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Apple Confirms Dashboard is Going Away After 14 Years
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Am a big fan of iStat Pro widget for monitoring performance (RAM, CPU, hard drive, etc.). Can anyone suggest an internal/external tool/view that similarly collects all this in one place?
Microsoft had a similar thing and abandoned it long ago. I never used Dashboard on the Mac, so its passing will go unnoticed here.
Exactly. It was a rather useless feature because of that missing essential functionality. Accessing the Dashboard always felt disruptive, just like using the "Menu Screen" of Windows 8.
Truth be told, I don't even know how to open the Dashboard on current versions of macOS; and I'm also not using an Apple keyboard either (I use a Microsoft Natural Keyboard 4000).
Launchpad also is a rather weakly implemented feature - even the Linux competition does a better job there.
I sure hope you meant “to me” when you called it “useless” and just left off those extremely important two words.
Ditto, I work in the oil industry and need to know the time in Houston, Aberdeen, Dubai, Bangkok, London, Singapore, Perth and Sydney before making phone calls. Dashboard was excellent for that. Notification centre
needs to have the ability to display two columns wide for me. If I have 16 clocks displayed it is annoying to have to scroll down to see my calendar and reminders. Running the Catalina beta and miss my old friend........
A very useful dashboard feature for me was with the Beatport BPM widget. When a current song was playing in iTunes, you could tap the BPM in. Once a suitable number was registered, let’s say 130 BPM for a house track, there was a button to add the BPM to the metadata info in iTunes... and voila, the BPM is displayed. Very useful. But now gone.
I'd be excited that I'd not be unemployed for being unable to do my job, but filled with mild trepidation that the trackpads will suck
People stopped using it because Apple disabled it by default, and stopped teaching it to users, so Apple can't blame them for that. Users don't know what they're missing; people are quick to claim something is useless, when really they mean to say *they* don't use it, and possibly don't understand it.
I map an overlay Dashboard to an extra button on my trackball, and get instant access to dozens of stats like detailed weather and system info thru iStat pro, plus tools like unit conversion, dictionary & thesaurus, calendar month-at-a-glance,
Notification Centre is not a replacement. As has been mentioned, it is partitioned into two sections that requires mouse interaction to move between. Furthermore, I can never tell whether "Today" is highlighted, or "Notifications". (One is simply dark, one is light. What's the difference? Is one disabled, one active? Can they be pushed? Which is the current view? Would love to see a return of the raised & lowered look to indicate state buttons, but the tossing away of 30 years' UI conventions & knowledge is another rant.)
As excited as I am for the incredible number of new Catalina features, I will not rush into installing it. Loss of Dashboard and 32-bit apps is something to be approached with great caution. In the meanwhile, I'll be looking for something that gives me as much functionality as Dashboard with a mere button press... something that, in my view, is core to the desktop experience.
I map an overlay Dashboard to an extra button on my trackball, and get instant access to dozens of stats like detailed weather and system info thru iStat pro, plus tools like unit conversion, dictionary & thesaurus, calendar month-at-a-glance,
Notification Centre is not a replacement. As has been mentioned, it is partitioned into two sections that requires mouse interaction to move between. Furthermore, I can never tell whether "Today" is highlighted, or "Notifications". (One is simply dark, one is light. What's the difference? Is one disabled, one active? Can they be pushed? Which is the current view? Would love to see a return of the raised & lowered look to indicate state buttons, but the tossing away of 30 years' UI conventions & knowledge is another rant.)
As excited as I am for the incredible number of new Catalina features, I will not rush into installing it. Loss of Dashboard and 32-bit apps is something to be approached with great caution. In the meanwhile, I'll be looking for something that gives me as much functionality as Dashboard with a mere button press... something that, in my view, is core to the desktop experience.
Have you tried to use the right hidden sidebar that can host th same widgets?
I love Dashboard. I have my deliveries there, my Securityspy cams, calculator, currency, stocks, calculator aso. I use it 20 times a day. I really hope there will be a third party solution.
This will definitely delay my update for as long as possible until I find a third party solution.
This will definitely delay my update for as long as possible until I find a third party solution.
Not true. Apple is removing support for 32bit apps. These apps were likely 32 bit and would need to be rewritten. Also IRC, they use a Safari API which means Safari would be hindered. In the ever fight for battery life and less memory consumption, it makes sense.
As a developer, there is a LOT of work that goes into maintaining legacy features. System APIS change, so do CPU instructions etc. Additionally its unused bloat removed from the OS. These features have already been refactored into the Today View.
Damn, rip. First time I really got into using a Mac was in 2007. 18 yo me was blown away by the dashboard. I just honestly thought it was so cool.
I’ve never understood this mentality. I don’t use Launchpad either. But I recognize some people do. Why would you actively want something removed that you don’t use, that causes you little to no harm, and that pleases other people?
I see this sort of thing all the time. It’s mean spirited. You want Apple to put its stamp of approval on the way you’ve chosen to use your computer? What does that accomplish other than letting you pat yourself on the back about being more “enlightened” as a user?
My mind. It’s boggled.
World Clock in the notification center works well for me (I have 5 clocks in there currently for locations of my international colleagues).
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With modern macOS memory management, it doesn't seem to be an issue for me to just always have Calendar open (I have a space dedicated to fullscreen split of Calendar/Reminders)
Dashboard presents itself as a Space. Catalina has spaces, so all you Dashboard fans need to do is dedicate one of your Spaces as a place to put the small apps that will soon hit the store as developers compile their iOS apps for macOS using Catalyst.
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Wow. Just wow.
I highlighted the most important part of your post.
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It also can present itself as an Overlay.
The Stickies app still exists in Catalina and still gets updates (!) .. I've always preferred it to the widget anyway.
/ Im also one of those people who likes launchpad. When you have tons of apps its so much easier to make sense of than the applications folder, and sometimes its easier to remember something from its icon than name.. (and I categorise by type of app, so can always find things easily) If anything I'd like to see launchpad improved rather than removed.