This edition of the iAnnoyance Challenge aims to fix and tweak the usability of your desktop. Interested? Read on.
We launched the iAnnoyance series earlier this month as a fun event for the community to come together, brainstorm ways in which we could customize OS X, and allow developers to show off their coding skills. Stoplight 1.1, a great little app that changes the window behavior of OS X (and allows you to maximize!), was the winner. There’s also a cash prize which, although handy, is hardly the main reason for developing (our last winners donated their $500 prize to someone that needed it more). The app will be open source under the GPL and free to all.
We’re improving the format of the contest this time around, giving developers a full week to come up with their app. At the end of the week, the site staff will examine all the submissions (and we expect quite a few) and choose the winner based on overall quality, usability, innovation, number of improvements, and interface. While the app can still be in a “beta” stage, keep in mind that it will be competing against apps which might be more stable... so testing is key.
While we had initially set prizes at $100 (so we’d have plenty of money to do these), we kicked off the series last time with a prize of $500, since it was our first event and likely the most complex of all challenges. Like I mentioned above, though, this isn’t about the money... although it helps make it worth your time! It's easy cash. The prize award for this iAnnoyance Challenge (and most others henceforth) starts at $250. Donations to add to this award are gladly accepted - if you think you’ll use the app, why not help us support the dev?
Since we’re giving you a full week to shape and create your app, we want to give you a lot of room to innovate. The more features you come up with, the more likely you are to win. Below, however, is a list of vital features along with other suggestions:
Essentials:
- Set horizontal and vertical icon grid spacing
- Hide individual drives while showing others
- Arrange icons to left, top, or bottom of desktop
- Show/Hide all icons with a hotkey - It’d also be great to have the ability to show only volumes with a hotkey, show all volumes (instead the ones you’ve opted to show with the above setting), etc.
- Ability to “map” where icons can be placed on the desktop, meaning that there are certain places they can be placed on the desktop but not others.
Other features we’d love to see:
- Leopard compatibility
- Disable the ability of icons to overlap
- Optional Trash icon on the desktop, either placed on the grid like a normal icon or anchored to one of the desktop corners. (Also, if possible, when this feature is enabled the dock's trash icon should disappear to avoid redundancy) [Thanks for the suggestion, Takuro]
- See this thread for more great ideas (although many of these relate to the finder in general, something we'll tackle later).
The contest ends Sunday night at Midnight CST (6 am GMT) - to submit your app email me at mashugly@gmail.com (preferred) or PM me here on the forum. If you've got questions for clarification, please don't hesitate to contact me! Early submissions are fine.
Rules and Information:
1. All applications must be universal and be compatible with OS X 10.4 Tiger.
2. All applications must have a cool name (we'll pick the most clever one).
3. Every application must be easy and fun to use.
4. If code from another open source project is used, proper credit must be given.
5. Prize monies can also be donated to the charity of choice. Prizes will be awarded after the first stable release.
6. While not mandatory, "Essential" features are the big items we'll look for. If you're unable to meet one or more, please go ahead and submit your app... everyone else might be in the same situation!
7. Check back here often, in case clarification of the rules is needed. If I were you, I'd subscribe to the thread by clicking on the "Options" button at the top of this thread and "Track this topic."
Donation List (Click here to donate) :
Adin B. $15, Alexandre F. $15
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