Have you ever written this in a forum, addressed to a software developer: “I have $50 here which I’ll totally give you if you make this app”? No, of course not, because that would make you a thoughtless individual — we all know that software costs way more than that to develop.
Take NumLock, for example. It’s exactly the kind of app that forum-begging is made for. It turns back on the num-lock that Apple removed from its keyboards for seemingly no reason other than the aesthetic. How much would you promise a developer that you’d “totally pay” for an app to re-enable the number keypad? Well, now you can put that money where your, uh, keyboard is, and pitch in to DenVog’s cheap-as-chips Kickstarter campaign.
The minimum pledge is just one measly dollar, and the app itself will be free if and when it launches. The money is just to pay for DenVog’s time and resources. The app itself sits in the menu bar and can be toggled either with a mouse click or a hot key (use Fn-F6 for some nostalgic accuracy).
In truth, DenVog’s price goal of $500 is ridiculously low, even considering a year’s worth of download costs and so on. Still, he’s offering, so go ahead and do some taking.
Source: DenVog
Charlie Sorrel writes reviews and how-tos. Follow Charlie on Twitter at @mistercharlie, and at micro.blog on @mistercharlie
5 responses to “NumLock Utility Brings Number Lock Key Back To The Mac”
So, why would I want a num-lock key or simulacrum of same?
NumLock is for people that don’t have an extended keyboard with dedicated physical number pad keys. It lets your letter keys emulate the number pad, so you can touch type numbers with one hand. Particularly useful if you input a lot of number (e.g. spreadsheets).
Just backed it. Looks like a great tweak but the pitch video alone was worth the price of admission.
Thanks Daniel. I appreciate the kind words. :)
This is quite possibly the silliest thing I’ve seen in ages. Not only is this a super tiny app to make, already having made it and then holding it hostage on Kickstarter is not cool at all. And the reasons for the funding makes very little sense. Making the video, the webpage and the kickstarter probably took a whole lot longer than making the actual app.
I recreated this yesterday and uploaded it to GitHub. It’s available here for anyone that wants it: https://github.com/cstromme/NumLock
All that is missing now is an app icon.