OmniGrowl - 3.7

I've been using OmniGrowl for quite a long time, and I do really miss it now when it's on a machine that's not installed. The developers have generally been pretty quick to address problems (though I haven't interacted with them directly), and it's otherwise been pretty unobtrusive. I would definitely recommend this. I haven't seen (at least in any recent version) problems with the preferences pane always coming up, it works as advertised. I haven't tried everything it can do, but I have tried the RSS feeds, weather, iTunes notifications, log notifications, SMART notifications, and iCal notifications, and all work just as they're supposed to.

I've followed the Omni group from their origins as a NeXT developer through their establishing themselves as a premier Mac OSX developer. I get excited when I see a new Omni application, as I've come to expect I'll find something extremely well thought out, well designed and useful, and more often than not an application that I'll be able to use and immediately get value from.

Not wanting to knock OmniGrowl as a product, as it may very well be useful and well designed, but it's use of 'Omni' in the application title doesn't seem to have any basis in the functionality of the product, and it's not an Omni application, which I found very disappointing.

I can appreciate that this developer has reasons for using the name, and hopefully they are not in the hopes of getting more attention than would be received with a less confusing name. I would suggest that using Omni for a software product isn't unlike using 'Coke' for a soft drink, or 'Mercedes' for an automobile - even if you think you've got a legal loophole, it's still not good practice as you're misleading your and Omni's potential customers, and that's just not good business.

It has been reported by several people that OmniGrowl 3.0 is opening its preference window at startup even though that option is not checked. I consider this top priority for a fix, but unfortunately I am on vacation until July 3 and have no access to the source to fix it. It will be fixed by July 7 or earlier. Sorry for the inconvenience.

If there are any other issues besides this one please report them to woodenbrain at kagi dot com so a proper maintenance release can be produced ASAP after my return.

My Mac Pro, OS X 10.5.2, won't sleep with this version either. 2.3 had same problem. Occurred since the 10.5.1 or .2 update, as it did work before.

Cheers, Al

Once I discovered how to not have it open the Address Book and iCal each time I launch, I find this program very handy. Reminds me of appointments and birthdays. Very nice.