Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,289
30,364



One of the key features of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, launched in April 2005, was the addition of Dashboard Widgets, miniature apps with specific functions that could exist side by side on a dedicated screen accessible at the touch of a key. The feature spawned a market for third-party widgets, leading Apple to launch a dedicated page where it has hosted widgets for download and provided an easily browsable directory for users.

Widgets have, however, fallen out of fashion with Mac users, and the Dashboard itself has been reduced in prominence as Apple has emphasized other quick-access features like Mission Control, Launchpad, and Notification Center. Apple stopped accepting new submissions to its Dashboard Widgets site in early 2011, but the directory of roughly 4,000 widgets has remained available to users.

dashboard_widget_directory_istat.jpg
As noted by a MacRumors tipster today, the Dashboard Widgets site is currently broken, with all download links simply redirecting users to the main Apple downloads page rather than initiating a download of the desired widget. Based on a pair of discussion threads in Apple's forums, the download functionality seems to have broken within the past couple of weeks.

It is unclear at this time whether this is simply a technical glitch or if Apple is discontinuing its Dashboard Widgets directory. Apple is still promoting the Dashboard Widgets section on its main downloads page, and the directory itself is functional with the exception of the downloads themselves. A similar issue seems to have occurred in June 2012, although it is unclear how long the outage lasted.

Apple is expected to show off OS X 10.9 at next month's Worldwide Developers Conference, but it is unknown if the company is planning any significant changes to the Dashboard functionality in the release.

(Thanks, Ben!)

Article Link: Apple's Dashboard Widget Download Site for OS X Broken
 

syavno

macrumors member
Apr 13, 2008
51
0
What if 'dashboard' became a new iOS interface within OS X? Swipe to access all your iOS apps, right on your Mac! And with iCloud, resume right where you were in the app.
 

joshhedge

macrumors regular
Sep 23, 2012
135
0
The only useful thing about dashboard ever was the converter tool, that, and only that, will be missed.
 

Skika

macrumors 68030
Mar 11, 2009
2,999
1,246
What if 'dashboard' became a new iOS interface within OS X? Swipe to access all your iOS apps, right on your Mac! And with iCloud, resume right where you were in the app.

running touch based apps made for completely different architecture on a desktop/laptop

Pls no.
 

stark93

macrumors member
Sep 18, 2012
78
254
What if 'dashboard' became a new iOS interface within OS X? Swipe to access all your iOS apps, right on your Mac! And with iCloud, resume right where you were in the app.

I think that'd be pretty awesome!
 

achtung!

macrumors regular
Aug 21, 2005
205
8
Portugal
calculator, weather, unit conversion, translator, tv shows updates.... and many other things that i use frequently. i really hope that they're working on a better way to access and display "widgets". :)
 

RMo

macrumors 65816
Aug 7, 2007
1,252
280
Iowa, USA
I use Dashboard with the Radar In Motion widget, which was just updated this January. I wasn't aware that Apple had stopped listing new widgets, but apparently they still allowed updates to existing ones.

I see that Dashboard has become less prominent with newer OS X releases, but I hope it doesn't go away. (They've still put at least some work into it, making it available as a Space by default instead of just an "overlay" as it had been since Tiger.) For some reason, widgets have become less "cool," but I still find convenience in using a select few. For what it's worth, I see Yahoo! Widgets (formerly Konfabulator, which many people alleged Dashboard to be a copy of and is clearly at least a response to) stopped development almost four years ago, and I'm not sure how popular the Stardock solutions ever were. Not sure what happened that people changed their mind about these.

Besides Radar In Motion, the Weather widget is convenient, as is the Calculator in that it saves me from launching the app. The calendar is also nice to see what day something is or was--much faster than launching iCal.

I'll be sad if it ever disappears unless there is something else equally convenient I can replace these with.

Worked for me.
Still doesn't work for me. You're actually downloading something and not just getting redirected to another page?

I hope this is the result of an error, not an intentional killing-off of their widget repository. At least they can still be obtained from other places, I suppose, in any case.
 

onirocdarb

macrumors regular
Feb 5, 2013
106
0
I like my widgets. I haven't found any good weather apps or simple calendar. Also nice to have a unit converter there when I need it.
 

jdbaum42

macrumors newbie
May 31, 2013
1
0
I use it everyday for quick weather reports (like I have time to actually look out a window) and the google voice texting widget. Calculator, too. S'pose I could live without it, or maybe someone will make an app that replicates the functionality.
 

mac666er

macrumors regular
Feb 7, 2008
240
185
San Francisco, CA
Downloads are still broken. Couldn't download istat pro.

I think the widget idea is great, but in order to be useful, it should be floating around the screen somehow. Something like geektool. I don't want to press a button to check the stocks, weather, the time and istat on a screen of their own. I would prefer them to be floating around so I can glance at them immediately and if needed, press a button to hide them. This is the perfect excuse to have a second monitor and it is something you can't do currently if you have dashboard running on the foreground all the time as the background hides everything in all screens.

As mentioned, I think geektool picked up where widgets left off. I would like for widgets to be brought back up to speed in that fashion.
 

LimeiBook86

macrumors G3
May 4, 2002
8,001
45
Go Vegan
I would be very sad to see Dashboard go. I still have my "Where there's a widget there's a way" Apple mouse pad. Remember when one of the perks of having a Mac G5 was to have the water ripple effect whenever you added a widget to your screen? Thankfully this was kept intact when Apple went Intel in 2006 ;)

Since 10.8 is still using them I can't see them deleting them all right away. Thankfully it's not like the App Store. You can download widgets and install them manually. Although with their directory gone (or at least not functioning) that would be a harsh blow. Plus the built-in 'Add Widget' functionality would probably cease to function.

As far as widgets on iOS, I'd love for some of that functionality. Especially on the iPad. But I can see it working on the iPhone as well. :)
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.