Filed under: OS, Software, Features, Surveys and Polls
Yahoo launches Yahoo! Widgets
Last night it was confirmed that Yahoo had acquired Konfabulator and would be re-releasing the application for free. This morning they wasted no time going live with Yahoo! Widgets.There, you can download the newly-free Konfabulator (Mac OS X 10.2+, Windows XP or 2k) and click through to the Widget Gallery, where you can browse through and download over 1000 widgets.
I'm curious... how many of you Tiger users will banish Dashboard from your dock and switch to (or resume using) Konfabulator now that it's free?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Paul said 11:52AM on 7-25-2005
im sure ill stick with apple on this one
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Ryan said 12:07PM on 7-25-2005
I tried using Konfabulator once about a year and a half ago, but found it inadequate for whatever reason. Since it's now free, I think I'll take it for another side-by-side test drive with Dashboard. Really, what have I got to lose?
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Jack Foster Mancilla said 12:13PM on 7-25-2005
I bought Konfabulator when it first came out. I still use it.
I also have Tiger, and occasionally use Dashboard.
The main thing I use Konfabulator for is to monitor some pieces of information, out on the net, that changes often, but irregularly. Those widgets remain on my desktop, at all times.
To that end, I use Konfabulator quite a bit more than Dashboard. And I think there will be more Kool Konfabulator Knick-knack widgets in the future. ...
I am a supporter of anything that works. The right tool for the job. Konfabulator has some tools that Dashboard does not have, so I will use it.
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FikseGTS said 12:21PM on 7-25-2005
This is good news. I like using Konfabulator over dashboard since you can keep the widgets viewable while working. It would be great if the widgets worked with eachother... :)
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FikseGTS said 12:31PM on 7-25-2005
This is good news. I like using Konfabulator over dashboard since you can keep the widgets viewable while working. It would be great if the widgets worked with eachother... :)
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The Unofficial Apple Weblog Commenter said 12:27PM on 7-25-2005
I'd use it... if they released a version for the Palm OS.
Most widgets would fit on my Treo's 320x320 screen, and it would make accessing information so much faster because all the UI wouldn't have to be downloaded over the Treo's pokey network connection.
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Mahalis said 12:42PM on 7-25-2005
I don't have Dashboard in my dock anyway - F12's good enough - but I almost certainly won't be replacing it with Konfab. I like being able to develop my own widgets, and Dashboard just has Konfab completely beat in terms of widget capabilities and ease of development.
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Stephen said 12:54PM on 7-25-2005
been a long time Konfab owner/user...long before Apple decided to ripoff Arlo and Perry.....never ever run Dashboard...pretty lame implementation of a great utility....hope Yahoo doesn't screw it up
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jhn said 1:33PM on 7-25-2005
Dashboard is a much better implementation of the widget idea than Konfabulator. Apple buys companies for their technologies, not for their ideas, and Konfab's technology is just not up to snuff. Their program is a resource hog, compared to Dashboard, their widgets are too hard to make and too inflexible. Dashboard widgets are much more inviting to the begining programmer, given how similar they are to web pages. Konfabulator does have some nice options that Dashboard is missing, like keeping some widgets visible all the time, or attached to the desktop. That's how I used to run it. I think the Dashboard idea is better, but some widgets would be better off more in your face. No reason that can't be easily added to Dashboard, though. (It would give up the processor-saving advantage of having widgets "hibernate" when not in use though.)
Props to Arlo and Perry for their great idea (and let's not pretend like it wasn't a good idea. Old school stuff like Desk Accessories don't count), but let's hope Yahoo decides to seriously slim down Konfabulator.
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Joe said 1:30PM on 7-25-2005
Since I use Konfabulator widgets long before Dashboard, I like Calendar, Weather, CPU on my desktop and Dashboard for Dictionary, Thesarus, Wikipedia and other reference widgets.
So, if I need to check my Calendar I type F11 and if I need to make a quick translation or check the meaning of a word I type F12.
So far, so good.
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Porchland said 1:21PM on 7-25-2005
Apple didn't TM "Widgets"? Apple who practically has its own parking space at the U.S. Patent and Trademark office?
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Henry said 1:55PM on 7-25-2005
Dashboard does allow you to use widgets on the desktop but you have to enable devmode for it to work well. An easy way to do this is to get the devmode widget at
http://www.dashboardwidgets.com/showcase/details.php?wid=671 .
Another way is to open terminal and type:
defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES
press return and then type:
killall Dock
and press return.
After doing this just click and hold on a widget and close dashboard at the same time. The widget will drag off. You can do this without devmode but you have to drag a new widget from the drawer and the widget will return to the dashboard when you open it again.
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Penginkun said 1:58PM on 7-25-2005
I don't want either of them. They're not useful to me.
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Penginkun said 2:01PM on 7-25-2005
"Props to Arlo and Perry for their great idea (and let's not pretend like it wasn't a good idea. Old school stuff like Desk Accessories don't count)"
I have three words for you: Stardock Object Desktop.
Arlo and Perry did NOT come up with widgets.
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Twist said 5:12PM on 7-25-2005
I wasn't impressed with Dashboard. I don't like the Expose mode nature it uses and I don't like the way the widgets float above everything else when you move them to the desktop. Most of the Konfabulator widgets I run are ones I made myself or customized. Dashboard doesn't seem to support some of the features I use like global hotkeys so I couldn't port some of them to Dashboard even if I wanted to.
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Scott Gardner said 3:00PM on 7-25-2005
I haven't used Konfabulator, really. Well, I downloaded it to my VPN'd PC at my employer (I work remotely), but because I have the color settings low to promote faster operation, the Konfab widgets don't look all that good (graphic overlaps, illegible writing, etc.). Not their problem, of course, but just a prelim to my comment here. That said, I do not know the history of Apple Dashboard vs. Konfabulator, but I do think that the Dashboard functionality (in addition to being able to park Dashboard Widgets on the Desktop, too) adds considerable benefits to the whole Widget thing. So, I think of Yahoo!'s acquisition and marketing of Konfabulator as a form of marketing for Apple's Dashboard, i.e., if you like Yahoo! Widgets, you'll *LOVE* Dashboard. My concern is that, in the same vain that developers have focused more so on PC/Windows due to the audience size, I hope Widget developers will continue to develop for Dashboard. Or, I wonder if some rocket-scientist-type will come out with a Yahoo! Widget to Dashboard Widget Converter? Hello Rosetta, there'a a freebie for you!
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SBro said 3:03PM on 7-25-2005
This is scary for Apple OS X. If Microsoft runs with this Apple could lose one of their major selling points to Tiger. Pre-Intall it on Vista and sell it as one of its new features.
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Dean Shan said 7:43PM on 7-25-2005
I tried Konfabulator when I had 10.3 but I never really used the widgets and found Konfabulator to be a huge memory hog. So when Apple released Tiger I thought I wouldn't use the widgets much but have found that I use them more often then I did with Konfabulator.
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Joe said 10:53PM on 9-22-2005
I can't think too many people will switch from Dashboard to Konfabulator, but it is certainly a good alternative for PC users. This also looks interesting http://www.swidgets.net/
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