What Apple's Dock and Dashboard Should Have Been
Before I get into describing this app, I just have to do something really quick, WOOOHOOOOOO! THEY PICKED MINE! There, now we can get down to business. Because that’s really what Ground Control is all about — gittin’er done (Idaho talk). Really, Ground Control is all about having all of the resources you need to get your job done, at your fingertips, instantly, without having to have dual monitors, myriad windows, waiting for apps to launch–all those things that interrupt the process of doing what you get paid for. Time is money and Ground Control will help get some of that time back into your hands to make more money–or, worth even more–get off work on time and spend more time with your family.
If you’re anything like me, you never were really thrilled with Apple’s Dock. Pretty icons, nice animations, but maybe 1/10 functionality to eye candy ratio. I use it, but I try to get it out of my way on the side, as much as possible. Enter Apple’s Dashboard. Intriguing. Pretty Widgets (at least some are). Some even useful. But why do I have to go into a completely different mode just to access them? And, if you have a bunch of Widgets, when you hit F12, it just reveals a hodge-podge of inconsistently designed, helter-skelter… widgets.
When this contest was announced, I just looked at it as a personal offer from some of the best programmers in the Mac world and I thought, now that I have my programming dream team, what would I want them to create for me? Since I really don’t consider myself as all that unique in my field, I figure the things that I would like to see that would help me and that I would pay for, would be the same thing other productivity-oriented Mac users would need and be willing to pay for. Since we all know the Mac is not a gaming platform (yet) that means, it’’s mostly used by people who want to get things done, now. I know we all have different ideas of what a “Dream App” is (I love Jason Harris’ entry, “Smells Like Catfood“). I dream of being more productive. I hate wait.
Ground Control is an idea for an app that brings all of the tools you use on a minute by minute basis throughout your day, right to your work, instantly. My concept at inception was to include the basic productivity iApps:
- iCal
- Address Book
- Calculator (basic, scientific, programmer)
- iChat
- iTunes (music keeps you productive)
- iPhoto (my biggest implementation worry)
- Activity Monitor
Here’s a new screen shot of the iCal Module with the new working title:
There are still many issues to work out and fine-tune for the final voting. I know that once people start getting a good look at it, they’ll start to notice areas that need addressing, things I haven’t thought of, or that I have thought of it, but haven’t posted yet and some will see this and have an epiphany and say, wow, if it only did “this thingamajiggy”, it would be perfect! I welcome all of your feedback both positive and constructive. The negative feedback I just ignore. Sorry.
OK, I’m done with my first post–time to get to work!
