Paid update will overhaul launch manager

Productivity app developer Chronos today announced a new and renamed major upgrade of its nine-year-old F10 Launch Studio, now called LaunchMagic 4. The new version is said to be faster, more powerful and easier to use and offers more than a dozen major new features, including support for documents and folders rather than just applications, menu bar access, QuickLook previews with full path info, dock launching from the menu bar and more.

The concept behind LaunchMagic is to give users a "single point of entry" for launching or opening anything on their Mac -- similar in concept to, but considerably more sophisticated and extensive than Lion's built-in Launchpad. The new version now supports document searching, a list view in the file list, support for Lion-style scrollbars, animated open/closing, a sort button, and built-in application preferences instead of using System Preferences.

Smaller changes in LaunchMagic 4 include a dock selector in Blaster, a Preview Lock, an overhauled Get Info display, space bar invocation of previews, new selection frames and color options, a keyboard shortcut to activate the search field and a new welcome window with a 10-minute "getting started" video introduction for new users. Chronos has also streamlined the general interface.

LaunchMagic is now a 64-bit only app that requires Lion. Users of F10 Launch Studio (all previous versions) can upgrade to the new version for $15. The new version is now priced at $30, available directly from Chronos, and a fully-functional 30-day trial version is available. A family pack is available for $50.

by MacNN Staff