Alfred 4
What do you do if you need someone to organise your home? Hire a butler perhaps?
Well Alfred 4 is a butler for your Mac, and it’s a lot cheaper than taking on house staff.
Info//
Station, Inc
https://getstation.com
Free for individual users
Compatibility: Mac, Linux, and Windows
computers with 64-bit processor
Info//
Running with Crayons Ltd
http://www.alfredapp.com
Free (IAP)
Compatibility: macOS 10.11 or
later, 64-bit Intel processor
K
eeping tabs (literally) on all your oft-used
browser pages can be a pain. Do you really
want your Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, Gmail,
Spotify, Uber, LinkedIn and so-on stuck in your Safari
browser as pinned tabs, taking up room and getting
in the way? If so, Station could be the answer. It’s a
browser specifically designed for oft-used productivity
and social websites. Instead of browsing your way to
the sites, you add apps and extensions that sit in a
smart dock on the left of the window. Over 600 apps
are available.
Station uses its space very efficiently. For example,
if you like to keep more than one tab open for a
single page, e.g. a Dropbox tab for the home page
and another for a project you’re working on, you can
do this under a single app in Station. Just click on
your Twitter icon and choose which page to view.
You can enable and disable notifications for all your
apps with a single click, and even view all your apps’
notifications on a single page.
We have a few criticisms. Although you can have
more than one account of a single app, (e.g. work and
personal Twitter), this requires two icons; you can’t
access both accounts through a single one. We wish
their labels were editable too, so you could call them
‘Work Twitter’ and ‘My Twitter’, for example, instead
of just ‘Twitter’, also, at the moment there’s no way to
sync your apps and settings across devices. However,
these niggles are currently being addressed, so a great
app will soon be even greater. AF
A
lfred is your Mac’s handy butler. He’s there
to serve, speeding your workflow, increasing
your productivity, and generally making
your Mac’s features and functions more accessible.
After summoning a Spotlight-like window with
a user-defined key combination, you can enter
the name of an app, contact, system preference,
document or indeed just about anything, and
Alfred offers results as you type; hit Return for the
first option in the list, or a key combination for
something further down. You can even control it
from your iPhone using a free app. With the paid-for
Powerpack, Alfred’s Clipboard History can: find any
text, image or file you copied earlier and paste it
again, manage your music, run Shell and Terminal
commands and even open 1Password bookmarks
directly from Alfred.
With an app like Alfred, you first force yourself
to use it, then you enjoy using it, then you forget
you’re using it. However, after that to really
understand how efficient it is, try using a Mac
without it. BC
Verdict//
PROS AND CONS:
- Speeds productivity
- Very versatile
- Very configurable
- Takes time to get used to
LAST WORD
An excellent app that
puts your Mac’s tools and
contents at your fingertips.
Definitely worth a try.
RATING: 4/5
‘One app to rule them all’. It’s a bold claim, but could this smart browser that helps you get stuff
done without hassle be your Lord of the Dock, or would you rather throw it into a volcano?
Verdict//
PROS AND CONS:
- Free for individual users
- Excellent convenience
- Efficient use of space
- Doesn’t sync across
devices
LAST WORD
Station is shaping up to be
an amazing app. With a few
tweaks and polishes, it could
well earn itself our coveted
five out of five award.
RATING: 4/5
AppleUserMAGAZINE