Recommend me some widgets!

July 20, 2009 6:50 PM

What Dashboard widgets are worth using?

For the past few years, I've disabled the Mac Dashboard to free up memory. I've now got more RAM than I need and am considering trying to use the Dashboard for pretty much the first time.

So, what widgets do you use?

posted by Tu13es to computers & internet (15 answers total)

I'm a big fan of iStat Pro, Radar in Motion and Delivery Status.
posted by thebigdeadwaltz at 6:55 PM on July 20, 2009

iCal Events and Delivery Status are both nice.
posted by floam at 7:11 PM on July 20, 2009

iCal events, Stickies, this Wikipedia widget, Weather.

Oblique Strategies.

Amazon artwork widget (works with iTunes).

Clock.
posted by yesno at 7:19 PM on July 20, 2009

Huh, the Oblique Strategies widget ("Oblique Widget version 1.1") I use is now missing from the Internet.

This Word of the Day is nice. The others are mostly ugly.

Apple really needs to make the iPhone able to natively run locally stored widgets. They're "web apps" the same way as Pre apps and html/css/etc is probably more suitable for some small tasks than Obj C anyway.
posted by yesno at 7:26 PM on July 20, 2009

Weather, Calendar (day of month, click and it shows the month, click and it shows the day's events), Stickies, Deliver Status, Translation, PearLyrics (discontinued, can still be found).
posted by mhz at 7:38 PM on July 20, 2009

Add another vote for Delivery Status -- they have a non-free iPhone app too that syncs with your mac that is also nice (but I like the mac version better). Oh and the weather. I think that's it.
posted by dyslexictraveler at 8:06 PM on July 20, 2009

Organized
posted by nathan_teske at 8:10 PM on July 20, 2009

You don't say what computer you have - I have a 24" iMac and a MacBook. I don't use Dashboard on either one - and it's not a memory issue. I simply don't like having to hit a key to bring up the various windows. What I do is use menu applications - you can get iStat menus, weather menus, internet search menus, iCal menus, and a whole bunch of other kinds - I have about twenty on the iMac and about 14 on the MacBook. I like that they are always visible, don't take up any screen real estate, and there are some real time savers: iKey, Butler, aLunch, etc.

Just a tangential suggestion, since you are already used to not having Dashboard activated.
posted by birdsquared at 8:44 PM on July 20, 2009 [1 favorite]

Heh. yesno, funny you should mention the Oblique Strategies widget—I use it, too, and posted a link to a working download page yesterday here!
posted by limeonaire at 8:51 PM on July 20, 2009

The dictionary and the converter (currency, amounts, distances, etc.--good when you're cooking).
posted by Beardman at 8:51 PM on July 20, 2009

The pixel ruler!
posted by jgirl at 9:26 PM on July 20, 2009

iStat Pro is a must. The best weather-type widget I've seen is the Weather Underground one, which has forecast, radar, etc. with little screen real estate. The Last.fm radio widget is OK, but is missing a few crucial features like being able to play your recommended/neighborhood stations. ColourMod is the best color picker I've ever used, widget or standalone, if you have a need for such things. I also use one that graphs wireless traffic that I can't remember the name of (I'm not on my Mac laptop). Oblique Strategies is also cool, but takes up more screen real estate than it really needs to.
posted by DecemberBoy at 10:30 PM on July 20, 2009

I like to have our local current radar images. I just went to the Environment Canada page and grabbed it with "Open in Dashboard..."
posted by bonobothegreat at 10:47 PM on July 20, 2009

Weather Underground works off a local personal weather station that works off the "by the lake" temperatures which are often different than Chicago's main forecast, so that's a plus for me. Sol tells me when dawn, sunrise, sunset, and dusk are. Countdown Plus tells me how long it's been since I was laid off and how much longer unemployment will be paid. TV Forecast tells me when the next episode of favorite series will air. iStat Pro was previously mentioned. Moon Phase to show the current phase of the moon. (I like it because of the starry background.) DashQuit helps me keep an eye on RAM usage and restart Dashboard on those occasions it's gobbling too much. Symbol Caddy usefully handles HTML entities and other symbols.
posted by WCityMike at 8:07 AM on July 21, 2009 [1 favorite]

3-2-1 (countdown timer)
Screenshot Plus (easier than remembering the key combinations to just get this window, or the whole screen or whatever0
posted by ijoyner at 8:18 PM on July 21, 2009