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Video: How to Get Widgets on Your Mac's Desktop
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who knows, they might bring it back in macOS 14 or 15 , and call it the new amazing dynamic widget , first of its kind
I kinda remember when the weather widget croaked... and that it wqs fortelling of what the "new" Apple under TC was going to be like.
My feeling too. I was doing something similar in Linux for years, at no cost.
I wish Apple would just let us see the current widgets without opening the side panel. At least make that an option. They are kinda useless in the current method. Maybe they will in the next macOS even, who knows.
I used to use Rainlendar in Windows back in the 2000s, Looks like that is available for MacOS with a 1-off EUR9.95 cost. It was a bit more work to set it up, but almost infinitely customisable if you put in the work.
www.rainlendar.net
Rainlendar
This required using an app like Tinkertool to enable developer mode for Dashboard.
But yeah, we had them and for free!
Because you have to open the side panel to see them. Not any faster or better than just using an app or webpage for them.
Interesting. Two finger swipe from the right edge of track pad is significantly faster for me than opening an app or webpage.
Back in the day we had Kornfabulator which was bought by Yahoo. It mostly got replaced by Apple’s Dashboard. I thought it was better as you could place the widgets directly on the desktop while dashboard required a separate window.
No, this did not — all you had to do was hold down either command or option and drag them out of dashboard.
Nobody was forced to use this feature though...
Does Übersicht no longer work with Ventura then? Admittedly it is not quite as user friendly, but if you want "always displayed on the desktop" widgets it is a free open source alternative that has been around many years. I always preferred that to Dashboard, jumping in and out of screens you may as well just have a Safari tab or app etc.
Between GeekTool, NerdTool, and Übersicht, adding such desktop widgets has been possible since Jaguar. Just a shame none of them were ever really completed and then all quietly abandoned. Even Übersicht has not been updated since 2019, though I think there is still some sort of activity around it.
Mind, GeekTool still works on Mojave, at least, despite its last update being in 2011. I use it now only to display a small always on top (of everything) clock in the bottom left corner of the screen.
Between GeekTool, NerdTool, and Übersicht, adding such desktop widgets has been possible since Jaguar. Just a shame none of them were ever really completed and then all quietly abandoned. Even Übersicht has not been updated since 2019, though I think there is still some sort of activity around it.
Mind, GeekTool still works on Mojave, at least, despite its last update being in 2011. I use it now only to display a small always on top (of everything) clock in the bottom left corner of the screen.
Now, tell us how easy and fast it is for all of us using a mouse ...
I'm for one am one of them who've been missing Dashboard dearly. Current side panel widgets aren't even coming close to being an adequate substitute.
I used to write little applets like that on a 68030. Those things used no power at all, unless they were coded by orangutans.
Dashboard was an old code base with javascript widgets and was a security nightmare. They were also running 24/7. The new widget framework is more secure and widget data is done by the OS to conserve power. It wouldn't work with the new widget framework built for iPhone and iPad so there would be no sharing of widget code between the platforms.
They could bring the iOS widget framework to Mac OS if it make any sense. I'm not sure where it should go. The desktop is always hidden and I don't want to have to hide everything else to see widgets. I could see a tray kind of interface where the widgets slide into view on demand.
I downloaded it because I don't have a problem with subscriptions and thought I'd find it helpful. It's not able to launch for me. I'm on a mac mini M1. I unarchived and put the whole folder inside the Application folder, tried launching the app and got no love.