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17 Comments
- whitestone, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9I didn't know about this digg before it was submitted so I thought I would offer a little background. As the creator of the Ground Control app idea and of the forum linked here, I originally intended it to be underground for a short time while it was being fine-tuned and tweaked, but now that it has been dugg, all are welcome to come in and provide feedback, comments or offers of development help to keep Ground Control alive.
- shadownight, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Ground Control's goal is to provide a unified, always visible sidebar/dock to access certain apps in a quicker way. Widgets are not unified, they rarely provide a quicker way to access an app (say Mail, or iCal) and they certainly don't live in a slim bar at one edge of your screen.
I suggest you check out the Ground Control screenshots and explanation of GC's advantage over Dashboard on Russel's website to get a better idea of how this is different, especially this page about GC vs. Dashboard: http://groundcontrol.heistuman.com/vs_the_dashboard.html
You'll get a better idea... - Dimah, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I see no reason why the Apps that were eliminated cannot still be made into a fully functional app. Go for it.
- Dolomite, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I guess I am still missing the point. Between Dock shortcuts, Dashboard, Spotlight, Expose, and soon to be released Spaces, I don't see where this really fits in. All running apps are already a click away in the Dock, Spotlight makes Adresses, emails, etc.. simple to find, and Dashboard fills in the odds and ends. I hope it turns out well, and I will be sure to give it a shot when its done. Good Luck
- wabbiteh, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5For those of you who don't know what ground control is, and are too lazy to look it up:
"Ground Control is a simple, elegant solution to regain control of your workflow. It will allow you to access information and resources stored with Apple’s basic iApp suite of productivity apps such as: Address Book, iCal, iChat, iTunes, iPhoto and Calculator and basic Activity Monitor information. Ground Control is designed to be extensible so other modules could be developed for future releases, third party developers and hopefully, by the users themselves. The list of possible productivity modules is endless and could easily foster a module-developing community that will further enhance specialized workflow environments.
Unobtrusive, yet always instantly accessible. Commonly used information and resources are a simple keystroke or mouseclick away. Like a real dashboard, all you need are quick glances at speed, gas, etc., likewise, Ground Control provides a smooth, seamless workflow experience that will increase your productivity and allow you to work with less distraction and interruption of the creative process."
It's essentially a dashboard replacement - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5I think ground control had alot more to offer in terms of availability & usability. There are some things that belong in 'bar' form, rather than having to F12 to reach.
- stingthebee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3How is this different then Stattoo?
http://panic.com/stattoo/ - whiplashgrin, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I have to disagree with Dolomite, I thought Ground Control was one of the best, if not the best concept in the contest. Dashboard is flashy, but not very functional. First, information that is provided by Dashboard widgets doesn't do me a whole lot of good if I can't see it most of the time. Ideally I would be able to glance at that information while I was working in my applications, not switch back and forth between the two. Second, the widgets just suck up way too much system resources. I have 6 very basic widgets running (calendar, weather, calc, envelope printer, etc). I would love to have more, but even these little "widgets" use up more resources than Firefox, or Word and Quicksilver combined. And they don't release it until I restart. I know squat about coding, but it seems that it could be done more efficiently. I was really excited about Ground Control and I'm glad to see that it lives on (I knew it would!). I for one will be anxiously following your progress. The credit card's already ready already...
- dane, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3From what I can tell Statoo just allows basically, widgets on the desktop. Hardly unified / organized. Ground Control's biggest advantage over Statoo / Dashboard or anything else is the simple fact that it allows you to quickly scan over multiple modules in a matter of seconds, since they're uniformed and aligned. Also, there's no need to "go into the dashboard" with Ground Control. Any modules that you might have can easily interact with your desktop by a simple drag and drop interface (for the most part).
Want access to your address book? Simply type the name in the module and watch the information pop up. No needing to hit a hot key to open up dashboard, no need to load the Address Book first.
System information? Simple glance away. Again, no need to hot key into dashboard or use expose' to see your system information.
Want to see quickly if you have a new e-mail? Want to do a simple mail composition for a topic that just popped into your head? How about simply dragging your friends information from the address book (which you just looked up) into the Mail module and a basic mail composition pops-up before your eyes, all without having to wait for your mail client to load first.
The possibilities are endless with Ground Control, and unlike the dashboard with is intrusive and breaks your workflow, Ground Control is streamline and helps increase your work flow.
The question shouldn't be: "But don't we have this already if we combine 4 different applications", but instead should be, "If Ground Control does it better and more effectively than anything else out there, why wouldn't I use it?" - dane, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3While Russell, and most of the people that are fans (myself included) of Ground Control have usually taken the stance that the UI is quite slick and it shouldn't matter if it looks like windows (Oh no! The finder looks like search in windows! Destroy it! We must not let Microsoft's stolen UI designs infect our computer. /sarcasm) We do realize that some people are turned off by the windows look.
Hence the reason Ground Control is completely skinable! You're going to be allowed to customize Ground Control in multiple ways to tweak the UI to get it looking how you want.
There's also talks about Ground Control allowing for a few different control set ups, and if you check the forums you'll see there's an avid discussion ongoing about exactly how the basic GC UI should look / operate.
If you like the idea of Ground Control, don't allow pre-coded mock-ups stop you from following it. The great thing about getting in on Ground Control right now is it allows you to give feedback to Russell and any developers that are working on it about what you'd like to see done, and the great thing is, they'll definitely listen to your idea and see what other people thing as well. - Dolomite, on 10/12/2007, -6/+7I think this app was eliminated for a good reason, there are already numerous Dashboard widgets that provide the same functionality.
- flashboy131, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I like the idea but it looks like windows to me, maybe a new UI would be cool. less tool bar on bottom and more innovative. spotlight or quicksilver'ish
good luck tho. - ahknight, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2For the aged Mac users out there: they want the Control Strip back. That is all.
- aviazn, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Lol, that's exactly what I thought whenever I saw this come up.
- blapierre, on 10/12/2007, -7/+6Ground Control was a pretty good game. Very innovative RTS.
- bdpf, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Just loves sites you can't read, do to stupid white on black style.
This is a bad post as stated above. - dane, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1From what I can tell Statoo just allows basically, widgets on the desktop. Hardly unified / organized. Ground Control's biggest advantage over Statoo / Dashboard or anything else is the simple fact that it allows you to quickly scan over multiple modules in a matter of seconds, since they're uniformed and aligned. Also, there's no need to "go into the dashboard" with Ground Control. Any modules that you might have can easily interact with your desktop by a simple drag and drop interface (for the most part).
Want access to your address book? Simply type the name in the module and watch the information pop up. No needing to hit a hot key to open up dashboard, no need to load the Address Book first.
System information? Simple glance away. Again, no need to hot key into dashboard or use expose' to see your system information.
Want to see quickly if you have a new e-mail? Want to do a simple mail composition for a topic that just popped into your head? How about simply dragging your friends information from the address book (which you just looked up) into the Mail module and a basic mail composition pops-up before your eyes, all without having to wait for your mail client to load first.
The possibilities are endless with Ground Control, and unlike the dashboard which is intrusive and breaks your workflow, Ground Control is streamline and helps increase your work flow.
The question shouldn't be: "But don't we have this already if we combine 4 different applications", but instead should be, "If Ground Control does it better and more effectively than anything else out there, why wouldn't I use it?"
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