WidgetWatch
Latest
Widget Watch: CreativeBits Widget 2.0
CreativeBits, a design and OS X-centric creative community, has produced a really slick looking update to their widget that acts as a portal for their site. Users can view the latest articles, forum posts, critiques and links. Clicking on a title in the widget opens the entire article in your browser, while the widget includes its own forward and back navigation if you'd like to simply browse the latest CreativeBits goodies right from the comfort of your Dashboard.
Widget Watch: Locker
Today's widget is quite simple. Locker is a Dashboard widget that performs a single trick: Double click it, and you're sent to a login window via fast user switching. Enter your password and return to what you were doing, with all your applications still running. Since it takes (slightly) less time than Option-selecting "Log out" I'll keep it, as I walk away from my office frequently during the day.
Widget Watch: Lost (for Dashboard)
The last Lost widget (say that five times fast) we featured was for Konfabulator, but now you Dashboard junkies can get in on the fun of pushing a button every 108 minutes.Am I the only one who doesn't get this whole Lost thing? Isn't it just a spooky version of Gilligan's Island?[via the Uber Geeks]
Widget watch: Reminder
For all those times when adding a quick reminder to iCal is too cumbersome, or you might not be online so the Backpack widget can do its thing, the Reminder widget might be right up your alley. As you can see, the widget has a simple interface allowing you to add some type of a reminder name/message, along with a reminder time. As an added bonus, this widget actually adds events to its own iCal calendar.The Reminder widget is, of course, free and available from DashboardWidgets.com.
Widget Watch: Google Music Video
This Google Music Video widget sounds pretty slick: it pulls song information out of iTunes and searches Google Video for any related videos. I haven't tried it, but with everything that YouTube is able to get away with, I think it'd be a good idea if the author could add support for searching their catalog too.
Widget Watch: Ta-da Lists widget
We TUAW bloggers certainly love Backpack, the super-simple online PIM from 37 Signals, and it's Dashboard widget is pretty slick too. Naturally, I was excited to see a Dashboard widget pop up in endo this morning for Ta-da List, 37 Signals' one-trick-pony todo list manager. The Ta-da Lists Widget allows you to create new todo lists lists and add items to those lists. It's a pretty straight forward widget for a very straight forward service.One catch I ran into while setting the widget up, however, is the way the widget first logs into your account. I flipped the widget over, entered my name and password and then the widget asked me to log into Ta-da Lists first through my browser, specifying that I check the "remember me" box. I use Camino, and for some odd reason the widget couldn't catch that I logged into the service, so it wouldn't allow me to start using my lists. Only when I logged in through Safari did the widget kick into gear and download my information.Aside from the registration hiccup, this widget is really handy. It's fast, slick, and in true 37 Signals form: simple and effective.
Widget Watch: The Daily Grind
If you have one of those jobs that requires to you track just how much time you spend on a given task (or if you're just a compulsive nut), check out The Daily Grind. It's a Dashboard widget that lets you start several individual timers, and give a custom name to each one. Plus, you can copy the results of any timer to the clipboard with a click. Pretty cool.
Widget Watch: Tetris Widget Round Up
When digging around on the net this week, I found more than one solution to TUAW reader/commenter Aaron Garn's need for Tetris in the Dashboard. First up is MiniTetris by Shock Widgets, a slightly laggy, really miniature tetris. Secondly I found LIFEwaves' fig-leaf-decorated over-priced, and apparently discontinued version. Lastly, I bring your attention to pakkman781's free and flash-based tetris (on which I couldn't make the audio stop: Must ... mute... sound!)I must say that neither of this options was as pleasant to me as playing gtetrinet (no, not by myself, sheesh!). Also, listen up, would-be future Tetris-on-a-mac creators, TUAW reader/commenter Chris wants Tetris to work with Mac laptops with built-in motion detectors. So get on that, mmkay?
