Remember when you had to click on an application to make it active, and hit refresh in order to find out if anything new had happened? It’s been a long while now, since most desktop programs can run in the background and notify you when something requires your attention. The iPhone approximates that same functionality via the newly introduced push notification features, though apps aren’t actually running in the background, so special support is required from app developers to enable it.

As far as I’m concerned, push has already been a game-changer. My iPhone is now my dedicated IM client, lets me monitor any and all Blue Jays games no matter where I am, and keeps me on-task with my to-do list. But that’s not all. Thanks to a new app called Prowl ($2.99, iTunes link), my iPhone can keep me abreast of pretty much anything, via my Mac and a useful app many will already be familiar with, Growl.

Growl, in case you aren’t aware, is an open notification platform for OS X that supports a wide variety of applications. Basically, it alerts you via an on-screen pop-up and/or sound when one of its supported applications receives a message, finishes a task, and so on. So, for example, using a Mail plugin, I receive a Growl notification whenever I get an email, or when I’m mentioned or receive a DM on Twitter via Tweetie’s built-in Growl support. It’s a very handy tool to have, especially if you keep your dock hidden, as I do, or if you’re working with many different applications on multiple screens.

Now you can receive Growl notifications on your iPhone, too, in the form of push notifications, thanks to Prowl. I can’t even begin to explain how useful this could potentially be, depending on your usage. Already, I have it set up to notify me of new mail (which works better than Apple’s wn push mail, in my opinion, because it allows me to see the sender and some content of the received message), let me know when I receive new @ replies and DMs via Twitter (which I can then check out in Tweetie), and alert me whenever Transmission finishes downloading or seeding a torrent file.

Not only can Prowl alert you of whatever Growl can, but it can also receive custom alerts sent from a web interface. When you set up Prowl, you sign up for an account that’s necessary for syncing Growl on your computer with Prowl on your iPhone. Using that same login, you can go to the Prowl web site and send yourself messages. Any applicable content in that message will be automatically hot-linked, like emails and phone numbers. Very handy for sending a contact number to yourself for future reference.

Prowl is potentially the most effective application of push I’ve yet seen on the iPhone platform, especially if you’re already using Growl (which you should be). The best part is that it’s limited only by Growl itself, which is infinitely expandable, so long as developers keep supporting it. Probably the best $3 I’ve ever spent in the App Store.

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Jiggler

Sometimes I use my MacBook as a secondary computer while working on larger projects on my iMac. When I’m using the laptop to play DVDs, stream music through iTunes, or monitor emails and IMs, it drives me crazy when it suddenly goes to sleep. I used to reset the energy saver options, but I would always forget to change them back. Now I use Jiggler, a tiny freeware app that keeps your screen saver from activating or your computer from going to sleep.

AppTrap

Ridding yourself of an application you no longer use is as easy as dragging it from Finder into the Trash. Unfortunately, sometimes associated files and other cruft linger and take up space. It’s usually not a big deal with smaller apps but if you’ve ever tried deleting Firefox or a similarly large set of files, you know it takes forever to flush out all those leftover bits in hiding. When you activate the free program AppTrap, it runs quietly in the background until it’s needed (or until you turn it off). Now when you drag an app to the Trash, it will ask if you want to also delete the associated files. It’s quick, easy, painless, and I love it. This is a particularly useful tool to have on hand if you like to try out lots of different software and find yourself installing — and uninstalling — all kinds of apps to tweak your system.

Keyseer

I love keyboard shortcuts, AppleScripts, and anything else that makes routine computing chores easier. Keyseer is a freeware app that activates AppleScripts through assigned key combinations. It comes preloaded with commands that open the Documents folder, connect to Apple.com, and so on. I can also add my own AppleScripts whenever the mood or need strikes.

Growl

Like most people who spend their day online, I receive a constant stream of information throughout the day via instant messenger, email, and RSS. Each app comes with its own notification system which, frankly, gets unwieldy after a while. Since I can never remember if the foghorn sound means I have new mail or an incoming Skype call, I use Growl to manage notifications across all apps. It works natively with services like Adium, Twitterific, and NetNewsWire, and there are plugins available for other popular tools like Mail.app and Camino.

Undercover

The thought of losing my MacBook fills me with dread. I’m smart enough to not keep sensitive information on it, yet I’d hate to lose it anyway. Undercover won’t keep my MacBook from getting stolen, but it does give me a fighting chance to get it back. This $49 app has a two-step process to theft recovery. First, the software will send screenshots of my laptop back to me, along with external IP addresses and router information. It even takes pictures of the user via the internal iSight camera. Essentially, it captures everything going on with my computer so I can piece the data together and figure out where it is. Next, it will mimic hardware failure by darkening the screen to the point that it eventually becomes unusable, prompting the thief to (hopefully) take it to a Mac shop for service or try to resell it. At that point, a screen saver activates to let everyone know the Mac is stolen. If your Mac never surfaces, Undercover will refund your money in full.

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My enthusiastic use and promotion of Growl should come as no surprise to regular readers of The Apple Blog. While some dismiss it as an annoyance reminiscent of the Windows notification popups, others — like myself – view it as a way be informed without stopping what I am currently doing (and that is definitely not the case with its Windows pseudo-counterpart).

Even though many of the applications and utilities that help me with my daily workflows have embedded Growl support in some fashion, there is one use of Growl that may help convert even the most stalwart Growl skeptic: Hardware Growler.

Setting Up Hardware Growler

You’ll find this handy utility in the “Extras” folder on your Growl installer disk image. It’s main purpose is to fire off a Growl notification each time devices are connected or disconnected from your Mac, and includes support for FireWire, USB and filesystem volumes (i.e. disks) as well as Bluetooth devices and network interfaces. Unfortunately, to make the best of use of Hardware Growler, you will have to do some work to get it installed properly.

First, copy the “Hardware Growler” application to either “/Applications” or “/Applications/Utilities” on your Mac. The application itself is nothing to write home about. Double-click on it to see a very sparse menu and an innocuous Dock icon. The “Preferences” window is even sparse, only providing a means to enable or disable a notification about what devices are currently connected upon startup of Hardware Growler (not very useful, at least for me).

You can leave Hardware Growler running this way and it will go about it’s job quite nicely. However, since it is not really an interactive program, it would be best to “make it go away”, especially if you happen to miss-hit a Cmd-Q and accicentally cancel out of it. The easiest way to accomplish this is to modify one of the Hardware Growler configuration files.

Depending on where you decided to install Hardware Growler, either open /Applications/HardwareGrowler.app/Contents/Info.plist or /Applications/Utilities/HardwareGrowler.app/Contents/Info.plist add the following two lines after the <dict> line:

   <dict>
      <key>LSUIElement</key>
   <true/>

You will need to quit and re-start Hardware Grolwer for this setting to take effect. (CocoaDev has more good info on the LSUIelement propery.)

Next, to make it even easier to ensure Hardware Growler is running after you login, go to System Preferences > Accounts and add it as a “Login Item” and check the “Hide” checkbox just for good measure.

Using Hardware Growler to Spy on Your System & Applications

Because Hardware Growler hooks itself into the device events on your system, you now have the opportunity to see some of what happens underneath the pretty OS X GUI. While you should be aware of when you connect FireWire and USB devices, Hardware Growler still notifies you when those devices are inserted or removed and having a notification of that may help troubleshoot issues.

For me, it is very handy to be notified when my Option Express 3G card suddenly decides to disconnect itself from the card slot and it has saved me a ton of grief. Expanding on that particular example, you will see that many PCI ExpressCard adapters show up as USB devices. This is actually the most common way for vendors to utilize the ExpressCard slot and you really are not getting much benefit out of using the card versus an external adapter, apart from freeing up an external USB slot for other uses.

One activity that is especially interesting to have a view into is when your applications that are set to auto-update are downloading and mounting disk images. I managed to “spy” on the Google updater (no screen capture, though) doing it’s work just this past week (I had actually forgotten I let it auto-update).

Gaining a view into network-related events is also pretty handy. Not only will you see which adapter is connecting, you will also see the current MAC (unique hardware) address and all changes of IP address. This can be especially handy when you are attempting to diagnose connection issues.

If you do decide to give Hardware Growler a try, let it run in the background for a week as you go about your workflow. I think you’ll find the experience illuminating and you may just gain more insight into how your system and many of your applications work.

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You can choose whether it starts on login, whether you are given an extra notification when battery resources are at a level you define and can restrict display if designated applications are currently running:

You also have complete control over the information presented in the alerts:

With my Growl configuration, the notifications look like this:

   

It’s a very simple application that does not require a substantial amount of system resources (as shown below). There have been times when I have had the MacBook Pro become unplugged and not noticed the screen dim only to discover much later that I’m on 50% battery left. This utility would have definitely come in handy then and is now a part of my “must have” applications.

I had a bit of trouble trying to send a PayPal donation to the author via the link on the page, but managed to do so via the standard PayPal “Send Money” option. As always, I highly encourage folks to support independent development on the Mac.

If you use Unplugged or have suggestions for other small-but-useful utilities, drop a note in the comments.

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