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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:

  1. Widgets uses the XLaunch icon and splash screen and the Unknown icon is the wrong size. Sorry about that.
  2. 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.
  3. 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/Widgets is going to be your best bet. And yes, you need to create the Widgets folder if it does not yet exist.


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I've kinda sorta almost have Macintosh Dashboard widgets running on the iPhone. Some run okay, others not so much. The Weather, ESPN and...
 

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emir

but how can i open the iphone? i bought the iphone from the usa and decoded it, because i live in europe, macedonia..so i can't update my software my iphone or it wll be useless... it will block the iphone so how do i open scp -r YourWidget.wdgt root@youriphoneip:/var/root/Library/Widgets ? please reply

November 03 2007 at 10:55 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Gavin Anderson

Erica, thanks for all the awesome stuff you've done for all of us!

November 02 2007 at 3:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Amin

So how can I access the files on my iphone? Do I need special software?

September 22 2007 at 11:51 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jason

Very cool, thanks Erica! Keep these great apps coming!

One thing I'm having trouble with is that I can't find a way to flip the widget. Since most widgets list their preferences on the back side, I can't change any settings.

September 20 2007 at 11:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
tim

37: the simplest way to do this is to get installer.app on your phone, install the BSD subsystem, then install openssh. download fugu (an SFTP application) and connect to your phone by typing in the IP address (you find it in your iphone wifi settings). now, simply navigate to the folder that she specified (which i think was /var/root/Library/Widgets) and voila!

works the same for NES ROMs (/var/root/Media/ROMs/NES) and ringtones (/var/root/Library/Ringtones)

September 20 2007 at 5:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Joe

Ok, I'm gonna play real stupid here. Can someone tell me how to do this? In other words, how do I get the widget file on the phone, via the internet os somehow thru syncing??

Thanks

September 20 2007 at 2:01 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
amazemeid

How do I delete the widget from the Widgets folder on the phone? I cannot delete it. I am using Fugu.

September 19 2007 at 8:53 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
nomaods

Update-
Just installed Apache via Installer app and now have GTDTiddlyWiki on my iPhone.
http://shared.snapgrid.com/index.html

September 19 2007 at 2:42 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
nomaods

For ref:
As far as local html files I did a search for any pre-existing .htm* and found
./Applications/Preferences.app/English.lproj/legal-disclaimer.html
on the iPhone. After typing it into the address bar in Safari I got the following "Safari can't open the page because it is a local file." and an ok button.
n

September 19 2007 at 1:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Disconnect

#31 - check #11 (IIRC) about the native apps contained in the widgets. Google uses native apps to talk to the keychain. :(

I've got an issue where you can't scroll or (better) rotate - the wunderground widget just won't work if you can't see more than 1/3 of it :)

September 18 2007 at 1:12 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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