Griffin Technology Inc. on Tuesday introduced Proxi, a new Mac OS X software utility that lets you create your own shortcuts, set up how Griffin peripherals interact with your system and more. A preview beta release is available for free download now; Griffin is expected to release the final version in May (it, too, will be free).
Not surprisingly, Proxi has been developed to leverage Griffin’s line of Macintosh hardware peripherals including the AirClick remote control, PowerMate rotary dial and Radio Shark FM radio interface. You can tell Proxi to make your PowerMate flash when new items are registered by your RSS reader, for example, or use AirClick to control Apple’s Front Row application.
But Proxi’s capabilities extend to users who don’t have Griffin peripherals, too. You can use Proxi to pop up a custom message when a buddy is online, or send an e-mail automatically when items are added to specific folders.
Proxi works with two core components — Triggers and Tasks. Triggers are events that initiate an action from Proxi, and Tasks are Proxi components that perform actions when triggered. This early beta release includes a number of pre-defined triggers, such as iChat monitoring, hot keys, Skype monitoring, voice recognition and more; defined tasks including running an application, controlling iTunes, opening a file or URL, displaying screen messages and much more.
Griffin has set up a Proxi support Wiki, a bulletin board and other information online to help Proxi users get started.
Proxi requires Mac OS X v10.4 or later and has been released as a Universal Binary, capable of running natively on PowerPC or Intel-based Macs.