groundcontrol.heistuman.com— There's a new forum for the app idea that was eliminated in the My Dream App semifinals. Here's your chance to help contribute to one of the better ideas that didn't make the final cut.
Oct 28, 2006View in Crawl 4
I 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...
From 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?"
From 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?"
While 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.
blapierreOct 29, 2006
Ground Control was a pretty good game. Very innovative RTS.
dimahOct 29, 2006
I see no reason why the Apps that were eliminated cannot still be made into a fully functional app. Go for it.
whiplashgrinOct 29, 2006
I 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...
daneOct 29, 2006
From 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?"
daneOct 29, 2006
From 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?"
daneOct 29, 2006
While 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.
ahknightOct 29, 2006
For the aged Mac users out there: they want the Control Strip back. That is all.