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Apple Confirms Dashboard is Going Away After 14 Years
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Which is the result of one root problem, the biggest difference between Dashboard and Today view (on macOS): screen utilization. Dashboard is full screen. Therefore, even if every widget was easily transferrable, all data is at best a quarter of the size when displayed in Today vs. Dashboard. And you still need to scroll. This condensed size, as well as the aforementioned combination with notifications, results in a huge efficiency difference.
P.S. The size and drop-down functionality are fine for notifications alone.
Nevertheless, the abandonment of Dashboard has been evident for quite some time. In addition to all but a few third-party developers no longer updating widgets, Apple never fixed some glaring problems, such as where the Weather widgets were pinned -- they appear to be pinned somewhere on the top and thus move when the sky condition (image) changed.
With that all said... I have indeed begun migrating (at least some of those functions) to Today view and will work to start habits with other apps, e.g., Stickies. Although I know, it won't be near the same convenience.
I would actually be a LaunchPad fan if there were more options to organize/customize it (mostly would like to remove non-App Store apps without digging into xml). It hasn't received updates or modifications in forever.
For me, Spotlight works great and is pretty quick even on my 2014 MBP, anything I need to open without wasting a precious second can be in the Dock (with stacks even), or honestly a lot of things (Safari, mail, calendar, reminder, itunes, terminal) are just left open so I can Cmd-Tab to them. More power to you if you somehow got LaunchPad to be set up to be convenient, but personally I would rather see them kill it if they aren't going to improve it.
I find this sad actually! And surprised to see people totally apathetic / even cheering on its removal
I use Dashboard for stickies
Dashboard enabled with a hot corner is a good workflow too..
I use Dashboard for stickies
Dashboard enabled with a hot corner is a good workflow too..
Thanks for the tip. I just pasted the info in a sticky in dashboard...
This blows. I use it many many times daily for the calculator alone. Also iStat Pro and weather.
I love Dashboard. While I knew it was being phased out, I'm still sorry to see it go. I use it almost daily. Stickies, calendar, weather, unit conversion, event list, and calculator are all widgets in regular use. Dashboard, like mission control and spotlight, were one of those "game-changing" features on MacOS for me. You don't really get many game-changing features anymore.
The Notification Centre is not as efficient for presenting information. While you can invoke and see your entire Dashboard by using a hot corner or a keyboard shortcut, the Notification Centre requires 3x more actions to get to the info you're looking for: 1) invoke (via hot corner or keyboard shortcut), 2) click on the "Today" tab, then 3) scroll up or down to get to the widget you want to see.
In Dashboard the widgets are nicer to look at, can be arranged in 3 dimensions (you can have widgets overlapping widgets), and allow you to see what's going on underneath.
That being said, if Apple will inevitably be unifying the OSes, then the notification centre is more consistent with how you get to information with iOS/ iPadOS.
The Notification Centre is not as efficient for presenting information. While you can invoke and see your entire Dashboard by using a hot corner or a keyboard shortcut, the Notification Centre requires 3x more actions to get to the info you're looking for: 1) invoke (via hot corner or keyboard shortcut), 2) click on the "Today" tab, then 3) scroll up or down to get to the widget you want to see.
In Dashboard the widgets are nicer to look at, can be arranged in 3 dimensions (you can have widgets overlapping widgets), and allow you to see what's going on underneath.
That being said, if Apple will inevitably be unifying the OSes, then the notification centre is more consistent with how you get to information with iOS/ iPadOS.
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Now is the perfect time for Konfabulator, the original company that made a Dashboard-esque application before apple, to return. Apple did, and still routinely will, take a developer’s app and built it in natively, but not as well. A quick list off the top of my head:
Konfabulator became Dashboard
Watson became Sherlock
Duet Display and Luna Display became Sidecar
Anyone care to add to the list?
Konfabulator became Dashboard
Watson became Sherlock
Duet Display and Luna Display became Sidecar
Anyone care to add to the list?
I think of it as more of a gimmick. Yeah it’s useful sometimes but I never enabled it and quite frankly, I forgot it existed. Rip one of the last marks of the Steve Jobs era though. 
I must be missing something. Why isn't there a notification centre widget just to see the calendar in monthly view?
[doublepost=1560452903][/doublepost]Dont' forget you have to now log out/ on to see the changes after enabling this.
And you gotta keep in mind that on the other side, you had Windows XP which had features like a green colored start button instead of a grey one, a yellow dog that would appear during the painfully slow searches that would parse everything one by one on your entire hard drive, and a "Fax and printer wizard" that I don't think ever did anything. Windows had applications that were essentially all grey rectangles of varying sizes, meanwhile on OS X you had translucency, rounded edges, colorful animations, and smooth scrolling. It was like showing Disneyland to a North Korean.
Not a bad suggestion. Will Catalyst output apps that will be compatible with Catalina? Someone mentioned it had been discontinued.
Sounds cool.
But…
Does that create 64 bit apps? Does it maybe use a framework that might be removed from 10.15?
To launch apps, I prefer to use keyboard commands to invoke spotlight, then type the first three letters of the app then hit enter. It seems faster than taking my fingers off the keyboard to use the track pad.
I have to say, I'm surprised by all the love for Dashboard. I got excited by it when it released, but it never quite felt like a true part of the system.
Thank gods he let go of that idea...
Over time, keynotes became events. People come in with expectations, and they're not going to be impressed that the clock turns black when the sun goes down, or that it looks like you're dropping widgets in water.
I think having Tim do the product demos would go a long way toward improving his image though. When Steve did his own demos, it felt like he was excited to share what they'd done (and I think he was). Now the keynotes are a series of handoffs and it feels like they bring in professional demonstrators. I'm pretty sure that trend started when Steve's illness took hold-- he started handing more of the presentations off to Schiller and the team.
I was remembering the same thing when I saw this, but I'd forgotten that Dashboard was 2 full years before iPhone. Maybe seeing what had been done with Dashboard is what convinced him that web apps were the future of everything.
Thank gods he let go of that idea...
Wow, isn't this just a little bundle of nostalgia! Remember MacWorld? See the iSight camera on that big fat display? Yellow Pages will give you MapQuest directions? People ooo-ing and ahh-ing over little graphical gimmicks?
Yeah, simpler times... I was surprised by how unscripted it was-- not knowing a flight number to demo?
Over time, keynotes became events. People come in with expectations, and they're not going to be impressed that the clock turns black when the sun goes down, or that it looks like you're dropping widgets in water.
I think having Tim do the product demos would go a long way toward improving his image though. When Steve did his own demos, it felt like he was excited to share what they'd done (and I think he was). Now the keynotes are a series of handoffs and it feels like they bring in professional demonstrators. I'm pretty sure that trend started when Steve's illness took hold-- he started handing more of the presentations off to Schiller and the team.
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Another thing with notification centre is it only operates in one dimension - Y (vertically). Dashboard operates in three dimensions X, Y, and Z (given you can overlap widgets). When you open notification centre you have to scroll up and down to find the widget you need. Heaven forbid you need to view info on one widget, while typing that info into another widget - especially if the widgets are far apart.
Dashboard is like a dashboard. You can see EVERYTHING at a glance. You learn where all your widgets are sitting and know where to look for them. Notification centre forces you to click and scroll around to find stuff.
Dashboard is great if you suddenly had to take a call and access info, take notes in a hurry. If I didn't have it, I'd suddenly have to be launching all these different apps and organizing their windows, switching between them etc.
Dashboard is like a dashboard. You can see EVERYTHING at a glance. You learn where all your widgets are sitting and know where to look for them. Notification centre forces you to click and scroll around to find stuff.
Dashboard is great if you suddenly had to take a call and access info, take notes in a hurry. If I didn't have it, I'd suddenly have to be launching all these different apps and organizing their windows, switching between them etc.
idk.. just about everything Apple has right now in software/hardware is Steve Jobs era stuff imo.I think of it as more of a gimmick. Yeah it’s useful sometimes but I never enabled it and quite frankly, I forgot it existed. Rip one of the last marks of the Steve Jobs era though.
go to 2050 and look back to now.. there won’t be a difference between today & 10yrs ago... it’s all the same stuff
.....WHY? it wasn't in the way, some people used it and some didn't, it reminded us of when people at Apple really cared about the way icons looked...........ohhhhhhh that's why! Gotta get rid of anything fun and quirky to keep making our GUI as sterile as possible!! Timmy until you start caring about making Apple products different....you'll always just be a pale shadow of Steve!!
I guess all those folks who think that "widgets" are an old school idea haven't seen the widgets on the new iPad OS.
Unfortunately, I don't want to have to use my iPad to get the information available now on the computer, nor do I believe iPad widgets are 3D. It isn't very useful if you have to go to another device which has far less real estate to "find" what heretofor has been an essential bulletin board for all the daily minutia necessary to get the real work done.
Is it possible to assign apps to certain spaces permanently? Even after a restart? That could emulate dashboard in some way, having notes, calculator etc in an own space.
I have moved to notes and spotlight quite a while ago but I understand people still using it.
I have moved to notes and spotlight quite a while ago but I understand people still using it.
A lot of us don't have access to the new iPad OS. Is there some sort of Dashboard like feature on it? If so, is Apple's plan to inspire us to spend an extra $500 - $1000 for an iPad so we can have widgets and/ or a second display?
Who gave Tim Cook and Jony Ives the right to destroy OSX? They have no respect for what they inherited, the stability and fun that the OS used to have. Beachballs, unexplained shutdowns, taking away Dashboard, boring icons that all look the same, crappy Photos app, memory compression?? (why I stopped at OSX Mountain Lion). Fixing the OS is now just like Windows back when it was crap. The mediocrity that is now mac OS is the main reason I'm not shelling out $6K for their new computer. Apologies for the rant, but that's my opinion on what they are doing.