Written by: Adam Christianson
Categories: Feedback
On the Saturday cast I mentioned a new product, Amnesty Widget Browser from Mesa Dynamics. This software allows you to run 3rd party (non-Apple) Tiger Dashboard widgets on the desktop under Panther. Well I just received an update directly from the developers (they are apparently MacCast listeners) and it will also work under Tiger!
Just for your further information: Amnesty Widget Browser also runs on Tiger (and on Tiger it does run Apple’s default widgets) for users who want to run widgets outside of their dashboard directly on their desktops with extra abilities (e.g. choosing the window layer to run in, setting opacity, etc.). We are trying to provide the same experience for Panther users, but due to legal issues, cannot support Apple’s default widgets under Panther.
I really don’t see the value for widgets. I assume this uses alot of resources to have many of them running. I’m always looking for ways to speed up OS X, and running this on my Panther Mac Mini would probably slow things down even more.
they are very strict in that they don’t pull system resources except when you hit F12. this may cause a slight delay when you need them, but I like it.
I agree Danny, I think widgets are very nice that way.
But I don’t think this app for Panther works the same as Dashboard for Tiger. Good to know that F12 is the off/on button for the widgets.
jon’s right, it runs like a regular app on Panther i.e. you open and quit, not F12. Having said that, while it’s open you can select/deselect whichever widgets you want open. It doesn’t seem to slow down my G3 powerbook (1Gb RAM) noticeably, but since my main limitation is screen space, I only keep 1 widget (Phoon) on in the background (a moon). As Amnesty’s not integrated into the system it’s appeal to me is curiosity more than anything. I doubt I’ll be downloading masses of widgets any time soon, nice though they are, unless I get very very bored. Still it’s free and works well so I’m not knocking it.
Is there a wordpress widget that would allow me to display my album in the sidebar/with the sidebar widgets/plug ins?
Thanks!