BetterTouchTool? You can map a function key to show Notification Centre. That’s easy and fast.
But sounds like you don’t like the NC solution either way.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Video: How to Get Widgets on Your Mac's Desktop
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
But sounds like you don’t like the NC solution either way.
Konfabulator! I loved using Konfabulator back in the day. I thought it was the coolest having the weather, time, and a bunch of other things updating in real time on my desktop.
Yes and no. Notification Center is like Lion in that there is a separate, dedicated area for Widgets; this places them on you active desktop so you can access them while doing other things.
I’m fine with a subscription if it means that new functionality and widgets are being regularly added. If the functionality stays static then I want a one-time price.
I've been looking for a Dashboard alternative ever since Apple nixed it all those years ago. Whenever a new alternative pops-up, I'm all ears. (thanks for the video, Dan!)
These are fully interactive, which is key for me.
I'm surprised Dan didn't address the system/energy impact of this app; I wonder how resource-heavy it is. Does that depend on which widgets you're using, etc?
I hate subscription models, but I'm willing to try the free demo and, if it meets my needs, consider subbing for one year. I have very few ongoing subscriptions (VPN, iCloud storage, Spotify), so adding another that's less than a dollar per month, and fills aneed want I've had for years, is worth considering for me.
(Note: the moment I sub for anything, I set a reminder on my phone to cancel it three days before the new fee is charged — I can always choose to leave it, or extend it, if I wish. This allows me to try things without fear of forgetting to cancel)
I'm gong to tinker with this and see if I can get it set up the way I'm imagining. If I discover anything noteworthy, I'll report back.
Geektool is not interactive, and is hard to set up if you're not familiar with code. Further, I'm fairly certain it no longer works on macOS without workarounds (please correct me if I'm wrong, as I haven't tried it in a while. Depending on the geeklets (widgets) you use, it can be fairly resource heavy. Oh, and it's free.
Übersicht is not interactive (though I believe the latter can trigger app launches, or scripts), but it's free and easy to use. There's a ton of community generated widgets available — if interactivity isn't important to you, this is likely a good choice.
These are fully interactive, which is key for me.
I'm surprised Dan didn't address the system/energy impact of this app; I wonder how resource-heavy it is. Does that depend on which widgets you're using, etc?
I hate subscription models, but I'm willing to try the free demo and, if it meets my needs, consider subbing for one year. I have very few ongoing subscriptions (VPN, iCloud storage, Spotify), so adding another that's less than a dollar per month, and fills a
(Note: the moment I sub for anything, I set a reminder on my phone to cancel it three days before the new fee is charged — I can always choose to leave it, or extend it, if I wish. This allows me to try things without fear of forgetting to cancel)
I'm gong to tinker with this and see if I can get it set up the way I'm imagining. If I discover anything noteworthy, I'll report back.
Ok, I've tried it for a few minutes, and have a few notes:
- They can be desktop/space specific; as-in if you switch to a new desktop, you can set all-new widgets, or have them all the same.
- ^ same goes for monitors.
- You can toggle snap-to-grid off, in case you're the chaotic type.
- There's a show/hide widgets keybinding, which you can use even with pinned widgets.
- This allows me to have as close to a Dashboard effect as I've seen so far; working away, hit a keybinding, and the widgets appear on top. The only thing I'm missing is to click away to have them disappear, but maybe that can be added (I'll email the dev).
- This has an animation I'm not a fan of; I'd prefer they just appear (will email dev).
- There's an add note keybinding option.
- Calendar widget is not interactive.
- I can't see how to change the background colour - only the highlighted text... (can anyone point me to that? I thought Dan said it was possible in the video)
The alternatives I've found over the years: (I'd welcome more suggestions, if you know of any)
Superlayer is sleek and cool looking, but are not interactive, as far as I've seen. It costs $2/month, $23/year, or $70/life (CAD).Geektool is not interactive, and is hard to set up if you're not familiar with code. Further, I'm fairly certain it no longer works on macOS without workarounds (please correct me if I'm wrong, as I haven't tried it in a while. Depending on the geeklets (widgets) you use, it can be fairly resource heavy. Oh, and it's free.
Übersicht is not interactive (though I believe the latter can trigger app launches, or scripts), but it's free and easy to use. There's a ton of community generated widgets available — if interactivity isn't important to you, this is likely a good choice.
Last edited:
If you're talking about Dashboard, it was a lot more useful than this because it insantly put an HUD-style display over the desktop where you could actually see everything -- and then just as quickly dismissed the whole layer so you could get back to what you were doing. It was a brilliant piece of UI and it only died because Apple let it languish for years instead of pushing it forward with new functionality. In an Apple Silicon world, Dashboard would've been an excellent place to park selected iOS and iPadOS apps. That was rumored for a long time, but never came to fruition.
As for this app, not sure I understand the utility of putting anything useful on the lowest layer of your desktop where it's going to immediately be covered up with windows.
Notification Center places them in a HUD layer above everything else.
1:50 shows widgets floating above an app.
True, and that's the one thing it gets right. But that small strip is nowhere near as useful as that entire layer Dashboard had.
It shows them "pinned" so they stay persistently. It seemed from the video you get two choices: buried on the desktop or hovering over everything.
You should consider talking to the devs to see if the kind of functionality you want could be implemented.
This. It routinely blows my mind that people equate the tiny stripe that is the notification center with the full desktop Dashboard. And within NC you have to switch tabs, scroll, etc. instead of having everything visible at one glance. Nevermind the plethora of widgets that existed (and were usefull) for Dashboard, that don't for NC. Was I really the only one that used Dashboard heavily for stickies?
I’m not sure how something like that could blow your mind, but I didn’t say that NC was as good as DB, just that its the same kind of floating-layer functionality.
Eh. If it truly replicated Dashboard and had something approaching the open architecture it had, I'd be interested. Remember, at one time there were hundreds of third-party widgets you could install in Dashboard and Apple even ran its own directory with links to all of them.
You could bring them out of dashboard by holding down either option of command and dragging them to your desktop.
Totally agree with the first paragraph! As far as the last sentence — I have one of my hot corners set to 'desktop', it's a very simple gesture.
I do as well, so I can quickly get to files I keep on the desktop -- but putting widgets down there under everything and then "uncovering" them just seems like a bizarro version of Dashboard.
Haha, I have a calendar on mine. And I would prefer to drag things like weather and time zones there as opposed to clicking F13 or the time in the upper righthand corner to reveal...
I sympathize with the need for a recurring income and thank you for the detailed explanation.
But I have to say I think there may be an issue where sometimes app developers slap a subscription on automatically even if their app may not warrant it. Just in this thread you can see a bunch of people including myself saying they'd buy this app if it was a one-time fee. But due to the subscription they aren't. So the potential annual revenue of a sub model ends up wiping out any revenue at all there.
Keep in mind those people buying it one time may have told others about it also which also could have led to more revenue now and in the future.
There are ways to make continued revenue without a sub model and the constant push of every app having one, is just making people like myself buy less apps.
Last edited:
I bought it and use it. I can cancel at any time if I find myself not using the widgets as much, or if Apple continues to blend macOS and iPadOS/iOS and allows this kind of widget integration on the home screen. I like the look and the available information/function at just a glance.
There was a dev command you could use via Terminal that would allow you to move widgets to the desktop. Once you enabled it in Terminal, you would go into dashboard, hold-click the widget, then exit dashboard and the widget would stay on the desktop.
Widgets were a fun way to customize your workflow and I felt, quite useful. I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way.
I loved having the sticky-notes widget ready to go if I suddenly took a call. I know there are quick notes for Apple Notes, but it's just not the same.