Push Notifications for everything: Boxcar

Earlier today, I wrote a post about two apps that send you a push notification whenever Growl triggers on your Mac. Over the next few hours, I was pounded with e-mails asking how I could possibly leave out Boxcar from the list. It wasn’t intentional. I had heard about Boxcar before, but it didn’t sound all that awesome at the time. After downloading the free universal binary from iTunes, I was pretty surprised at all that it can do.

Not only does it act as a Growl client, as I soon learned, but it works as a hub for pretty much everything on the web. Instead of using a different client for Google Voice, Facebook, and Gowalla, you can just plug in your information to Boxcar, and it handles everything for you. Pretty freakin’ sweet, eh?

In my mind, the best part of Boxcar is the ability to dynamically choose which URL or application the notification points to when pressed. When you get a Facebook notification, you can have it launch touch.facebook.com instead of the Boxcar app itself. It’s really great stuff, and it’s free in the app store. Instead of charging up front, they put in non-obtrusive ads on certain pages. It’s a great app, and I think that the advertising in it is well worth dealing with.

Thanks for telling me what a great app it is. Keep the great tips coming in the comments and via e-mail.

Grant is a writer from Delaware. In his spare time, Grant maintains a personal blog, hosts The Weekly Roar, hosts Quadcast, and writes for video games.