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thePurpleGiant · Jul 4, 2004, 08:42 AM

This may be a little, okay very, premature, given the pre-release nature of Tiger, but how many of you out there have created your own Dashboard gadgets? No matter how dodgy or useless they may be, post your creations here, perhaps with a screenshot, I'd be interested to see them!

thePurpleGiant · Jul 4, 2004, 08:50 AM

Further question: Mods - where do topics relating to gadgets go? I mean Dashboard is part of the OS, thus it belongs in OS X forum - but gadgets could be considered software perhaps? Or maybe even GUI customization? Something to think about.

posthumanus · Jul 4, 2004, 08:55 AM

and what .app would you have to master to create 'em?

ShotgunEd · Jul 4, 2004, 09:05 AM

they could also go in the web developer forum, since they are made using WebKit.

Angus_D · Jul 4, 2004, 09:23 AM

Originally posted by posthumanus:
and what .app would you have to master to create 'em?

TextEdit.

Chris O'Brien · Jul 4, 2004, 05:25 PM

Well, I've made loads of things that could be construed as gadgets, but just aren't written to be specifically gadgets..

There's going to be a massive explosion of gadgets (I imagine) once Tiger is released and all us web developers can get our hands dirty making them! It's quite akin to Microsofts HTA's; but they never really took off (and didn't give us the massive flexibility in interface)...

starman · Jul 4, 2004, 07:00 PM

Originally posted by posthumanus:
and what .app would you have to master to create 'em?

vi

philzilla · Jul 4, 2004, 07:01 PM

Originally posted by Angus_D:
TextEdit.

why not say vi and be totally 1337, dude.

[edit] heh, starman is an ass

ShotgunEd · Jul 4, 2004, 07:02 PM

Originally posted by philzilla:
why not say vi and be totally 1337, dude.

because starman just did

starman · Jul 4, 2004, 07:04 PM

Originally posted by philzilla:
why not say vi and be totally 1337, dude.

[edit] heh, starman is an ass

(best pic from The Wall I could find)

starman · Jul 4, 2004, 07:09 PM

I plan on working on gadgets after I get back from watching the fireworks. I took a look at the calculator one. It uses Javascript just like Kon does so it shouldn't be too hard to write one.

Mike

zachs · Jul 4, 2004, 07:15 PM

I made a really quick and dirty one. Check it out.

I imagine that a lot of people who wrote widgets for Kon will easily be able to port them over to Dashboard...so we should see a lot when Tiger is finally released.

starman · Jul 4, 2004, 07:27 PM

Originally posted by zachs:
I made a really quick and dirty one. Check it out.

I imagine that a lot of people who wrote widgets for Kon will easily be able to port them over to Dashboard...so we should see a lot when Tiger is finally released.

That's cool. How often does it update?

Mike

zachs · Jul 4, 2004, 07:58 PM

Originally posted by starman:
That's cool. How often does it update?

Mike

Every couple of seconds. You can edit the HTML file to change the time internal.

thePurpleGiant · Jul 5, 2004, 04:30 AM

Originally posted by Black Book:
Well, I've made loads of things that could be construed as gadgets, but just aren't written to be specifically gadgets..

Looking forward to them mate, take a look inside, say, Zach's gadget, you'll find they're quite straight forward. The possibilities are quite huge.

And Zach - nice looking gadget man, you could well be one of the first to complete and post a gadget around here.

Anyone else got something in the works? (no matter how small or big)

Chris O'Brien · 05:25 AM

Ah good idea.
I'll post a snake game I made when I get home tonight. It's not overly-great code (I hacked it up at work when I should've been doing other things) but it's a great way to pass the time.

Dunno how well a game would work as a gadget though...

It'd be nice to hear suggestions for gadgets from people that we could have a go at writing (or is it a bit premature since next to no-one could use them?).

thePurpleGiant · Jul 5, 2004, 08:57 AM

Originally posted by Black Book:
It'd be nice to hear suggestions for gadgets from people that we could have a go at writing (or is it a bit premature since next to no-one could use them?).

Gadgets I would find useful: (most of these are apps already, but I would like them as gadgets)

A 'screen resolution' gadget.
This would simply be a semi-transparent box, of a certain number of pixels, say, 800x600. I would include lines for a menubar at that resolution, dock, scrollbars etc (if wanted, all in options). Useful for web development. Open a page in Safari, then flick to the widgets to show how much will fit in that screen resolution.

An Alarm Clock
Looks like an old-skool alarm clock, sounds like an old-skool alarm clock. Set the time for the alarm to go off.

A timer
Click 'go' and it will start increasing the time, just like a stop watch. Hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds. Simple, to the point, could be handy sometimes.

A counter
Opposite of the timer, similar to the alarm clock. Set the timer to, say '15 minutes' and click go. It will count down from 15 minutes to 0, and buzz when it reaches zero.

Currency Converter
Just like the currency converter in Calculator app, but simplified. On the front is a number field, and a go button. On the back, you pick 'to' and 'from' currency. Gets currency rates from the net.

eBay monitor
Customizable. In basic form shows current items you are bidding on or selling. Item name, amount, and auction close time is all that is needed. Quick way to monitor how your ebay auctions are going.

I'm sure most of those ideas are very feasible, and I would fine most of them useful at one point or another. I think it would be important for each gadget to not have too many features, hence when timer and counter are separate gadgets, for different uses. Can gadgets play sounds? That could make or break a few ideas above.

philzilla · Jul 5, 2004, 09:13 AM

Originally posted by thePurpleGiant:
Can gadgets play sounds? That could make or break a few ideas above.

Flash can play sounds. QuickTime has a Flash layer. QuickTime is a core component of OS X.

don't see why it couldn't happen.

Chris O'Brien · Jul 5, 2004, 09:30 AM

I doubt you'd need to go through flash. You can control quicktime in web pages using javascript. I made a Pink Floyd anthology which did just that (as you viewed the lyrics/guitar tab you could ask it to play the corresponding song automagically. It didn't synch with the lyrics or anything, but it impressed me mates

)

Carl Norum · Jul 5, 2004, 12:20 PM

Our winning submission to the WWDC2004 Dashboard contest will be up on the web inside the week for those of you with a dev copy of tiger. Screenshots are available from apple at:

http://developer.apple.com/wwdc/dashboard.html

Woohoo! Free powerbook!

-- Carl

spauldingg · Jul 5, 2004, 01:12 PM

I have designed this one that would search and download images from corbis/getty for comping purposes.

Angus_D · Jul 5, 2004, 02:26 PM

Originally posted by philzilla:
why not say vi and be totally 1337, dude.

[edit] heh, starman is an ass

because real men use emacs

Carl Norum · Jul 5, 2004, 02:38 PM

Originally posted by philzilla:
Flash can play sounds. QuickTime has a Flash layer. QuickTime is a core component of OS X.

don't see why it couldn't happen.

They can do anything any other app can do. There is a bridge that allows the javascript component of a gadget to communicate with a native code plugin. GoBoard plays sounds (system beep on illegal move and a click when a stone is laid).

-- Carl

thePurpleGiant · Jul 5, 2004, 05:02 PM

Originally posted by Carl Norum:
Our winning submission to the WWDC2004 Dashboard contest will be up on the web inside the week for those of you with a dev copy of tiger. Screenshots are available from apple at:

http://developer.apple.com/wwdc/dashboard.html

Woohoo! Free powerbook!

-- Carl

Congrats man!

Originally posted by spauldingg:
I have designed this one that would search and download images from corbis/getty for comping purposes.

Is that functional, or a mockup?

spauldingg · Jul 5, 2004, 05:32 PM

Just a mock-up. I'm either hoping someone out there might help me with code, or wait until some site posts easy to use directions for coding such gadgets. I don't have Tiger to write/test it anyway so for now I'm just gonna mock up ideas I have...

Dominyo · Jul 6, 2004, 02:40 AM

I made a simple Timer gadget, you can get it at http://dominyo.h4xn3t.net:8080/~mike/timer.gadget.zip. It's nothing special, but it's my first Gadget, and the first time I've used Javascript

.

It'd be great if someone would make a website where people can exchange and discuss Gadgets, but Apple might have some objections to that