Tembo

2.5.1

2.5.1

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In the screenshot Tembo is being used to search for "Houdah," a competing app from the same developer.

Apparently even Tembo is looking for a better search tool. :-)

This product is intended to simplify searching for documents. DataLore, the product that I have used for a couple of years has proved easy to use and reliable. It was only the superior results interface that convinced me to buy Tembo. After using it for a few hours it has proved to be unreliable. It fails to find files that I know are there, and that DataLore detects without hassle. Searchlight also finds the files, so there is a problem with this product. Until this issue is fixed, don't waste your money.

Am I correct in understanding that it don't find system items? I have Preferences enabled but it does not find system or library items under Mavericks...

An excellent search program that finds anything anywhere, even in hidden system files and the hidden files and folder themselves, which with Apple is a very good trick. And it's quite fast.

Tembo is an admirable effort to create an easy-to-use search tool. Unfortunately, I find that at this stage the lack of options to filter results means that it is too limited for me to use effectively. For instance: There is no option to exclude certain folders from search results. I have three different mail applications on my Mac, and messages from the two non-Mail apps show up in documents. I would like to be able to exclude these folders, ideally on a filetype basis, but even excluding them globally would be an improvement. The same problem occurs with several other folders, such as 1Password's and Evernote's caches, and even my MobileSync folder. The result is that my search results are usually cluttered with lots of unwanted files. There is no option to exclude specific filetypes from search results. Although you can sort by filetype when you expand a particular section, unwanted filetypes are never excluded and continue to clutter up the display of results. It would be really nice to be able to right-click a file or folder in the search results and choose "exclude all files of this type from search results" or "exclude this folder." There is no ability to sort results in the main window by anything other than date. Options to sort by name, filetype and size would be useful. There is no ability to limit the search to specific folders. In the sidebar, the only options are the user's home folder, all local volumes, or remote volumes. It would be useful to be able to specify a folder, or even better, set up a bunch of favourites.

While I was still able to download this app from Mac Update, it would, of course, not run on my OS X 10.6.5 system. I spent this evening reverting to 10.6.5 from 10.6.6 because of serious performance issues with this update. By tying itself to the latest, buggy version of OS X, the Tembo developer may be painting himself into a corner. Besides being able to sell his app through the Mac App Store, what advantage is there to limiting compatibility to a version of the OS that most people don't yet use? I think he, like many other developers, may have been overcome with enthusiasm for the MAS, sacrificing common sense in the process.

Beware, for now the vendor has stated that he intends to exclusively sell this application only through Apple's new store. That means that the vendor will constantly have to weigh whether new or novel features will stand muster with Apple's approval process. It means that if Apple, for any reason at all, decides it doesn't like a feature of the software (it could be confused with Spotlight!), they can demand the vendor change it or be banned. Finally (if that isn't enough), if the vendor needs to urgently distribute an update with a fix to an inadvertently incorporated bug, it may take several weeks for the update to be approved into the store and become available to you.

Tembo is excellent. I will use it all the time. Fast and efficient. I would like to be able to option+space click pdf into full screen however, like spotlight. I eagerly await the out of beta version. Thanks developers - a really good useful one here.

Simple and intuitive interface but there has to be many more options added for it to be worth $30. That is a lot of money for a super simple interface that searches your hard drive like a pretty front end to a finder smart search. HoudahSoft makes good software so I hope to see more out of this app in the near future but as it stands considering the features and interface vs. price there is no way I could justify purchasing Tembo. Worth the small download to try it out imo, quick little app.