Filed under: Productivity, Freeware, Open Source
Growl 1.1. released
Growl is one of my favorite Mac utilities. It adds a system-wide notification system to your System Preferences that other applications can plug into for displaying messages. The version 1.1 update adds a "global positioning system" which apparently keeps notifications from overlaping as well as a close button to notifications (on mouseover), a sound option and various bug fixes.Growl remains a free download.
[via Daring Fireball]
Update: Growl dev Chris Forsythe has a post explaining just what the global positioning system is, and why it's cool.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Brian said 7:25PM on 9-08-2007
The MusicVideo display option's a little slow, and Bezel suffers from a fade glitch when you have shrink turned on. But all in all, a welcome revision.
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Jeffrey Bergier said 7:42PM on 9-08-2007
This is definitely one of the hidden gems of OSX software. Such a simple concept that just works so well... and a surprising number of applications support it. Annoyingly, apple can't support anything unless it is theirs. Mail and several other Apple apps would benefit tremendously from taking advantage of growl. Even something simple like Safari telling you when a download is complete. Or finder telling you when a copy has been made successfully, or a disc burn... the list goes on.
Jeff
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tim said 7:50PM on 9-08-2007
@jeff -
even though im sure you are aware of these, i just want to mention them so others dont think those things are possible...growl COMES with plugins for safari, itunes, finder, etc
again, im sure you were referring to the fact that they should be built in natively, i just dont want others to think there is no way
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Luigi193 said 9:34PM on 9-08-2007
Jeff, if you use an AWESOME spam program called spamsieve, it uses growl, notifies you on how many good/bad messages when you get them, and if you get one good one, it displays the message. I love spamsieve...I would strongly recommend it
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MurphyMac said 10:28PM on 9-08-2007
Thanks for posting this. I had a lot of trouble with the networking features on the last Growl. Looking forward to trying this.
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Benjamin said 11:51PM on 9-08-2007
The MusicVideo style doesn't work for me, it just never appears at all. I do like some of the new styles included, though.
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James said 6:46AM on 9-09-2007
Jeff - I like that I don't have to click OK every time I download something in Safari. I can see in the discreet little download window how quickly the files are coming along and I know exactly where the files are going to be (desktop). A whole lotta clicking just to say yes, no or OK to something you asked to happen sounds a bit like a Windows machine!
That said, Growl is a great app.
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Adrian vG said 8:06AM on 9-09-2007
Does spamsieve also have the option to show the spam messages on screen and not the not-spam ones?
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5cents said 9:25AM on 9-09-2007
RAWWWWWR! That's my growl by the way.
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zxspectrum said 9:46AM on 9-09-2007
looks like a cosmetic upgrade to me...very disappointing! also, the new preference is a big pain.
btw - "...a global positioning system built into Growl (took 2 years to make!). 2 years? wtf?
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John said 11:34AM on 9-09-2007
Gee, better ask for your money back then!
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Adrian vG said 3:30PM on 9-09-2007
I don't see the big difference in Growl 1.1 other than it's A LOT more time consuming to configure the apps.
What IS the global positioning system, anyway?
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Fritz Laurel said 3:39PM on 9-09-2007
Doesn't OS X already have a Notification Manager?
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Andy said 6:09PM on 9-09-2007
This is what Growl has been desperately needing! I had stopped using Growl because it became completely unbearable - all the little annoyances added up to be just too much. But the ability to close bubbles without opening their attached action, the positioning system, and the update to GrowlMail that makes it actually pay attention to the "Inbox Only" option have reconverted me. 0.7.6 was completely and utterly unusable when compared to this wonderful piece of software.
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BobbyW said 6:31PM on 9-09-2007
Anyone have trouble with Growl networking features? I've wasted hours trying to get it to work.
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imacmatt09 said 8:44PM on 9-09-2007
http://i4.tinypic.com/4yulno4.png
wtf is up with the zune ads?
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David Chartier said 9:13PM on 9-09-2007
Love love love the new version, though I thoroughly disagree with the decision to change the management UI for app-specific notifications. That drop-down list for notification type is a PITA, just like iChat's.
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Rhywun said 12:02AM on 9-10-2007
I had to remove a plugin called "Tigger.growlView" (I don't even know what that is) before the prefPane would load. However, the previews don't work and I don't get any notifications either. This seems to be a common problem without any satisfactory resolution. Anyway, I have always loved Growl and have never had any problems with it before, so I hope a solution is coming soon :)
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Rhywun said 12:04AM on 9-10-2007
Oh, I am an idiot. The service was stopped after the update. All is well now. Weird that the previews don't work when the service is stopped, though.
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Reuben said 1:48AM on 9-10-2007
Can anyone give me some concrete examples of why Growl is useful? I understand the concept, but the most obvious usage would seem to be iCal which there is no plugin for. I'd love to hear how Growl makes people's systems better. I've installed it twice and just not found it that useful...
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