The developers behind the popular notification service Growl plan to actively develop the application going forward, even as Apple includes a similar feature -- Notification Center -- in OS X Mountain Lion. Growl's lead developer Chris Forsythe explained in a blog post that Growl will be embracing Notification Center rather than trying to compete with it or shutting the project down. Part of the reason for this is that Notification Center will only be accessible by apps sold through the Mac App Store -- standalone apps offered through a developer website won't be able to access the Notification APIs.
Writes Federico Viticci for MacStories:
The introduction of Notification Center won’t necessarily “sherlock” Growl as a notification alternative for Mac users and developers. While Notification Center will undoubtedly provide an excellent native solution for developers of Mac App Store apps — ultimately serving the average user with a notification system that works out of the box, — Growl will still remain a capable third-party app that offers fine grained controls over notifications with several customization options.One particularly useful new feature, called 'Mist', that Growl is planning revolves around making life easier for developers. The Mist API allows developers to implement one piece of code that will send notifications to Growl, if it's available, and Notification Center if it isn't. Growl has delivered one piece of code to support both its own notifications and Apple's Notification Center.
Growl developer Chris Forsythe:
The one thing that has kept me up at night since the 10.8 release was announced, is that I really want to be able to help developers transition from Growl to Notification Center on their terms. We could have taken an aggressive stance and said "No, Growl is more awesome!", but at the end of the day that isn't us.Growl is available for $1.99 on the Mac App Store. [Direct Link]
Here's the important takeaway. I said this same exact sentence 73 times. I'm going to say it 73 times more today. "It would be irresponsible for us to not support NC and abandon our developers, so we're going to embrace it." And that's just what we're going to do.
30 comments
Apple has launched a worldwide "Shot on iPhone 6" advertising campaign involving 77 photographers, 70 cities and 24 countries, with iPhone 6 photography to be featured in magazines,...
There's a new Steve Jobs book set to be published later this month, penned by Brent Schlender, a reporter who interviewed Jobs several times throughout his life and became close to him, and Rick...
Apple today made a pre-release version of OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 available to those who are signed up for the company's OS X public beta program, giving them early access to the new update and the...
Following several weeks of rumors about Apple's car-related projects, a recent move by the company to expand trademark coverage of the "Apple" name and iconic Apple logo in Switzerland to...
Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly said at the company's flagship Apple Store in Berlin that the Apple Watch launch in April will not be limited to the United States, according to retail employees in...
Apple Watch continues to make its international debut in magazines worldwide with a new cover appearance and multi-page spread in Hong Kong street fashion and lifestyle magazine East Touch this...
Apple has refreshed its homepage to showcase a gallery of photos taken with iPhone 6 across the world, unsurprisingly coinciding with today's announcements of the Samsung Galaxy S6 and HTC One M9...
Samsung at Mobile World Congress on Sunday announced its latest flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, each compatible with a new mobile payments service called Samsung Pay. The...
