Thing 20
18 October 2008
Since I have a Mac, I decided to go to Apple’s download page to find widgets instead of using YourMinis. I have a few widgets already, which came pre-loaded on my laptop’s “Dashboard”, including a calculator, a clock, and a weather forecast display (though it leaves something to be desired – the information is not always the most current). I’d like to get a better weather widget anyway, so I’ll look for that and then see what other useful widgets I can find to download.
So many of the widgets, on Apple’s site and YourMinis, seem pretty frivolous – do I really need Chuck Norris Facts or a Whoopee Cushion widget displayed on my computer? Many of them also seem to only replicate tasks, like checking my email or Wikipedia, that I would just prefer to do through my web browser. I found several that seemed worthwhile, though.
WeatherBug Local Weather – seems to be a slightly more fully-featured (and hopefully more accurate!) version of the weather widget I have now
TV Show Tracker – keeps track of when the next episode of your favorite TV show will be aired
Roman Number Converter – despite having taken Latin in college, I am still horrible at figuring out the Arabic versions of Roman numerals. Now I can use this widget instead of looking it up online every time.
BMI Calculator – another thing I tend to look up online a lot. I’m doing a fitness challenge with a family member right now, so it would be nice to have this information at my fingertips.
I was trying to find a widget that was just a basic dictionary, but didn’t see any listed on either Apple.com or YourMinis. For the most part, it seems to me that widgets are useful and convenient, but not that much more convenient than just going online to find similar tools. I might use a few widgets from time to time (probably the calculator is the one I use the most), but I don’t want to let them clutter my Dashboard.
