[Gadget] iTMS Countdown

[brn2prgrm]

Whew, after reading over countless documentation and SDK's, not to mention the nights without sleep, I've created my/the first dashboard gadget for Tiger. This little guy displays the current iTunes Music Store countdown, and when you click on the number, fires up the iTMS. This can help all of you out there trying to win an iPod or the Powerbook through the contest ;)

Simply drag the .gadget file to your dashboard bar, or double-click the .gadget file, and it'll open up. It will take a couple seconds to load initially, but it then updates the number every 60 seconds. I plan on making more gadgets in the near future, such as a Gmail inbox count, so if you have any suggestions, fell free to send em my way at mikeds@gmail.com.

If you want to check out the source, simply right-click on the .gadget file and choose "Show Package Contents." The Apple gadgets can be found in /Library/Gadgets for your source viewing pleasure. They are mostly composed of html documents, so if you can make a web page, you can make a gadget. If you have any questions about the gadget i created, or making your own gadgets, drop me an email at mikeds@gmail.com.

Let me know what you think!

http://home.wi.rr.com/srch/ss.gifScreenshot (http://home.wi.rr.com/srch/iTMSCount.jpg)
http://home.wi.rr.com/srch/dl.gifDownload Here (36k) (http://home.wi.rr.com/srch/iTMS%20Count.zip)

[iJon]

awesome, looks good from the screenshot. so how hard was it to design once you learned it. they say its just like a web page, easier said than done?

iJon

[brn2prgrm]

awesome, looks good from the screenshot. so how hard was it to design once you learned it. they say its just like a web page, easier said than done?

iJon

I'd love to say it was all difficult and hard, only to make myself look good, but that isn't the truth. The meat of the gadgets is mostly just a web page. All that my gadget is composed of is a couple div's and a background image. There are a few other dashboard-specific codes and functions I used, which you may need to learn, but it isn't anything too difficult. Overall, once learning it, it is easy to create one for yourself.