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Paul D Posted…

You know, that was my thinking before I upgraded. But now that I've used Dashboard, I like it. I actually keep a few widgets open because it's so much quicker to get the weather (for example) by clicking a mouse button (hotkeyed to Dashboard) than to go look up a bookmark.

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Chris Lienert Posted…

Even as someone who's currently developing a widget, I do wonder what the point is. Worse still is that some widgets (such as weather) are either unavailable or horribly inaccurate with the information provided thanks to US centric design.

From a programming perspective, it's not the most pleasant environment. Apple recommend using Safari to create widgets however the basic Widget object isn't in Safari. Obviously Amnesty helps here, but it's hardly ideal.

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Philippe Posted…

I guess Apple needed some kitsch things to appeal to the masses. As soon as I upgrade to Tiger, I'll probably look for a way to disable those toys. The 'weather forecast, one click away on your desktop' is definitively not my idea of usefull.

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Andy Hume Posted…

I think more people probably agree with you than you think.

I use OS X 8-9 hours everyday and I have never opened dashboard to do anyting other than mutter, "so what's all the fuss about these widget things then?"

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Derek Posted…

I love 'em myself. There are lots more useful things than the weather widget. That's an easy one to pick on if you are being high and mighty, but there are quite a few more useful than that. For instance I recently ordered some RAM, and put the tracking number in the Package Tracking widget. I could easily check on the status of my package with one click, rather than having to go to the UPS or Google site and copy/paste the number every time. It even glowed when the package was out for delivery.

I use the iCal widget to have a little desktop calendar showing all of my upcoming iCal events for the next two weeks.

I use the Bloglines widget to check how many unread items I have in Bloglines without having to login to the web site for nothing.

I can use the yellowpages book to look up an address and phone number for a company, then with one click I can display their phone number really large on the screen. Or I can get directions to their location. Or I can add that address and phone number to my address book with one click.

To me the value is much the same value as RSS. I can be constantly updated on a lot of different things without having to check on a lot of different things. And with Widgets you can see all of that information at once. Instead of going to weather.com, then UPS.com, then check iCal, then login to Bloglines, etc.; I just press a button on my mouse and see all of that information in one place, at the same time.

Not to mention you don't have to deal with 15 different interfaces on all the different sites, look at all the advertisements, etc. It's just the information you need, quickly and easily.

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Andrew Posted…

I can understand your irritation. Most of the widgets' creators don't seem to understand that simply hacking a piece of functionality out of a webpage is not justification for making a widget. And how many damn RSS reading widgets are there going to be, anyway? Christ, who needs a "My Yahoo" widget or countdown timer to the release of the XBox2?

For me, the really valuable ones are the ones like Package Tracker and Weather which use RSS information that's otherwise poorly handled by my regular RSS reader. Take package tracking: I don't need to "subscribe" to a "feed" in my newsreader to track a package. That interaction just makes no sense. When the package is delivered, I have to remember to unsubscribe, it pointlessly keeps all the previous entries when all I care about is the current state of the package (is it in my town yet?). The Package Tracker reduces this to just what's needed. Weather is nice because it actually visualizes information, rather than just dumping text into my newsreader.

LadyCrypt is a time-saver. Dash.licio.us widget is also quite useful: any page that's open in the browser is already pre-loaded into the widget's fields when I F12 into DBD. That's convenient. I'm impressed by the WikityWidget which uses its own embedded SQLlite database, but it's turned out to be too small and akward for me to use regularly.

I'm just so dissappointed at the level of creativity of widget creators. Other than the two or three widgets made by Stephan.com, where's the cleverness? Where are the weird ambient information visualizations? Where are the truly personalized widgets? (Obligatory vanity link to my own attempt at an unusual widget: a visualization of your Trash.)

Submissions to the Widgets Showcase section of Apple.com have slowed dramatically. Unless people are busy working on some killer widgets that take a long time to develop--which I doubt--I think we'll see interest in these things drop off pretty quick. Unless Apple finds a way to invigorate development, this time next year we'll still be looking at the same useless stuff we have today.

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Chris Posted…

Nate, I would have to agree with you. At first they are a nice novelty but the excitement soon fades.

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Nate Posted…

I do sometimes have dashboard running, and when I do, I find having multiple clocks running useful (for different time-zones), and also iLorem is a pretty convenient greeking tool.

I guess the idea is that folks without (or with) the fu to make desktop apps, can make these mini-aps with (mostly) web skills. But when a widget is more like an application, isn't it better to have as an application? I completely agree with Andrew about the visualization of information - this is where widgets could really shine, and perhaps it's just a matter of gaining some momentum.

I also agree with Derek to a degree, there's an inherent connivence with web based info, but also lots of real-world inconveniences such as banner ads and other junk that takes bandwidth/time.

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Kim C. Posted…

My first reaction was the same as yours. Then I discovered that I could kill all but the ones I want: Time clock 'cause I can never remember what time it is in California or Chicago, Bloglines notifier (jury's still out on that one), and Wikipedia search. Then it's just a quick press of the F12 key to pull those up.

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Karl Swedberg Posted…

I think I'd find it more useful if I could see some of these widgets on the desktop itself. When they're hidden away, I too easily forget that they're there.

The MacOSXHints site has a tip for putting the Dashboard in development mode, which allows widgets to float above all other apps. This would only be useful, though, for people with a lot of screen real estate to spare. Haven't tried it yet, but it looks promising.

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John Posted…

I like that I can get traffic, weather and make a quick post to my blog all at once with out having to vist three sites and wait for the pages to load.

I could write my own web page to do that but why? Of course I can always look out the window for the weather.

Most of them are not useful to me.

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Jeff Wheeler Posted…

I actually agree with you. I'm on a Mini, and when I open Dashboard, all Widgets are usually empty of any data, and I have to wait quite some time for the widgets to load. I prefer opening up another tab instead.

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Feaverish Posted…

You obviously haven't tried the Minesweeper Widget.

There are only a few widgets I find useful: Panic's Transmit Widget, which lets you drag-and-drop files on it and have them automatically uploaded to a chosen directory. Code Line's Typecast Widget is also pretty neat, letting you preview fonts without having to switch to Suitcase or FontAgent Pro. And yesterday Inventive released the free iClip lite Widget. Anything you copy to the Clipboard can be stored in the iClip widget indefinitely and easily pasted wherever you want.

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Nate Posted…

Oh man, iClip lite is really cool, and very useful. Definitely makes the counter-point.

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Jamison Posted…

Dashboard, along with some other user interface changes, has me seriously worried about the future of the Mac interface, and I'm shocked that users are so enamored of it that they haven't noticed that Apple has taken away other features in Tiger (such as the shortcuts in the System Preferences toolbar, or the sidebar in mail can no longer be moved to the right side of the window, never mind that mail now looks incredibly ugly).

Someone I know who works at an Apple Store was trying to convince me to upgrade because of Dashboard, pointing out that I could control iTunes from it. I demonstrated using Panther how there already was an iTunes control (iTunes itself, zoomed small) which had several advantages over the Dashboard controller in that it 1) didn't require you to leave the desktop to use it (either by having it in a clutter free corner of the desktop, or with Expose) and 2) that without even leaving the application you are using you could switch to another song or pause it (the zoomed out iTunes window allows click through to the control buttons without switching iTunes to the foreground).

I think the same is true of nearly any other Dashboard widget, and the Apple of just a few years ago would have solved the real problem of "how do I get at not-so-often used applications easily?" and not just made something glossy with useless animation effects.

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Paul D Posted…

I think Derek above put his finger on the value of Dashboard. It's like RSS for all kinds of information (including RSS if you want it). Instead of having to open a dozen web sites or applications you need, the data you'd like to see at a glance is aggregated and available in the Dashboard layer.

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Derek Posted…

Jamison, not all Mac users are interface aficionados. I don't miss being able to move the sidebar to the right at all. That's where I had it in the previous Mail, but it didn't even cross my mind that you can't do it anymore until you mentioned it. And I don't think it looks ugly either. It's just a personal opinion. The new Smart Folders are amazing, as are some of the other new features in Mail.

Tiger has some great new features, no matter how you look at it, unless you're just trying to be difficult and point out everything wrong in it.

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Nate Posted…

Derek, I was thinking about this too, why did I choose to pick on dashboard? It's not like I can't turn the app off and ignore it. Then I realized, the critiques we've seen for Tiger, from mail.app buttons, to less than useful widgets... they are all reflections of how well refined OS X really is.

Little comments about MS Windows, they wouldn't be noteworthy - like spitting in the ocean. So overall, I think all the chatter about Tiger is really flattery in disguise for maybe the best operating system money can buy.

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matthew Sanderson Posted…

i don't think dashboard is so bad as suggested. i have mine set up so when i move my mouse into the corner of my screen, up comes dashboard. i can't think of a quicker, easier way (not a single click of the mouse) to get access to my calculator, translator, notes, various search tools etc - these tools cannot be found in my browser without at least a few clicks of the mouse. also, to open all of these tools individually in the finder would take much longer than just moving the mouse into the corner of the screen. though i must admit, many of the widgets being released couldn't really be deemed 'useful' but i do use a calculator, translator and seach tools regularly. hopefully in the future more genuinly useful tools will appear.

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The S Posted…

Damn skippy those freaking widgets suck. They are not resizeable and have very little customization options. They just take up precious memory.

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haugen haus Posted…

so it seems to me that apple should have just improved sherlock, every aspect of dashbord is duplicated in sherlock. sure, you'll say that the coding and languages used to creat them are completely different, but who cares the usefulness is the same. and wouldn't you just have i all consolidated into one window than all over the place, i mean have you seen a widget that even considers fitt's law. point is it's popular, and yes people do want it, and it's here to stay. i just hope this doesn't mean that development of more sensible applications that handle the same info won't cease. by the way, did apple drop sherlock?

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VaguelyArtistic Posted…

Widgets were fun to play with at first, but after the initial excitement wore off I found myself resorting to my old habit of using my browser to accomplish most of the widget tasks. I tried assigning it a hot-spot, but found myself bringing it up by accident too often. With the hot-spot turned off, I rarely remember to use it. I would love to see a spell-checker widget, unless there is an easier way to spell-check posts (like this one, for example.)

The one widget I thought would be helpful is Fligit (flickr uploader), but it's quicker to drag an image to the Flickr Uploadr icon I have visible in the top right corner of my desktop instead of first activating the dashboard to get to the Fligit widget. Unless I'm missing something obvious, of course!

It's still fun to see the new widgets that come out, though :)

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Eric Walkingshaw Posted…

Vaguely Artistic:

If you're using Safari, control-click in a text box and choose "Spelling->Check Spelling as You Type".

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ChubbyBat Posted…

You're right. Dashboard is the Emperor's New Clothes of Tiger. Just look at the relieved flood of comments - all it needed was one person to admit that they thought it was bollocks and the floodgates open.

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Vaguely Artistic Posted…

Thanks, Eric. I tried it and it's exactly what I needed, but I'm still so attached to Firefox (especially Greasemonky and the flckr scripts. At least now I know to use Safari for long posts id I need to spell check.

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James Posted…

I am not a fan of dashboard I must say, I sometimes use the calculator, but what I find is it kills to wait for it to invoke on my powerbook for the first couple of times. I am going more and more off it everyday. The biggest annoyance is the clash that dashboard has with your fonts, I just have outlines at the moment.

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trent Posted…

Dashboard = useless waste of RAM and Dock.

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Graphic Designer Posted…

I have found dashboard to be one of the most useful additions. If you work with a million windows open like most graphic designers It's nice not to have to open up programs for a calculator or screen shot or yet another window in safari to check the weather. Yes some widgets are useless (a bart simpson picture on your dash?) But you don't have to use them or dashboard at all. Please find something useful to complain about.

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Tyler Posted…

There are several that have system information, which many people find handy. A Calendar comes standard. There are many things which are nice to have easily accessible with the push of a button. They dont interrupt whatever it was that you were doing longer than it takes you push F11 (default) twice, I think they're nice to have, myself. There are lots of useless ones, though, you are correct.

Just my 2 cents. (found your site on Google *shrug*) -Tyler

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Jamie Phelps Posted…

Everyone that is complaining about how much memory widgets use should check their Activity Monitor. Mine shows that my iCal widget uses about 1/3 the memory that iCal uses. The same is true for weather and stuff. Safari would require much more memory to run (not to mention the time it would take as mentioned before). I suspect that the same would be true for Address Book

Another thing that DB has available that I never found in an app is an RPN calculator. I was stoked to see one available. I also like the yellow pages widget (although it has some listings omitted) and screen shot widget (although it could stand having an option for timed captures). The radar in motion widget is very nice. Not only would I have to open Safari and go to weather.com, but I still have to type my zip code, click on the radar and then click the motion link. Far cry from one click of the mouse or flick of the trackpad. I could go on.

What I don't get, are the people that just keep 1,000 widgets open because they have an 80" screen and 1TB memory. For instance, Transmit lives in my dock and I just drag files to the icon and it uploads, keeping directory structure. I keep iPhoto there too because I can add to my library by dragging pictures I download to the icon.

While we're bitching about Dashboard widgets, I hate that terminal command wdgt. If I want to run a quick few commands, I don't need 100 lines of screen to do it. If I want to run 100 lines of commands, I'll open terminal.

Okay, that's all

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Damnathan Posted…

Thank you for criticizing Dashboard—someone needed to do it. I also find it basically useless. When it was first announced, I was outraged that they so blatantly ripped off Konfabulator...of course, I never found that useful either...

With Exposé, Apple really came up with something new and a bit revolutionary. It was a great addition to the interface. They tried to sell Dashboard the same way, only with—if anything—more vigor. Well, it's really just not that cool, and I just find it so unnecessary to add a whole new layer to the interface (and add new object behaviors as well).

On that note, I also abhor the new look of Mail, also because it doesn't follow the rest of the OS X interface. I mean, what is that new awful purple-grey color about? And don't get me started on how horrid the pill-buttons are... Thank heaven for Cage Fighter: a much-needed Band-Aid for a nasty wound.

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chphilli Posted…

So, this may be out of date (when was this comment posted...? But I thought I'd add something to the conversation:

I've found Dashboard particularly useful for things that I want quick access to, but don't need on the desktop all the time. When I hit f12, I get all kinds of useful things quickly: a glance at my rss feeds, a countdown to some specified date, my personal todolist and other stickies i want, my stock status, a calendar and a calculator. I find it nice to have things easily accessible, but not in the way.

That said, I actually think Dashboard is missing some functionality: I want to be able to drop windows or applications into Dashboard. For example: Firefox pops open a download window for a long download - I would like to be able to send it to the dashboard, so I can review progress without interrupting the rest of my work. Or to be able to send the document I'm looking at, but won't need for 10 minutes to it. Sure, I could minimize it, but being able to have all these things at once would be great.

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babapapa Posted…

Hey. I actually liked the Dashboard.. after an initial refusal to accept it, I found it is indeed quicker than going to bookmarks for Weather, Translation and other useful nitbits. BUT since the clash with my fonts (James - I too now have outlines, all shifted in position) - it just irritates me every time I open it. Anyone know how to resolve this font clash ? I have tried an OSX reinstall to no avail. I get the same problem on some sites which must use certain System fonts. It makes things infuriatingly hard to read!!

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greekgeek Posted…

So you haven't found any useful widgets. Then turn them off. For the rest of us, however, it is rather nice to be able to have at our fingertips a whole bundle of tiny self-selected utilities that do all the things we need without having to open more tabs, more browser windows, more ads, wait for all the parts of a website we DON'T need to load just to get to the part we DO need. After a few days of figuring out what I used and what I didn't, I have customized mine to have about 15 things I use all the time and now can get to much faster than through a browser (some of them simply didn't exist in other forms). Now just by moving the trackpad, I've got:

• All application pulldown menu so that one sweep of the cursor opens any app
• iClip which is like the old scrapbook on steroids
• Complete CSS reference (useful for those of us who don't write web pages every day and forget syntax)
• Key caps utility that lets me instantly grab the keystroke or HTML entity for all characters
• Font book, vitally useful for someone who's continually having to churn out good-looking web graphics and banners
• Organized To Do List
• Notepad to jot down things when I'm on phone
• Word/character count which I happen to need on a site where word counts and character counts are important for posts, signatures
• Dictionary/thesaurus
• Flight Tracker, package tracker
• Wayback Machine, google, URLcut
• Little HTML preview window to make sure I'm not mangling tags (so annoying to hit post and see half a post in boldface because of a typo)
• A switch so as to have multiple dashboard configurations, different widgets showing
• A few fun things like a world map showing night and day and quakes (which happens to be a hobby, and the night/day lets me know at a glance whether to say "good morning" or "good evening" to an IM buddy)
• Oh yeah, and the weather, a calendar, a few timezone clocks, calculator, and translator

And all of these fit on an ugly little 14 inch ibook screen. I don't follow Apple hype and honestly hadn't been interested in Tiger, but I just happened to pick up an iBook as a travel computer to save my PowerBook, and to my shock I'm finding these little things so handy that I'm missing them in Panther. So, you really don't find any of the widgets out there useful? Then stop grousing and write some suited to your needs, or just wait a few months. Developers are putting out handy tools as well as the fluff, and just like the early days of the net, some will be as helpful as fishcam and hamsterdance, whereas others will turn out to be as useful as google or blogs.

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Good Old jc Posted…

If your widgets are displaying incorrectly, simply go into the the style sheets and change them to what you want. Go into the system library, widgets, select a widget, hold down "control" and show package contents. Then change the files that say .css as their extension. Butta.

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earlthepearl Posted…

I prefer the yahoo widgets over dashboard.
This way I can have ones I want actually show all the time,
and don't have to go looking for them or wait for them to load.

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Joe Posted…

I too "hate" dashboard - what I would like to know is who is the genius that thought it would be a good idea to put the calculator there. Whenever I am working on a document I have to switch back and forth - not a great time saver. As usual Apple has lost touch with anyone who uses their products for more than a hobby.

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Jim Posted…

I'm also having font issues - anyone got any ideas? Have I uninstalled the font that's mean to be used, or is it a clash?

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Steve Wiedemann Posted…

Open Font Book and disable the offending font (Helvetica 75 Bold Outline in my case)