[tweetmeme]Tony Arnold set out to make Spaces better. And he has succeeded. HyperSpaces has been in the works for a while now. We reviewed it while in beta, and now that the final version has come to fruition, it’s time to look at it again.
If Spaces was elegant, simple, and easy to use, HyperSpaces adds power while still keeping that simplicity. You can customise each space, so that each of them is instantly recognisable, and possibly better defining the task at hand. You can change the wallpaper of individual spaces, rename the space and have its title show up on your desktop, and change intricate details of how each space is presented. For instance, for my ‘working’ space involving Photoshop, InDesign, etc, I’ve set an extremely dark wallpaper, while my ‘internet’ space features something more cheerful. When it comes to shortcuts, HyperSpaces plonks in a number of options, for instance being able to create extra rows or columns of spaces without going into any preferences.
Functionality-wise, it’s not something revolutionary. I had no problems identifying my Spaces, nor did I feel the need to have a separate wallpaper for each. Using HyperSpaces for a few weeks however, and it certainly makes changes for the better. I for one love the gorgeous HUD pop-up that allows you to click on a thumbnail of any space to go there. Moreover, everything that’s done, is done to perfection. Wallpapers fade into each other, label positioning is system optimised, and it comes with a whole lot of customisation. Moreover, it also makes other workflows easier. Like changing your wallpaper involves dragging an image into its dock icon. And the fact that it also comes with the ability to hide desktop icons means I have one less app to worry about. Then there’s the question of system resources. Although HyperSpaces uses ~100MB of memory on my iMac, I didn’t find any noticeable performance issues while using it. If the different wallpapers do suck up memory, there’s a setting to just tint each one with a different colour–useful for something like a MacBook Air (on which I wouldn’t advise running this app).
If you’re a heavy Spaces user, I’d highly recommend you give HyperSpaces a try. It’s certainly not game changing, but it’ll improve your workflow for the better. At $13 for a license, it’s not that heavy on your pocket.
Giveaway
The CocoaBots were willing enough to offer up 5 licenses for our distinguished readers. Leave a comment telling us about your current Spaces setup. Or, a generous retweet of this article will also get you another entry into the game. Standard giveaway rules apply.
{ 46 comments… read them below or add one }
I presently have 4 spaces:
- Work (mostly a browser, term and textmate)
- Productivity (Omnifocus, Together)
- Communication (Mailplane, tweetie)
- Multimedia (Everplay, itunes, mplayer)
I find it hard to manage anything beyond 4 spaces.
6 Spaces:
Firefox – Chrome – Safari
Twitter – IM
Mail
Photoshop
Virtualbox
Omniwriter
Work (all the financial stuff)
Creative (omniwriter, pages, itunes)
Media (audio, video)
Web (all the web stuff)
I only use one space, but if Hyperspaces is this cool, I’d give it a shot. Maybe I’ll get a little more productive.
I was really digging this until I saw that it used 100mb of ram, thats more than browser. I realize that you said it didn’t definitely cause lag, but I don’t think I would want to run this all the time, which you would have too. I only have 2gb of ram on my Macbook and it runs very very well, but the hit to RAM here seems like it could and should be cut down.
hey
i do use spaces….but as mentioned before i couldn’t see myself with more than 4….here is my current setup:
1) final cut express
2) web browsing
3) itunes
4) iweb editing
hyperspaces looks like a great addition!
Space 1: Work+Skype
Space 2: Tweetdeck, iCal
Space 3: EyeTV
Space 4: Plex
I’m currently just using two Spaces – one for my main Mac work, and one running VMWare in full-screen mode for Windows development. So much nicer than having two machines and switching from one keyboard/mouse to the other. I haven’t spent too much effort yet in running VMWare in Unity mode and scattering the Windows windows in among the Mac.
I use 3 spaces:
1 – iTunes
2- Safari, Mail, iCal, Tweetie, Adium (all minimized apart from Safari)
3 – iWork
BTW Milind Alvares, what dock modifications do you use? I like the look of the app indicators…
1 – internet (Safari)
2 – communication (iChat, Skype, Mail)
3 – work (iWork)
3 – fun (iTunes)
I also use no more than 4 Spaces:
1) Productivity: iCal, MS Office 2008 apps
2) Creativity (image & video editing): iPhoto, iMovie, Pixelmator, VectorDesigner, ArtRage
3) Communication & Social Networking: Adium, Address Book, Mail, Socialite (twitter, facebook client), WaveBoard
4) Multimedia & my Web Sites: iTunes, iWeb, GarageBand, WireTap Studio, Coda, Textmate, CSSEdit, Transmit
4 Spaces:
1 – Work Space: TextMate
2 – Browser Space: FF, Safari Etc
4 – iTunes
5 – Mail & Notes
All Spaces, second monitor: Skype, Adium, Cornerstone
Two spaces
1) OS X
2) Virtualized OS via VMWare Fusion
(Same as “Bill” up there, it seems.)
really useful, especially on my tiny new macbook white. Currently I use:
1. WEBbrowsing (safari and friends)
2. WEBcoding (Coda and CSSedit)
3. WEBdesigning (Photoshop)
4. MAIL
I have 12 spaces setup on my workstations broken down into the following usages
1. Main (Non-specified apps or Finder windows)
2. Mail
3. Browser 1 (Generally Safari)
4. XCode or Other Code Editor
5. Interface builder or test environment
6. Windows VM
7. Browser 2 or Linux VM
8. Social networks – Tweetie, Adium, iChat, Skype
9. RSS Reader
10. iTunes
11. Browser 2 (Firefox or Chrome)
12. iCal
6 spaces
1. iTunes
2. Google Chrome, iChat, & Itsy
3. Photoshop CS4
4. Aperture 2
5. inDesign CS4
6. Illustrator CS4
//1st Gen 15″ MacBook Pro OS 10.6.2
6:
Top Row:
1 – text editor/IDE/FTP
2 – Terminal, VCS, Database client
3 – Photoshop/Finder
Bottom Row:
4 – Web Browsers
5 – Admin; Mail, IM, Todos, RSS
6 – iTunes, VLC, Transmission.
Any/all at once.
I have 6 spaces.
- 2 for digital library research
- 1 for iWork
- 1 for iTunes
- 1 for Mail and iChat
- 1 for TweetDeck
4 Spaces:
- First space for internet tools and productivity-killers (Firefox with Facebook, Google Reader, and Gmail open, Adium, Tweetie, iTunes, VLC, Transmission)
- Second space for coding tools (Eclipse, Xcode, Interface Builder, and Textmate)
- Third space for productivity tools (Microsoft Office, iWork ’09, Preview for PDFs)
- Fourth space for the few graphics tools I might use (Pixelmator mostly)
1. General / Internet (Social Networks, Browser, Finder)
2. Work (MS Office mostly)
3. VM (Parallels 5
4. Mail (Postbox)
5. RSS (NetNewsWire)
6. Music (iTunes)
3 Spaces horizontally, 2 lines …
Two spaces:
1) Work
2) Play
@Tinu: Love it!
Space 1: Web-Browser
Space 2: E-Mail
Space 3: Free for Everything
Space 4: Free for Everything
Space 5: EyeTV, DVD Player, iTunes
Space 6: VMWare
Thank you for the review!
My Spaces setup is:
- Space 1: Primary work area with Firefox, Skype etc.
- Space 2: VMware Fusion 3 with Windows XP in fullscreen
- Space 3 & 4: Free for spontaneous “Spacing”
HyperSpaces looks really nice!
4 Spaces: 4 Horizontally
1.- Internet & Social Network: Adium, Safari, Firefox, Mail, iChat. Tweetie…
2.- Work: Pages, Keynote, Numbers, Excel, TexEdit
3.- Creative: Photoshop CS4, Bridge CS4, Illustrator CS4, Pixelmator, Aperture, Final Cut Express
4.- Downloads: Transmission, Limewire, jDownloader,
Ha, don’t want to participate, but I see my PS icon and the HS icon in the dock! Joy
1. Coding
2. Web and email
3. Work/ business openoffice
I use Spaces heavily, yet only 4 of them:
1 – main space: iWork, iLife, Safari, Quicktime, VLC, …
2 – communication: Mail, Skype, Adium, Tweetie
3 – iTunes (constantly running)
4 – development: Coda, Xcode, VMware Fusion
I find it easier to “reuse” spaces for a variety of purposes than to set up lots of different spaces. After reading this article I’m really wondering if HyperSpaces could improve my workflow even further…
I hardly ever use Spaces, mainly because I don’t ever THINK to use it. It doesn’t fit easily into my workflow, I find. Perhaps if I had something such as HyperSpaces, I’d be more apt to make use of the function.
I use Hyperspaces along with Dock spaces: http://www.nscoding.co.uk/ and love it. I have the following spaces, each with its own dock, wallpaper, & desktop label. I assign certain programs for certain spaces and when you click the icon on the dock it opens that application in the appropriate window. Great stuff!:
1: GTD
2: Writing
3: Communication
4: Photo
5: Internet
6: Audio
7: Website Design
8: Utilities
9: Video
Hi,
Is it possible to have 1 space per monitor?
e.g.
Space 1 – Macbook pro lcd
Space 2 – External monitor
I don’t use spaces at the moment but I would if I won Hyperspaces
I use Spaces currently to organize my workflow. I have a total of nine spaces, since I’m often doing a ton of work. Here’s what I usually have open:
Space:
1.) A web browser (usually a webkit browser)
2.) Espresso & MAMP
3.) The Hit List & Stickies
4.) Photoshop or Illustrator
5.) An IRC Client (Chatzilla running on XULRunner) & Tweetie
6.) CSSEdit
7.) ResizeMe
8.) [anything] *usually an extra Firefox Window for keeping read later tabs open
9.) [anything]
I keep a couple of “anything” spaces because there are always those random things that pop up or something extra you’re eventually gonna have to do. If all the spaces are full, where are you to find extra space?
My setup is as follows:
1) for current work (iWork, OpenOffice, iCal.app or similar)
2) iTunes, last.fm
3) Mail.app, Firefox, Evernote
4) Parallels
Four is already enough for me. Usually, six is too much for me. But maybe this would change with HyperSpaces.
hell. spaces? it seemed too complicated to set up. And this looks like its heavy and more powerful.
Space 1: Work (Entourage, Firefox/Safari, Things, Evernote)
Space 2: Social Media (Tweetdeck/Tweeite, iChat)
Space 3: Documents (Pages/Word, Excel)
Space 4: RSS (NetNewsWire)
4 Spaces
1) Mail and Internet
2) Things, Myhomework, and iCal
3) Itunes
4) Google Reader, Echofon, Adium
I’m currently using four spaces until I get the system fully rebuilt (hard drive crashed, and I wanted to do a full reinstall anyway). I used to use all 16 spaces, mostly with one app in each.
1: Spare
2: Firefox
3: Mail
4: Spare
5: Spare
6: NewsFire
7: Whatever homework I’m doing
8: Spare
9: EventBox (Reminds me: I need to find a new Twitter client)
10: Safari
11: Facebook (in a Fluid SSB)
12: Spare
13: YouTube (in a Fluid SSB)
14: Google Wave (in Waveboard)
15: iTunes
16: Spare
I like to have a bunch of readily accessible empty spaces for whatever simple tasks I need to do. Usually I don’t group many apps in one space because I typically only use one app for each task.
note: I’ll also retweet your tweet about this giveaway to spread the word. That doesn’t count as a separate entry, right?
I have nine spaces. I never really NEED nine, well, almost never; six would be a good number, but I can’t stand having it not square, haha.
I use one space for email, feed reader, facebook, and twitter, all open all the time. I use the next space for a web browser window of whatever I’m working on at the time outside of that first space. The next space is for whatever music I’m listening to at the time. Space number nine is for other applications I leave open (instapaper done with fluid and stickies, generally), space number eight is for things I need to come back to later (ie pages I’m refreshing every so often and watching for something to pop up). Spaces four through seven are for dividing up whatever I’m working on in the second space if I need to further organize that, or for word documents, or anything else I need to do!
Complicated setup, I suppose
woaaa cool giveway!!
Space 1: Safari + Google Reader (Fluid)
Space 2: Mailplane
Space 3: Apple Mail (company emails)
Space 4: Coda (my coding space)
Space 5: Photoshop
Space 6: Vmware (for ie testing)
Space 7: Basecamp
Space 8: Sequel Pro
Space 9: Free for anything
This is my daily work-flow, I use spaces so often during all day. I hope I will have one of your giveaway!
Thanks a lot!
using 9 spaces, can’t live without it, seems hyperspaces could make it even better
some are for specific apps like ableton, etc. and some are chat areas
so,good luck everyone, me included
I’m using two spaces:
- Main for work
- Extra for chats, IM and so on.
I’d gladly use more, but non-registered hyperspace version has a restriction
So I’d like to get licanse
Sorry bout forgetting to draw the winners on this one. Oykun Yilmaz, Elean, Shishir, fellowweb, and Jesse Almanrode make the cut. I’ll make sure you get your licenses soon—watch out for an email from @smokingapples.com.
Thanks!
Six spaces rule my Macbook.
Left to right, top to bottom:
1: Google Chrome. Only Google Chrome. Always,
2: htop
3. Used to be Mail.app, but now it’s Sparrow. Also Adium and Skype.
4. Finder. All Finder windows are locked here.
5. Just the desktop. I switch to 5 before sleeping for simplicity’s sake.
6. iTunes, Instinctive, Grooveshark (in Fluid,) Pandora, or whatever.
Multiple areas of focus.
Sure some minds don’t work that way, but the key thing is to remember to use it how you need it.
For a while I was using it in two spaces. Left for code, right for build of that code.
It was great because a simple keyboard shortcut tossed me between either.
It’s all about making it work for you, or not using it.
Hope that helps?
I use 4 spaces currently and have debated adding some:
1. Email, Chrome, Firefox, Webstuff
2. CS5 Adobe
3. VMWare Fusion/Windows
4. Music, Air Apps, Evernote, etc