Monthly Archive for January, 2007

About a month ago I discovered Growl, and it is a cool little application that I like a lot. It’s a notifier that works with selected applications such as Adium, Mail, Skype, and iChat. When new messages arrive, a transparent window fades in and out with a brief summary of the message, giving you a chance to decide if you want to stop working and switch applications or not. It doesn’t interrupt the application you are currently on, so you can keep on working uninterrupted if you decide you don’t want to answer the message.

This is really useful for me in several ways; for example, let’s say I am watching a movie on my laptop and have the video set to full screen resolution, but I am waiting for an important email or IM. Growl will project a small notifier over my movie anytime I get an email or IM, and I can filter them while watching my movie and only answer the one I am waiting for. The same is applicable if I’m busy editing files in Photoshop or working on documents and don’t want to be interrupted.

The notify windows are customizable; you can choose the styles, colors, and locations you want for each application. You can even set up which emails get “Growled” and which don’t; for example, I use a separate address for the email lists I am on, and these are quite high-traffic lists. I don’t need a Growl notifier everytime I get an email from my email lists, but I would like a Growl notifier if I get an email from a client or personal friends, so I have Growl set up to only send notifications on my personal email address.