widgets
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iGTD Pro details, Inbox Widget released
Bartlomiej Bargiel has been hard at work on iGTD, his incredibly powerful task task manager based on David Allen's Getting Things Done philosophy, and has recently unleashed news on what he has in store for iGTD Pro. As a matter of fact, iGTD will be split into three versions: iGTD Basic (the one that will continue to be free), iGTD Home&Office and iGTD Pro, each offering increasing abilities to sync and share tasks between Macs on the network and, with the Pro version, around the world. iGTD Pro will also allow to access your data with a web tool, possible a sooped up version of iPhoneiGTD. Licensing and availability details on these new versions, however, are still under wraps. In other news, Bartlomiej has also released an iGTD Inbox Widget which offers yet another way to quickly enter tasks and even use the Quicksilver syntax assign them to contexts. I personally prefer the f-key Quick Add window, but widget junkies will likely appreciate this streamlined iGTD interface.
Spelunking through iPhone's firmware reveals new widget hints
It seems like a healthy percentage of iPhone users currently in circulation are twiddling their collective thumbs, waiting for Apple to drop a feature-bomb on them in the form of a plump firmware update (and no, 1.01 doesn't count) -- but the present-day build may already be lending clues as to what's to come. It turns out that one of the iPhone's preference files makes mention of several widgets that seemingly don't yet exist; among others, Unit Converter, Translation, and Radio seem the most promising. An FM radio add-on from Apple certainly isn't without precedent, and the others have obvious analogues on the desktop, so it's all believable enough -- whether Apple gets 'em out before the homebrew community, though, is another question entirely.[Thanks, Kai]
iPhone firmware hints at new widgets, including MobileRadio
Tyler over at iPhoneology went diving into the iPhone's firmware, and found a preference file called "DefaultApplicationState.plist," apparently a list of widgets placed by Apple inside the iPhone.Except that there's a few that we can't actually use yet... com.apple.unitconvertercom.apple.widget.phonebookcom.apple.widget.translationcom.apple.widget.worldclockcom.apple.mobile.radio That mobile.radio one looks especially enticing-- while built-in FM radio would be nice, it's more likely that Apple is expecting the iPhone to support streaming radio, just like that already found in iTunes.Of course, this is all just speculation-- just because Apple laid out plans in the software for features like these doesn't mean that they're actually coming. And as a few folks have noted, they could just be holdovers from Apple's translation of OS X to the iPhone firmware. But because we know that more widgets and features are planned for the iPhone, these could be the groundwork of things we'll see implemented later.Thanks, Reggie!
Widget Watch: Avalanche - A free Basecamp client for Yahoo! Widgets
Basecamp is a popular and powerful web-based project collaboration and management service from 37signals, makers of other TUAW favorites like Backpack and Highrise. Fortunately, even though Basecamp is web-based, 37signals provides a rich API with which 3rd party developers can make all sorts of neat apps and widgets that tie into the service. A group of students did just that for a class project, resulting in Avalanche, a free Basecamp widget for Yahoo! Widgets. While I don't use Basecamp to any serious degree, Avalanche seems to be pretty feature-filled, offering access to all your Basecamp messages, todos, time entries, contacts and milestones. Going above and beyond, however, the 37signals blog reports that Avalanche includes features not found in Basecamp, such as auto time entry, spreadsheet generation of time reports, time estimate tracking and contact exporting (which I thought Basecamp already did). Ultimately, Avalanche looks like an impressive widget for a service loved by its vast and growing base of users. Of course, as with many other widgets, Avalanche is offered free from Avalanche-widget.org.
iPhone Gridgets: Widgets for your iPhone
Did you ever want a Dashboard-like launcher for your iPhone? Gridgets is it. It's a beautifully styled application launcher from CulturedCode that works and looks very much like its inspiration. Gridgets remembers which widgets you've chosen to display between your visits. When you return, it looks exactly like you left it the last time you were there.
Widget Watch: Delivery Status 3.6 remembers tracking numbers, gets even easier to use
Mike Piontek can't stop making his phenomenal Delivery Status Dashboard widget cooler. As if features like compatibility with a zillion shipping services and Growl notifications aren't cool enough, a couple of recent updates have brought some handy performance enhancements and compatibility with even more services. First up is support for Purolator, Google Checkout, and FexEd SmartPost. Next is a new drop-down menu on the tracking number entry box that remembers the last 10 numbers you've tracked with each service. Finally, new buttons appear on the widget when you mouse over to both magnify the widget for easier viewing and open a new Delivery Status widget altogether, making it easier to track a second package from the same service (by default) while still allowing you to select any other service in Delivery Status' expanding list. Of course, plenty of bugs have been fixed since the last time we've mentioned this widget, which is still provided as donationware from Piontek's site.Update: Corrected the spelling of Mike's name -- sorry!
Widget Watch: Tweet Ahead for scheduling Twitter posts
Twitter means many things to many people, but to some it is more or less a mini-blogging service, offering users a streamlined blogging platform that allows for both posting and syndication via a wide variety of methods. One downside of Twitter, however, is the inability to schedule posts ahead of time. Sure, there's always been the web-based TweetAhead, but now that service has been packaged in a Dashboard widget. Offering a simple interface, you simply need to flip the widget over to enter your Twitter credentials and set your time zone; after that, you're all set to enter tweets and specify a time for them to be posted (but be sure to heed the time zone instructions on the back of the widget).Strangely, after tinkering with both the TweetAhead web app and this Dashboard widget, I can only get either to work intermittently. Sometimes the tweets I schedule get posted, sometimes they don't. I assume this could be due to Twitter possibly not offering any official methods for actually doing this, but that's only a guess.Still, if you have better luck with these services, they can be a handy tool for anyone who wants to schedule tweets in the future.[via, ironically, Yohannes Wijaya's Twitter feed]
Widget Watch: iStat pro 4.1 released
iSlayer has released v4.1 of their killer iStat pro widget for monitoring system performance and statistics right from within Dashboard. In this new version, the team has added a new Fire skin (pictured, and apparently a mod of a much-requested skin from the previous v3), support for monitoring temps of S.M.A.R.T.-capable hard drives, better network change detection, support for 30 new temperature sensors in Intel Macs and even updated fan support for iBook users. As usual, iStat pro is provided as donationware and should be available via its own update system if you already have the widget installed, or from iSlayer's site.
Widget Watch: Tumblr widget 2.0
Tumblr is a unique 'tumble blog' service that gives users a no hassles, no frills blog, and a simple bookmarklet with which to quickly post text, videos, pictures and even chats. For those who feel Blogger or WordPress are a little much to manage, or if you simply don't feel like you have that much to say but you find as much (if not more) cool stuff across the web as the typical dorm-bound student, Tumblr's services might be right up your alley.If Tumblr's official bookmarklet isn't always your blogging tool of choice, however, there are a few other options on the table, including the recently updated Tumblr widget 2.0. Offering a simple title + body UI, this widget should make it easy to send off your quotes, links (the widget accepts HTML) and chat quotes.
Widget Watch: DreamHost status
I'm a pretty happy DreamHost customer, though I've been with enough basic hosting plans to realize that many hosts (at least the ones in my price range) might experience some hiccups from time to time. It just seems to be the way hosting is, at least in my tax bracket. Fortunately, DreamHost offers a status website and RSS feed to help customers check in on the network, but a fellow DreamHost customer by the name of Geoff has created a Dashboard widget just to give us one more option for staying on top of things. The widget simply loads the same status text one can read via the website or RSS, but it offers a compact, quick-access window into the world of DreamHost's status without having to refresh a website or add yet another feed to your exponentially increasing RSS list.
The iPhone's "Most Wanted"
Despite the fact that no one can even buy an iPhone yet, people are already describing what its next set of features ought to be. There's a thread at the iPhone forum that lists what they're calling "The Seven Most Wanted iPhone Widgets" (Basically, they just picked seven Dashboard widgets they'd like ported to the iPhone). I'm not as convinced. Here they are: iTunes Stats. Basically, this displays an exhaustive amount of trivial information regarding your iTunes library, like "Number of songs with no artist info" and "Number of playlists." I can't imagine strolling through the mall with my iPhone and suddenly needing to know how many of my songs are unrated. But that's me. Hangman. Yeah, OK. Games are fun. RSS Feeds. Call me an old stick-in-the-mud, but I can't think of a single RSS feed that I must have immediately available every second of the day. I figure I can wait the thirty minutes it may take me to get to my computer. Pass. Sudoku. See #2. Harmonic. Ok, so it *might* be fun to confirm a song's lyrics on-the-go. I said "might." Flappie. Um, no. TV Scheduler. I already have a tool that I use to monitor what's on my TV. It's called, "my TV." It works great. There's only 1 widget I'd actually really love to see on the iPhone, and that's one that will teleport me from my backwoods, stick town to a major city that actually gets reception from Cingular/AT&T. Until then, I probably won't be getting an iPhone.Thanks, Chris!
Enwidget: Dashboard - under the hood and where we're headed
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.
Build your own YBox for free at the Maker Faire
We caught the nifty YBox last year when it was still just a proof-of-concept, and now the folks at Uncommon Projects are ready to unleash their televised-widgets-in-an-Altoids-tin wonder on the world -- for free. There's a catch, though: you have to show up at the upcoming Maker Faire in San Mateo, California, and build it yourself. Yahoo is sponsoring free workshops with parts for all, and all the skills you need to get one together will be taught at the 'shops. No worries if you can't make it out to San Mateo, however, as you can still get the schematics and parts list from the YBox website and build one at home, but you'll be doing a little more work -- Uncommon Project's Kent Brewster has already milled 80 Altoids tins for Maker Faire participants. Peep a vid of YBox assembly after the jump. [Thanks, Wasabi]
Listz - a powerful organizer with rich media, iPod exporting and more
Getting organized is all the rage lately, what with an endless sea of GTD apps, todo Dashboard widgets and Growl alarm systems. There is certainly something to be said about making a list and checking it twice - especially when your list offers Google Maps in a mouseover popup window, a Dashboard widget, individual alarms, syncing across Macs, iPod exporting and much, much more. Listz is just such an app, and it is absolutely slammed with features. It even offers backup burning to disc, tabbed lists, extensive styling options, drag and drop support, categorizing list items, and support for printing lists if you aren't bringing your little white or black (or green, or red...) sidekick. But all this functionality comes at a price that is likely to appeal only to the power list'ers in the crowd: Listz sells for $39.95. It isn't the cheapest organization app I've ever seen, but it very well might be one of - if not the - most functional, especially with those slick rich media mouse-over popups. The only way to tell for sure, of course, is to download a demo for yourself and try it out.
Widget Watch: iActu
Today's widget is quite nice. iActu USA pulls news feeds from six American newspapers. You can browse the first few lines of each article, jump to any section of the paper, select one of sixteen available skins and specify the source for the ticker at the top of the widget. Of course, the full articles are a click away. Finally, registering the pro version ($6.95US) will let you print articles directly from the widget. There is also a French version.Thanks, Simohamed El Alj!
Widget Watch: Delivery Status 3 now does Growl notifications
Mike Pointek has updated his rockin' Delivery Status widget with Growl notifications, making it pretty much the most feature-packed, well-designed and useful shipping widgets that has ever graced this blogger's Dashboard. In addition to now being able to notify you of changes in your package's status, Delivery Status can also run multiple instances to keep track of more than one delivery, track shipments from ten different companies and services (sixteen if you count each one of Amazon's international sites separately), refresh as often as you like and easily take you to the package's shipment details at the shipping service's site.Delivery Status is provided as donationware from Mike Pointek's site.
Widget Watch: iStat Pro 4, iStat nano 2
The crew over at iSlayer have been busy releasing major updates to their killer system monitoring widgets, and not a moment too late for this year's Apple Design Awards (entry deadline is April 23rd). Earlier this month we missed a major upgrade and UI overhaul to iStat nano, bringing the compact system monitoring widget to v2 and adding a ton of new features.With the release of what almost looks like an all-new version of iStat pro v4, however, iSlayer has brought a consistent, uniform UI to both widgets. While I agree that you should probably sit down and take a deep breath before reading through the extensive list of changes, the big-hitters include: support for the battery meters in bluetooth keyboards and mice, instant update for things like network changes and disk mounting, a choice between memory and CPU usage in the process panel, as well as drag and drop re-ordering of sections inside the widget, allowing you to customize the layout to your heart's content.That isn't all though - go check out the huge list of changes for either of these widgets and consider showing iSlayer some donation love for all the stellar work they've done on two of the inarguable kings of system monitoring widgets for Mac OS X.
Nokia releases widget platform for S60
If you're a fan of Apple's Widgets and Microsoft's Gadgets, Nokia's software engineers hear you. Nokia's Symbian-based S60 platform now has support for dashboard-like widgets thanks to the recent introduction of its "Web Run-Time" tools for web developer types. Nokia is claiming its S60 widgetry to be a first for a mobile platform, although Microsoft may be readying the same concept for Windows Mobile 6. So, if you're ready to stock up that slicker-than-slick N73, just remember that you're going to need Nokia's S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 to get those new widgets -- then let the WeatherBugging begin.[Via Mobilewhack]
Widget Watch: Stikkit widget
Last week, Mat Lu found a Quicksilver plugin that plays well with Stikkit, the online personal info organizer that thinks so you don't have to, but there's also another method for all you Dashboard junkies out there: a full-on widget from James Adam. This widget, like its Quicksilver plugin cousin, is great for getting your stuff into Stikkit, but it also has the advantage of being a compact window into your Stikkit world. You can create or edit any number of Stikkits and sync them when you want, making this widget a sort of offline, syncing client for Stikkit.Adam is providing this widget free of charge, and you can grab your copy from his interblah.net site (love the domain Adam!).[via Stikkit's Values of n Blog]
Tumblr now has Dashboard widgets, Quicksilver add-on
Tumblr is a unique new tumblelog service that employs a KISS philosophy: offering a very streamlined, one-column layout and a clever bookmarklet that is smart about what you're trying to share on your Tumblr blog. While the minimalist templates can be edited by hand to include just about anything you want, Tumblr's concept is to be a sort of blogging scrapbook; a place to toss all those unique things you find across the web that might not fit at any of your other blogging venues, or that you simply don't have much to say about. Take a look at the Tumblr Radar to get an idea of how others are using the service. Now that introductions are out of the way, a recent update to Tumblr, as well as a how-to post from our sister Download Squad blog, has highlighted some Mac OS X-specific features that should make it even easier for Mac users to jump into the service. First, Alex Hung (Windows developer for ecto, by the way) wrote up a great how-to at Download Squad that explores the construction of a Tumblr Dashboard widget with Apple's Dashcode. A DLS reader was even inspired enough to go through with it, creating theTumblr Widget that is hosted on Google Code. This widget also became one of two that Tumblr just highlighted in a recent blog post, with the other being more of a basic test widget that Tumblr cooked up themselves. The second Mac Tumblr tool is an AppleScript for Quicksilver by Andrew Lilja. Andrew provides the AppleScript code and instructions for some unique syntax you can use to specify things like titles, quotes and links for your Tumblr posts, all from Quicksilver's handy UI.It's great to see these kinds of tools appear for Tumblr, as it makes an already simple service even easier to use.
