March 6, 2012

Alfred is a very useful fellow

There's an app called Alfred. It's free at the Mac app store. This is truly a must-have app for Mac folks.

You type a key combination (the one you've set in preferences) to engage Alfred, and a simple line appears. This one line brings so much.

For instance, if I type "images Olympia Snowe" it opens my browser to Google images and suddenly there are hundreds of pasty, powdered faces on my screen. If I type "deriv" and hit enter, it takes me to the Online Etymology Dictionary. (You can set Alfred up to do whatever you want; I added the OED link.) It can also search my computer or my email, searching not only for file names but within documents. It googles things instantly, launches programs and even puts the computer to sleep, if you want it to. It does just about everything.

I don't know how I ever got by without it. And it's free!

2 comments:

Anna Guess Pick said...

Gosh, between Alfred and Siri you've got life made. Ah, er....you and Siri are still an item, right?

writenow said...

I'd love to play with Siri but don't have it. Oddly, the people I know who have Siri on their iPhones say they rarely use it. I don't get it. It's got great speech recognition. Surely it's useful (and fun). Alas, I may never know.