WidgetWatch
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Widget Watch: the Jack of All Widgets
The Jack of All Widgets widget could perhaps be better named as the Jack of All Searches. It allows quick access to what I would guess is around 50 different searches and services, including Amazon, gas prices, people searches, package tracking (including the only widget I know of that searches the USPS), lyrics, weather and more. It's description page at Apple's download site says it starts up Safari to display search results, but with my experience it simply starts your default browser.The Jack of All Widgets widget is freeware and available from Apple's download page.
Widget Watch: iStat pro and nano updated
Two of my favorite system monitor widgets have been updated: iStat pro 2.3 and iStat nano 1.5. The main new additions are drive filtering, as in: CDs, DVDs and .DMGs will no longer appear in the drive list, and support has been included for MacBook Pro batteries. Unfortunately, it looks like the temp and fan monitors don't support the MacBook Pros just yet.Both of these widgets are available from iSlayer.net, apparently for free, as I can't even find a donation link. Also: their download links do point to these new versions, so don't pay any attention to the versions listed on their site, as it seems they haven't updated it to reflect these new additions just yet.
Widget Watch: iPhoto mini 1.3 gains a new UI, more
We blogged the iPhoto mini widget back in December, and since then it has received quite the feature update and face lift. The widget is now resize-able and just plain sexier. In addition to being able to browse all your iPhoto albums complete with image counts, you can now set the current image as your desktop wallpaper with a single click. The little gear icon you see offers the ability to open the current image in four apps: Preview, Mail, Safari and a custom app you can define on the back of the widget.The iPhoto mini widget is free and available from DashboardWidgets.
Widget Watch: Web Translator 2.0
Web Translator is a widget that allows you to translate a web page or text using either Google's Translation service or AltaVista's Babel Fish service. Usage is pretty simple: enter a URL or text, chose the languages and off you go.This widget seems like a nice addition to Apple's built-in translation widget which only does text.
Widget Watch: Album Art Widget
When I first saw Liquidx's Album Art Widget, I thought, "I don't want to have to jump to the Dashboard just to view album art." However, this widget does much more than that.It does display the album art of the currently playing track, and will retrieve artwork for songs that don't have any (adding this found artwork to iTunes is easy). You can also change the ratings of songs, flip the widget over to view a list of other songs on the currently selected album and use it to control iTunes. Lastly, it will let you jump to the current song's home in iTunes or Amazon.
Widget Watch: destroy your productivity with the Threadless Vote widget
I have to admit: I'm a nut for Threadless. The t-shirt design submissions that actually go to print after voting can certainly be hit or miss sometimes, but they crank out enough to keep me coming back for more. As if combing their site for new threads isn't enough of a time-waster, someone decided to curse my productivity by creating a Threadless Vote widget that allows you to browse and rate submissions. You need to have a free account already created with Threadless, but after that minor step, you can go nuts with tossing in your two cents on which designs make it into their catalog.
Widget Watch: miniMail
Today's widget is a no-frills Dashboard widget that gets the job done. miniMail by Duhsoft allows you to very quickly compose text email messages and send them off from the Dashboard. No configuration or set up required. I used it to send a few test messages to my various accounts using my .Mac address as the sender and it worked fine. It seems like a nice way to quickly send a short message when you don't feel like launching your email client. Check it out.
Widget Watch: BBC Motion Gallery Search
The BBC (or the Beeb to those in the know) has just released a very cool Dashboard Widget. What's it do? I'm glad you asked! The BBC Motion Gallery Search is basically a quick and easy way to search the BBC's Motion Gallery, which is a website that has lots of very cool video clips on it.Pretty slick.
Widget Watch: cloud.lic.io.us
As you may have guessed, today's widget interacts with del.icio.us. Cloud.lic.io.us is a Dashboard widget that has a single purpose in life: To put all of your tags in your Dashboard. The developer is currently looking for people to "...put my widget through the wringer," so try it out and let him know how it goes.[Via The Apple Blog]
Widget Watch: iCdocs
Today's widget is a Yahoo! Widgets Engine widget that interacts with ThinkFree's new suite of online office applications, iCdocs. ThinkFree will let you share, edit (even group edit) and publish text, spreadsheet and presentation documents within a browser. The iCdocs widget works as a super-simple way to upload files to your free iCdocs account. Just drop your file onto the appropriate icon. I tried it out on a rather large MS Word document, and it worked like a charm.iCdocs widget requires Yahoo! Widgets Engine.
Widget Watch: Digg Search Widget
Digg is everyone's favorite social news site (with a decided focus on all things tech). With all the things that get 'dugg' it is hard to keep up, and that's where the Digg Search Widget (for Yahoo! Widget Engine) comes in. The widget can search a number of different Digg categories and can display up to 15 items from any Digg RSS feed. That's not all that this little widget can do, so go check it out.Thanks, James.
Widget Watch: The Daily Grind 2.0
Dave Caolo found The Daily Grind last month, just this week it was updated to version 2. The new version of this task-tracking widget adds colored labels and the ability to drag and drop tasks for greater organizing goodness or "simply because it's an addictive pastime."The Daily Grind v2 is donationware and available from Thomas Pilgaard Miller's site.
Widget Watch: Hard at work
Today's widget makes slacking off at work so much easier (not that we condone that type of thing). When running in the Dashboard, the Hard at Work widget looks like a full sized, Excel-style spreadsheet, complete with fictitious data. Flip it over, and it's a large word processing document, full of important-looking text. Now you can goof off all day long, knowing that safety is only a flick of the F12 key away.
Widget Watch: xCuts - a Mac OS X shortcut reference
Now here is a widget that everyone can enjoy: more better keyboard shortcuts. xCuts is a reference widget for Mac OS X's keyboard shortcuts, organized by Category, Scope and Object, allowing you more control over which kinds of shortcuts to browse through. You can even live-search the database, and the widget allows you to copy and paste the shortcut text into documents. Nice.
Widget Watch: iStat pro
Here's a widget that nearly any geek would love. iStat pro is a Dashboard widget that keeps tabs on your system, reporting on CPU activity, memory, network status and information, temperature, fan activity, available disk space (on all connected drives) and more. Plus, it looks great while doing it. The interface is customizable and very easy to read. Definitely worth checking out.[Via Resexcellence]
Widget Watch: HBO Widget
I haven't been this impressed with a widget's capabilities in a long time. The HBO widget is highly functional and eye candy-infused, allowing you not only to check the program guides for both HBO and Cinemax channels, but you can browse and view their 'large collection' of teasers right inside the widget. Top that all off with a really slick minimizing ability to get all this intensive content out of your way when you'd rather save the cycles, and I think I've found the latest widget to receive a 'click of my mouse™.'The widget is, of course, free and available from HBO's site.[via Daring Fireball]
Widget Watch: Macgyverisms
I have found a use for Dashboard and its name is Macgyverisms. This pointless widget provides you with one of 200 ideas from MacGyver himself to get out of a sticky situation. The next time I am in the woods with only a rosary and a slingshot, I'll know what to do. Will you?[via Lifehacker]
Widget Watch: Retrograde3
I know what you're going to say already. "The last thing we need is another clock widget!" While I'm inclined to agree, I will say this: Retrograde3 is one cool clock.It's a Yahoo! Widgets Engine widget that displays the time, date and phase of the moon. You can change the clock's color as well as the "reflection" on its face. One word of warning, however: It's BIG (bigger even than the image at right). Those of you with 12" displays have been warned.
Widget Watch: Magnolia Blossom
Magnolia Blossom allows you to watch as people add links to the social bookmarking site, Ma.gnolia. The widget presents the links as snapshots of the website that scroll across the widget in a visually pleasing manner. If you are obsessed about finding cool new websites (there are websites other than TUAW out there?) then this widget might be just what the doctor ordered.[via Infinite Loop]
Widget Watch: BitSticks
VanillaSoap Design, the folks behind the slick Capture Dashboard widget, have released a public beta of BitSticks, their newest widget. BitSticks is a stand alone Bittorrent widget, and it works just as you would expect. Grab a torrent file in the Finder, invoke Dashboard and drop the file onto BitSticks. Next, sit back and relax as your download progresses. It's not a full-featured client, of course, but it gets the job done with those smaller files you simply need to grab.
