Mac Users - What are your favorite 'Desktop Widgets' ?

About 9 months ago I made the switch to a MacBook Pro, and now I'll never look back! I can't say how much I've grown to love Mac over PC in the last year. It took me awhile to become a 'believer,' but once you get over the learning curve it's amazing how much faster and better the Mac really is!!

One of my favorite things about the Mac are the 'desktop widgets.' For those of you that haven't set these up, press 'F4' on your keyboard and you can select a few that come with the machine. If you go to the apple website or search online you can select hundreds of different widgets that can be at your disposal anytime by pressing 'F4.' Widgets gives you lightening speed access to all kinds of applications that will make your life easier.

My favorite widgets now are:

Translation widget (Thai to English, Japanese to English)
Itunes Timer Widget (good when you want to listen to music before bed!)
Stickies Widget (for taking notes)
Fetch FTP Widget (makes uploading / downloading quick)
And of course the ICal widget for setting appointments and tasks for the day!

Do any other Mac users use these? Do you have any favorites?

I have

ShowOff
iStat Pro
5 instances of Weather Widget

:D

Thanks, I just downloaded iStatpro. :)

There is also a great currency converter widget I use, you can download it from here:
http://www.palple.net/widgets/curren...ter/index.html

Keep them coming!! :D

yah these are great, i am using them all the time too. i use the currency convertor, metric/imperial converter, translation, transmit widget for ftp, webclips and a bunch of others too. Just so easy and quick to do a lot of simply things.

any one using a simply little project status tracker widget? I use stickies for reminders and lists but would like something more project oriented.

why do you guys use the currency converter and metric/imperial converter that much?

we bill in a variety of currencies so it helps to keep up on where things are moving, values of sales and goods/service purchased. when I am buying online or doing deals wtih content people throughout latin america. while they charge in USD I like to know what they are actually making locally too. Plus for personal reasons too, travel, buying stuff for friends, watching investments in a variety of countries, etc

Metric/Imperial - well it is everything, from recipes to construction, it always comes up. I was raised in metric and have no idea what 75 Fahrenheit is or is a recipe calls for 2 ounces of chocolate.

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any one using a simply little project status tracker widget? I use stickies for reminders and lists but would like something more project oriented.

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If you use Basecamp for Project Management, you can set it so your ICalendar automatically updates with all of your projects, deadlines, milestones and project updates via RSS. Of course I keep ICalendar as a widget, so everytime I check it I can keep up with all of my projects in real time. If you use Iphone you can also sync the Icalendar with your Iphone so you can always keep track of your projects, appointments etc. across all of your Apple platforms.

One day I will upgrade to a Mac, I swear one day it will happen! :rainbow::rainbow:

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Originally Posted by conran

One day I will upgrade to a Mac, I swear one day it will happen! :rainbow::rainbow:

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You will never look back! :)

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Originally Posted by zBUCKzDanny

You will never look back! :)

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Everyone keeps telling me that, and being a bit of a Photoshop dabbler I really should invest.

You know, I think once I've finished all my client content today I'll start shopping! A late Christmas present for myself, yay!

its rumoured that the new macbook pro laptops will be released around April this year, if you are looking for a laptop it may be wise to hold off till then as the new model will have all the latest tech and hopefully a sleek new look too. That's my plan :)

I'm never on the cutting edge anyway. When I shop for tech I tend to go for the older (cheaper) models. As long as it does what I want I don't mind if it's heavier or chunkier.
I draw the line at it being mouse powered or having wooden cogs though.

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Originally Posted by conran

I'm never on the cutting edge anyway. When I shop for tech I tend to go for the older (cheaper) models. As long as it does what I want I don't mind if it's heavier or chunkier.
I draw the line at it being mouse powered or having wooden cogs though.

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Apple does discontinue the sale of the old models when they introduce the new ones... so there are no old models to buy when the new ones are in the stores.
In fact stock get low before new models are introduces as Apple slows down and halts production in favor for the new models.
This is valid for each of the 13 Apple model lines.

I also suggest you to wait for the new collection this year ;-)

I never got into the Widget thingy. I think I even removed the option in the Terminal and speeded up a bit everything. I got the iPad on the side for the "widgets" :)

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Apple does discontinue the sale of the old models when they introduce the new ones... so there are no old models to buy when the new ones are in the stores.

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Unless you happen to live in Japan. They have quite a few 'Used Apple' stores here where you can save 20 - 30% on old Apple goods. Surprised no one has opened stores like this in the US. I picked up a used Ipod touch the other day for about $100 US that works great. :)

I have never bought one of the refurbished Macs but I imagine they are pretty good, course for me the issue is performance of the machine so I tend to get the latest one and then being a good mac product they last years and years. The hardware is generally really good quality and lasts, but I will often add in new pieces and upgrades, on the power mac line. On my laptop a simple trip to the shop and it gets a quick upgrade.

I got my old classic 80gb Ipod "refurbished" the other day - it died and I took it into a shop, they fixed it and $20 later all good. Love it, heavy and big enough I won't lose it!

Re photoshop - pricey to change to mac when you need to repurchase all the software. I use pixelmator instead of photoshop for a lot of work, and it is cheap so depending on what you are doing there are a lot of good mac software products that are pretty cheap too.

Thanks Danny re basecamp - ill check it out.

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I have never bought one of the refurbished Macs but I imagine they are pretty good, course for me the issue is performance of the machine so I tend to get the latest one and then being a good mac product they last years and years. The hardware is generally really good quality and lasts, but I will often add in new pieces and upgrades, on the power mac line. On my laptop a simple trip to the shop and it gets a quick upgrade.

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Yeah Macs truly amaze me. My boyfriend has had a Mac desktop for 10+ years and it still works perfectly and he uses it to this day. He's only had to take it in to get minor things repaired a couple of times. I don't want to think about how much I've spent on PC's in that amount of time.

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Thanks Danny re basecamp - ill check it out.

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Basecamp has changed my life!! I couldn't live or stay organized without it now...especially when you have staff all over the world like we do.

I will look at it, we have been using the online service one called Zoho, and it is pretty good, allows a lot of collaboration, good details and constantly has new features, but it does not support operations type work in the way I want, more for "new or real" projects.

Definately a must though to use a tool like this, as with your work we have people inputing and delivering from a variety of locals and time zones so it makes a huge difference we I can track it all so easily.