[iMacAlot777]

Alright, granted it looked conspicuous that Apple borrowed much of the Konfabulator concept, but also let's not forget that Konfabulator is by NO means the first to come up with this concept. The plain fact is that the folks at Konfabulator were not doin anything new, except for addin' a pretty aqua interface to their widgets. This is very common practice in the computing industry, to borrow ideas and run with it. Apple will simply build on what Konfabulator had continued... old technology with new frills and trinkets.
I remember reading this article soon after the WWDC 04 announcement about Dashboard - http://daringfirebal...04/06/dashboard[/u]vs_konfabulator ... enjoy!

[jaxn]

Yahoo Mail still doesn't support the simple text editing (text color, bol, italics, etc) of e-mails when using Safari.

[bwanderson]

Yeah, that's pretty darn cool of them to offer a refund. Still, it's just easier this way. 8^)

[Peter Cohen]

In reply to:

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Does this spell a name change?

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Yeah. "Yahoo! Widgets." Though Konfabulator is still the core engine technology, at least for the short term.

[arkstfan]

This COULD be good news for Mac users.
Yahoo's Mac support has been pitiful and its best hit and miss. We've heard all about the Mac users representing roughly 3% of the market. Yahoo is locked in mortal combat with Google and winning over a significant number of that 3% can make a difference in that battle.
The widget interface can be the core of improving Yahoo's weakness in the OS X platform (video, audio, games, chat, and mail).
If the MacTel switch does drive new users (very possible given that Windows Vista is unlikely to ship until a few months later if that soon) then Yahoo can grab market share via the new Mac users.

[Spark]

In reply to:

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If the MacTel switch does....

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How about, "If the Mac switch to Intel processors does...." ?
No offense ment, I just think the term "Mactel" is a disservice to the Macintosh brand!

[mdawson]

If you are referring to Mac OS Xs Dashboard, do recall that Konfabulator was nothing more than a modernization of the desk accessory feature that first appeared in early Macs and that some of the authors for Konfabulator were once Apple employees. Dashboard, is desk accessories revisited by Apple. Apple did not rip off anyones technology so much as they were not the first to revamp the desktop accessory concept which first appeared on their systems twenty years ago.

[Jarmo]

Neat. My home mac is still running 10.2.8, so no dashboard for me.
I've wanted that weather thingy for years, but haven't thought it
important enough to actually cough up cash for.
Running Konfab now.

[iMacAlot777]

Exactly my point mdawson /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
http://daringfirebal...04/06/dashboard[/u]vs_konfabulator

[PeterG]

Spark,
I agree with you about Brand names. This is how it would work for me.
Hi, I'm Peter, an AustralianPermanentResidentAlienAmerican.
/forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Peter

[Steve_S]

In reply to:

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Dashboard, is desk accessories revisited by Apple. Apple did not rip off anyones technology so much as they were not the first to revamp the desktop accessory concept which first appeared on their systems twenty years ago.

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Well said. My initial reaction to Apple's Dashboard announcement was similar to rlavere's. It just seemed when it comes down to it, there is nothing unique about Konfabulator. Apple's implementation is different from Konfabulator, so it's not as if Apple needed to purchase an API as Yahoo did. Also, the concept of the widget does date back to desk accessories on the Mac. On the PC, there are other products which compete with and in most cases predate Konfabulator as well (Stardock's desktop X, Capsules, Avedesk, Samurize), etc. So, given the history of desk accessories, widgets, gadgets or whatever you want to call them, I have to agree with the overall conclusion that Apple didn't owe Konfabulator a dime for dashboard. Even though I still agree that it's regretable Konfabulator ends up on the wrong end of the stick.
The problem with all previous implementations are that they just weren't practical. Most people have many windows open such that the desktop is rarely viewable. Apple's simple mix of expose with a widget engine solved this problem in a very functional way. Apple deserves credit for getting the interface correct for this type of application and thereby making this entire class of applications more practical.
I'm all for cross platform applications and applaud Yahoo's effort to support cross platform implementations going forward. That said, Dashboard seems to be the superior implementation to me, so I'm not sure I see the market for Konfabulator on the Mac, even if it is now free. Sure, not everyone is on Tiger yet, but eventually, they will be.
Steve

[saddino]

In reply to:

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Konfabulator's widgets, which I'm trying out now that it's free, tend to be a lot less slick than Dashboard's, and the UI for opening them is a lot less nice, however one area where it has a huge advantage over Dashboard is that widgets can be on the "dashboard"-layer-equivalent, or can have normal windowing behavior, always be on the desktop or always on top - your choice.

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You can do that with Dashboard widgets too if you use Amnesty: floating, normal windowing or in the desktop - your choice. Amnesty also lets you apply opacity to any Dashboard widget, has hot key support and support multiple widget layouts (basically virtual Dashboards, as many as you want).
Much nicer than the "developer hack." And Amnesty runs on Panther, too.

[mrbach]

I think it is great that Arlo gets some recognition and some income out of Konfabulator. Konfab is better than Dashboard because you can turn it off. It takes the real inventor to think of an off switch. Congrats. I hope he doesn't pay too much attention to the Mac diehards here that love an opportunity to trash Yahoo because it is a much more popular site with PC users. As an inventor, I just like to hear the success story of technology transfer.

[iMacAlot777]

rolls eyes - mac diehards?
if u haven't already - read this - http://daringfirebal...04/06/dashboard[/u]vs_konfabulator
"Dashboard gadgets are further extensible using Cocoa. You dont need to use Cocoa fully functional gadgets can be made using nothing more than HTML, CSS, and Javascript but the option to use Cocoa is there for doing things Javascript alone cant do.
Thus, Dashboard is clearly an extension of Mac OS X system-level technologies: Web Kit for layout and scripting; Expos for the Dashboard window layer; and Cocoa for advanced functionality. Dashboard is the result of advanced Mac OS X technology in action.
Konfabulator is not a lightweight or small-footprint environment every Konfabulator widget runs as a separate process, with its own runtime environment in memory. Most Konfabulator widgets use more memory than typical full-blown Mac OS X applications. Not just Konfabulator as a whole but each widget. Install it, fire up Process Viewer, and see for yourself. (Ironically, the Konfabulator CPU Portal widget seems to leak memory.)" - from above linked article