Dashboard and Widgets, what are your favorites, for Mac OS 10.4 users

[patch29]

It has been asked what is a widget and what does it do.

Dashboard is home to widgets: mini-applications that let you perform common tasks and provide you with fast access to information.

Dashboard (http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/dashboard/)

Widgets for Downloading (http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/dashboard/)

What are your favorites so far?

We all know the smugmug one (when it is ready) will be a big hit. :thumb

[DavidTO]

There's also dashboardwidgets.com (http://www.dashboardwidgets.com/), a great source for widgety information.

[patch29]

Capture (http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/dashboard/capture.html) is one of my favorite so far.

About Capture
Powerful and dynamic screen capture widget.

Features include:
- Filetype options (JPEG, TIFF, PNG, JP2, PICT, BMP, QTIF, PSD),
- Customizable save destination,
- Scaling (10 to 100%)
- Take shots of your whole screen, selections or windows — with or without the Dashboard layer.



I have been using Grab, but I do not like that it is always a tiff, then you have to save and convert it, now Capture drops a jpg on my desktop and I upload it to my SM account. :thumb

[DavidTO]

Capture (http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/dashboard/capture.html) is one of my favorite so far.



I have been using Grab, but I do not like that it is always a tiff, then you have to save and convert it, now Capture drops a jpg on my desktop and I upload it to my SM account. :thumb


Cool!

I never had a problem with the OSX keystrokes for that...except that they're always pdf's. Nice to be able to set the filetype.

[patch29]

Does anyone know how much these widgets actually slow down a machine?

I looked at the activity monitor and besides when they are active, they don't use much CPU power (even when they are active), but they use some ram, not much, but mine are using a lot of virtual memory, around 200mb each. I don't know much about VM, but if it is being used by a widget will it slow my system down, a dual G5 I doubt it, but a PB 1ghtz running PS, should I shut down dashboard or reduce the active widgets to save some speed and performance for PS, just wondering what anyone knows. It does not seem to be slowing me down.

[patch29]

hold option, click "X" will close a widget

[{JT}]

AFAIK, widgets only take up system resources if they are visibly running, so not to worry. Plus - widgets are really just javascript and html, so overhead is pretty low. There are a few neat widgets I have come across, but my favorite is an app that lets you run widgets on your desktop outside of Dashboard; it is called Amnesty: http://www.mesadynamics.com/amnesty.htm

[patch29]

AFAIK, widgets only take up system resources if they are visibly running, so not to worry. Plus - widgets are really just javascript and html, so overhead is pretty low. There are a few neat widgets I have come across, but my favorite is an app that lets you run widgets on your desktop outside of Dashboard; it is called Amnesty: http://www.mesadynamics.com/amnesty.htm


I want a way to add dashboard to the regular apps, so I can apple+tab to it. I use liteswitch to do that and I hope they can add it in a new version.

Thanks for the heads up on system resource usage.

[DavidTO]

I want a way to add dashboard to the regular apps, so I can apple+tab to it. I use liteswitch to do that and I hope they can add it in a new version.

Thanks for the heads up on system resource usage.

You can do this via the terminal as well.


If you'd like one of your Dashboard widgets to be available all the time, instead of only when you have activated Dashboard via F12, then activate the Dashboard dvelopment mode. Open the Terminal and type defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES and press Return. Then logout and log back in again. Now debugging mode is activated. To get a widget off of the Dashboard and onto your desktop, just do the following:
Activate Dashboard by pressing F12 (or whatever key you've assigned to Dashboard).
Begin dragging the widget.
Press F12 again, before letting up on the mouse button.
Drop the widget wherever you want it.
You can do the same thing in reverse to drag the widget back onto the Dashboard. Also of interest: while a widget is frontmost, you can press Command-R to reload it. (This may be necessary if a widget is buggy and gets messed up somehow.) There's even a nifty Core Image-based twirl effect to accompany the reload.

[robg adds: This isn't really a hidden hack; it's the official way of working on a widget before it's done. However, I find it extremely useful -- there are certain widgets that you'd just rather see and use all the time, instead of only in Dashboard mode. Note that the widgets float above all windows, so this trick is most useful if you have some spare desktop space. To disable this mode, repeat the above command, but replace YES with NO, and then logout/login again. Note that you can also restart the Dock to make the changes take effect (the Dock controls the Dashboard).

[DavidTO]

You can also change the Widget Bar Background (http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050426093145147#comments).

[DavidTO]

I just want to say how cool it is that I can leave the Package Tracker widget open with my tracking number for my latest B&H order, and whenever I go to the dashboard, it updates. No more fumbling with webpages, copying and pasting the tracking code (aside from the one time). Very cool!

[{JT}]

Update time. The gallery widget is "almost" complete, but I am waiting on two things that I am not in charge of:

1) 10.4.1 to be released - Tiger has some rather large problems to fix. The largest being that Safari (and thus Dashboard) does not always work when using https.

2) Don to get the REST API to get out of beta :) I have the code working with both the old and the new REST API - but would rather release just once for testing.

Granted - I could release right now if I kept the javascript include server side. That would let me change the code as needed and there would be no need to push out new versions all the time. Not sure if that is where I want to go either though ...

I am getting some screenshots ready in case we have to wait a while on the above issues.

[DavidTO]

Update time. The gallery widget is "almost" complete, but I am waiting on two things that I am not in charge of:

1) 10.4.1 to be released - Tiger has some rather large problems to fix. The largest being that Safari (and thus Dashboard) does not always work when using https.


You can check that one off!

[Kalamata]

I've just installed 10.4, only hickup so far is the weather info shows my home city Perth, except its Perth North Dakota not Perth Western Australia :rofl

[patch29]

Here (http://www.dashboardwidgets.com/showcase/details.php?wid=499) is a widget for Craiglist junkies.

[DavidTO]

iCal Events (http://www.benkazez.com/icalevents.php)

[Andy]

I just want to say how cool it is that I can leave the Package Tracker widget open with my tracking number for my latest B&H order, and whenever I go to the dashboard, it updates. No more fumbling with webpages, copying and pasting the tracking code (aside from the one time). Very cool!


is there a computer fast enough that would handle this little app for me :rolleyes



:lol3 :lol3 :lol3

[devbobo]

is there a computer fast enough that would handle this little app for me :rolleyes



:lol3 :lol3 :lol3
someone needs to write an andybay widget for the flea market.

now that would need some processing power http://dgrin.com/images/smilies/icon10.gif

[patch29]

iClip lite (http://www.inventive.us/iCliplite/)

I just found this and it is very useful. How often do you need to copy a few items at once, here you go, this does it and very easily. :thumb

[patch29]

Here (http://www.dashboardwidgets.com/showcase/details.php?wid=626) is an interesting unit conversion widget, add a number, select type and it give multiple results.

[DavidTO]

iTunes 5 will store lyrics in the ID3 tag. This handy little widget will find the lyrics and place them in your iTunes when any song is played (that it can find the lyrics for). It's here (http://homepage.mac.com/walterritter/pearworks/pages/software.html).

I found this and some more information about how to automate this here (http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2005092011115).

[DavidTO]

OK, here is my all-time favorite widget:

4 Editions of Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies. (http://www.guyd2.com/widget/oblique/index.html)


This same guy also made a widget that looks like it might be handy to someone who knows what CSS stands for: SeeSS Widget (http://www.guyd2.com/widget/seess/index.html)

[{JT}]

This is pretty cool:
http://www.fuerstentum.net/Widget/index.html

[Andy]

This is pretty cool:
http://www.fuerstentum.net/Widget/index.html

heh someone else sent me that this morning, I installed it (I'm on 10.4 of Tiger) and it doesn't work

[DavidTO]

heh someone else sent me that this morning, I installed it (I'm on 10.4 of Tiger) and it doesn't work


And last time I downloaded it, it was a processor hog. Too bad, it sure would be cool to have hanging around.

[the brightline]

heh someone else sent me that this morning, I installed it (I'm on 10.4 of Tiger) and it doesn't work

Hi Andy~

It does work - just has a little "bug".

It appears to be frozen, but if you depress the Apple key + the "R" key it will refresh and you'll be able to enter data in all fields.

[Phil U.]

And last time I downloaded it, it was a processor hog. Too bad, it sure would be cool to have hanging around.

I had the same issue but I just downloaded the current version (1.4 according to the site) and don't see that anymore. Appears to be working just fine. Looks like there's some more sensor types in there also.

[Phil U.]

Here's one I've been using for a quite a while:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/18595