Niall Kennedy contributes Enwidget, where he explores the ins and outs of the rapidly expanding universe of glanceable information applications and devices.

Apple Dashboard widgets can be a quick way to reference your favorite data in a small heads-up-display. Just a few weeks ago we discussed some of the basic features of Tiger and Leopard widgets for Mac. Today I'll walk through some of my favorite widgets for productivity and fun.

BART transit widget
Plan your next trip on Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) with this Apple Design Award winning widget from Bret Victor. You can view multiple map renderings of the subway system, discover upcoming train arrivals, and plan the fastest route to your destination. All data is stored locally for quick offline access.

Infamous web, widget, and all around technology expert Niall Kennedy's got a new column: Enwidget, where he'll explore the ins and outs of the rapidly expanding universe of glanceable information applications and devices.

We all know that Apple Dashboard widgets give your Mac something of a heads-up display, combining multiple sources of information in a single at-a-glance interface. But while Apple introduced its desktop widget platform in 2005 as part of Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger), what you may not have realized is that the concept far predates even OS X, going way back to the dawn of the Macintosh itself.

In 1981 Bud Tribble and Andy Hertzfeld brainstormed desk ornaments, describing "little miniature applications running in their own windows" inside the old school Macintosh operating system. These tiny tools extended the desktop experience beyond applications and their associated computing and screen real estate costs, placing small and undemanding tasks in the background for productivity and pleasure. Today's Dashboard widgets build upon some of the same ideals introduced 25 years ago, obviously updated for modern networked computing.