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turbulentfurball
Right Honourable Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Québec
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2014-04-26, 11:11

Who still uses it? What for?

The widget page on apple.com is distinctly unloved. The graphics haven't been 'retinafied' and it refers to OS X as 'Mac OS X' which changed when Mountain Lion came out. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't recent Mac laptops (and maybe standalone keyboards?) have a dashboard F-key. I don't have one on my new rMBP. I'm guessing it was maybe F4, which is now Launchpad. I'm guessing it's going to be dropped in the near future.

I just realised today that you can disable it in the Mission Control preference panel. I have just done the deed.

RIP Dashboard. I remember when Steve demoed the 'water' effect when a new widget was dropped onto the screen. I was awestruck. However, it seems your time is up.

(Why Dashboard is still around, but Front Row was put out to pasture still makes me a little bit mad and is perhaps the subject of another thread)
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Bryson
Rocket Surgeon
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: The Canadark
 
2014-04-26, 12:23

Calculator. That's pretty much it. (And even then, it drives me crazy when you have to wait a couple of seconds for the calculator to come to life - it doesn't seem like that should be an issue.)
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drewprops
Space Pirate
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
 
2014-04-26, 12:24

You can turn it OFF??!!

Woohoo!!



...
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turbulentfurball
Right Honourable Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Québec
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2014-04-26, 12:41

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bryson View Post
Calculator. That's pretty much it. (And even then, it drives me crazy when you have to wait a couple of seconds for the calculator to come to life - it doesn't seem like that should be an issue.)
cmd+space, type c, and calculator is invariably the first match. I'd bet it's quicker than Dashboard calc.
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Dorian Gray
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Paris, France
 
2014-04-26, 13:07

Quote:
Originally Posted by turbulentfurball View Post
RIP Dashboard. I remember when Steve demoed the 'water' effect when a new widget was dropped onto the screen. I was awestruck.
Me too! I was crushed when I found my iBook G4’s graphics weren’t up to the task of rendering the ripple, as in they bailed out entirely. I had to wait until I got my PowerBook G4 (bought from Bryson’s sister or wife, I can’t remember – can you, Bryson?) to see it first-hand.

Now even my iPhone 5 could probably render such a thing while in a power-saving state!

I don’t use the Dashboard calculator, preferring the Calculator app (which I have in my Dock).

… engrossed in such factional acts as dreaming different dreams.
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PB PM
Sneaky Punk
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Vancouver, BC
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2014-04-26, 13:19

I used to use dashboard for several daily tasks, but now days I only fire it up for a package tracking widget. In other words, it hasn't been used in months.

I don't think you can actually disable dashboard, but you can set it not to appear as it's own "space", unless your Mission Control panel is different.

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turbulentfurball
Right Honourable Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Québec
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2014-04-26, 13:33

Quote:
Originally Posted by PB PM View Post
I used to use dashboard for several daily tasks, but now days I only fire it up for a package tracking widget. In other words, it hasn't been used in months.

I don't think you can actually disable dashboard, but you can set it not to appear as it's own "space", unless your Mission Control panel is different.

I seem to have forgotten that Dashboard actually has its own App. It still has the water effect if you load the app rather than having Dashboard in a space.

*sigh*. The memories.
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turbulentfurball
Right Honourable Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Québec
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2014-04-26, 13:35

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dorian Gray View Post
Me too! I was crushed when I found my iBook G4’s graphics weren’t up to the task of rendering the ripple, as in they bailed out entirely.
Ditto with my G4 Mini. I had to wait to go Intel before I saw the ripple, which I thought was rather ironic at the time as the G4 had discrete graphics and the Intel MacBook I had at the time had Intel GMA 950.
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thegeriatric
geri to my friends
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Heaven
 
2014-04-26, 19:05

I use it for the weather, istat, and a currency converter.
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faramirtook
A for effort.
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: New Jersey
 
2014-04-26, 21:16

Weather, baseball league-wide scoreboard, package tracker, world clock, calculator, stickies, unit converter. So pretty much every day many times a day.
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billybobsky
BANNED
I am worthless beyond hope.
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Inner Swabia. If you have to ask twice, don't.
 
2014-04-27, 04:32

weather. stickies. airline tracker.

once/day.
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Dorian Gray
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Paris, France
 
2014-04-27, 05:54

In my previous post I forgot to mention what I use Dashboard for. I use it for checking the weather in a variety of places including where I live, where my immediate family members live, and where a close friend lives – and I use it frequently for that. I even have it mapped to a Hot Corner (bottom-left).

Although I also have the calendar, clock, and calculator widgets (by default?), I don’t actually use them.

… engrossed in such factional acts as dreaming different dreams.
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Yontsey
*AD SPACE FOR SALE*
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Cleveland-ish, OH
 
2014-04-27, 08:43

I always dashboard more annoying the useful.
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chucker
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: near Bremen, Germany
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2014-04-27, 09:24

You sometimes verbs.
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Brad
Selfish Heathen
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
 
2014-04-27, 09:27

The only things I regularly use Dashboard for are the calendar (because it's faster than launching the Calendar app and switching to month view) and a quick glance at the weather app.

I keep the calculator widget open and occasionally use it for some quick arithmetic, but most of the time I have a terminal window open and just use a Python shell for any math that takes more than one or two operands.

I have a couple of clocks in there, too. One for London and one for Kiev. I've used them as a quick view when I've had to chat with or coordinate something with employees/contractors/partners in those time zones, but that's very rare.


Poor old Dashboard. I'm not sure I can say I thought you had lots of potential, but I wish you were more useful than this.

The quality of this board depends on the quality of the posts. The only way to guarantee thoughtful, informative discussion is to write thoughtful, informative posts. AppleNova is not a real-time chat forum. You have time to compose messages and edit them before and after posting.
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Yontsey
*AD SPACE FOR SALE*
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Cleveland-ish, OH
 
2014-04-27, 09:42

Quote:
Originally Posted by chucker View Post
You sometimes verbs.
Haha my apologies. I was half asleep still when I posted that. Forgot to ad a "found" in there.
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turbulentfurball
Right Honourable Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Québec
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2014-04-27, 15:53

I think being able to have widgets on the desktop itself rather than in its own space would be more useful, especially if you've got lots of desktop real estate to spare. Having a few widgets down one side of the screen wouldn't be so bad. However, some of the widgets look a bit dated now. The weather widget looks a bit iOS6-ish now. A little anachronistic.
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Mac+
9" monochrome
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: 🇦🇺
 
2014-04-27, 16:00

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bryson View Post
Calculator. That's pretty much it. (And even then, it drives me crazy when you have to wait a couple of seconds for the calculator to come to life - it doesn't seem like that should be an issue.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by turbulentfurball View Post
cmd+space, type c, and calculator is invariably the first match. I'd bet it's quicker than Dashboard calc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dorian Gray View Post
Me too! ...
I don’t use the Dashboard calculator, preferring the Calculator app (which I have in my Dock).
What about cmd+space and then typing the equation directly into spotlight? That's fairly quick AND unobtrusive.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad View Post
The only things I regularly use Dashboard for are the calendar (because it's faster than launching the Calendar app and switching to month view) ...
Do check out Fantastical - it is superb in the menu bar.

As for me, some snow reports - wishful thinking for the next holiday, two clocks, an old Australia Post postcode widget and currency converter.

I remember when Konfabulator was the shit!

All I want is a simple life
twitter
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709
¡Damned!
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
 
2014-04-27, 16:08

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac+ View Post
I remember when Konfabulator was the shit!
HA! I loved it too. I remember the whole "widget" name fiasco like it was yesterday. Sigh, nostalgia.

afa Dashboard, I have it set up as a separate Space (as I do most everything… I use Spaces quite a bit) so a quick double-finger swipe is all I need for calc, istat, conversion and weather. I probably use it twice a day, more if I'm calculating where portals should go in the Nether.

It's just *there*, so I see no reason to turn it off. I still use Quicksilver to open up most everything, so if I had to choose between LaunchPad and Dashboard, Launchpad would get the axe.

Although, I haven't used LaunchPad in quite a while. Does it have the same functionality as Quicksilver yet? If it's as quick and easy as QS I'd consider switching to a built-in app.

So it goes.
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billybobsky
BANNED
I am worthless beyond hope.
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Inner Swabia. If you have to ask twice, don't.
 
2014-04-27, 16:24

I just learned that you can use Spotlight to do calculations. Thanks, Mac+!
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PBMB
Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
 
2014-04-29, 03:44

Quote:
Originally Posted by thegeriatric View Post
I use it for the weather, istat, and a currency converter.
Quote:
Originally Posted by faramirtook View Post
Weather ... world clock, calculator, stickies, unit converter. So pretty much every day many times a day.
All the previous for me also; plus calendar.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad View Post
I keep the calculator widget open and occasionally use it for some quick arithmetic, but most of the time I have a terminal window open and just use a Python shell for any math that takes more than one or two operands.
For calculations I also think that some kind of shell is so much better. Personally I prefer calc over other solutions (e.g. bc). In fact, I completely abandoned all GUI calculators over the years in favor of calc. Very handy, powerful, customizable, it displays all operations in the terminal and behaves like the shell. For example, you can use the arrows to scroll back in the command/operations history if you need to repeat a tedious to write down calculation with only a small change.
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noleli2
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Chicago
 
2014-05-05, 15:59

Heh, guess I'm pretty old school, but I love Dashboard. It'd make me sad if it went away



For calculator stuff, I usually just use Alfred.

(Of course, just being here makes me feel old school, what with this being my first post in years…)
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