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Your favorite widgets!

OldCorpse

OldCorpse

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Dec 7, 2005
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OK, I haven't seen this done... if it has been, I apologize... but anyhow, maybe it's time for an update?

I'm trying to integrate Dashboard into my workflow, and so I've been looking at various widgets. Some folks claim that the whole dashboard concept is a bunch of hype and more of a toy and razzle-dazzle than something truly useful. I don't agree. I find it pretty useful... but that depends on the quality of the widgets, obviously.

For example, I frequently find myself looking for conversion between u.s. and european or metric and imperial etc. unfortunately, the Apple supplied widget is worthless... just recently I was trying to look how much 18 stone was in pounds... guess what, there is no entry for "stone"... that widget is very anemic. The Apple supplied stickies widget is disappointing too, I've switched to k-notes. The calculator is hopeless, I haven't found a good one, but one with tape and one you can use the keyboard to input numbers would be nice. And so on.

So, let's share our favorite widgets, may it be educational for all!
 
Pearlyrics (although illegal at the moment), just found a widget for album art today, have been using Fetchart. The BBC Radio widget used to be good until they cut out international listeners for English Premier League commentary.

The Update Widget is great too, it checks to see if there are any newer versions of the Widgets you have on several Widget sites.
 
the trashboard would be far more useful if it was faster. my main issues with it is speed. sometimes i will be working and then i will want ot get the calculator or dictionary up. i hit f12 and then i have to wait for a while for the widgets to all load and if i dont have the widget in my dashboard i will have to find it in the widget dock (that can also take a a few second to load). and by the time i grab the widget and put it into the trashboard i find out that i would have been better off just launching the dictionary or calculator form my dock.

but i do also have some fun in my dashboard,
i have got a itunes lyric widget
http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/music/singthatitune.html
a simpson quote generator
http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/movie_tv/simpsonbot.html
a sudoku game
http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/games/sudokuwidget.html
and a wikipedia one
http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/reference/wikipedia.html

i cannot suggest any decent calculator widgets because i have not really bothered to look for one. i doubt that a widget could replace the calculator application (partly because it the calculator widget sucks and partly because it difficult to get widgets onto your desktop and align them with the windows hat you are working with).

i suggest searching around on this website ( http://www.dashboardwidgets.com/showcase/showcat.php?cid=45 ) if you want to find a calculator widget
 
On my dashboard, I use the following widgets:

Weather - Displays temperature and weather conditions for the next 5 days.
Calendar - A calender, duh!
iCal Events - Displays my iCal events for the next few days.
Apple Logo - Just a nice touch for the center of my Dashboard.
Calculator - Um, yeah...
DoBeDo - A to-do list that syncs with my iCal to-do items.
2 Stickies - For storing miscellaneous text snippets.
miniFreeStorage - Displays my remaining hard drive space on each drive.
miniFreeRAM - Displays how much free RAM I have.
miniUptime - Displays how long my computer has been running.
miniCpuUsage - OK, I think you get the picture...
miniCpuHeat - Need I go on?
Gas - Displays the best gas prices in my area.
ESPN - Displays news snippets from ESPN.com.

I haven't experienced any of the slowness that bobx2001 has been having; everything in my Dashboard is super-speedy!
 
Oops, I forgot the Widget that is the king of my mantle piece is Steven Gerrard in the Liverpool FC Widget

LiverpoolFC_front.png
 
I personally am content with the widgets they supplied but along with a few extra I downloaded off of apple.com,

Weather- I just use it to quickly glance at the temperature in the morning before my runs
Calculator- Use it for calculating what my paycheck will be because of the ability to have 2+ calculators running
Stickies- Nice to have reminders of calling someone
This Day In History- I just use it to tell random facts to my dad, he seems to like it
Unit Converter- Only things ive used it for was from Euro to Dollar and Weight and distance converters
MWSF Countdown-...
Last but not least the AirPort Radar- Nice to see the strength of the signal and when driving (im not) I like to see where free WiFi is.
 
OldCorpse said:
The calculator is hopeless, I haven't found a good one, but one with tape and one you can use the keyboard to input numbers would be nice. And so on.
Click to expand...

Well, it doesn't have a tape feature (yet)... but you could give Calculon a try. It has a two line display, one of which shows the calculation you've entered - which comes in handy at times. :)

It does have a few "known issues" still, but I think it's a step above the Apple Calculator widget.
 
By far the best widget I have seen is miniStat2. Link

It is shareware, and it does cost $5, but I must say, it is well worth it. I used the free demo for several months, and finally decided it was time to pay... It is great. :)

It shows you everything from CPU usage, to processor temp, to fan speed, to network speed... EVERYTHING
And it does it with a OS X-like interface.

Plus it has nearly 15 skins that a guaranteed to match your Mac (probably).

You can even change the wallpaper. :)

Picture 1.pngPicture 3.pngPicture 2.png
 
No speed issues with the dashboard speed here either... of course, I have 1.5GB RAM, don't know if that has anything to do with it...

I run these:
weather (Apple supplied)
calculator (Apple supplied, not happy w/ it)
conversion widget (Apple supplied, not happy w/ it)
k-notes (stickies on steroids)
iClipLite
Gmail Inbox
Dictionary/Thesaurus (Apple supplied)
Countdown timer
Stopwatch
Apple Store Events
Macnify

Re: calculon... I like it, but I'd really like a tape feature...
The miniStat2 looks very nice :)
Update Widget - I'm so getting this one!!

Funny thing... how different places participate differently, not how you'd expect it... I'm learning French, so I thought - perfect, I'll get French language learning widgets... erm... no, you can't (or at least I can't locate any)... there are a ton of Learn Spanish, German, etc., but nope, no French. Gotta say, there are very few French widgets period. And France is a pretty Apple loving country (they have apple rumor websites with very active imaginations), so what gives... meanwhile, when you think Apple international, it's not like Portugal springs to mind first and foremost, yet there are a TON of Portuguese widgets... of course, German, Swedish etc., but so so few French (they have like a yellow/white pages, traffic and maybe one miserable radio widget). Oh well, the mystery of widget prevalence...
 
Only additions to above

Favourites
Weather, Mail Widget and BATTERY INFO

and not to mention Widget Update ;)

Additional Nice ones

Character pal
Calendar Clock
Uk Yellow Pages
 
wikipedia, google maps, flores - oldies, but still favorites

i also like:
BART - shows bay area bart schedules
iClip light - stores multiple text and image clippings for copying/pasting
widgetTerm - keeps a terminal window open on dashboard
calendarclock - shows upcoming birthdays on a 365 day calendar
elements - cuz you dont know when a periodic table might be useful...
 
systats, wikipedia, nasa, SetiStats.... i've lost count..... :p

just hoping someone would make an EinsteinStats variant..... anyone....? :D
 
Wikipedia and the Weather.... perfect for Dashboard.

I hate how people dismiss Dashboard. Even if you use just two widgets like I do, its worth it... saves me a lot of time. Not like Konfabulator where it clogs up your workspace IMO...Dashboard is out of the way... I go in, check what I need then im out again...

Also, it is only slow to run the first time you load it after a reboot, log in etc. After that its instantaneous on my iBook.
 
For those who like widget update; I found it wasn't really working properly (for me). Uncheck the option to "silently ignore errors." This way it will tell you if it isn't working properly (as it wasn't in my case - I think it only checked 5 out of 30 widgets - the rest it couldn't locate on a website)
 
Currently, I use:
- Weather
- simpsons quote generator
- CSS cheat sheet
- colourmod [converts Hex to RGB, and vice versa, though it consumes a lot of resources]
- calculator
- Dictionary [and thesaurus !] I end up using this widget the most. It even has a lot of encyclopedia entries in it, and has a large vocabulary as well.
- generic converter of measurements
- worldview [map of random country shows up each time, its interesting].

regards,
keyshawn
 
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