Top 10 Widgets
Google seems certain about click fraud on my site so I am forgetting about it for now. Let’s continue with the posts and hope for the best.
I am a huge fan of Apple. My PowerBook G4 (I know it’s old now) doesn’t leave my sight. I also love Dashboard and discovering new, helpful widgets. I decided to take a look at some of my favorite widgets and share them with everyone. Here’s the list:
1. iStat – great monitoring Widget that keeps an eye on your CPU, memory, hard drives, IP and external IP, bandwidth, CPU temperature, and more. Cool graphics and easy to use makes this Widget a must-download.
2. YouTube – YouTube on your Dashboard, sweeeeeet.
3. SingThatiTune – Ever want to know the lyrics of a song you are playing with iTunes? Now it’s easy with this widget.
4. Sudoku – Yet another game. Just like everyone else I am a Sudoku freak, I can play for hours on end. Here is a great Sudoku widget that will drain days from your life.
5. Mirror2.0 – Wanna see how you look for that new intern? If you don’t want to go find a mirror, just press your dashboard button and this widget shows you what’s on your iSight.
6. Wikipedia – Exactly what it says, Wikipedia in your dashboard.
7. Radiotuner – Listen to all your favorite Internet radio channels from this simple widget.
8. SendSMS – Program that let’s you send text messages to any service provider. There is a better version, which I could not find that is actually free. I thought this was it but I was wrong.
9. MineSweeper – What’s better to have on your dashboard then games, well nothing. Here is a great widget featuring the most old-school computer game ever. Great for those boring days at work.
10. AlbumArt – Find the album art of any song you are currently listening to. Connects to Amazon, iTunes, and many more sites to try to find the art. Good for all those CD’s that you can find using iTunes album art.
These are all essential widgets, especially the games. If anyone else has some cool widgets that they would like to share, please do I would love to discover some more of them.
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Uh, I’d have to disagree that there’s really anything cool about the dashboard. There’s hardly anything widgets can do for me that my web browser doesn’t already do. You’ll also notice if you open Activity Monitor that all those widgets consume lots of RAM whether you’re using them or not. I’ve had more than one friend complain about slowness on a brand new Mac. I usually find about 20 to 30 open and running widgets and no available memory. As for the widgets that give you the status of various parts of your computer, I would highly recommend checking out GeekTool. It prints readouts of these things directly onto your desktop as part of your background. Much less memory intensive and it looks really cool. And no, I have no association with GeekTool or it’s authors. I have the dashboard permanently disabled on all of my Macs; I realized that I never actually used it, but it was using a lot of my resources. Just my 2 cents.
The program for sending the SMS is free but it says that each one’ll cost you ten cents to send.
Review spelling.
We’ve done what we can to keep iStat pro and iStat nano as efficient as possible, but If you’re still worried, then check out the application version of iStat.
http://www.islayer.com/index.php?op=item&id=25
I certainly agree that running loads of widgets can cause issues, but running a couple doesn’t really have any significant or noticeable performance hit (Address Book, Calculator, iStat pro and IceTV TV guide running here).
#8 is incorrect. “Each sms message you send will only cost you 10 cents…”
While the widget is free it does nothing without paying.
I’m a big Mac fan myself. I’ve had a hard time finding interesting widgets that would make me actually want to use the feature.
Games is not it. I’m going to look into Jake’s recommendation for Geektool and if it’s indeed better, I’ll use that.
But my isp has a widget that shows my bandwidth usage. That’s useful. I also like the weather widgets, that give me a quick and dirty preview of things to come.
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I use the wikiwidget, but not that often. Er… I do give the magic 8-ball a spin from time to time, but that’s only to confirm my suspicions on upcoming decisions
I also have the earthquake widget because I’m interested in earthquakes.
I want to use more widgets as long as they are really useful. Leopard is going to be doing a few new things with that and I’ll see how that evolves.
Too many widgets bog down the system, I have heard the ‘my Mac is brand new and SO slow’ story too. I’ve got plenty of RAM but you’re still going to eat it all if you have too many widgets running. The functionality is not as ‘gottahaveit’ as Exposee is, but the right widget will make life a tad easier.
Looking forward to my next Mac, a 24″ iMac
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Soo.. how is Send SMS free again? From the link: “The widget will send the SMS for you. Each SMS will cost you only 10 cents, whether you’re sending locally or to a foreign country. No roaming costs are involved. “
How about this?
MACS SUCK
Much like insecure men hide in their SUVs, unintelligent people hide behind their Macs. Its like Mac users have transcended to some higher calling because they spend $$$$$$$ on a computer with fancy plastics. God forbid Mac users might have to R-click. We don’t want to confuse anyone.
Also, using a laptop while driving? That is probably the worst advice you could give. Maybe when you are widgeting while driving, you will knocked the eff out by your godcomp.
One more thing…
MACS SUCK
Then why do you bother being on a mac related topic? if your gonna do it at least do it on a good computer. and let me guess your gonna tell me you have the best computer around. your an idiot and just wish you could buy a condom let alone a mac you cheap bastard. if i want to spend money on something, then i will spend it on something worth spending it on. for example Mac=good use of money, your mom=good use of my money 9 and she was quite a bit cheaper than a mac too ). now you bitching about macs waste of your time and the money your mom pays for internet. and while you are searching for gay porn with your crap computer maybe you should spend time learning that A. macs can right click you ass, B. the all in one dell is the same price as the all in one imac, yet the iMac is better and has a better screen. C.Dashboard is the application used to look at widgets you dumb fuck. and D. until you have bought a mac with the money your mom saved up for you and you have owned a mac ( and not an old obsolete one) dont bitch about them.
Have a good day!
I use the STOP DASHBOARD widget so the widgets are available, but instead of clicking away and they are still running, I can click them OFF and always have f12 available for a quick tool.
On the same note, I’ve noticed after closing dashboard any programs that were minimized pop up to the main screen again?
Just wanted to point out that the SMS widget is a free download… NOT free texting!
Taylor’s a damp-in-the-head kneejerk fanboi
so “intelligent”, he thinks the people talking about “dashboards” are talking about driving cars while computing.
It’s sad, really…
** MATT: I know that was really stupid lol. **
I’m a WinXP user, and I’ve recently come across some programs that provide my two favorite Mac features: TopDesk (provides Exposé feature), and Yahoo Widgets. You can find all the widgets above there as well.
Why is everyone talking bad about dashboard? Dashboard is great. It brightens my day anytime. Mr. Alligator on whom I can click and receive a cute little comment like “You remind me of my dazzling poodle”? Come on, that’s quality stuff. Not to mention I can just click on it when I’m working and play Solitaire, ask the Tarot cards a question, get my horoscope, find out the weather, and draw a little picture and then when my boss walks in, I can just click it again and look like the dedicated worker I definitely am not. Why does everyone have to be so serious all the time? Calm down; loosen up, man. Like Mr. Alligator says, “Bobby Brown won’t be over their optimistically swimming pyramid.” Well said, Mr. Alligator, well said.