The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

Uh-oh. The widget dissers are starting to assert themselves... You guys who love to diss widgets have no imagination whatsoever. Either that, or you have a really small screen or a really slow machine. (In which case, I understand.)There are countless useful widgets that can replace shareware apps you might have paid for. But you have to know how to use them, and which to use. You also have to have the time to actually go through them all... and there are, what, about 2,000 by now? Almost all free for the taking. Widgets are where some of the most creative ideas in web software is taking place today... so many great Mac developers, so many great ideas!

If you have a large monitor, just bring the widgets onto the desktop. (Use "developer mode": grab a widget in the dashboard and drag it while holding F12. This will bring it to the desktop. You can put it back the same way.) I never use the dashboard layer (well, almost never). I keep about a dozen widgets on my desktop at any one time, and probably twice that many in limbo on the dashboard layer. Here's what I've got on my desktop at the moment:

1. Percount Nano. Cute countdown widget that lets you drag any photo or image you like into the middle. Very customizable.
2. eCheck. OK, this is one I paid $5 for. But there's nothing else like it. This little guy lets you set up any number of email accounts, both POP and IMAP, and keeps the screen updated with the number of unread emails you have. Without having to open Mail! It's Growl-enabled, so you can get notifications that way if you like.
3. Screenshot Plus. The easiest way to take screen grabs. Has features even SnapzPro doesn't, like: You can select an app to open your screen grab once you copy it to the clipboard. And it's free!
4. SeeSS. If you do any web development, this is the best CSS reference tool around, and it curls up into a tiny lozenge on the desktop when you're done. No shooting you out to the web either... everything's in the widget.
5. Reminder. I've tried umteen reminder apps, and there are many good ones. This one is the best. All you do is type in a number of minutes, a title and Return. Reminder sets up an iCal alarm in a customizable configuration. Sweet.
6. Launcher. Have so many widgets you can't remember their names or what they do? This is a search tool for widgets. It also has a search for Applications, so you can use it as an app launcher, too.
7. PHPQuickReference. The PHP analog to my CSS reference widget.
8. Symphony. Launch any song in your itunes collection without opening or launching itunes.
9. AppButton. From Taco Widgets, it's still in beta. But this is going to be the most useful app launcher in widget form ever made. Again, it's great because it has so much power hidden behind that tiny round "A" icon. Takes up very little space on your desktop.
10. Widget Update. By the makers of App Update... this one lets you see which widgets have more recent releases and gives you links to the various widget sites to download.
11. DoBeDo. The best to-do list app, widget or not. It's the only one that reliable syncs with iCal, so it not only reads iCal to-do lists, but you can add to them as well. Great interface.
12. Apple's Stock widget. If you follow the stock market at all, this is probably the easiest way of glancing at the latest data.

That's just a beginning... but it's all I've got time for right now. (I need to do a blog article on widgets to do the topic justice.) Widgets are a marvel... you just have to know how to use them. Oh, and it is important to be able to turn the widget system off now and then. I have an applescript in my script menu that disables all the widgets and another than reenables them. Widgets DO take up resources, and sometimes you don't have any to spare.

Damn! I forgot to mention iPhoto Mini. What a great widget that is! (Oh, I see that's one that was actually mentioned on the rather anemic Apple Matters list.)

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