Delicious Library 2 was one of the most anticipated software releases for the Mac — it won 2007’s ADA for best Leopard app in its alpha state, Delicious Monster effectively created buzz for it, and not to mention that it is the successor to one of the most popular apps in the past years. Now that this fantastic update has been in our hands for over a month, now it’s time to finally take a stab at it from the experience gathered over that time.
Design. If you were impressed by the first version’s aesthetics, prepare to relive the interface that made it famous, and more. This time, however, the most notable change comes in the form of Core Animation, which allows magnificent effects to take place — courtesy of Mac OS X Leopard. Adding and erasing titles in the life-like representation of your library has never caught anyone’s attention more than this — just imagine how fun it is to erase an item now that it can burst into flames. Indeed, Delicious Library 2 raises the bar in terms of how fun an app’s interface can be to both eye and thought.
Functionality. Just like in the first version, you can manage your vast library with this piece of software — everything from books to CDs to DVDs to videogames to gadgets and tools. However, Delicious Library is also capable of handling your virtual library — namely, your iTunes collection — without a flaw, as it automatically displays and sorts out your collection into movies, music, TV shows, and movies. Once you select an item in your library representation for iTunes, you can prompt it to launch, making it a fantastic media launcher filled with eye-candy, too. As for adding new items that you’ve bought, the best bet is to use your Mac’s iSight as a bar-code scanner, which on my tests felt improved in this version, and let it download all the artwork and information from Amazon automatically. Of course, you can also drag products directly from Amazon, look them up within the app, input them manually, or use the Bluetooth scanner that Delicious Monster sells. Now that you have your collection set up, what can you do with it? Keep track of it! You can see which friends you’ve lent an item to, organize items into shelves, sell/buy from Amazon, or best of all… display it for everyone to see. Yes, you finally get online publishing in this version. Delicious Library is capable of creating perfect representations of your library with ease, and then upload it to .Mac, an FTP server, or iWeb. For a demonstration of this feature, check out a partial representation of my personal library here (which also has an iPhone design included for when viewing it from the device).
Limitations. Not so much of a limitation, but something that should be noted, the info bar has been moved from the right side to the bottom of the window. I make a big note on this design choice because unless you’ve got a big screen, the info tab now takes too much space in your library when displayed in full (as seen in the image above).
Final thoughts. The original Delicious Library was a fantastic release, but the second version improves on it dramatically. Simply put, if you’re a Mac user with a decent library in your possession, you will appreciate this app. And it’s so big an upgrade that while I did my best to include every aspect of it in this brief review, it’s best for all Mac users to see for themselves what all the buzz is about. A single license costs $40, an upgrade from the previous version is $20, and a demo is available for anyone who’s interested. Excellent work, Delicious Monster!
Galley on July 14th, 2008 at 3:59 pm says:
The horizontal details panel is really annoying, and there’s still no “purchased from” field.