Thanks to today’s sponsors: iClip, the multiple clipboard solution for OS X, Awaken, the iTunes compatible alarm clock, and macZOT!, for daily deals on Mac software.
I’ll keep this short and brief. Many of the over 2700 entries that came in were really great ideas, and it was very difficult picking out 24 finalists from so many high-caliber choices. But we had to, and we did, and I think the 24 finalists are all awesome ideas. So, without further ado, presenting the first three.
Herald, by Bogumil Giertler: Herald is an RSS feed aggregator that lets users package news from their favorite sites sharing a topic together as a virtual newspaper, with different sections of the newspaper representing separate RSS feeds. Herald features an iWeb style, easy to use interface for creating these newspapers, and makes it just as easy to share them and download other people’s creations. You can read the full idea here and check out Bogumil’s first blog post here.
My personal thoughts: I really, really like this idea. This one really caught my eye early on, as I had a nearly identical application in the works last year called Gazette that never came to fruition. Something I regret to this very day, and I was glad to see this become a finalist with unanimous agreement from the judges. Herald makes RSS simple, easy, and fun to use, and it breaks out of the “RSS aggregator paradigm” that’s already been built around such a new technology. You know what I’m talking about, the three-paned RSS feed reader with unread badges, etc. Herald has a lot of potential, and I’m excited to see where this goes.
Stick-It, by Anders Melin: Stick-It is a modern update to the Stickies apps of old. Forget about their current implementation. Stick-It attempts to recreate how we really use stickies, by allowing users to stick relevant notes all over OS X, whether it is on apps, within menus, or attached on the desktop. Need to email someone? Add a sticky to Mail. Have someone you need to talk to? Place a sticky in your iChat buddy list. And Stick-It allows for much, much more. You can read the full idea here and check out Anders’ first blog post here.
Development Manager John Casasanta: “The OS 9 Stickies app was a great idea for it’s time, but when it was ported to OS X it was just starting to seem tired and old. Stick-It puts new life into the concept and makes it so that they behave like real-life sticky notes. The fact that it would appear seamlessly integrated into the system as opposed to a standalone app is what makes this pretty sweet. One big issue with Stick-It while we were looking it over was whether or not it’d be doable from a technical standpoint. Thankfully Jason looked into it and he’s pretty confident that we can pull this one off.”
Desktop Wars, by Andrew Wilson: Desktop Wars brings the battlefield to your desktop, and is one of the few activities where the procrastinators win. With Desktop Wars, control armies of troops via mouse controls, voice commands, or even by shaking your motion-sensing laptop, and play several modes including capture the base and skirmish. The real fun of course begins when Desktop Wars is played on the network, and you attempt to take over your friends’ desktops. You can read the full idea here, and check out Andrew’s first blog post here.
Developer Judge Austin Sarner: “This is just plain cool. Who wouldn’t install this and mess with it, if for no other reason than being bored? Not only is it a fun idea, but it comes at a great time. I can’t think of another app we could do that would better take advantage of the new Leopard tech. Being able to render 3d layers of icons that do battle at an incredibly fluid frame rate would be amazing. Add some basic Warcraft style management and you’d be able to take a break and destroy all the documents you’ve been working on at the same time.
Imagine a networked version of this, an office of people could suddenly become a battleground. Definitely some cool possibilities with this one.”
Congratulations to the first three finalists! And for the rest of you, well, if you like what you’ve seen, the next week and a half is going to be an absolute blast guaranteed. Come back tomorrow for three more finalists.
