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Part of becoming a true power user is minimizing the number of long and exhausting reaches you go for between your keyboard and mouse. We’ve shared all sorts of keyboard tricks with you before, but Fingertips is a Windows software that can really shift your stance on productive application launching. I didn’t know what I was missing until I downloaded and tried it.

Fingertips is not like other application launchers in the sense that there is no real GUI, no slide-outs or menus, and we’re not replacing the visual Windows Start button. This software puts a new spin on keyboard hotkeys and achieves it in the most simple way. You just type in what application you want to launch and hit the Enter key.

Now, as a Windows user we’ve got an awful lot of real estate at our disposal – the Windows desktop, the Windows Start menu, the Quick Launch toolbar, and so on. If you’re anything like me, you need more than that. You need an instant, easy way to get to the program you’re looking for without minimizing windows and hunting for specific icons. That is where Fingertips comes in.

Right out of the box, Fingertips comes at you preloaded with every application already in your Windows Start menu. With that being said, the Start menu is now practically obsolete. It’ll also add in your Favorites from Internet Explorer. As you can see in the following screenshot, I’ve got hundreds of items ready for access right after my installation.

In the next tab over (Hotkeys), I really recommend you bind a hotkey combination to launching the Fingertip command window. Not doing so would mean putting yourself through that extra work and those extra motions before getting to where we really want to be.

As that screenshot shows, I have the command window showing after the Ctrl+` hotkey combination is executed.

For the sake of our example, let’s say I wanted to launch Control Center 3 (software that comes along with particular Brother scanners and printers). It takes two steps:

1. Hit Ctrl+`
2. Begin typing in the application’s name.
3. Hit Enter.

You don’t even have to type out the entire name before Fingertips begins to suggest for you. Just a few letters will do.

That takes you no more than three seconds and then boom, there it is.

Now isn’t that a lot easier than retreating to your desktop and minimizing everything you’re working on? It’s easier than scrolling through a huge list of Windows Start menu items, too.

This software really shines when it comes to adding your own entries to the list. I originally picked up this software because I needed a simple way to launch my portable Dropbox applications. It works wonders.

To enter a new entry, go into Setup and check beneath the list on the Commands tab. Click “New“. Set your abbreviation, which is your text-based “hotkey” to launch that application or action. From there, enter what needs be. Fingertips can work with more than just applications alone, it can bring you straight to certain websites and perform actions in Outlook and Windows overall. You can check here for more on that.

I made my own hotkey for MakeUseOf and it sure beats bringing up a new browser, waiting around for it to load, and then typing in the URL.

In such a small and simple package, Fingertips can completely transform the way you launch your most frequently used applications and perform other actions.

If Fingertips isn’t quite what you were looking for, take a peek at some of the other application launchers we’ve covered. More of a mouse person, instead of keyboard? Take a look at MouseExtender.

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It was only last week that HP’s tablet and mobile ventures were axed in cold blood, only a month and a half into the Touchpad’s fairly dreary life. Word soon spread about how much faster the tablet’s operating system, WebOS, performed on a hacked Apple iPad – and many have speculated that this was the killer blow.

Then again it could have just been the WebOS, without the line-up of apps that consumers go mad for, after all on hindsight very few sought a device that was built solely for web technologies.

Psst… there’s another tablet that’s probably gathering dust at your local electronic retailer, and it’s called the PlayBook.

Blackberry’s tablet isn’t too dissimilar to the Touchpad, except the Touchpad could probably do more out of the box. Intrigued? Read on!

Blackberry Tablet OS

Much like the recently euthanized HP Touchpad, the Blackberry PlayBook runs its own breed of operating system based on the QNX Neutrino kernel. What this means for consumers is that unlike Android and iOS which have spent years developing, maturing and growing in popularity – Blackberry Tablet OS has very little in the way of apps.

The app situation was so bad at launch that several of the in-built “apps” were simply web links to mobile sites, including Twitter who have shunned the platform (there are still third-party apps, of course).

This will change in a few months (apparently) when the Android Player launches in the autumn, but even so – you could buy an Android tablet today if that’s really your thing. I’m not criticizing Blackberry Tablet OS outright – I’m sure it serves as a decent platform from which to peruse all the apps that you unfortunately don’t have.

No Native Email & Calendar

This still hasn’t been fixed, and don’t let anyone pass it off as a “feature”. If you wish to access your email and personal calendar then not only will you need a Blackberry cell phone, but you’ll need to bridge it with your PlayBook.

So what’s the point? Your email’s already on your Blackberry after all. Why go through the effort of pairing two devices only to read and reply to email on a larger screen with a touch-input keyboard (rather than the physical mini-QWERTY on your phone).

I’ve seen some trying to pass it off as being a useful safeguard – if your PlayBook gets stolen then your company’s inner workings are not available to the thief. This may be true, but Blackberry have already announced that the feature will be added at a later date. Which makes me think they never got round to it for the launch…

Sprint Cancels PlayBook 4G Plans, Other Carriers Shuffle Awkwardly

US service provider Sprint have already pulled the plug on the revised 4G version of the Blackberry PlayBook, and (as of writing this) no other carriers have come forward either. According to Crackberry, Sprint reckon the PlayBook “just hasn’t caught on with business customers”.

The same source quotes Sprint’s reasoning: “There are so many tablets in the market, it creates confusion for the average customer” – bravo, so the carriers have caught on. This is pretty damaging for RIM as they’re already at a brand-level disadvantage since the rise in popularity of iOS and Android devices.

Who can blame the carriers when, as you can see in the screenshot above taken from the PlayBook website, reviews haven’t exactly been glowing. A handful of apps you say?

It Plays Flash

But wait! Surely that’s a good thing, right? Not really, no. Flash these days is more of an advertising tool than the be-all and end-all of rich online media. Apple’s anti-Flash policy is, on the whole, a good thing – even if you don’t use a single Apple product. It has forced many services to invest effort in new browser technologies, rather than revising old Flash projects.

HTML5 is the way forward, and whilst the PlayBook is HTML5 compliant, you’re still going to be bombarded with animated, singing, dancing Flash adverts. This might be more of a personal choice, but if I could get rid of Flash on my main PC and solely use HTML5 and Javascript then I would.

For this reason I’d certainly not want it eating up battery on a small, portable device.

A Rushed Launch

Nothing says “cares about customers” like rushing a product to retail, quite blatantly before it is ready for public consumption. RIM certainly aren’t the first company to do this, but even so it’s not the most sensible tactic in an already saturated market.

As previously mentioned: native email and calendar apps were left out and some in-built apps served only as web links. If you bought a PlayBook at launch, then you’ll be aware that the device wouldn’t charge unless turned on (this has now been fixed) – a major problem if your PlayBook fully discharged itself.

Another major issue for anyone using AT&T in the US was the carrier’s refusal to support Blackberry Bridge (now resolved), the vital software required for reading email on your device. AT&T weren’t keen on free tethering – did RIM not try to work this one out?

The Price

It’s $499, for an unfinished tablet with 16GB of memory that has worse battery life and a less mature OS than comparably priced competitors. This is the same price that Apple is selling their 16GB iPad 2 for – and you’ll have access to thousands of tried and tested apps down that route.

Even the Android-powered Samsung Galaxy Tab can be picked up for around $300 if you look in the right places, making the Blackberry PlayBook an expensive punt in the dark at just under $500 for the base model.

Conclusion

These are the reasons I personally wouldn’t buy a Blackberry PlayBook. At the moment I wouldn’t buy another tablet either, the $500 mark is a lot of money for something less capable than a laptop yet too big to be ultra portable. If you do think a tablet would fit your lifestyle then I’d definitely recommend you consider the competition or wait a bit before shelling out for the Blackberry PlayBook.

Do you agree? Do you like the PlayBook? Have you got an iPad or Android tablet? Are tablets worth the money? You’re probably dying to have a rant – get it all out in the comments.

Image Credits: PlayBook Apps (Henk-Jan van der Klis), Should Have Waited (Julian Ehrhardt)

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