Ishan

Lacona - Fast, simple, powerful keyboard-driven commands for Mac

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Ryan Hoover
Spotlight in OS X should be doing this. Love how it supports complex queries like this:
Kitze
@rrhoover You're aware "My last instagram photo" is just a subject, not the actual photo right?
Ryan Hoover
@thekitze good catch. I actually missed that but technically this functionality could be supported. Lots of opportunities to integrate with 3rd party API's to do things like: "Order me an Uber at Home" "Deliver Philz Silken Splendor on Postmates to my Office" "Send my girlfriend flowers on BloomThat in the next few hours"
Kitze
@rrhoover Yeah but until Google Now or Siri does that, don't expect that this app will do it. (I think that the new Google Assistant will be able to do complex queries, but I'm not sure how complex).
Brandon Horst
@thekitze @rrhoover You're right - Instagram functionality isn't implemented yet - but it will be soon.
Kitze
@brandonhorst @rrhoover Cool, I wish you all the best. Can you tell me in which technology is the app built in? Are you maybe using Electron + React?
IoT Newcastle
Terrible name choice for Portuguese and Spanish speakers
Brandon Horst
@iotncl Could you explain why? I admit that I didn't do my homework here, but Google Translate isn't helping me out.
IoT Newcastle
@brandonhorst "la cona" means "the c*nt" in Portuguese and in Spanish la coña means "taking th p**s" Look it up in an online dictionary, Google translate can't handle things like these
Brandon Horst
@iotncl Ooh... that's pretty bad actually. I'm terribly sorry to the Portuguese speakers! Hopefully folks will be able to look past it - I'll make sure that the L is always capitalized in marketing materials.
Gonçalo Morais
@brandonhorst @iotncl I have to be honest, the name cracked me up because it’s just terrible. 😂 I know, my humour is childish.
Rodrigo de Almeida
@brandonhorst @iotncl Actually, we (Portuguese speakers) don't have articles starting with "l", as "la", "lo", etc... So, as a native Brazilian Portuguese speaker, I don't think Lacona is a bad name at all! (Also, "cona" isn't a word or slang in pt-BR).
Brandon Horst
Lacona is available now and improving quickly. Check it out!
Denis Dybsky
@brandonhorst it will be always for free or you plan to introduce some premium features? btw - Lacona is more powerful than Alfred. cool product!
Brandon Horst
@denis_dybsky I plan to introduce paid features soon, within the next few weeks. Though a version will always be available for free.
Calum Webb
@brandonhorst Any plans for PC :)?
Brandon Horst
@calum_webb Yes, but one step at a time. The hard parts are all written in JavaScript, so it's built to be ported. After full Mac release I'll start thinking about it.
Calum Webb
@brandonhorst Fantastic! Look forward to it :)
PJ Palomaki
Looks great, I wonder how it would run paired with dictation.. Is this something that could be built into Lacona, automatically turn dictation on when it's called? Or should I look into AppleScript / Automator solution.. ?
Brandon Horst
@pjburnhill I would love to see something like that, but I would want to make sure it's done right before it's baked in - and with the Siri API rumored for announcement next week, I'd want to see what's up with that. Right now it would be really easy to make an Applescript shortcut which basically presses ALT+Space and then enables dictation (though activating Lacona via Applescript will be available with the next version).
Jordan Van Hemert
@pjburnhill I was thinking the exact same thing. Since it uses natural language it would work really well paired with dictation. Would you mind letting me know if there is a AppleScript / Automator Solution available if you find one please? Thanks!
Mattan Ingram
I really love the smart text parsing here. My problem however is that I now have 4 different almost identical looking "launchers" like this: • Spotlight - Better data visualization and completely native to OSX, but not very extensible (doesn't work with Reminders for example). • Alfred - Incredibly powerful workflows, but fairly technical and awkward UI at times, almost everything is text based. • Cloudo - Allows me to search across my cloud web services in addition to my local computer, but doesn't do much else. • Lacona - Like Alfred but with better natural language parsing and integrations. I just want one that does it all!
Brandon Horst
@mattaningram I hope that once the Addons system is in place, it will be able to replace all 3 for you.
Stas Kulesh
@brandonhorst I got exactly the same setup as @mattaningram: Alfred + Cloudo + Spotlight. I'm also super keen to see Lacona plugins improving the workflow.
Haoyang Feng
Any plan to open source the app itself?
Brandon Horst
@haoyangnz No, I will be releasing a paid version in the near future. However, I built the app with OSS in mind, and two full frameworks and a bunch of libraries have come out of it. There is only a relatively small bit of "glue code" that is closed so I can earn some money the app. More info: https://docs.lacona.io/docs/appe... Lacona Labs on Github: https://github.com/laconalabs There is already at least two company building products directly using the Elliptical library that runs underneath Lacona: http://healthreactor.io/ https://mixmax.com/
Brandon Jones
Super interesting. Would like to see it incorporate a calculator...website hints that it will - hopefully it works as well as Alfred's.
Brandon Horst
@mbjones That is most common feature that I personally miss - it will be coming soon! https://github.com/laconalabs/La...
Thibaut Davoult
@brandonhorst @mbjones that's great news! I'd be very happy to give Lacona a try but I'm using the calculator on Alfred so often that it makes it impossible to switch until Lacona has it.
Brandon Horst
@thibautdavoult @mbjones I think a lot of people feel that way. Perhaps I'll bump it up a bit on the release plan :)
Joseph Humfrey
Looks like a good competitor for both Alfred and Fantastical that could do a lot more besides!
Brandon Horst
@joethephish Thank you!
Greg Gilbert
Would love to see @alfredapp releasing this kind of feature.
Brandon Horst
@gregoiregilbert @alfredapp The underlying NLP library is OSS (http://elliptical.laconalabs.com), so they could try it! It's somewhat at odds with the command-argument style of Alfred though. Both styles have pros and cons.
Pawel Janiak
this + voice detection would be the 💣
Brandon Horst
@cynicalgrinch You can *kind of* get it now with ALT+Space Fn Fn. I'm waiting on implementing this until we (hopefully) hear about a Siri API at WWDC.
Srini
When I read that headline, my brain immediately thought this was voice controlled! I tried barking a few orders at it and nothing happened :( @brandonhorst any plans to integrate voice commands? That would be so cool!
Brandon Horst
@srinira0 You can kind of emulate it by pressing ALT+Space Fn Fn. But in reality, in 90% of cases, working on your keyboard is faster when you're getting work done. Voice would definitely be cool - waiting to see if a Siri API is announced at WWDC before I make any commitments to that.
Anand Patel
Really nice, finally something to replace spotlight basic functionality. Was using Flashlight, but based on initial testing, this is a lot better. Are there plans to have a store or plugin manager for when developers start using the API?
Brandon Horst
@anand_patel18 Thanks! Addon manager is under development right now - should be out in a week or two. Pre-release access to the Development Environment is also available (http://docs.lacona.io/).
Louis de Vaumas
Nice ! Any plans to add new languages? Will be glad to help to translate in French :)
Brandon Horst
@louisdv Lacona is built to be translated, but unfortunately right now there is not a great developer process for doing so. This is a killer feature in my mind, and I want to make it possible ASAP. Follow the discussion here: https://github.com/laconalabs/La...
Abhi Bhatia
@brandonhorst played with the tool just now, seamlessly works like siri on steroids with no annoying voice. Great idea
Brandon Horst
@inductd_aus Everyone over-estimates the usefulness of voice interfaces. When you're getting work done, you're in the office, or a coffee shop, and you can't start talking to your computer. This is exactly why I'm skeptical about the "Siri for OSX" rumors. Glad you agree!
Hugo Fauquenoi
@brandonhorst super impressive man. I launched a Kanye track and that was a aha moment. So fast. Do you take service integration requests? I'd love to get Spotify and Todoist (with its date parser)!! Congrats on the launch!
Brandon Horst
@hfauq Spotify is *by far* the most requested feature, and I would LOVE to see it (just play any song ever by name, total killer app), but the implementation is a bit more difficult. Todoist is definitely a big one too. Those will come with the release of the Addon manager (soon!)
Hugo Fauquenoi
@brandonhorst I can definitely see why! Play any song, queue any song.. Playing music from Lacona is really mind blowing. Cool to hear, could you let me know when the Todoist integration is out? hugo(at)doist(dot)com 👏
Santiago Lozano
@hfauq @brandonhorst This might help a bit. Add Spotify to Search engines using this URL: https://play.spotify.com/search/... (And be sure to be logged in in your browser before using it)
Alvaro Flores
This is just what i want, i know the hype is using voice, but i prefer to write it, when you work with other people around or even if i'm alone, i feel pretty awkward talking to my computer
Leo Vogel
Interesting but I don't see the benefit to using this over Alfred. I'm hoping Apple announces a Siri + Spotlight combo for the Mac for which developers can create extensions.
Alana Panny
I like the idea opening a website or application by using natural language. Awesome :)
Matti Heubner
Whoa, this is amazing! :O
Bram Kanstein (@bramk)
Holy shit this is cool
Brandon Horst
@bramk Thank you!