[Big Mac]

Does someone have an explanation for why Apple is promoting widgets so heavily? It has been monopolizing the top feature of the index page for a few days now. Am I overlooking some grand significance of this widget promotional period?

[Randman]

Widgets are part of Tiger. Tiger is new. Not everyone has Tiger. Widgets are easy to advertise on a website. Widgets are fun and useful.

[jcadam]

Dashboard is a big differentiator between Windows and Mac OS X. One that is more readily apparent to the casual user than less tangible things like 'stability' and 'security'.

Along with dashboard and expose, I find myself really missing Spotlight on my Wintel box at work. Where I would probably have much more use for them

[buggsuperstar]

Why SHOULDN'T they be promoting Widgets?

Like jcadam said, it's something Windows doesn't have. I would be advertising a feature that my competitor did not have too.

[:XI:]

Originally Posted by jcadam

Dashboard is a big differentiator between Windows and Mac OS X. One that is more readily apparent to the casual user than less tangible things like 'stability' and 'security'.

Along with dashboard and expose, I find myself really missing Spotlight on my Wintel box at work. Where I would probably have much more use for them

Tell me about it. I have expose mapped the the extra buttons on my mouse, but at work I keep trying to press the buttons (that aren't there) on an OS that doesn't even have expose!

[wataru]

Dashboard has to be the most over-hyped new feature. I've found it to be completely worthless. Most widgets are just portals to existing websites... why don't I just use the website instead of waiting for countless widgets to unfreeze themselves when I open Dashbaord!?

[ManOfSteal]

I like the extra exposure....especially after the failure of Sherlock "Channels" from developers. They got this one right from the beginning.

[effgee]

Originally Posted by Big Mac

Does someone have an explanation for why Apple is promoting widgets so heavily? ...

Because it makes for nice eye candy with all the "bubble'ing" and the "baby toy" colors. As far as "useful" is concerned - I have yet to find a single widget that I would have considered useful for myself. Not implying that they can't be useful for other people and their particular needs, of course.

[d.fine]

I think Expose is the biggest feature in Mac OS X, of course its not new to Tiger, but it's what I find most usefull. Widgets are fun, but rarely functional for me.
It doesn't bother me they advertise it so heavily. I like widgets.

[lavar78]

Originally Posted by wataru

Dashboard has to be the most over-hyped new feature. I've found it to be completely worthless. Most widgets are just portals to existing websites... why don't I just use the website instead of waiting for countless widgets to unfreeze themselves when I open Dashbaord!?

Well, I don't want to have too many windows/tabs open. Having some of that info in Dashboard is great for me.

[OwlBoy]

Originally Posted by buggsuperstar

Why SHOULDN'T they be promoting Widgets?

Like jcadam said, it's something Windows doesn't have. I would be advertising a feature that my competitor did not have too.

Konfabulator for Windows.

-Owl

[buggsuperstar]

Originally Posted by OwlBoy

Konfabulator for Windows.

-Owl

Yes, but you would have to pay extra for that.

[OwlBoy]

Originally Posted by buggsuperstar

Yes, but you would have to pay extra for that.

-Owl

[moonmonkey]

Originally Posted by buggsuperstar

Yes, but you would have to pay extra for that.

And its not as good as Dashboard.
The widget sites are going crazy at the moment, there are some fantastic widgets.
Windows users are totally out in the cold.

[Goldfinger]

Originally Posted by :XI:

Tell me about it. I have expose mapped the the extra buttons on my mouse, but at work I keep trying to press the buttons (that aren't there) on an OS that doesn't even have expose!

Exactly the same here.

[budster101]

Yes. Widgets are cool.

[AB^2=BCxAC]

Widgets = Free attractions for the OS's usefulness, courtesy of developpers.
Apple = laughing all the way to the bank.
Developpers = uh, Apple, buy my widget please? I have kids to clothe and feed.

[deomacius]

Has anyone else noticed the speed hit a PoweBook takes when any widgets are running? It was painful.

[Recreational Poster]

Widgets look cool, although few are actually useful.

[saddino]

Originally Posted by Randman

Widgets are part of Tiger. Tiger is new. Not everyone has Tiger. Widgets are easy to advertise on a website. Widgets are fun and useful.

Right on the mark. When it comes to advertising, you need to convince buyers that you have something they want. Dashboard and Spotlight are easy to explain, easy to demonstrate (visually) and thus the best candidates as features to advertise.

And tangentially: now that Dashboard widgets run under Panther (with Amnesty, natch), Apple's focus on widgets is welcomed free advertising.

Edit: as to the prevous mentions of "something Windows doesn't have" -- I really don't believe Apple's Tiger advertising push has anything to do with Windows. There are 12 million Panther users that haven't upgraded yet (e.g. over a billion dollars in potential sales). That's Apple's concern at the moment. If Apple convinces some Windows users to switch because of Dashboard ads, then great, but that's clearly not their focus.

[:XI:]

Reading some of the posts in this thread reminded me that I also miss the system wide spell checker in OSX.

[moonmonkey]

Originally Posted by Recreational Poster

Widgets look cool, although few are actually useful.

The weather widget lets me know if its going to rain today, to me thats the definition of useful.

Its early days with widgets, but in the short time they have been around they have certainly changed the way I use my computer and managed information.

Buzztracker is a great example, it dictates the news I read, irrelevant of where I am living; lots of people could do with a shot of that.

[cc_foo]

Promoting a technology that some people find useful AND which slows down their computer a bit, is good business IMHO. (Within limits.) Consumers need to be shown the limitations of their computers.

The AppleStores will welcome you and your credit card with open arms, to help you out.

[ajprice]

Little guy on my left shoulder, dressed in white
"Because Widgets are useful and are something that is easily recognisable as an OS X Tiger feature"

Little guy on my right shoulder, dressed in red
"Because they'll have **** all new hardware to promote for the next 12 months or so!"

[Recreational Poster]

Originally Posted by moonmonkey

The weather widget lets me know if its going to rain today, to me thats the definition of useful.

Granted, there are some useful widgets. However, the majority of widgets developed to date are not particularly useful or are only useful to a very small audience.

[Stradlater]

Originally Posted by wataru

Dashboard has to be the most over-hyped new feature. I've found it to be completely worthless. Most widgets are just portals to existing websites... why don't I just use the website instead of waiting for countless widgets to unfreeze themselves when I open Dashbaord!?

To each his/her own, I guess. I find Dashboard incredibly useful, a real time-saver. Widgets take a couple seconds to display new info, and that's much sooner than I could open a browser, goto a link, type in my personalized info (tracking number, ZIP, etc.).

One click or keystroke away, I have the weather, all my iCal events, up-to-the-hour personalized TV listings, a drop area for FTP, up-to-date package-tracking, instant translation, and basic system stats.

Websites take much longer to load and many more steps to reach.
Websites usually lose the cookie-related personalization.
Websites are huge and usually not as aesthetically-pleasing as their widget counterparts.
Websites can't tell me my system stats, tell me my iCal events, can't drag-and-drop FTP...

[historylme]

I only have two days on Tiger, and I have yet to really change my habits because of dashboard, but I do like the clock functions (I call international a lot), the weather (let's me know if I need to use my car or not), and the system stats are great too.

I like it so far, and like a noob, I have my whole screen covered with useless widgets, I just don't know which ones I want to keep (I have a 12' screen).

[Zarafa]

I don't necessarily believe dashboard was built with this in mind, but it definitely seems (to me) that the Dashboard concept is especially useful is small-form-factor screens (e.g 12" *books, future hypothetical slate-style tablets, etc.). They available with a single click/gesture, don't take up screen real estate when not being actively viewed/used, allow existing workspaces to stay in place, etc.

On a tablet, imagine a quick tap with a stylus to get to the Dashboard -- perform some function or look up some data there -- then another quick tap to go back to sketching, note-taking, web-browsing, or whatever. Somewhat useful on a larger-screen machine with a keyboard and mouse, yes, but extremely handy on a smaller device.

Maybe someday we'll have "multi-layer" Dashboards, so we can group common sets of funtionality together. For instance, various financial tools on Dashboard 1, sports stuff on Dashboard 2, local and remote system stats on Dashboard 3, etc.

[tavilach]

Originally Posted by history1me

I only have two days on Tiger, and I have yet to really change my habits because of dashboard, but I do like the clock functions (I call international a lot), the weather (let's me know if I need to use my car or not), and the system stats are great too.

I like it so far, and like a noob, I have my whole screen covered with useless widgets, I just don't know which ones I want to keep (I have a 12' screen).

I want a 12' screen!

I couldn't resist the stupid comment!

[historylme]

haha, yeah, a 12 foot screen would be nice.

[moonmonkey]

Originally Posted by history1me

I only have two days on Tiger, and I have yet to really change my habits because of dashboard, but I do like the clock functions (I call international a lot), the weather (let's me know if I need to use my car or not), and the system stats are great too.

I like it so far, and like a noob, I have my whole screen covered with useless widgets, I just don't know which ones I want to keep (I have a 12' screen).

Soon enough you will work out what you like and what you don't like. Then you will have control and your dashboard will rock.

Who needs to know how much memory they are taking up? (not me)

Who needs to know when the plane carrying their girlfriend has taken off and landed. (me)

I like the dashboard.

[Ghoser777]

When an improved theater widget (they're all kind of klunky) and a better Google Maps widget comes out, I'm going to use dashboard all the time. Right now I only really use it for weather (ironic, eh?) and post-it's.

[saddino]

Originally Posted by Zarafa

Maybe someday we'll have "multi-layer" Dashboards, so we can group common sets of funtionality together. For instance, various financial tools on Dashboard 1, sports stuff on Dashboard 2, local and remote system stats on Dashboard 3, etc.

Okay, my last reference to Amnesty in this thread, I promise.

With Amnesty, you can have "multi-layer Dashboards" today. The latest build allows multiple "Layouts" of widgets to be saved which can then be called up whenever you want em. Exactly like you describe (except outside of the Dashboard environment).

[RAILhead]

I use the following widgets all the time:

Calculator
Dictionary/thesaurus
Unit converter
Weather
Flight Tracker

Mighty useful to me -- and a welcome addition to the OS.

Maury

[Randman]

Amnesty is still a very rough app. Maybe in time ...

[OAW]

Originally Posted by Ghoser777

When an improved theater widget (they're all kind of klunky) and a better Google Maps widget comes out, I'm going to use dashboard all the time. Right now I only really use it for weather (ironic, eh?) and post-it's.

Have you tried this one ....

http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashb...apswidget.html

Seems to work as advertised. Only wish it supported the driving directions functionality as well.

OAW

[Stradlater]

Originally Posted by Ghoser777

When an improved theater widget (they're all kind of klunky) and a better Google Maps widget comes out, I'm going to use dashboard all the time. Right now I only really use it for weather (ironic, eh?) and post-it's.

What's wrong with the Google Maps widget?

[JoshuaZ]

Marketing for Tiger.

Not an easier answer to be had on MacNN.

[Ghoser777]

That one is okay, but I want built in driving directions too. I expect a lot =D

It'd be nice if you can resize widgets...

[Stradlater]

Originally Posted by Ghoser777

That one is okay, but I want built in driving directions too. I expect a lot =D

It'd be nice if you can resize widgets...

Try typing two addresses with a "to" in between them

As far as reading those directions go, just click "view larger map" then...you're likely to want to print those directions, anyhow.

Resizing is likely to come soon, but I'm sure you can request it and suggest a method of viewing the directions in-line.

[Ghoser777]

Originally Posted by Stradlater

Try typing two addresses with a "to" in between them

As far as reading those directions go, just click "view larger map" then...you're likely to want to print those directions, anyhow.

Resizing is likely to come soon, but I'm sure you can request it and suggest a method of viewing the directions in-line.

Exactly what I don't want to do - open it up in a webpage. If I wanted that, I'd just use Safari. (Yes I figured this all out before, thanks )

[OAW]

Originally Posted by Stradlater

Try typing two addresses with a "to" in between them

As far as reading those directions go, just click "view larger map" then...you're likely to want to print those directions, anyhow.

Resizing is likely to come soon, but I'm sure you can request it and suggest a method of viewing the directions in-line.

Thanks for the tip! Would be nice if you didn't have to launch Safari ... but this isn't too bad for now.

OAW

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by ajprice

Little guy on my left shoulder, dressed in white
"Because Widgets are useful and are something that is easily recognisable as an OS X Tiger feature"

Little guy on my right shoulder, dressed in red
"Because they'll have **** all new hardware to promote for the next 12 months or so!"

Do you really think that speed bumped machines make for good marketing/advertising to the general public?

I don't.

[tomaszek]

If you are tired of widgets hogging your low end Mac you can unload them by entering the following in Terminal:
killall Dock
Or, if you prefer to have this option handy as a contextual menu command, download OnMyCommand:
http://free.abracode.com/cmworkshop/on_my_command.html
and use command #391 at:
http://free.abracode.com/cmworkshop/...s/commands.php

[slffl]

WAY over-hyped. These things are not very useful at all, especially for the resources they use, and I think a lot of people will be disappointed once the 'wow' factor has worn off.

[seonline]

I love the widgets. I find many useful. Package tracker, weather, calculator, network statistics, wireless statistics, and even some games for breaking up a long work day. The funniest thing is that the one I love the most is the one I consider the most useless...but it makes me laugh and makes friends wish they had a Mac. It's the "Hula Girl". Now it even goes to my iTunes library.

I like the widget managers too. I've only noticed a very small performance hit if I run alot of them together. Otherwise I pull them out only when I need them. And every day I find at least one more that is useful, or does it better than another. I think it's great. The best part is that you only need to load what fits you best...and I think that too has to do with why the promote it so much. Individuality, which is what the Mac is all about.

[Ghoser777]

Originally Posted by tomaszek

If you are tired of widgets hogging your low end Mac you can unload them by entering the following in Terminal:
killall Dock

Wouldn't that kill... the Dock?

[Mastrap]

Originally Posted by slffl

WAY over-hyped. These things are not very useful at all, especially for the resources they use, and I think a lot of people will be disappointed once the 'wow' factor has worn off.

There are some excellent widgets about. I am listening to the BBC online via a widget while typing this, which means I don't have to launch and deal with Real Player or the BBC player.

Others I use for screenshots, weather and checking snippets of html. When dashboard was first launched I thought that it was little more than a toy, now I very much like it.

[driven]

Originally Posted by deomacius

Has anyone else noticed the speed hit a PoweBook takes when any widgets are running? It was painful.

Mine didn't get any slower.
(Not that I noticed anyway!)

[Zimphire]

Widgets don't need ported.

They run on any platform.