Filed under: OS, Software, Freeware, Open Source, Developer
Quicksilver releases new beta 57
Macworld notes that my absolute favorite application, and one of the reasons I became a Mac user in the first place, is not quite as dead and gone as many people suspected. Quicksilver has released their first new stable version in two years, besides the developer leaving for greener pastures and setting the project completely open source. Unfortunately, there aren't many new features, but as Macworld says, let's be honest: you don't understand everything that's in there already. No seriously. No, seriously, you don't.What is new is compatibility with Snow Leopard (mostly -- some plugins are still lagging behind), and a host of background changes. Clang is being used as the default compiler, which the change notes say should speed up runtime significantly. Localization has been tweaked, and lots of previously buggy actions (mouse tracking on triggers, for one) have supposedly been smoothed out and improved. Not necessarily a marquee release, but at this point, any Quicksilver release is a good one.
And if you've never actually used Quicksilver, well, now's a great time to start. Ostensibly, it's a app/file launcher, but the more you learn and use it, the more it becomes a "connector" for everything on your Mac. Your mind is connected to your fingers, and your fingers connect to the keyboard to invoke Quicksilver, but Quicksilver is connected to everything else.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Darren said 8:47AM on 12-02-2009
The real Dennis Kucinich doesn't actually look that good.
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Darren said 8:52AM on 12-02-2009
I was just going to log in and say that Quicksilver is one of my favorite apps, but when I tried to log in with another favorite app (1Password) it auto filled and submitted the last comment I made here. Nothings perfect, I guess.
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JaredM said 9:03AM on 12-02-2009
Now that is funny stuff!! Give us your thoughts on the looks of various other members of government please :D :D
NightOne said 12:39AM on 12-04-2009
Darren,
Disable Autosubmit for your TUAW login and that won't happen again. :)
Just edit the item in 1Password and change the Submit: drop down menu to Never.
Thanks
Carl S.
Chief Evangelist
Agile Web Solutions
http://1password.com/
http://switchersblog.com/
djfred said 8:55AM on 12-02-2009
Yup. My number one app too. A
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Eric said 9:02AM on 12-02-2009
Anyone actually try Google Quick Search Box yet ?
Fell like quicksilver :)
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Matt said 9:58AM on 12-02-2009
I've tried QSB but until there's an "Open With" option, it's pretty useless to me. It's such a shame, as it's otherwise really nice.
Ian said 12:25PM on 12-02-2009
QSB has no object-verb-item system which makes it useless for anything more than a basic launcher. This issue has hundreds of stars in the QSB google issues tracker but the developers have no apparent plans to add it!
QSB still has no triggers either.
Quicksilver is thus still light years ahead of QSB (also still has a much more elegant UI, more plugins, better OS X integration)...
kelly said 7:33PM on 12-02-2009
QSB does about a 1/10 of QS.
I used QSB for about two weeks due to my fear that Quicksilver was dead. Let me tell you, those two weeks were all QS withdrawal; I felt naked and alone, man.
Well it's been about a week since I picked up the QS pipe again... the timing of this release is back on the corner wanting more.
rajiv.shah said 9:25AM on 12-02-2009
With quicksilver crashing, I moved over to the combination of Google Quick Search Box & ikey - its not as elegant as quicksilver, but it works pretty well
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Jimmy74bpm said 9:26AM on 12-02-2009
I love quicksilver and use it constantly but am one of those people who only know how to open apps/files with it. What are some other creative ways you use quicksilver?
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Ian said 12:35PM on 12-02-2009
Full clipboard manager. Also manages sending clipboard items out to the web for cross-machine sync via http://cl1p.net/ -- no need to disrupt my workflow.
Openmeta rich metadata tagging frontend. Add, edit and find tagged files, again without needing to switch apps.
Note taker.
Quick entry to my GTD app. iCal too.
Full control of iTunes (via triggers and focal search) without ever once having to switch to the iTunes window. Effortless and much less intrusive as I'm working on stuff.
Instant moving / copying selected files without disturbing my workflow.
Applescript manager
Act without doing!
etc.
See the quicksilver.pdf users guide here:
http://groups.google.com/group/blacktree-quicksilver/files
bibi-pov said 5:35PM on 12-02-2009
Couple of stuff I use regularly that were not mentioned yet (as far as I can tell):
type a dot, then a word, hit tab, then "dictionary". Boom! Definition
type equal, then a random equation (e.g. 2+2; 2^10/sin(3)*sqrt(5)), hit enter and get the result
type either "play", "pause", "next" and control iTunes without touching it.
mike said 9:35AM on 12-02-2009
i just downloaded quicksilver and it works fine on snow leopard except that i can't open the preferences window. Does anyone else have this problem?
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Stephen said 10:03AM on 12-02-2009
Note: this version is 10.6+
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sporobolus said 3:41PM on 12-02-2009
works fine for me on 10.5.8
on first launch, however, it showed only an empty entry in my catalog; i turned off "Enable advanced features", my catalog came back, and i could turn advanced features back on
MisterSquared said 10:57AM on 12-02-2009
Odd, did the previous version not work with Snow Leopard at all? Because mine still worked after I upgraded.
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Ian said 12:38PM on 12-02-2009
It worked but was buggy and crashed a lot.
Ben said 12:12PM on 12-02-2009
I just tried to search for an update via Quicksilver, and it crashed on me! Looks like I need to install the latest version...
Thanks for the info about the update.
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Zack Feirer said 12:19PM on 12-02-2009
So is there a reason that this new version isn't registering with my current versions updater? It keeps saying I have the most recent version (B54 on 10.5).
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