I Bought a Mac - Latest Comments in Widgets in OS X Leopard

Re: Widgets in OS X Leopard

Derek Punsalan — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 04:13:05 -0000

All too often people discover or come to the realization that widgets carry little value in comparison to how they're marketed by Apple. Users realize that every widget they run is a little more memory they lose from the system. At least, that's what educated users realize.

Although I do agree that widgets can be bloated, the Dashboard - for myself - has proven to be very helpful by providing work related information that I would rather have continually updated in the background. Little things like current time for the rest of my team (international members) using the clock widget, special keyboard characters with the CharacterPal widget, and 37signals related widgets for staying on top of tasks.

What Apple needs to do is actively educate their users of the disadvantages of loading multiple widgets as far as system performance. Those smooth ripple transitions while running dozens of widgets (with the basic Safari, Mail, iTunes apps), in reality, is only capable on a machine with a noticeable RAM upgrade.

Re: Widgets in OS X Leopard

Brent — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 01:18:14 -0000

In a way, I agree. I have done the same. But some sound pretty interesting. The movie times widget will be used quite a lot in my house. I do understand where you are coming from though.

Thanks for stopping by!

Re: Widgets in OS X Leopard

Oban — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 01:13:24 -0000

Just what the world needs - more widgets! I had fun with these for a day or two in Tiger, and then ended up deleting most of them. Rerely do I see a widget compelling enough for me to download anymore.