My Mac tells me that I can leave behind my rain - soak Bay Area base and manoeuvre to San Diego for a one - mode fare of $ 44 . Or I could jet off to Detroit for $ 104 . Or I could beat a way for Harlingen , Texas , for a pittance .
My Mac is getting this entropy fromDing , the Southwest Airlines airfare - trailing practical software that added Mac compatibility Monday . Ding sit on your screen background or in your Dock , wait news from Southwest of any fare pot . When the airline broadcast out such a content , the program notifies with you a gouge or with an envelope ikon in the Dock , not unlike the sort of visual cue you ’d get from an e - ring armor client .
Ding has been available to Windows users for a little more than a year — something I remark at the meter with considerable irritation . And apparently , I was n’t the only Mac user smell run aground at the gate by Southwest . “ My hubby is an esurient Mac user , ” said Anne Murray , the airline business ’s elderly managing director of Internet marketing . “ So how would you care to have been me for the retiring year ? ”
I ’ve had a chance to play around with Ding since Southwest give me a preview of the practical software last week — publicly whining about a lack of Mac financial support has its reinforcement , I guess — and I wish what I see so far . I ’ve already gotten a spate of fare updates , but not so many that I palpate like I ’m being besieged with data . For such a tiny app , Ding declare oneself the sort of customizability Mac users would have a bun in the oven — while the program automatically launches at log - in , for example , you’re able to disable that characteristic by control condition - clicking on the Dock image , just as you would with any Mac app . Want to disable that dinging audio presentment ? A menu option lets you do just that . ( And for good reason , too : Greg Norz , Southwest ’s fourth-year Mac engineer , tells me that when he was testing Ding , he had the software flow on several twelve mac . conceive of the cumulative din created by 70 to 80 Macs simultaneously dinging every 30 seconds or so , and you’re able to imagine why the power to turn the audio cue on and off might be considered a full of life feature . )
evidently , what Ding delivers is not on the nose life - altering information . But it for sure is convenient . My married woman ’s friends and relations experience in the Washington , D.C. , area , necessitating the occasional misstep back east . Airfares can die hard us as much as $ 400 or so per person — or as little as $ 200 and change if we ’re lucky enough to hit across an on-line fare sale . What Ding does is deliver that entropy directly to my desktop , saving me the time and trouble of have to scour the web for airfare sale .
There ’s a greater significance to Ding apart from the possibility of me winging between Oakland andBWIfor a fraction of what I ’m used to bear . When Ding made its Windows debut last year , we had a situation most Mac users are all - too - familiar with : A company arrive out with some window - only computer software and is non - committal when it comes to the question of Mac support . “ conform the Ding software to Mac is on our list of possible enhancement for the future , ” was what I was told a year ago , and forgive me if I found that choice in language less than encouraging .
Yet , here we are a year afterwards , with a Mac variation of Ding after all . I ’m not certain what prompted that turn of issue — pressure from Murray ’s husband , my public kvetching , or just an outpouring of feedback from Mac users — but whatever the reason , it convince Southwest that it was deserving putting time and resources into add together Mac compatibility . A major potbelly decides that Mac substance abuser are a worthwhile section of its client base — I do n’t see how that ca n’t be considered positive news program , and the optimist in me hopes that other companies follow cause with their online efforts .
And if not , well , I wo n’t be shy about putting my major power of public kvetching to utilise once more . I promise to only habituate my powers for good and not evil .
