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Sapiens: mouse-centric application launcher
We've mentioned Donelleschi software before in connection with Sticky Windows, which allows you to shrink windows to a tab on the side of your desktop. Now they're back with a new mouse-centric launcher application called Sapiens. In contrast to keyboard launchers like LaunchBar, Sapiens is supposed to allow you to launch applications with just your mouse. Basically, you activate Sapiens by moving your mouse in a circle, and up pops a radial dial menu with various applications on it. According to the developer Sapiens "can accurately learn and understand the applications you use and is therefore able to make reliable predictions about the set of applications you are most likely to launch." So you actually have to train it for a couple of days so that it can learn what applications you use. If the application you want does not appear initially when you invoke Sapiens, you can use the keyboard to search for it. Sapiens also interacts with drag and drop so that you can select and drag a file, invoke Sapiens with the circular mouse gesture, and then drop the file on your desired application. I've only been playing with Sapiens for a few minutes so I can't yet measure the developer's claims about its capacity to learn my habits. I should also point out that TUAW favorite Quicksilver has some mouse-centric plugins that will allow it to do some of the things Sapiens does, via mouse gestures and the Constellation menu.Sapiens is now $19.95 (introductory price, to go up to $25.95 at some point) and a demo is available. I also recommend checking out the slick introductory movie on the main Sapiens page for a visual demonstration of what it can do.[via MacMinute]
Lilt - wave your notebook like you just... want to turn up iTunes
If you're finished with smacking your MacBook to make it do your bidding, maybe you can move on to tilting it and playing with the some mood lighting (in the Pro models) to really get things done? Lilt is a new app that harnesses the power of of Apple's Sudden Motion Sensor (found in PowerBooks, MBs and MBPs) and the ambient light sensor (PowerBooks and MBPs only) to allow you to trigger the launch of applications, files and scripts. With AppleScript support, the possibilities are of course almost limitless, but the basic examples the developer Jonathan Nathan uses include waving your hand over the ambient light sensor to change tracks in iTunes, as well as tilting the machine back to hear the time spoken to you. Naturally, Lilt includes plenty of built-in actions like locking the screen, speaking text, controlling the volume and launching apps, just to help you hit the ground running.Until November 30th, Lilt is offered as a pre-release version, free of restrictions. After that, the price rises to a mere $5. Not bad for a whole new way to boss your notebook around, and with Lilt, the odds are far less that you might give it a black eye.
