iPulse 1.0.3

Iconfactory
Rating:@

Dontcha just love it when software vendors use the three-digit, double-dotted version system? Wouldn't you think it would be enough to say 'version 1'?

iPulse is supposedly a geek tool for the Mac. Ignoring the obvious oxymoron there, what iPulse attempts to do is give you easy access to system information - the kind the administrator really needs - but in a 'Mac' format and with a 'Mac' way of doing things.

What you get is a cross between a Russian puzzle and one of those old diagrams of how the Unix kernel and shells interact. A bunch of concentric circles that revolve around one another with different coloured patterns in each and big numbers too, like '48' and '43' and the like.

The trouble is that one half of the brain is trying to assimilate facts while the other half is contemplating licking Aqua. Administrators need facts, not pretty designs. If you give them rows and rows of facts, they can absorb what they see in the blink of an eye and go back to their other tasks, but give them a carneval of delight and they'll be distracted and will become irritable.

Tools that give people everything at a glance are good; this is just the wrong way to go about it, and the attempt once again brings a crucial issue to the forefront: Can Apple be taken seriously as a professional platform? Up to now the answer is an uncategorical 'no'.