If you happen to be a Mac user that’s suffering from the organizational condition known as “cluttered desktop” then boy, is this the app for you. If you happen to be a Mac user that has an insatiable lust for eye-candy, then boy, is this the app for you.

I’ve seen this before on Windows, and on the Mac it’s just as mind-blowing. BumpTop is the desktop reinvented, so they say; in a nutshell, BumpTop transforms your desktop to make it more like an actual desktop, 3D et al. Aside from the “floor”, which would be the traditional “desktop” portion of BumpTop, there are four additional walls. Icons can be tossed around like real objects, pinned onto the walls, or even stacked on one another. Icons can be piled according to type, and you can enlarge (or shrink) icons based on their relative importance. BumpTop isn’t just eye-candy: it serves purpose in both uncluttering your desktop and increasing your productivity. Watch the screencast below to get the gist of what I’m talking about.

After testing BumpTop for the past few hours, I think it has some great potential in changing the way you do your desktop computing. As mentioned in the video, BumpTop completely eradicates the need for folders, and finding things couldn’t be easier with the desktop-wide spotlight-esque search. Quick Look is seamless and it even supports multitouch gestures. Double-clicking on any wall will focus in on it with a 90-degree view angle. Why would you need to do that, you ask? There is one more feature BumpTop has that isn’t mentioned in the screencast.

Notes are a clear winner here, truly completing the BumpTop productivity package. They are like dashboard stickies, but unintrusively integrated into the desktop. Another benefit is that the walls can give your stickies context, such as putting reminders on the sides and to-dos in the front, for example.

All in all, BumpTop is good to go as it is, though there are a few things that I believe need to be ironed out. For one, growing and shrinking icons using the trackpad gesture isn’t as smooth as zooming in Finder. It zooms in increments, just like clicking on the buttons would. Secondly, BumpTop doesn’t use an icon’s larger version when you grow it. Instead, it will scale the smaller icon and leave it slightly blurry. It isn’t very noticeable, but since Snow Leopard supports icons that go up to 512 x 512 pixels, it only seems natural to use the larger ones.

As for the future of BumpTop? The app is currently in a private beta and they are open to feedback, so here goes: First of all, finding something is as easy as typing it on the desktop, but it would be great if you had a choice of what to do with it. Like a simplified version of Quicksilver, for instance. Secondly, I think it would be just awesome if BumpTop were able to display other widgets besides sticky notes, such as a calendar. That way you’d be able to view your iCal events right on the desktop. It looks like the Windows version already has photo feed, Twitter, and Facebook widgets, so I expect that it’s only a matter of time before this is implemented in the Mac version. An API for third-party plugins might not be a hot idea, but I’d like to throw it out there as well. And lastly, I wish there was a way that would facilitate designers to easily create more themes. The default gets boring fast, and the theme repository looks like it could use more themes than the handful it has right now.

Be sure to check it out BumpTop—I for one was definitely floored. The pro version with unlimited stickies, search, and multitouch costs $29, and the free version can be downloaded here. BumpTop offers an intuitive, easy to learn interface that’s as practical as it is beautiful.

Check out a few more screenshots below.

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Whomever first said the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” never took font into account. There are literally thousands of fonts in existence, spreading over a multitude of typefaces and alphabets—it’s no debate that typography should be considered an art form in it’s own right, and many graphics designers and typographers would agree. The folks at I Love Typography seem to think so; they’ve created an iPhone game that’s aimed to sharpen our font know-how.

And it even includes Comic Sans! Don't let this stop you from purchasing this app.

The Font Game [$0.99] is a straightforward game of multiple choice where the player is given font samples and is quizzed on their ability to correctly identify them. A total of 30 questions are asked, your score is tallied and your results are given to you at the end. Simple enough, right? Well despite the simplistic gameplay, The Font Game’s library of 657 font samples is sure to challenge even the most seasoned of graphic designers. In fact, the three levels of difficulty are aptly named: Somewhat Difficult, Rather Difficult, and Exceedingly Difficult.

Once finished you can optionally tweet your score or send it to the scoreboard—The Font Game is timed so that the Hall of Fame is headed with the highest scores in the quickest times. If you’re really good there’s even a WordPress plugin to display your score on your blog.

The best part about TFG is that it shows you the correct answers at the end in a convenient list; I’ve found this to be especially useful for learning about fonts that I would have otherwise never heard of. And English typefaces aren’t all there is: I’ve stumbled across Symbol (Wingdings!) and Japanese typefaces as well. This elegantly designed game also sports a landscape mode, though you can’t make your answer selections in it, unfortunately. Hopefully this will be added later in an update.

For $0.99 this game definitely lives up to its price and I would recommend it to any self-respecting graphic designer out there. You can see a few screenshots from the app in the gallery below.

[iTunes link]

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The reviews have been trickling in, most of them quite positive. There’s one thing that pretty much everyone agrees on: Snow Leopard’s price point makes it an easy, obvious upgrade. Read what they have to say about Snow Leopard below:

• Ars Technica – John Siracusa “This time around, Apple goes light on the glitz in favor of some heavy work under the hood.”
• Associated Press – Peter Svensson “Snow Leopard will likely be a no-brainer upgrade, given the low price”
• Chicago Sun Times – Andy Ihnatko “A speedy no-brainer upgrade”
• CNET – Jason Parker “With a ton of technological improvements, Snow Leopard is worth the $29 upgrade fee”
• Computerworld – Michael DeAgonia “Apple’s Snow Leopard opens door to a fab future”
  
• Engadget – Joshua Topolski “If you’re a Leopard user you have virtually no reason to skip over 10.6“
• Gizmodo - Brian Lam “Lightened and enlightened”
• InfoWorld – Tom Yager “Perfection, refined”
• MacFixIt – Topher Kessler “As far as my recommendation goes, I’d say go for it and install the new OS”
• Macworld – Jason Snell “Mac OS X 10.6 upgrade adds Exchange support and a host of tweaks”
• New York Times – David Pogue “Apple’s sleek upgrade”
• PC World – Randall C. Kennedy “Snow Leopard is a pale imitation of Windows 7″
• SlashGear – Vincent Nguyen “At $29 it’s frankly a no-brain decision for OS X Leopard users”
• The Apple Blog – Darrell Etherington “a nice collection of system refinements and improvements”
• USA Today – Edward C. Baig “Many of Snow Leopard’s refinements are subtle”
• Wall Street Journal – Walt Mossberg “Apple changes Leopard’s spots”
• Wired – Brian X. Chen “the $30 price is more than fair for the number of performance improvements Snow Leopard delivers”

Did I miss any? If you want your review on this list, leave a comment with the web address and I’ll add it as quickly as I can.

Related posts:

1. Snow Leopard available on August 28th
2. Snow Leopard wallpaper