Filed under: Hacks, How-tos, iPhone
Run Widgets (kinda) on your iPhone
I've kinda sorta almost have Macintosh Dashboard widgets running on the iPhone. Some run okay, others not so much. The Weather, ESPN and Calendar widgets are some of the best; the Flight Tracker, Dictionary and Phone Book are among the worst. If you'd like to give this a try, download a copy of Widgets.app with the following understanding:
- Widgets uses the XLaunch icon and splash screen and the Unknown icon is the wrong size. Sorry about that.
- You must install System/Library/WidgetResources from your Mac onto the iPhone. Same folder, same name, same contents. Most Widgets will not run properly without these support files.
- Install your widgets into /var/root/Library/Widgets on the iPhone. Widgets.app runs plain old ordinary OS X widgets. You must copy over the entire file structure, so
scp -r YourWidget.wdgt root@youriphoneip:/var/root/Library/Widgetsis going to be your best bet. And yes, you need to create the Widgets folder if it does not yet exist.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Mike said 3:51PM on 9-17-2007
Erica,
While Apple dithers away at ringtone run-arounds, and bug fixes, you continue to find ways to bring more to the iPhone. All of the code stuff is way out of my league - and out of my reach as far as modifying my own iPhone...but I truly enjoy reading all of your posts on your under-the-hood magic. Amazing.
Reply
Aron Trimble said 3:54PM on 9-17-2007
Oh snap! Erica did you write this? I'm sorry...
Erica FTW!
Reply
Ryan said 3:59PM on 9-17-2007
Now that's awesome! I imagine it won't be long until we will be able to have a full "dashboard" on our iPhone's! Get it to launch like Weather.app does and I will go NUTS! You continue to impress...
Reply
ishcabittle said 4:02PM on 9-17-2007
Back when they first announced the iPhone, I just assumed that Widgets, Terminal, OpenSSH, et al would be on the device if you wanted/needed it. Imagine my suprise when I learned that those things would be missing...
Lo and behold, the best development for the iPhone is being produced by the people who don't get paid to love Apple products, they just do. Thanks so much for giving me the ammunition I need when Palm, Nokia, and Blackberry fanbois say things like, "Well, can you SSH out on that thing?". Yes, with 2048 bit public key encryption, thanks very much.
Reply
Aron Trimble said 4:03PM on 9-17-2007
Wow, that's amazing - I can't wait to try this when I get home tonight.
Ps, Will you ask Nate if in v0.2 it will be possible to have the background behind the widget be white?
Reply
Erica Sadun said 4:04PM on 9-17-2007
Aron: Nate just gives me ftp space on his site because my mindspring account offers no real hosting ability.
Reply
Erica Sadun said 4:07PM on 9-17-2007
Windows users can download gadzillions of free Widgets from http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/
Reply
Jason said 4:07PM on 9-17-2007
This looks like it will turn out to be a great thing! Any instructions or methods for us Windows users?
Thanks!
Reply
WickDC said 4:08PM on 9-17-2007
FAB-OO! (Erica, I e-mailed you an icon for it.)
Reply
Libby said 4:10PM on 9-17-2007
The widgets that run on the iPhone are those that aren't overly dependent on Dashboard's API, e.g. those that you can run by opening their main HTML file in Safari. Without Dashboard on the iPhone I'm not too sure how much more Erica can do. Nice hack though!
Reply
Eric Litman said 4:42PM on 9-17-2007
Kick ass!
BTW - for those of you wondering in advance if a particular widget might work, if you see a native Mac OS executable in the widget folder (often in a subdirectory called SOMETHING.widgetplugin), chances are exceedingly high that widget will NOT work.
Reply
Ryan said 4:45PM on 9-17-2007
Seriously this is the best news ever. But if it were for the ipod touch I would start sending you money in the mail haha. Awesome work!
Reply
Widgetop said 4:46PM on 9-17-2007
You can already use Widgetop (http://m.widgetop.com) to get many Dashboard widgets on the iPhone (and iPod Touch). It works completely in the built in Safari browser and can be configured from your desktop browser.
Reply
Carlos() said 4:55PM on 9-17-2007
Erica,
I've been waiting for this!!! Can't wait to try..
Did you ever post how to download ITune preview from 7.4.1
Reply
My Metrocard said 5:16PM on 9-17-2007
Fuck you, Erica. Just fuck you.
Reply
Andrew Velis said 5:30PM on 9-17-2007
Apple, like God, uses a light touch. Apple has its user fan base supply Apple with features we want because here we are making them. When the time is right, Apple releases them, people cheer and the cycle continues. I like Apple because I believe it tries to listen to what it's users want.
In other words, "When you done things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all." -Futurama
Reply
DiggUser said 5:50PM on 9-17-2007
Very cool! The iPhone is a Universal Machine!
Reply
Shai said 5:58PM on 9-17-2007
13 and 15, you guys are retarded. The point of this is to allow you to run a mac widget nativly of the iphone springboard, not to have to login to some site.
Reply
Tony said 6:05PM on 9-17-2007
Oh No! Ringtones are broken again with the iTunes War of the Ringtones.
Hackers you better get busy, as a new iTunes Version has just arrived.
Reply
MacSlut said 6:13PM on 9-17-2007
Wow, Erica just never stops amazing me. I too was expecting Widgets to be a natural part of the iPhone and was bummed (until now).
BTW: Does anyone know of a way to do any of the following...
1) Create an alias app for Contacts? Just a simple icon that could be placed on SpringBoard (or SummerBoard) that when clicked, opened Contacts within the Phone App.
2) Open a local HTML file in the Safari app? I have some HTML pages that I'd love to be able to store on my iPhone so that they would load locally instead of having to load over wireless. Ideally this could be put into one of those URL pointer apps.
Reply