QuickLooking the future

April 21st, 2009

Our inhouse prophet’s vision of the day:


11 Responses to “QuickLooking the future”

  1. Stan says:

    Is this an actual work in progress, or just a screen mock-up?

  2. csaba says:

    Although a flattering suggestion, but I can assure you we are not that proficient with Photoshop :)
    (just today, it took the three of us over two hours to make rounded edges on a screenshot. Not this one)

  3. Stan says:

    So I feel compelled to ask then… free update? :)

  4. Thomas says:

    Looks excellent, some more flexibility in the views can only be a good thing!
    The only other thing I’d wish for were a quick text viewer, that is not as picky as QuickLook when it comes to file extensions (xml, css,… anyone?)!

  5. pete says:

    wow !!!

    this would make a great document viewer !!

  6. nate beaty says:

    to be honest, it took me a bit to figure out what was even going on. but i use column view in Finder almost 100%, only switching it off to find things newest to oldest in list view.

    then again, i just might be missing the ol’ dir-tree-in-far-left-column mode used in many oldskool dual-pane dirutils. it’s clumsy, but it’s definitely useful.

    are the Batch Rename and Sync features getting some UI love for next release?

  7. nate beaty says:

    oh, and forgot to mention: CoverFlow is the most ridiculous thing to move from eyecandy (used to be more fun) independent iTunes browser -> anything usable for file browsing. does *anyone* use CoverFlow?

  8. Gilbert says:

    I’m a former Pathfinder user testing out ForkLift. Column view is definitely missed!

  9. csaba says:

    @natebeaty
    So Nate, I gather you don’t exactly approve of Coverflow? Well, don’t worry, it’s going to be an option :)
    To answer your question, I see Mudi using coverflow all the time, especially browsing image folders. And I myself will affirm that it’s pretty nice when I use it in Dikk! or sometimes iTunes. So, that makes at least 2 people.

    I’m not sure what’s going to happen to Batch Rename and Sync. I’ve been unsatisfied with the batch rename panel myself, and we’ve spent more time on putting together the sync panel than on coding the whole of the sync/merge functions. So, if you have a vision of a perfect UI for these panels, don’t hold it back.

    @Gilbert
    I would be interested to know how your testing works out. Drop us a line.

  10. hmurchison says:

    Coverflow has its place. I use it when I have a bunch of similar pics and want to find the best ones. Choice is good and I love my eyes so giving them more candy is a good thing..no a great thing.

  11. nate beaty says:

    i wouldn’t say i -disapprove- of CoverFlow. as i mentioned, i loved it as a standalone iTunes browser. however, even for that, something was lost in the feel of it when Apple acquired the technology. i admit i’ve used CoverFlow browsing a few times for finding an image in a directory, but it was an exercise in frustration. it’s a clumsy albeit attractive feature, which was originally designed only to “add some nice warm aesthetics back into that cold digital music collection.”

    Quick Look is a great example of a useful, revolutionary addition to file management. i wish Apple would take inspiration from Quick Look and work on an idea that uses the spirit of CoverFlow in some way, geared towards it’s actual use scenario — like finding an image in a directory. as it is, i think it’s an overused gimmick that’s less useful than pretty on the eyes.

    all that blathering aside, i have no complaint of your adding it to ForkLift, it definitely looks nice in the screengrab, and it sounds like other folks have use for it.

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