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No need to ring a little silver bell to get this assistant's attention. Today’s Daily App, Alfred for Mac OS X, is a free keyboard mapping utility that pops up with a tap and responds as dutifully as its namesake at Wayne Manor.
Alfred was created in 2010 by Cambridge, U.K.-based Running with Crayons. Alfred’s services are launched through keyboard shortcuts, which make it easy to quickly find and open files, bookmarks, contacts and music. Alfred comes with a default hotkey to launch the app, but a personalized one such as "command + space bar" can also be set. This personal assistant does all the thinking for you with its ability to calculate, spell and look up definitions, synonyms or antonyms. It can also empty the trash, start the screensaver, eject a drive, restart/shutdown the computer and even launch websites.
Once launched, a small search bar window pops up, and typing in hotkeys instantly pulls up the desired files. As soon as a search is started and the first letter is entered, Alfred will list suggestions. Commonly searched items are eventually remembered and prioritized at the top of the list, making Alfred a productivity app that’s well worth using.
PUBLISHED OCT. 3, 2012
