MAC007  Not a bad application but needs a few things to make it even better.

1. The menu bar should be more centered over the uBar Apple menu so it looks like a regular menu.

2. There should be a way to add frequently used applications to uBar Apple menu. (e.g. calculator)

3. 'Show Quick Launch Items' button when pressed does nothing as does 'Show Start Menu Items' button. I presume this is something the developer is working on.

4. An easier way to widen task bar would be nice plus the ability to place task bar on top as well as bottom of screen.  
(Version 1.0.6)

MACSTERDAM  A very promising start. There's plenty room room for improvement, but I like where this is going. Keep up the good work.  
(Version 1.0.4)

EASER  I'm not unappreciative of the developer's efforts, but I think those who are interested should also check out Fantasktik.

http://search.macupdate.com/info.php/id/28378/fantasktik

From what I can tell, the latter does what uBar does, plus it has a lot of other features such as graphic previews of windows, resize capabilities, exclusion of applications, etc.  
(Version 1.0.4)

MRCHIPS  I've been watching uBar's progress over the last couple of weeks (since 1.0 came out). I must say I'm impressed with what this developer has been able to do in that short time. I've spent a little time talking with him and have great expectations for the future of this little gem of an app. I like the way it combines aspects of the dock and other third-party programs to provide an easy way to launch and access programs in whatever space they're in. The developer is eager and open to all suggestions for new features - and what he has planned already will make this a truly great tool.

For those who love the dock, fine. It is a reasonable way to implement program access. But uBar is another, and I think in some aspects superior, way. But to each their own...

Try it, you might just like it! ;-)  
(Version 1.0.3)

TINGTING  This is really nice. I'm not much of a dock fan. And in my Boot Camp windows I do enjoy the taskbar to see what is open and to switch easily. It's cool to have it as a possibility on a mac. I'd like options for colors, transparency, and size in the future. But even as it is I think the look, size, and function is still excellent.  
(Version 1.0.3)

ITISTODAY  It's definitely improving. Now clicking on an app in the uBar seems equivalent to clicking on it in the Dock.

Oddly enough, although it does seem like the preference pane is compiled for 64-bit, it still causes System Preferences to relaunch and load in 32-bit mode. Why this happens I'm not sure, but I would advise the developer to test the app on Snow Leopard.

Still buggy: the app still checks for updates when the update check is turned off. I also noticed is that right-clicking on an app and adding it to the quicklaunch doesn't work.

I think this is a great opportunity to improve upon the Windows taskbar and create a Mac-specific task bar. So one feature idea would be to add a sorting option, so that the user can have the apps in the uBar sorted alphabetically or in a manual order. The reason for this is to pull in one of the Dock's strengths, and that is rote-memory, i.e. what's great about the Dock is that the positions of the applications are always the same, you don't have to spend time looking for where the app happened to launch.

There are also some things that could be taken away: there's no need for the time, that could be used to make room for more apps. The time is already displayed on every mac in the standard location in the menubar. The Start menu is another area that could use some thought as it reproduces many functionalities that are already easily accessible elsewhere. I.e. the shutdown/restart options are available in the Apple menu, and the applications are quickly and more easily accessed by searching for them in Spotlight. Then again, this may perhaps lend itself to simply allowing Windows users to remain in their comfort zone, and that might be an appealing feature for some users of this program.

I think the developer would be wise to ignore the hostility that he is sure to receive by making such a program, as there are many zealots out there who hate it on principle and do not seem to fathom that this software could have a legitimate purpose. While it's obviously useful for grandparents who grew up on windows, it also has some appealing notions to someone like me, who has been raised on Macs his entire life. I for one always have the Dock set to hide because it takes up so much screen real estate. Sure, I could shrink it down to the size of uBar, but then it would be almost laughably useless as the icons would be too small to serve any value.

Kudos to the developer, you're thinking different. ;-)  
(Version 1.0.2)

ITISTODAY  Yay! I'm happy to see Spaces support, and the new transparent look is quite nice, and the window support! :-)

However, "beta", as COUNTPOLLEN mentioned, might be a better designation for this software. On first launch I immediately got "an exception of class NilObjectException was not handled. The application must shut down."

Turning off the status bar and back on didn't fix it, I had to quit and re-run System Preferences.

Another issue is that it's not 64-bit, and because of that System Preferences must quit and relaunch, which is can be annoying.

Also, while "Automatically check on startup" is unchecked by default, it still checks for updates, toggling it and relaunching doesn't seem to help.

There's also a new feature to immediately hide all but the current application, but it doesn't toggle (i.e. clicking it again doesn't unhide all of your apps, you have to manually click on each one of them). Speaking of hiding, that still seems to be the only thing it does when you click on an app, it doesn't bring it to the front. This can be done with an apple script (tell application "name" activate end tell).

So, neat improvements, but needs a whole lot more work! Still interesting though, and am happy to see it developing so fast.  
(Version 1.0.1)

COUNTPOLLEN  Mac OS Dock is one of the easiest aspects of OS X that one could learn.

While this application (uBar) is a nice proof of concept I thoroughly dislike the idea.

For an application I've never even seen a beta of, I think the $15 price is steep, especially because it doesn't offer everything the built-in Dock has to offer. This is most certainly true after the recent Snow Leopard upgrade.

And come on, why would a mac user want to have that totally pointless "Start" button.

To shut down the computer?

On the other hand, if this application would go in beta with added functionality, it could bring some interesting additions to the Dock.  
(Version 1.0.1)

ITISTODAY  Wow.... This is indeed interesting. I personally would never use this but I'm happy to see someone's giving this a shot.

I won't review this right now since it's the first version (if I was I'd give it 3 stars). There are several problems that I noticed in the first minute of use:

- The check for updates cannot be disabled as it can in most mac apps.

- Does not support Spaces (this is a significant problem).

- Instead of bringing apps to the front it hides/unhides them. This means that unlike the Dock, apps will not bring up their main window when you click on them in the task bar.

- Doesn't show the windows that belong to an app (i.e. when you right-click)

To be honest, this doesn't even reproduce the behavior of the task bar either. It's really a sort-of broken Dock at the moment, but I'll continue to keep an eye on this to see how it develops.  
(Version 1.0)

SESQUIPEDALIAN  This application's description makes it clear that the developer's target market is recent switchers who are simply used to the task bar. I advise such people to wait a week or two before buying this app.

Most people I know find that the Dock is a much nicer system than the cluttered row of buttons of the Windows task bar. That's why clones of the Mac OS X Dock have existed for years on Windows (e.g. http://www.stardock.com/products/objectdock), whereas this is the first time anyone has ever bothered to clone the task bar onto Mac OS X.

Of course, it's a wide world, and somewhere there is someone using a Mac who genuinely likes the Windows task bar. But in my experience, people switching from Windows to a Mac usually end up preferring the Dock, which is free rather than costing $15.  
(Version 1.0)