![]() An iPhone implementation of Dashboard must be one of the ideas being kicked around the iPhone development team.Īs Apple promotes the tens of thousands of applications available for the iPhone, competitors are rushing to circumvent the breadth and depth of the iPhone app library by bubbling information up to the top. This is particularly unfortunate because, like the original Mac with its desk accessories, the iPhone could benefit greatly from having a way to view some simple information when another app is active. Some of the functions such as weather and stock viewing mirrored their Dashboard counterparts, but they couldn't be invoked without disrupting the active app as they could on the Mac. It drew some criticism due to its modal nature, but its ability to quickly display or hide a screenful of widgets without having to mess with window arrangements made it more convenient than the gadget implementation in Windows Vista and even Windows 7, which has freed gadgets from the Sidebar and now displays them on the desktop - a throwback to the Active Desktop feature of Windows 95.When Apple launched the iPhone, it suggested that the device featured widgets, but they were there in name only. Apple aggregates thousands of widgets on a special web page, and Leopard brought a new feature called Web Clips to provide an easy way for consumers to create their own widgets from part of a Web page in addition to the more traditional Dashcode development tool.ĭashboard earned its own button on the Mac keyboard. Veteran Mac users recognized them as the reincarnation of desk accessories, which provided functions such as an alarm clock and note pad when the Mac could run only one program at a time. ![]() Introduced with Mac OS X Tiger, Dashboard widgets (or "gadgets" as Google and Microsoft call them) are small, simple applets intended to convey quick bits of information or provide a quick change of settings. Apple showed strong early momentum on the Mac with its widget architecture, but is falling behind some rivals in bringing glanceable utility to other platforms. One of the challenges for companies trying to build across the "three screens" of the television, PC and cell phone is adapting their distinctive technologies to those platforms.
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