Does anyone know if there's any good software to turn a mac into a news display kiosk? Nobody will actually interact with the computer -- the contents will dynamically update via the internet (RSS/other).

December 12, 2007 4:41 PM

Does anyone know if there's any good software to turn a mac into a news display kiosk? Nobody will actually interact with the computer -- the contents will dynamically update via the internet (RSS/other).

I want something similar to http://online-news-screensaver.michael-sablin.qarchive.org/ but works on the mac. Something that displays news, maybe weather, in an elegant way. Similar to how "The coffee bean and tea leaf" has that plasma in its LA coffee shops...

posted by evanm to computers & internet (7 comments total)

The Mac's built in rss-reading screensaver might be what you're looking for. Just headlines, I think... But you can add plenty of different feeds, including weather forecasts.
posted by luriete at 4:55 PM on December 12, 2007

Apple's own Quartz Composer might be a good choice, there's a really sexy RSS reader built into it that you could modify. It does node based programming, so you build apps like you'd construct a flow chart. I believe the screen saver luriete mentions is in fact a Quartz Composer composition.
posted by Scoo at 5:09 PM on December 12, 2007

probably just disable the input somehow and use mozilla kiosk mode
posted by yeahyeahyeahwhoo at 5:33 PM on December 12, 2007

Opera also has a kiosk mode.
posted by bigmusic at 6:34 PM on December 12, 2007

You might also try Mac3DWatch.
posted by ulotrichous at 8:08 PM on December 12, 2007

And Safari, using the Saft plugin, can work in kiosk mode.
posted by misterioso at 9:05 PM on December 12, 2007

Todd Dominey's PGA Merchandise Show Flash App uses Flash, ColdFusion, and Safari with Saft.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:42 AM on December 13, 2007