Filed under: Software, Productivity
Trampoline: the quickest route to the tools you need
Application launchers are diversifying in big ways, and it's great to see the market expanding. After discovering LaunchBar then switching to Quicksilver, it was obvious how useful these apps are and how important it is that there be a wide variety of them. A new launcher I just found, called Trampoline, definitely adds a new flavor to the mix.Trampoline bills itself as "the quickest route to the tools you need," and it fits the bill pretty well. Unlike other similar app launchers and file manipulators, Trampoline offers what I would call a 'circular Dock' that can be toggled via a key or tied to a mouse button. Users can add their favorite and most-used apps to this on-call Dock, and it appears underneath your mouse, wherever that may be.
As a unique alternative to other comparatively 'bloated' app launchers (though I say that with love as I cannot work without Quicksilver), Trampoline offers a simpler, more direct approach to keeping your beloved tools right at your fingertips.
A demo is available from Old Jewel Software, and a license costs $19.95.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mat Lu said 11:53AM on 2-26-2007
It sort of looks like Quicksilver's Constellation radial menu plugin.
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Daniel said 5:37PM on 2-26-2007
Hmmm...
Quicksilver...FREE.
This...NOT FREE.
Decision made.
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Dave Chartier said 2:22PM on 2-26-2007
Looks a *lot* like it, though I've heard this design was likely inspired from some UI theory that dates back to way before either of these apps.
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Konstantino said 3:21PM on 2-26-2007
That looks VERY OLPC inspired. They even decided to throw the OLPC logo in there. :p
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Bambino said 8:21PM on 2-26-2007
Meh. Circle dock around mouse? I can just move to the dock, let it come from hiding and BAM! All my most used applications are there. Why pay when Apple gives you stuff like this by default?
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dburney said 3:41PM on 2-26-2007
Remeinds me of the NuLooq tools from Logitech and the Alias Sketchbook toolset.
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Jordan said 4:44PM on 2-26-2007
You forgot Overflow.
Best launcher I have came across yet.
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bradskins said 4:59PM on 2-26-2007
Me... I like to sit in a nice quite room with my Mac.
Then I turn on speech recognition and launch my apps!
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Nik Fletcher said 8:45PM on 2-26-2007
Overflow all the way.. it rocks.
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Galley said 2:04PM on 2-27-2007
It certainly looks interesting, but is it really limited to only a handful of shortcuts?
Overflow FTW!
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Bryan said 8:51PM on 2-27-2007
Logitech used to have something very similar (for windows) in their mouseware software ~5 years ago, called the webwheel. I thought it was pretty handy, but most people I know couldn't stand it.
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Matt said 8:35AM on 3-01-2007
Quicksilver has had this, and in a more advanced form, for some time now - it's called Constellation. It's probably still under the "beta" or "cutting edge" plugins.
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