Filed under: Software, Productivity
Sapiens: mouse-centric application launcher
We've mentioned Donelleschi software before in connection with Sticky Windows, which allows you to shrink windows to a tab on the side of your desktop. Now they're back with a new mouse-centric launcher application called Sapiens. In contrast to keyboard launchers like LaunchBar, Sapiens is supposed to allow you to launch applications with just your mouse. Basically, you activate Sapiens by moving your mouse in a circle, and up pops a radial dial menu with various applications on it. According to the developer Sapiens "can accurately learn and understand the applications you use and is therefore able to make reliable predictions about the set of applications you are most likely to launch." So you actually have to train it for a couple of days so that it can learn what applications you use. If the application you want does not appear initially when you invoke Sapiens, you can use the keyboard to search for it. Sapiens also interacts with drag and drop so that you can select and drag a file, invoke Sapiens with the circular mouse gesture, and then drop the file on your desired application.
I've only been playing with Sapiens for a few minutes so I can't yet measure the developer's claims about its capacity to learn my habits. I should also point out that TUAW favorite Quicksilver has some mouse-centric plugins that will allow it to do some of the things Sapiens does, via mouse gestures and the Constellation menu.
Sapiens is now $19.95 (introductory price, to go up to $25.95 at some point) and a demo is available. I also recommend checking out the slick introductory movie on the main Sapiens page for a visual demonstration of what it can do.
[via MacMinute]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Johnny said 5:50PM on 10-02-2007
There's another mouse-centric application launcher called 'The Dock'. You can put all the applications that you use right there and it pops up simply by moving your mouse to the side of the screen it is positioned on without having to draw a circle and wait for it to learn your most used apps. I've been using it for a while now and it works pretty good for me.
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louislouis said 6:13PM on 10-02-2007
This is a rip-off of trampoline, my favourite circular launcher...
Works allmost the same way.
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silo said 6:22PM on 10-02-2007
Way over priced - this is a $5-10 widget, tops. I dig the smoothness over Trampoline load hesitation though.
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Jeff said 6:30PM on 10-02-2007
Can anyone say Constellation Menus?
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CMara said 6:58PM on 10-02-2007
I've truly always hated the dock. I've been a mac user since the eighties and the dock bites. I liked Fruit Menu from Unsanity but it's really slow. The problem for me with the dock is that I have a ton of apps and that either makes the dock icons too small or if I use the Application folder in the dock it takes a few seconds to open. Though with my Core 2 Duo it's faster. The biggest problem with the Dock is I can't get rid of it! It just get's in the way keeps popping open or uses real estate. I do IT for a ton of macs and unless the user says otherwise the first thing I do with a new mac is throw the mouse in the trash...bang. I love the sound of acrylic hitting metal! The Mighty Mouse is more junk. Though I don't recommend PC's I do recommend a Microsoft Explorer mouse. Now Sapiens....I tried. For some reason it loads the wrong applications everytime. It's intelligence didn't seemed to be working.
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Halopend@gmail.com said 9:00PM on 10-02-2007
Well Cmara, you're really going to like Leopard as the new stacks feature of the dock is really efficient and quick. I just played 10 movies at once with itunes blaring music to load the cpu, killed the dock and clicked my applications stack as soon as the dock was back up and, while not perfectly fluid, it loaded up 35 apps in half a second.
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Adam said 12:46AM on 10-03-2007
Really annoying program when using a trackball due to activating it accidentally.
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mark said 6:16PM on 10-03-2007
On a superficial note -- love the icon. :-)
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mark said 6:18PM on 10-03-2007
@myself (#8)
On second thought, i just downloaded it, and the icon is not as well rendered as I thought. Great idea, but the edges to be refined. :-/
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