Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger): Widgets

ID: 050705.0947

A new feature of Mac OS X 1.4 (Tiger) is Dashboard. Pressing F12 darkens the Desktop and all open windows to reveal mini-applications called widgets. My favorite is a weather widget that can display, for a specific location (zip code), the current temperature, as well as forecasted high and low temperatures over the current six day period, and an image of sky conditions. When it's daylight, the sun is visible. At night, the background is dark. Clouds show if it's cloudy. It's perfect for those who rarely see the light of day (or night).

There can be more than one instance of a particular widget. One might for example, have several weather widgets, one for each of several different locations. Likewise, it may be useful to have several clock widgets to display the current time in different time zones, or calendar widgets displaying diffferent months, or even years.

Pressing F12 again, hides the Dashboard, returning the Desktop and open windows to their previous condition. (Using F12 to access Dashboard widgets creates problems for Dreamweaver users because Dreamweaver traditionally assigns F12 to its browser preview function. The workaround is to reassign this function to a new Dreamweaver key combination.)

A disadvantage of Dashboard however, is that its widgets cannot have the focus at the same time as the Desktop or any open window. Users have to alternate between viewing Dashboard widgets, or working with the Desktop and open windows; not both at the same time. This is particularly noticeable for the (Oxford American) dictionary widget. You cannot keep a defintion open while writing, for example, in TextPad, Pages, or Word. (Fortunately, Tiger provides the Oxford American Dictionary as a standalone application, Dictionary.app, in the Applications folder.

Some of the widgets — there are hundreds available in addition to those supplied with Tiger — are less useful than they might seem. Among the many search widgets, are Google and IMDB (Internet Movie Database) widgets. Enter a search term, and Dashboard closes while the default browser (Safari) opens to the corresponding results page on Google or IMDB. This seems like a great idea until one realizes Forefox already offers this capability built into its browser.

By default, the top right corner of Firefox is a text box to enter Google search terms, and return the corresponding results page. Clicking the down arrow by the Google icon however, lists other search engines — Yahoo, Amazon.com, Creative Commons, Dictionary.com, and eBay — that may also be similarly accessed. Additional search engines can be added. For example, I added IMDB.

By contrast, Tiger's Safari 2.0 browser only permits Google searches in the corresponding feature. In compensation however, unlike Firefox, Safari lists recent Google searches. If you only use Safari, you need additional widgets to deliver the same funtionality as Firefox.

Widgets might be a little bit dangerous. (Think, ActiveX on steroids.) In fact, the May 20, 2005 upgrade from Mac OS X 10.4 to 10.4.1 is a security fix to prevent widgets from downloading and installing without warning. (See Joris Evers' CNET News.com story, Widget security worries dog Apple.)

Conclusion: Widgets are fun, maybe dangerous. Some are useful.

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