widgets
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Sony's launching mylo labs to keep your COM-2 in the widgets
If you've already dropped $299 on a second-gen mylo COM-2 unit, then Sony has a little treat for you -- while all of you early adopters still poking around on an original mylo probably feel pretty silly right now. Sony is launching the "mylo labs" site for nabbing mylo widgets, and while right now there are just a few Sony-built widgets, Sony will open up the site to developers in March to add their own. Widgets seem to be a natural fit for a device like this, and hey, they're free, so there's really no reason not to love. It's just too bad those gen-one types get left out in the cold.[Via pocketables]
Apple TV patent filing boasts video chat, widgets, broadcast capability
No stranger to the odd patent filing, Apple has once again delved into the dark waters of the unknown with an application for an Apple TV-like device with iChat-esque functionality, amongst others. In the patent, the company suggests a number of uses for widget overlays during video, including those triggered by content and timing, as well as widgets used for menus and navigation. The patent demonstrates how real-time widget updates may coincide with live broadcast television -- such as a scorecard overlay for a sporting event -- and also showcases a video chat function which can be used simultaneously during the playback or broadcast of content. Additionally, the filing shows a new remote which would have hot buttons for quick access to widgets, navigation, and the automatic milkshake mode (we might have wishfully made up that last one). Sure it looks good, but we'd happily take the latest Apple TV update until this comes along.
Widget Watch: Woot!
This Lifehacker comment thread made me go researching on what I might use for Webclips, but save for the front page of my favorite blog (TUAW, duh), I couldn't think of anything I'd really want to keep on my Dashboard 24/7. I did like the idea of putting Woot.com (and Shirt.woot, which I've been looking at a lot lately) on there, but as a few of the commenters say, webclipping (can I verb that?) the entire page makes things a little too big.Fortunately, David Elliot piped up about the Woot.com widget, which easily and quickly lets you monitor the Woot sites from your dashboard, with a minimum of space taken up. And now I've got two instances of it running on my Dashboard, one for regular Woot and one for the Shirt version. I especially like that it includes Growl notification, too -- if I happen to be working around midnight and a really good deal pops up, I won't miss it.Of course, you may not want to have something popping up on your Dashboard all the time tempting you to spend money. But if you're already following the Woot empire (and to tell the truth, I almost never buy anything-- I just like looking), the widget is an easy and simple way to stay up to date.
EVE Online Skill Monitor widget monitors your skills
We've posted before about EVEMon, a program that you absolutely must use if you're playing EVE Online, but here's another cool dohickey for tracking your EVE character out-of-game. Corp Teacher on the forums posts about the EVE Yahoo! Widget, a slick little widget that shows all the important stats for your character, including where your skill training is at, and how long you've got left. It doesn't have nearly as much functionality as EVEMon, obviously, but if you want to watch your SP rise at work where applications aren't allowed, but widgets are, it's perfect.And though it used to ask for your name and password (a security risk if there ever was one), it now works through EVE's API key program, so you don't have to worry about giving an untrusted program all your personal info. According to the changelog, it hasn't been updated too recently, but if you're looking for a low-footprint way to track your SP, and figure out whether Tranquility is up or down (so you can pine for the vastness of space while trapped in your tiny cubicle at work), here it is.
Yahoo! takes Go to version 3, releases widget platform
Yahoo's been taking it's mobile strategy pretty seriously over the course of the past couple years, having zoomed through two revisions of its Go portal app on multiple platforms. They've officially unveiled yet another major version today -- 3.0, to be exact -- featuring a new icon view (in addition to the old-school carousel view) and support for widgets. Widgets, you say? Yep, that's the real meat of today's announcements: Yahoo has opened the floodgates to third party development with its Mobile Developer Platform, promising a future rich with widgets that'll plug into Go and make it even meatier than it already is. eBay, MTV, and MySpace have already crafted widgets for the platform, too, so it's a promising start. Yahoo! Go 3.0 is available now for a wide variety of S60 and BlackBerry devices, and we're guessing that Windows Mobile will be following on shortly.Read - Yahoo! Go 3.0Read - Yahoo! Mobile Developer Platform
Google Gadgets in your OS X Dashboard
Google has announced that the next version of Google Desktop (we've written about Google Desktop before) will allow users to run Google Gadgets alongside Mac OS X Widgets in the Dashboard. This new functionality should be available tomorrow. I don't use Google Desktop or Gadgets, and rarely use Dashboard widgets, so I just can't get excited about this. However, I know they each have their devotees, so those among you have something to look forward to tomorrow. [Via MacMinute]
Conversion Confusion: Apple's Sterling oversight
Discussion has abounded the tubes recently over what appears to be a little oversight in Leopard's Conversion dashboard widget: namely the unusual omission of the Great British Pound from the currency list. Whilst some readers will no doubt shout 'So what?', as someone who routinely uses the widget, it's more than a little bit annoying - and I'm not alone there.Whilst rumours may abound of Apple trying to stop us Brits finding out just how much more we pay for Cupertino's finest with the dollar being so weak right now, I'm sure we'll see a fix soon enough. and it seems to be working again.
WidSets comes out of beta
Nokia's versatile widget platform, WidSets, has come out of beta (although they've had boatloads of users and a solid offering for months now, so calling it "beta" may have been a bit of stretch anyway) with a refreshed look. The headlining feature seems to be the pictured "Explore" feature, which uses Flash to present you with a crazy web to drill down to the widgets that might (or might not) interest you. It's free, it works on a lot of phones, and it's cool -- so now that the ominous "beta" label is officially gone, y'all may as well check it out, no?
Mac 101: Whip your widgets into shape
Widgets are way too much fun. Though your Mac ships with a few of them already installed on the Dashboard, frankly they're kind of boring. I mean, how much fun is a calculator, clock, or calendar? Did you know there's a bunch more hiding in the far corners of your computer, and even more waiting to be discovered online? Let's take a look at where to find the extra goodies.
24 Hours of Leopard: Web Clips
Feature: Web Clips, little roll-your-own widgets for Dashboard that will tell you anything the Web can.How it works: Making a Dashboard widget isn't really that hard now, but it's about to get a lot easier. There'll be a little button in Safari that you can press to take a "clip" of a web page and turn it into a widget on the Dashboard that updates as that page does. Found your local weather forecast somewhere, or a webcam that watches the outside of your house? Clip that section of the page into a web clip, and you've got a simple, custom-made widget so easy Grandma can make one. Here's what it looked like in an old build, and it's probably going to be even easier in Leopard.Who will use it: If it's as easy as Apple says it is (and all indications say yes), everybody. Anything on the web can be clipped into a widget, so if you can access constantly updated content (say, the top story of TUAW?) then you could use it as a web clip.You can check out all our 24 Hours of Leopard posts here.
Chumby goes on sale
At this point the only surprise left with the Chumby always-on widget box was when it was going to finally go on sale -- we've seen the specs, gone hands-on, seen the retail unit, and generally gone gaga for widgets with this thing -- so we're pleased to report that the Chumby store is now taking orders for the box, in your choice of white, latte (pictured) and black. $179 gets you the box, but it's how developers and users use this thing that'll really be the story. No concrete word on a ship date, but since "insiders" have been playing with these since last month, we're betting it'll be soon.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Run Widgets (kinda) on your iPhone
I've kinda sorta almost have Macintosh Dashboard widgets running on the iPhone. Some run okay, others not so much. The Weather, ESPN and Calendar widgets are some of the best; the Flight Tracker, Dictionary and Phone Book are among the worst. If you'd like to give this a try, download a copy of Widgets.app with the following understanding: Widgets uses the XLaunch icon and splash screen and the Unknown icon is the wrong size. Sorry about that. You must install System/Library/WidgetResources from your Mac onto the iPhone. Same folder, same name, same contents. Most Widgets will not run properly without these support files. Install your widgets into /var/root/Library/Widgets on the iPhone. Widgets.app runs plain old ordinary OS X widgets. You must copy over the entire file structure, so scp -r YourWidget.wdgt root@youriphoneip:/var/root/Library/Widgets is going to be your best bet. And yes, you need to create the Widgets folder if it does not yet exist.
Five widgets for football junkies
As I write this, there are 12 excruciatingly long days until the start of the 2007 NFL football season. This year, the best-dressed Macs will have spiffy new dashboard widgets to help us follow our fantasy picks, favorite teams, league stats, and every game nuance we can think of. Here are the top five widgets every football fan needs to have: NFL Kickoff 2007 Countdown 4.0 - If you need to know right down to the nanosecond how long it is before kickoff, this widget is for you. Okay, it doesn't offer quite that much detail, but it will get you within the minute range. The rest you can figure out on your own. WagerWidget - If you like a friendly bet to go with your game, the WagerWidget gives you point spreads, odds updates, and other tips you might need to know before you make that call to Johnny NoFingers. Apple's widget directory - There's all sorts of goodies lurking here, like news feeds for the Cowboys and Raiders. Fantasy Control - If you've got a fantasy football team of your own, than this you need this. It offers real-time news and analysis for teams all across the league. (NOTE: Requires the Yahoo Widget installer for Mac) Football Widget 1.1.2 - The granddaddy of all widgets, this cool tool keeps you up to date on everything you need to know: Current scores, previous weeks' results, conference standings and more. Sky Sports Football News Widget - In the interest of fairness, this one's for the Brits among us. I hear your teams play football with their actual feet. What's up with that?
Widget Watch: WidgetWizard turns RSS into widgets
Disappointed that one of your favorite sites hasn't broken out a widget for their RSS feed yet? Worry not, WidgetWizard's got you covered. Just fill out a quick little form, and the RSS feed of your choice is available in widget form.Sure, it's not actually that hard to do, and the upcoming release of Dashcode with Leopard will make it even easier. But if all you want is to see an RSS feed on your Dashboard without all the fuss and muss of actually coding it, WidgetWizard is where it's at.Thanks, Kelly!
Widget Watch: YouTube
Before you say anything, I know - YouTube is the last thing you need to have lying around at the flick of a mouse or stroke of a key. I just couldn't stop myself from blogging this because it shot to the top of Apple's popular Dashboard widgets chart, and it really is well done. The YouTube Dashboard widget allows for searching YouTube, displaying Just Added, Most Discussed, Featured and Most Viewed videos, and you can even condense it for those times when you want to at least appear like you might be getting work done. Clicking a video opens a larger window in the Dashboard to watch it, and therein lies one catch. For some odd reason you aren't presented with YouTube's video controller; just a pause/play button. Another bummer is that you can't log into your own account to rate or mark videos as favorites, but if you're just looking for a quick window into YouTube that's easy to show and hide, this YouTube widget just might be your answer.
Widget Watch: password protected Secret NotePad
The Dashboard is fun and all, but few widgets offer much in the way of storing any kind of data in a secure way. If you would like to work with a scratchpad in the comforts of Dashboard but also want the notes you jot down to be secured from wandering eyes, Secret NotePad might be a good option. With support for multiple pages, locking itself and even clearing the clipboard, this is perhaps one of the most secure widgets you'll find this side of the Mac OS X Keychain. Oh, speaking of the Keychain: all the notes you create in Secret NotePad, and even the original password you create to secure these notes, are stored in the Keychain for easy backup and synching with .Mac and similar services.Upon opening Secure NotePad, you are presented with a small dialog asking you to create a new password just for locking down the notes you store in this widget. This dialog doesn't allow you to verify or even see the password you're typing though, so make sure you're getting it right. After that you get a simple resizable box into which you can paste plain text. Clicking the lock icon in the upper left of course locks the widget, scaling it down to nothing but the title bar and the password entry box. No password, no dice. Flipping the widget over presents options for locking the widget after a certain amount of Dashboard inactivity time, clearing the clipboard, default font/size and even locking the Keychain when you lock the widget. Truly, this is one widget your nosey coworkers won't get very far with.Secret NotePad can be found in Apple's Widgets directory.
Netvibes unveils optimized iPhone portal
Netvibes is one of the largest players in the web2 portal game, allowing users to add all sorts of content and communication widgets to customizable pages, acting as a dashboard for your online realm. You can add widgets to watch RSS feeds, email from lots of services like Gmail and .Mac, weather, search engines, podcasts that can play in the page, calendars and a massive world of user-generated stuff that can extend Netvibes' portal in just about any direction you would want. For a while now, Netvibes has offered a mobile version of their portal at m.netvibes.com for regular phones, but now they have an iPhone-specific portal at m.nv1.netvibes.com (I know, I think they could've made it a prettier URL too). It offers complete access to all your tabs with that increasingly popular iPhone-like UI, and each tab lists the widgets it contains in a single column view, optimizing space and legibility. Even complex widgets like that Facebook widget the company recently introduced work fine, and the Twitter widget counts the characters I type in real time.Since my NetNewsWire feed list now tops 330, I've been looking for an easier way to stay on top of a few of my favorite feeds in a simple UI when on the go with my iPhone. I still think the .Mac Reader is a good solution, but having all those feeds along with handy todo and social widgets in a slick UI is even cooler. This Netvibes iPhone page just landed near the top of my must-use mobile bookmarks.
Apple introduces My iTunes Widgets
Everyone is going bonkers about social networking sites, the kids they like 'em. Apple, not being foolish, hopes to cash in on that trend with My iTunes Widgets. My iTunes Widgets are 3 widgets that you can embed into a website (Apple suggests your blog, or your social networking site profile) which will display either your most recent iTunes purchases, your favorite iTunes artists (based on how much of their stuff you have purchased), or your iTunes reviews.You have to enable My iTunes widgets via your profile in the iTunes Store. Once enabled you are whisked to a webpage to design your widget (within limits) and get the code which you then paste into your website. No muss, no fuss.[via Mac Rumors]Update: I forgot to add that the widgets use Flash, so they won't work on the iPhone (whoops!), and these seem like they were made with iWeb '08's new Web Widget feature.
iPhone to gain Spotlight and true widget support?
Like so many others armed with iFuntastic's new iPhone file browser, Jimmie Geddes at iPhoneology has been going iPhone-spelunking. Apparently, Geddes has made some interesting discoveries in the form of images buried in the file system that have suggestive names. First is widget.png, found in: / System / Library / CoresServices / SpringBoard.app/. SpringBoard is the app that actually powers the iPhone's home screen and displays all those pretty little square icons, suggesting that this generic widget icon could be used for widgets that don't provide their own (hint hint, future iPhone widget developers).Next up are pictures named spotlight-full.png and spotlight-keyboard.png, the former pictured in this post. Again, I agree with Geddes that these are very suggestive of Spotlight being included in a future iPhone update. With all the push Apple made with the search paradigm by releasing Spotlight in Tiger in 2005, I'm pretty surprised the iPhone lacks any kind of a search function, let alone at least the abilities to search certain things like contacts that other phones have been able to do for years.As usual, there is no official word on these features or if they'll actually be coming at all. Here's hoping these images weren't simply left there by an engineer playing around with what could be, instead of what will be.
iWeb '08
I need to come right out and say it: I am really, really excited for iWeb and all the new .Mac changes. With the first version of iWeb, Apple didn't seem to quite 'get it' yet; everything you could build into your pages had to more or less come from your Mac desktop. In a web 2.0 world though, that just doesn't cut it for so many aspiring iWeb users. Many of us have Twitter accounts, pictures on Flickr and stuff we create at zillion of other sites that we'd like to integrate into a personal website, and iWeb 2.0 reveals that Apple finally understands this. Web Widgets Finally melding the power and ease iWeb brings to publishing your Mac's media with the rest of the internet is iWeb's arguably biggest new feature: Web Widgets. While this page is a little skimpy on details, we can now embed code snippets from the endless community sites cropping up on the web into our iWeb pages. As an awesome bonus I can't wait to see in action, iWeb also offers a live preview mode that will include these widgets, so you can see your site in action and be sure everything gels before publishing. Publish to a personal domain This feature doesn't get its own page at the new iWeb site, but hopeful iWeb power users will likely appreciate the fact that you can now publish your sites to personal domains. Details are even slimmer for this one, but it sounds like Apple finally shared some of Mac OS X's built-in FTP abilities with iWeb, allowing us to set up our own personal sites for one-click publishing.
