campfire client for OS X

by Jordan Running Apr 13th 2006

37signals' web-based business chat app Campfire has taken off pretty quickly, to the point that some folks are creating dedicated apps to work with it, like Pyro. Pyro is an app for Mac OS X whose creators describe as a "site-specific browser," meaning it's a desktop program that wraps around the web-based app and provides additional OS integration. Specifically, Pyro gives Campfire its own OS X Dock icon which displays the number of unread messages in your Campfire chat and bounces when new messages arrive. It also has a tabbed interface so you can remain connected to many Campfire chat rooms and switch between them easily.

Tags: 37signals, campfire, dock, mac, osx, pyro

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