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

Can you help me make Dashboard useful?

invigorated

invigorated

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 24, 2007
29
0
Brisbane, Australia
So, dashboard is one of those things that I've toyed with occasionally, downloaded all the "top" widgets and what not, but never found myself actually using. Maybe I'm just doing it wrong. I'm hoping you guys can give me something that will help me see how useful dashboard is as a feature.

TOPIC: List the one thing or widget that, on it's own, makes you love dashboard.
 
invigorated said:
So, dashboard is one of those things that I've toyed with occasionally, downloaded all the "top" widgets and what not, but never found myself actually using. Maybe I'm just doing it wrong. I'm hoping you guys can give me something that will help me see how useful dashboard is as a feature.

TOPIC: List the one thing or widget that, on it's own, makes you love dashboard.
Click to expand...

Well I'm obsessed with weather, so I have installed the standard weather widget for about 10 of my favorite cities. :)

I know you said only one, but I also love the Lighthouse Webcam Widget. :)
 
invigorated said:
So, dashboard is one of those things that I've toyed with occasionally, downloaded all the "top" widgets and what not, but never found myself actually using. Maybe I'm just doing it wrong. I'm hoping you guys can give me something that will help me see how useful dashboard is as a feature.

TOPIC: List the one thing or widget that, on it's own, makes you love dashboard.
Click to expand...

Try this thread what does your dashboard look like. You'll find what widgets other people find useful, and maybe stumble on one you will like yourself.

There is almost a widget for everything. Just think of something you want/any information you want ready at hand (like the weather, sports scores), and look that up in google/apple.com.

Since you're in Australia, you need to get TheBOM. It'll give you accurate weather forcasts/current information for just about place in the country. Not like the standard weather widget. Plus grab IceTV.
 
Here's my take on Dashboard...

Install iStat Pro, or disable it. I find absolutely no use for it other than iStat Pro.
 
I use my Dashboard more than 20 times a day, I swear.

- calculator
- post-it notes (office extension numbers, code for Terminal, mailing addresses, and one for random notes jotted down)
- dictionary and thesaurus (for finding quick definitions, and similar word meanings)
- NHL hockey scores
- calendar
- currency conversion
- weather (Canada and Australia)
- The world clocks are useful to me. I'm all over the place.
- Wikipedia
 

Attachments

  • Dashboard screenshot.jpg
    Dashboard screenshot.jpg
    308.5 KB · Views: 121
What I use Dashboard for

  • Searches: People, Business, Jack of All Widgets
  • News/Info: Dugg, News Grab-R, Lifehacker RSS, Web Clip from local newspaper
  • Weather: Weather widget and RadarInMotion
  • Traffic: Real-time Traffic Map
  • Music: iTunes, Web Clip from Pandora
  • Entertainment: Fandango Movies and TV Forecast
  • Misc: iCal Events, iStat nano, pongClock, Stickies
 
i have a bunch of crap, but baseball scores + weather radar is what i actually use
 
Weather: Who wouldn't want to peek at the weather forecast? I even have the Doppler radar widget. Kind of cool (when it works).

iStat nano: So I can see how much hotter my CPU is and how much faster my fans spin since installing SL. :eek:

Stock Market: I can flag and watch my portfolio in real time (well, pretty close).

I had other crap-widgets installed but never used 'em so to the trash they went. (I prefer Spotlights calculator to anything else).
 
I really don't use Dashboard for anything other than iStat to occasionally check on something. My reasoning has always been that it runs in the background constantly and I don't want my system resources to be eaten up by a bunch of widgets that I may or may not use. I know people use the convenience argument, but really does it take you that much longer to go to the calculator widget vs. clicking on the calculator in the dock?

So I guess I'm kinda like the OP in that I need to better understand why using it so much better than not using it. :confused:
 
Okay, so you load a new cd into iTunes and it doesn't have album art? wth?

Google search "Amazon Art" Works awesome. :)
 
At home I mainly use it for the calculator. At work I need the stickies. When dashboard first came out I downloaded so many widgits, then I decided I wanted my processor back.

Also, it seems that girls really like panda cam.
 
IBradMac said:
Okay, so you load a new cd into iTunes and it doesn't have album art? wth?

Google search "Amazon Art" Works awesome. :)
Click to expand...

Amazon rarely has the highest-quality artwork. You're better off searching Google Images for the name of the album, or searching sites like Album Art Exchange, which only has high-quality artwork, much higher resolution than iTunes downloads or Amazon has.

Of course, none of this has anything to do with this thread, since downloading artwork doesn't involve the Dashboard.
 
Dashboard is great for iStat Pro, Easy Envelopes by Ambrosia Software, Wikipedia widget, and weather widgets. Otherwise, I often forget about it.

I'm wondering if Dashboard widgets would have been a bigger deal if Apple opened a widget store and had some free and 99 cent widgets. Some profit potential may have generated some more interest from 3rd parties in developing cool widgets. At that time, I might have paid 99 cents for some widgets.

Is anyone out there making widgets now? It seems to have been forgotten. I would love to be able to open my iPhone apps and use them on my computer via a dashboard type approach. They already have that iPhone simulator developer tool. This would open up the app store to Mac users who don't have an iPhone or iPod Touch.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back