Turn Google gadgets into widgets, widgets into apps

Google, like seemingly almost every other web services company on the planet these days, offers a personalized Google homepage that allows you to customize the page with more or less the internet version of widgets. Google calls them gadgets, and you can drag and drop them to create just the page you want.

Recently, Google announced they were breaking the chains that bind their gadgets to their homepage, allowing anyone to copy and paste some simple HTML to place any gadget on their own site. But why stop there? Dan from Uneasysilence dropped us a line about Mesa Dynamics, an interesting app company who has created two widget and gadget wrangling apps.

First up is Amnesty Generator, a free utility that turns any Google gadget into a Mac OS X Dashboard widget. It sounds like one catch with this process, however, is that any gadget-cum-widget is 100% internet dependent, even if it's something like a standalone game. This makes sense to me though, since the HTML is still calling out somewhere to get whatever makes up the gadget widget.

Second on the list from Mesa Dynamics is Amnesty Singles, which unleashes widgets from the Dashboard and turns them into full-blown apps. This utility costs $9.95 and requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 (though it's Universal), and I would imagine the internet dependence still exists for Google gadgets when turned into apps, though I would imagine Mac OS X Dashboard widgets which don't need the internet to begin with will act just fine without being online.

So there's your time-waster for the day: gadgets to widgets to apps, oh my!
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