Macworld: Mac OS X Dashboard Widgets top 1,000 ...

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6 Replies Last post: Aug 3, 2005 1:47 AM by amcgee

MW Forums

12,220 posts since
Aug 2, 2004

Aug 2, 2005 6:00 AM

Mac OS X Dashboard Widgets top 1,000

Apple on Tuesday said that it now has over 1,000 Widgets available from its Dashboard Web site. In addition to having more available from other Web sites, Apple said it is adding dozens more daily. "Dashboard is a runaway hit," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "With over a thousand widgets to choose from, users can customize their Dashboards to do almost anything." more

fribhey

683 posts since
May 21, 2004

1. Aug 2, 2005 6:35 AM

in response to: MW Forums

Re: Mac OS X Dashboard Widgets top 1,000

yeah but how many of them are unique..... there are at least 25 different amazon search tools and i won't use any of them since most of them give amazon referral credit to the author of the widget.

mdawson

2,761 posts since
Aug 31, 2004

2. Aug 2, 2005 7:02 AM

in response to: fribhey

Re: Mac OS X Dashboard Widgets top 1,000

Good point. Sometimes having numbers means little of anything (read: the Windows has more software argument). A certain number of non-unique apps creates competition, offers the user options and forces the authors to keep their product competitive. Beyond a certain number there is a diminishing return as there becomes too much for people to choose from and more crap finds it way into the pool.

The one good thing is that one would hope that Widgets referenced through the Apple Website have been certified as non-malicious. With the concerns over Dashboard potentially becoming a portal for malware, perhaps Apple could create some form of certification program for Widgets. An ounce of prevention...

“Cannot run out of time. There is infinite time. You are finite. Zathras is finite. This is wrong tool.” 2.3GHz Power Mac G5/4GB/500GB HDD/OS X 10.4.11/30-inch ACD, 60GB iPod (Color)

Netizen_Kane

425 posts since
Nov 1, 2001

3. Aug 2, 2005 7:45 AM

in response to: mdawson

Re: Mac OS X Dashboard Widgets top 1,000

As long as you download your widgets from a reputable source like Dashboardwidgets.com or Apple, I think you're safe. AFAIK, they look at the widgets' code for malware before posting them. Luckily, widgets are nothing more than simple webpages, so they're easily dissected.

harryhood

1 posts since
Aug 2, 2005

4. Aug 2, 2005 1:26 PM

in response to: MW Forums

Re: Mac OS X Dashboard Widgets top 1,000

Now someone needs to create a Software Update kinda thing to keep your widgets updated. Many come out as a 0.x version and have been updated a lot. Hard to keep up.

powermac99

2 posts since
Feb 2, 2004

5. Aug 2, 2005 2:02 PM

in response to: harryhood

Re: Mac OS X Dashboard Widgets top 1,000

Here you go, harryhood:

Widget Update

amcgee

3 posts since
Aug 3, 2005

6. Aug 3, 2005 1:47 AM

in response to: MW Forums

Re: Mac OS X Dashboard Widgets top 1,000

How many Konfabulator widgets are there? Now that Konfabulator is free, has widget development for that picked up at all?

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Aug 2, 2005 6:00 AM

Mac OS X Dashboard Widgets top 1,000

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