Filed under: Software, Internet Tools, Beta Beat
Get your notifications: experimental Mac app from Facebook
Mac-using Facebook fans are going to be happy to learn about Facebook's experimental Desktop Notifications app. Desktop Notifications sits in the menu bar, and pops up notifications (using Growl if you have it) when they occur. It also gives you quick access to your news feed, profile page, and quick ways to update your status or start a new Facebook email message.
There are two things about Desktop Notifications that are compelling, yet have nothing to do with the app itself. The first is the fact that it's a native Mac application, rather than yet another Facebook client written on Adobe Air. The second is that it was actually developed by Facebook themselves [Update] Thanks to Raul and Nate for pointing out in the comments that the application is marked as "not developed by Facebook", though one of the developers listed works for Facebook. It's unclear at this point how serious this project is; it's clearly marked as experimental, which is clearly becoming the post-Gmail way of denoting that something is beta.
In terms of raw functionality, Desktop Notifications is pretty barebones, since most of what it does is take you to a particular Facebook page. Personally I kind of like it that way. It's relatively light in terms of memory usage, and uses virtually no CPU cycles at all unless you are actively interacting with it, which is exactly what I want from a utility that is running all the time.
My one beef is that the built-in hotkey that pops up a status update dialog box conflicts with another utility on my system, and there is no way to modify it. Since Desktop Notifications is still in the experimental stage, that's a pretty small complaint.
[Update] Commenter Scott points out that there is a preference setting to change the hotkey.
[via TechCrunch]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Martin said 11:25AM on 9-10-2009
Works great for me so far.
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Scott Munn said 11:26AM on 9-10-2009
This is a really great application. But your gripe is incorrect about the status update--in fact, it's one of only 4 options in the preferences menu.
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Raul Riera said 11:31AM on 9-10-2009
That application is not developed by facebook, you can see it for yourself on the left
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LD said 12:01PM on 9-10-2009
Hahaha. True.
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Nate said 12:08PM on 9-10-2009
According to the page, this app was not developed by Facebook, although at least one of the developers listed is a Facebook employee.
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John Burke said 12:16PM on 9-10-2009
I had seen something about this app but quickly assumed it was just some crappy Adobe Air application. It is actually really awesome and seems much further along than to be considered "Experimental".
Definitely worth the download if you're a Mac user!
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Mordieu! said 12:16PM on 9-10-2009
doesn't work with tiger!
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Gyroscope352 said 6:39PM on 9-10-2009
Why are you still running Tiger?! I know a lot of people still run it, but I'm surprised that someone so into Macs that they read TUAW wouldn't have upgraded to Leopard.
You really should, it's aweosme.
Naes said 12:23PM on 9-10-2009
This is definitely great for me. I just picked myself up a new 13" MacBook pro and am relatively hooked on facebook.
Man I hate windows vista now.
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Evan said 9:17AM on 9-13-2009
"once you go mac, you never go back"
Jason Clarke said 12:31PM on 9-10-2009
Thanks for the clarifications - I've updated the post to reflect them.
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Harold said 12:43PM on 9-10-2009
This isn't an official app- it was made by two Carnegie Mellon alums.
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filipe4 said 12:46PM on 9-10-2009
Growl notifications?
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thePocket said 1:42PM on 9-10-2009
Is there something like this for twitter? a native mac application that can sit inconspicuously in my title bar and provide me this same ability.
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Lepton said 3:19PM on 9-10-2009
Combine this, Growl, and Prowl (add on for Growl) and your iPhone will get FaceBook PUSH notifications!
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punkassjim said 3:57PM on 9-10-2009
As a Prowl user, this makes me pretty happy. I was using a Fluid SSB for Facebook, along with a custom userscript I made for Growl notifications…but I never had the time to put the fit & finish on the script, to my liking. I don't particularly care about having a dedicated app for FB, all I want is Prowl notifications.
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Sean said 4:34PM on 9-10-2009
Hasn't fMenu done this for ages? http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/internet_utilities/fmenu.html
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punkassjim said 5:11PM on 9-10-2009
Would love to thank you for the suggestion, but this is the single crashiest piece of software I've ever installed.
Sean said 5:19PM on 9-10-2009
Don't hate the player, punkass, hate the game.
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punkassjim said 5:50PM on 9-10-2009
er…ok. Thanks for the recommendation. Sadly, it didn't work out.