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Hard to narrow it down to just three, kind of depends on what I'm doing.

One that I like is this RSS reader. Comes with a default collection of feeds, but you can delete what you don't want and add all the feeds you want via drag and drop. For the most part, it eliminates the need for all of those separate dedicated widget RSS readers like CNN, Businessweek, and so on.

Another big thumbs up for pearLyrics too. It's just amazing how boneheaded the music industry is these days.

My last vote is a little radical in that it isn't a widget at all: Spotlight. If I ever need a particular widget and I'm not in the mood to scroll through pages and pages of my widget collection in Dashboard's widget bar, I can search for that particular widget in spotlight and selecting it in the result list automatically launches Dashboard with the particular widget waiting and ready to go. Sometimes, life is just too short.
 
Reading through the other posts gave me time to think about my widgets. I have too many running all at once, but my three are:
3) Calendar - sometimes it is just faster for me to check the date on dashboard than it is to go to the dock or iCal. This is especially true when I just want to use my keyboard and need the info quickly.
2) This is a combo pack - I use Stickies and Stickies dispenser on a regular basis. Um...I sort of put them here because I couldn't think of anything else. But, I'm sure that when I get home to my PB I'll figure out what belongs here
1) Weather - I use it every weekday morning and some weekends to know what the weather will be like later in the day. It makes a big difference, expecially in the spring when the morning will be overcast in the 50s, and I need to know if it will be rainy/overcast in the 50s all day or sunny and 70.

My former number two was Conference Call Omni - a great widget for tracking the standings of my favorite teams. I may have even loved it more than Weather. Then some bungers at the "Coalition to Advance the Protection of Sports Logos" decided to shut it down. Rarely do I get this angry about something....I admit I didn't donate to them, but I had made plans on how I would use their software (they do a lot of educational stuff) for my kids. I still plan on doing it...
 
To answer your question:

1) Weather Widget x2 (home forecast & Killington for skiing)
2) Calculator
3) Calendar

To elaborate:

What I standardly have on my iMac dashboard is the 2 weather widgets, the ski conditions widget, the flip-clock widget, calculator & calendar (once I accept that the ski season is essentially over I'll take those two Killington widgets off).

My powerbook has weather (home forecast), calendar, and a wi-fi related widget (though I forget what it's called at the moment).

On both machines I have almost 3 full 'rows' of widgets available to scroll through for use at the bottom of my dashboard when needed, but I only pull them out when necessary...
 
Blue Velvet said:
Not boring... Sensible. Like sensible shoes. :D :p

tayla1.jpg




Honestly though, it's useful for a novice like me.


so about a year after the release of Tiger it seems that "sensible" is the key thing with most widgets....weather, calculator, calendar, clock, dictionary, unit convertors......not especially sexy but useful items

for the most part these things were already available on your computer; clock, calender, dictionary, calculator for example, or easily found online; weather, unit convertor.....still it's fun and sorta more convenient to have them as widgets
 
Weather- Its always good to know if it is going to be hot outside.

Family Guy Quote generator- Funny stuff

Sotcks- I like to see whos company is doing better, my wife's or mine.
 
I think Widgets should be useful, not just some silly bauble like that awful lava lamp widget the supposed "developer" ripped off.

My three favourites;

- Easy Envelopes
- Gmail
- World Clock
 
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