This is probably the most outdated post I will write in a very long time, but this is an issue that makes me very sad: Sherlock. Old Sherlock is an old friend of mine, and the veteran Mac user. Sherlock was the Spotlight of OS 8.5 (straight 1999, fool), and is still included on your Mac even though the average person either ignores it, deletes it, or laughs at it. But Sherlock kicks ass. Sherlock is seriously Apple’s way of doing a lot of basic internet tasks, such as finding movie times, checking stock prices, reading the news (okay even I have switched to RSS for this one, but Sherlock is second-best), looking at AppleCare documents, and last but not least, doing eBay. Apple has since given us plenty of replacements for the old chap: Dashboard, a built-in dictionary, RSS in Safari, etcetera. Third-party developers fill in the gaps with apps such as iSale. But some things just can’t beat a tested, proven solution. I am unsure of what I believe Apple will do with Sherlock in the coming months, with Leopard and Intel on everyone’s mind. I am almost positive Sherlock is a Carbon application, which makes it considerably more difficult to port to an Universal binary than if it were a Cocoa app. However, if Apple does decide to abandon the aged gentleman, I am pretty sure they will do it quietly and put him to rest with the rest of the PowerPC golden boys. But onto the issue at hand, my love and review of Apple’s Sherlock 3. (3.6.1, if you’re that picky).
The best way I could think of doing this review is to give examples. I have chosen three tasks that I use Sherlock for constantly, and I have found its competitors (inside Apple and out). This will give you three good reasons to try out Sherlock, and three good reasons to mourn it’s loss if the day comes.
Movies: Finding good films, show times, and theatres
A great medal on Sherlock’s coat is it’s movie channel, which is designed very intelligently for its time. In this example, I have chosen the movie Clerks II, out of movies available in theatres within miles and miles of my city. I can then pick the theatre, and the time. I can read a review and watch the trailer, as well as find out how long it is and look at how super hot Rosario Dawson is on the poster. Kick ass, if you ask me. Of course you can do this on a ton of sites, and Google can even find times for you. But it’s just not the same. These sites just aren’t designed as elegantly as Sherlock is, and they sure don’t have the speed. Sherlock has most of this information cached I think, and updates when you select the Movies channel. To find times with Google, you must know the specific movie you want to see. Sherlock lets me browse and pick a great movie out of every one available to me. In a nutshell, the design and ease-of-use beats the rest.
And this design isn’t going anywhere. Sherlock’s movie channel is probably years in age. Let’s look at Blockbuster’s as-of-yet unreleased, “new” Blockbuster Online design. Look familiar?
eBaying away, the Apple way
Dude, Sherlock owns when it comes to searching and tracking auctions on eBay. I use this thing constantly. I have never really looked at the competition for this, because I have never had any problems. I can’t imagine anything that could top Sherlock’s method of doing eBay as it’s just so much easier than going to eBay.com to look for items. eBay is pretty slow for me, everything just seems so “clunky”. Sherlock condenses each auction down to it’s plain text title so it can display so many more auctions, and when clicked you get all the photos and auction details just as you would in eBay.com. Sherlock can’t sell things on eBay though, for that you go to iSale.
Translating for homework
Dashboard had this feature from the beginning, but myself and plenty others found it to be so slow. I realize translating phrases is a complicated process, but it doesn’t take that long. Sherlock does exactly what the Dashboard clone does, but it does better, faster, and in my cases more accurately. Websites like Babel offer solutions for translation as well, but I have never found them as quickly accessible as good ole’ Sherlock.
Admittingly, this review doesn’t take into consideration the fact that with Sherlock’s age, there comes a lack of support. Anyone can make a Sherlock channel, and plenty of people used to. However, with the days of widgetry and RSS, there doesn’t seem to be much of a demand. Slowly over time I forsee Sherlock’s usefulness to me to decline, as the web evolves into 2.0, but until then Sherlock is a necessity for me as a Mac and internet user. It has helped me throughout the years with buying, learning, and enjoying life, and I desperately wish to see a Sherlock 4 in Mac OS 10.5. But I am more than ready, and expecting, to see Sherlock fade away with Classic support and IBM processors. So while you still can, bust Sherlock out and try it out.
