ObjectDock 0.99 released

Sunday, August 24, 2003 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize News

Stardock has released an update to its popular freeware dock program -- ObjectDock.

ObjectDock 0.99 (still in beta) is a program that combines task managing and program launching into a single "dock" that can be placed anywhere on the screen and customized to look and feel very differently from system to system.

Docks are a powerful UI convention made popular first on NeXTStep and later found on other OSes such as OS/2 and more recently MacOS X.

ObjectDock 0.99 is a significant departure from past versions as Stardock has begun to try to take the dock on its own path.  Apple recently shut down development of a popular dock program called y'Z dock which closely emulated the MacOS X "Aqua" dock.  Stardock intends ObjectDock to stand on its own with the goal of being the most versatile and customizeable dock available to meet a wide variety of user goals.

New in version 0.99 is:

+ Docklets. Users can now create their own docklets to put on the dock. Docklets are basically plugins that can display informatiom (weather, time, disk space, RSS feeds, etc.).

+ Dock item backgrounds. You can now control what the background of a dock item looks like.

+ A host of new effects for the attention animation (i.e. say an instant message has arrived, the IM icon can bounce or spin or rock).

+ Suport for attention items. When a running task is on, a graphic shows up under the icon letting you know it's in use.

+ Control of whether a new instance or existing instance of a program should be launched when a program is clicked on.

+ Lots of polish and performance tweaks to make it faster and easier to use.

+ Reduced memory usage

Stardock expects to release ObjectDock 1.0 in September as a freeware program. Stardock also makes the popular desktop extension suite, Object Desktop which can be found here: (www.objectdesktop.com).

You can download ObjectDock at www.objectdock.com.

First Previous Page 2 of 2 Next Last
`Roboman
Reply #21 Tuesday, August 26, 2003 12:48 AM
If anyone like that wallpaper shown (I did) you can get it at http://www.deviantart.com/ under wallpapers and search for grassy.
John Hamp
Reply #22 Tuesday, August 26, 2003 2:05 AM
Perhaps DJ you should learn to read. Such as reading Pixel Pirate's post where he talked about yZ's "better" features. That was what I was responding to.
Jim Latimer
Reply #23 Tuesday, August 26, 2003 10:40 AM
.99 really rocks!!!! Much faster, no stutters (in custom engine and narrow magnification). More stable too. I haven't tried the weather yet, but if it works as advertized.....
Overall, improvements wih each build.
imtoomuch
Reply #24 Tuesday, August 26, 2003 7:50 PM
thanks for the info Simsbro! Now can anybody help me find the Shrek-style icons, specificly the recycling bin?!
Chris Seifert
Reply #25 Thursday, August 28, 2003 10:49 PM
Needs more work on the docklets. The weather docklet stops working after a while and stays frozen on one temp. The right-click update function doesn't work at that point either.
Joeymad
Reply #26 Friday, August 29, 2003 11:27 PM
I did read. I'm just saying that all of the programs are the same. One may have better features thant the other, but it just so happens that OD is offered on this site, so most people use OD here. Everyone would love for Y'z dock features to be in OD. You didnt read my post, Hamster. I dont want to start a hate fight, I am just stating some stuff.

and yes... DJ Joeymad is Joeymad
Spank8086
Reply #27 Monday, September 1, 2003 5:26 AM
Excellent program. All it needs is seperator support and to show system tray icons and I'd replace my taskbar and Start Menu with it entirely. My only beef with the current version now is the fact OD uses an incredible amount of CPU resources to animate window activity for an icon, such as an incoming AIM or Messenger message, which will hose your system if you're playing a game while this happens in the background. Nonetheless, I look forward to future releases and updates.

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