OS X Code (r,s)

Posted on Thursday 9 February 2006 - Popularity: 5%

Finally, a third OS X Code (r,s) application, but what is it? You may have noticed the recent app list inside the right sidebar of this blog, of course I’m not updating that list by hand, it’s automatically generated and updated from my two Macs. Basically there’s a small server-side API that can be pinged from an OS X application. The API just stores the names of the submitted applications and makes them available as an RSS feed. Everything the new OS X application by the name PopulApp does is send the recent app list you find under the Apple menu on your Mac to the server-side API. So if you want your recent apps listed on your blog or website, you just have to download PopulApp, make it a start object in the system preferences and than display the feed generated by the server-side API on your blog in the same way as you would display every other RSS feed.

Now why did I name it PopulApp (from popular applications) and not something like RecentApps? It’s because there’s more to come. Right now you can just access a feed with your recent apps, but soon you will be able to access feeds that list your most often used applications, your most used applications in a specific timeframe, the latest applications you’ve newly used and there will be the same feeds for all people that use this service, so it will be possible to have a list of the most popular applications out there. Because of that last feature, it would be cool if not only owners of a blog or website could use this app. While there are services like VersionTracker and MacUpdate that have lists of the most popular apps, all they really do is count the downloads and not really the applications that are in use. Often you download an app because the description sounds interesting, but than it just starts to collect dust on your hard drive. With PopulApp it will be possible to generate a list with the most used applications and how often they were used and not just how often the app was downloaded. Additionally it would become possible to generate recommendations based on other users that use partially the same applications as you, similar to the neighbours feature of last.fm. So start submitting your recent apps now to have a good list ready as soon as all those extra features become available, features that I’m sure even non-site owners will find useful.

There’s a second application that comes with the download, it shows you the exact url of your feed and there’s some additional information in the readme. If you have any questions or additional wishes, please let me know. [download link]

Fredi

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