
Alfred and OS X 10.10 Yosemite - cleverjake
http://blog.alfredapp.com/2014/06/02/alfred-and-os-x-10-10-yosemite/
======
oalders
I didn't get the point of Alfred until I tried it out. Now it feels weird to
work on a machine that _doesn't_ have it installed. The workflows and the
ability to (easily) add your own are what make it so great. I use this
workflow dozens of times every day: [https://github.com/2shortplanks/alfred-
metacpan](https://github.com/2shortplanks/alfred-metacpan)

~~~
iztyhi
I've had it installed for a while but never got beyond using it as an
application launcher. Do you have any tutorials you'd recommend for getting
into the advanced uses?

~~~
oalders
I didn't do too much research to get started, but I did find this page to be a
good starting point: [https://github.com/willfarrell/alfred-
workflows](https://github.com/willfarrell/alfred-workflows)

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sutterbomb
Impressive timing for a response. Wonder if they had a little birdy that
tipped them off beforehand?

~~~
dangoor
Probably just quick typists. Alfred (of which I'm a user) was the first thing
that came to my mind when I saw a screenshot of the new Spotlight.

~~~
cake
From what I can see, it looks like Spotlight is becoming smarter and closer to
alfred than ever. It dosen't look like the dumb file finder they seem to
present it to be.

~~~
amirmc
Only in some ways. I doubt it will be as customisable nor the developers as
responsive to feedback.

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kirillzubovsky
Great timely response, but unfortunately for Alfred, features in Yosemite are
the only ones that I've ever used on Alfred in the first place. I suspect that
for everyone with my use case, that's going to be the same. It's been about an
hour, I killed Alfred and installed Yosemite. Works well, and I haven't
noticed it lacking.

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snide
If you're new to alfred and are looking for some suggestions on workflows for
developers I put together a pretty in-depth blog post on it (and my other
developer tools) over on my blog here.

[http://www.webhook.com/blog/making-the-most-of-your-
mac/](http://www.webhook.com/blog/making-the-most-of-your-mac/)

~~~
cmyr
I'm curious about this, alfred always just seemed like quicksilver
([http://qsapp.com/](http://qsapp.com/)) lite. Can you write alfred plugins?

~~~
oalders
Yes. They're called "workflows".
[http://support.alfredapp.com/workflows](http://support.alfredapp.com/workflows)

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heavymark
The moment I saw the screenshots before the Keynote, I was like finally an
Alfred replacement. However, while Spotlight now looks beautiful and very fast
and still won't be a replacement for Alfred.

Opening apps and searching the file system is doesn't touch the surface of
Alfred because what makes it powerful is the workflows. Just like what makes
the iPhone great is the app store.

If I want to add an appointment to my calendar (Fantastical) I just type cmd +
space "f Go the Movies at AMC tomorrow at 5pm" and it would automatically add
it to my calendar with location and times and titles going to the proper
fields all immediately without opening any apps. Or update Harvest timing
tracking with a few key strokes.

I'm very surprised Apple didn't release a plugin api for Spotlight, but you
can be sure they will next year at which time Alfred will slowly fade away
eventually. We can all thank Alfred though for inspiring the new spotlight.

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Touche
Surprised they didn't say "this validates what we are doing" like so many
before them.

~~~
amirmc
They don't need validation. They have a product and paying customers.

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kylec
I've been using Alfred for years and I love it, but when Yosemite comes out I
think I'll probably switch to Spotlight. The reason why I started using Alfred
in the first place was because it was a simple and fast application launcher,
and didn't have any of the complexity and bloat that Quicksilver and Launchbar
had. Of course, Alfred's added power user features over the years, but I've
never really had the need for many of them.

~~~
amirmc
As a counterpoint to yours, I'll be sticking with Alfred. I'm sure the devs
will be able to enhance Alfred with the improvement made to the underlying
bits of Spotlight. I use the custom workflow all the time as well as the
ability to customise searches.

In addition, from what I saw in the demo, I don't want suggestions from the
iTunes Store popping up at any time.

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akilism
What really got me hooked on using Alfred was the dash workflow...offline api
docs at the touch of a keystroke..

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Killswitch
Although the new Spotlight looks amazing, Alfred does things it'll never do
and until Apple allows custom workflows and that, I'll be and Alfred user for
ever.

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ajgrover
Too bad the new Spotlight doesn't have a clipboard manager as well. That's the
main reason I paid for the Alfred powerpack.

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joeyspn
Nice and quick response to Apple... Hopefully they won't (cough) patent it...

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morbius
Sherlocked again.

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Jordan15
Glad to hear. Alfred is a lifesaver.

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darkhorn
There is iSkype, iWhatsApp, iPaint, iChina, iApplause.

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beat
So is the new naming scheme after national parks, or Warner Brothers cartoon
characters? Will the next one be Yellowstone, or Sylvester?

I suppose it would be tacky to name the next release "Bugs".

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LoganCale
It's California locations. 10.9 Mavericks was the first in the new naming
scheme.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mavericks_(location)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mavericks_\(location\))

~~~
beat
Ah. Shows how much I care.

Sometimes, it's better to be funny than right. Sometimes.

~~~
manicdee
Pity you couldn't even do funny right.

~~~
beat
I do funny just fine. Pity HN has such a lousy sense of humor. Really funny
comments get downvoted all the time here for being "unproductive" or some
silly crap like that.

But hey, if all you want to do is get karma, just post a bland reinforcement
of the conventional wisdom. Works like a charm.

