Think of Airmailr as your gateway to all of Twitter’s services without using your web browser.  Though there are many apps that already syndicate your timeline and publish you latest tweets, Airmailr does this in using Apple’s quick-at-a-glance feature – Dashboard.  Dashboard was designed to show you information any time you want to see it.  This is exactly what Airmailr does with your Twitter timeline.

When first installing Airmailr, a built in setup system takes you through a couple easy steps to get itself up and running.  You first have to allow Twitter to communicate with Airmailr.  Clicking on the given link in the setup takes you to Twitter’s “allow -this app- to communicate with Twitter” page.

Type in your account username and password and hit “allow”.  Continue the setup process by going back to the widget in Dashboard.

Airmailr’s interface resembles that of other Twitter clients with the standard up-and-down visual timeline along with a small thumbnail provided by the Twitter user.  Hovering over a Tweet in the timeline darkens its background.  A quick RT or “Re-Tweet” button in the bottom right-hand corner of each hovered tweet allows you to forward this tweet to your timeline allowing all of your friends to see the same message.  Clicking on someone’s screen name allows you to view a page of specs including their profile information as well as how many tweets they have posted.  Quick links are also provided in this spec page that allow you to quickly see their latest tweets and go to their profile and specified web page.

Navigation tabs at the top of the widget take you to different features.  ”Friends” takes you the timeline of just your friended twitterers.  ”@Replies” filters down to all of the tweets that were publicly directed towards you.  ”DM” which stands for “Direct Message”, filters down to all of the tweets that were privately directed towards you.  ”Search” allows you search the entire “Twitterverse” with a search box.

The bottom toolbar has four items.  ”Prefs” takes you to the widget’s preference pane.  Here you can adjust settings such as how often Airmailr checks for new tweets, how you want Airmailr to interact and use “Growl”, and how many tweets you want to see in your timeline at a time. “Logout” does exactly what it says – logs you out of Twitter.  ”Refresh Symbol” tells Airmailr to refresh and look for new tweets.  The right-hand icon that resembles a speech bubble allows you to post a new tweet.  You can also enter in a shortened URL so that the URL itself doesn’t take up the entire tweet message.

All in all, Airmailr is a great Twitter client even though it is still in its BETA form.  Using the speed and accessibility of Dashboard, Airmailr preforms without a hiccup and with great speed.  Getting and sending tweets takes seconds, and with it’s built in growl support, you don’t even need to open Dashboard to have your tweets automatically popup.  For those of you who are looking for a lightweight twitter client who also uses Dashboard a lot, this is the widget for you.

Airmailr is free and available at airmailr.com.

But what about the iPod touch? iPod touch apps aren’t as fully-fledged as their desktop/laptop counterparts, so is the $20 that Apple is charging for an additional 5 apps still reasonable? Let’s take a look.

Let’s look at the five applications that you get. They are Mail, Maps, Weather, Stocks and Notes. Let’s start with the last three. On the desktop/laptop, you’ll typically find these apps in Dashboard, meaning they’re simply widgets. Now, as we all know, widgets aren’t as complicated as standalone programs; with Dashcode, things have become even simpler. So it’s obvious that these apps should be extremely cheap or even free.

Then there’s Mail and Maps, the two cornerstone apps on the iPhone. Notice I said iPhone instead of iPod touch. That’s because I believe these apps are geared more towards PDA users, who in this case would be buying an iPhone. The iPod touch, on the other hand, is an iPod. It is geared towards providing entertainment on the go. So when you look at it from this perspective, it makes more sense why Apple would charge an extra $20.

The funny thing is, you do get all these apps when you buy a brand new iPod touch. Doesn’t that seem unfair? Call it the “early-adopter tax” or whatever you want, but I think this is the sort of thing will be here to say. And it’s not the first time it’s happened. Remember the uproar from early adopters when Apple dropped the iPhone’s price to $399? I guess it’s going to be hard to avoid it, especially when buying first generation products.

For iPod touch customers who already own one of said gadget, it must feel like a slap in the face, knowing that new owners would be able to get these apps without paying. There is an online petition running in hopes of removing the $20 early-adopter “tax”. But of course, I’m sure there are other more *cough* nefarious *cough* ways to obtain it.

This widget is chock full of features and they are all presented in a very aesthetically pleasing manner. For starters, once the widget is installed it allows you to pick your favorite team and then places their helmet in the lower corner and proceeds to make all games with that team playing in bold. Aside from being pleasing to the eye, the Football widget also serves its purpose, and it does it well.

The Football Widget is divided into two separate “pages”, Scoreboard and Standings. The Scoreboard page is divided into the weeks of the football season with each game listed per week. The list also includes the time and date at which the game will be played. Mousing over individual games displays a pop-up with the score divided into points scored per quarter and the “Game Leaders”. This section of the widget is updated every minute during a game day, which allows you to get work done while still keeping track of your favorite team.

Football Widget’s other page is the Standings. This page divides the league into its specific sections. It lists the Wins, Losses and Ties for each team all in hierarchical order. It serves its purpose but is no where near as exciting as the Scoreboard page.

Did I mention that this widget is totally free? So if your a football fan whether it be at the college or professional level, be sure to download The Football Widget created by Andreas Amann. Also you can check out the baseball widget which is nearly identical but built specifically for baseball.

The widget is very well designed, utilizing different logos and colors on the front to match various courier services. It allows tracking of packages from Adobe, Amazon, Apple, Canada Post, DHL, FedEx, Google Checkout, Nintendo, Purolator, TNT, UPS, and USPS.

If you click the logo of the courier service it links you to the website with all the transit details (if available). You can also change the size of the widget and can even reduce it to just a logo to save space on your Dashboard. I highly recommend this widget to anyone who likes to keep tabs on where their packages are at all times. While the Delivery Status widget is freeware, Mike asks that you make a donation if you find the widget useful. You can grab the Delivery Status widget here.

Google Reader is a free RSS aggregator web app that integrates with your personalized iGoogle home page, and can be accessed from essentially any computer or phone with an internet connection and a web browser. This makes it pretty handy, though it can be annoying to have to open a browser window to check your feeds – it’s an obtrusive step away from the Mac desktop-app experience.

The free Google Reader Notifier widget by Rusty Brick Software aims to bridge the gap between web app and desktop app by displaying how many new stories you have in Google Reader from within the Dashboard.

It sure isn’t the most beautiful looking widget but it does one task and does it very well. Google Reader Notifier is definitely worth a look if you are interested in using Google Reader and want a more smooth and simple way to check your feeds.

Editors note: Ironic that we post this piece first thing this morning as Google Reader has been offline for several hours. NewsFire has been working great for me though! -Jordan Golson

You can find it here, download it, and start using it right away! There are instructions for use on the download page, including a video which shows how to work the widget. To use the widget, start dragging the image you want, open up Dashboard, drop the image onto the widget, and wait until the image uploads. The URL is automatically copied to the clipboard.

Even though the widget seems simple, it is much more complex than it seems. Because ImageShack URLs are very long, the widget includes a way to “shrink” the URL with TinyURL. The option can be turned off, for your skeptical friends, but is a handy feature. The widget also can play a sound when uploading is finished, so you know when the image is uploaded the URL is active. All these preferences can be changed in the widget options.

I strongly encourage you to try out the widget, as it is free, and is an elegant solution for all your image uploading needs. To read more about the creation, learn the back-story, and download the widget, check out the product page on Model Concept.

An industry first, Visual Voicemail allows you to go directly to any of your messages without listening to the prior messages. So you can quickly select the messages that are most important to you.

It’s a neat idea and one which will probably push many people to consider the iPhone once it is available. But, what if, like me, you’re impatient? Well, you’re in luck, because you can have the same feature now, for free, thanks to CallWave.

CallWave is a company that provides a bunch of telephony products targeted mostly at business users. But, one of their services, which they offer for free, is Visual Voicemail. The setup is simple: You visit that link and download their dashboard widget (Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger required) then create a free account via their website. The service works with most US carriers including Cingular, Verizon, T-Mobile, and over 30 others using any cell phone, but you do need to be in the US. Once your account is created, you follow their simple instructions to replace your carrier’s voicemail with their service. I use T-Mobile and can’t notice any difference.

Then, whenever you receive a voicemail, you’re notified via Text Message to your cell phone and you can listen in the usual manner by dialing in. Or you can visit the CallWave website to listen or, coolest of all, you can use the Dashboard Widget to listen to your email from your Mac. I work in a room without cell service and this widget is a godsend. Try it out… it’s a great way to access your voicemail and will tide you over until mid-June when the iPhone is released!

Type in “quack” and you’ll see all the images tagged with quack. Type in “Mac Pro” and you’ll see all the lucky sods with Mac Pros. Once you click on a thumbnail, it displays the picture information, along with a larger thumbnail. The widget includes direct links to picture sizes, the author’s Flickr page, and more, giving tons of information quickly and easily. It’s actually quite fun to pop in tags and browse through images for inspiration.

You can grab Flickrator from Davide Zannotti’s site.

Well, you are correct, this review comes smack on the Nike+ iPod’s birthday, May 23. The reason for my review is three-fold. First, it’s spring (at least in the northern hemisphere), it’s a great time to get into running, and I would recommend it to anyone. Second, I think after a year of on the road usage, it’s a good time to see how some people’s concerns about the system have turned out. Finally, I really believe right now we’re in the renaissance of this great product  the Nike web apps have matured, introducing excellent new features and very helpful Dashboard widgets. The wildly popular Nike+ iPod Sports kits can at last be easily found on store shelves. It’s a great time to be a runner and iPod Nano owner.

One worry I heard a lot in regards to the Nike+ kit is about its accuracy – it’s a worry I’ve found is completely unfounded. I run the same route very often and find myself measured at almost the same distance run to run. Truthfully I’ve been very impressed at the accuracy of the Nike+ iPod sensor. Running with either the sensor inserted into my Nike+ shoes or strapped onto the laces of my Adidas runners, the Nike+ iPod sensor measured distances very consistently. As far as I can tell, it approaches an accuracy of plus or minus one meter over four or five kilometers. Even without calibration when I map myself a 4km run on Google Earth, 4km is really close to what the iPod tells me I’ve traveled. I’m sure GPS options do provide more distance accuracy as well as information like altitude climbed and the exact route run, but for the casual runner I really think they’re a little excessive  loads of features, generally bulkier and often carrying a higher price tag.

The second complaint I’ve often encountered about the Nike+ iPod kit is Nike’s quality of shoes. I only partially empathize with this complaint. I find the quality of the Nike shoes I purchased very acceptable but I can completely understand that for some people Nike shoes just aren’t an option, that is, Nike shoes won’t fit or be comfortable for all people. It actually took me trying on quite a few pairs of shoes before I found a set that was both comfortable and fit me properly. I am glad I took the time to find the “perfect” pair, though, because I really like my Max Air Motos.

Despite worries from the nay-sayers I find the Nike+ shoes extremely well made, comfortable and very light. That said they weren’t terribly cheap, so if you have a pair of runners you are already enamored with you might want to use one of the many available options to attach your Nike+ sensor to them. For six months I used my older Adidas runners and put the sensor in a home-made fabric pouch which I attached to my laces. My home-made pouch worked fine but there are much better options that won’t set you back too much like the Marware Sportsuit.

There was a bit of uproar upon its debut about the Nike+ sensors built-in battery which can’t be replaced. I’ve used mine for almost a year and several hundred kilometers and the sensor’s battery is still going strong. I do dread having to replace my Nike+ kit eventually but $29 every couple years doesn’t really seem that bad.

What I’ve been the most pleased with over the course of my year with the Nike+ has been the improvements to the Nike+ web app. Although what was provided upon its release was very acceptable Nike has continued to add features and improvements on a fairly consistent basis. Initially the Nike+ web app gave users access to goal setting, challenges and a view of all their runs; recent upgrades brought Map It, Nike+ Dashboard widgets and a number of other lesser additions. Map It is an interesting collaboration between Google Maps and Nike+ that allows you to map your running routes and then share them with the Nike+ community. Additionally you can keep track of how many times you have run a given path or even comment and tag the routes of others.

The two Nike+ widgets that have been introduced are the Nike+ Goal Widget and the Nike+ Challenge Widget. Both widgets help you track your progress without having to log into the central web app. The past year hasn’t been without some annoyances; as much as I praise the Nike+ web app, I still long for a desktop version of the system. Flash based web apps have really come a long way but can still suffer from lag and every so often can become unresponsive. A further complaint is that while recently some consistency has been achieved, the features of the Nike+ web app vary from country to country, creating no continuity through the global community. To see all of the available Nike+ features, you have to log onto the American version of the web app. This isn’t a real problem for the individual runner, who registers in the country he lives in, but for the runner wishing to interact with the global community of running enthusiasts, the difficulty of living in a country that does not support Nike+’s more advanced features can become a frustrating one.

Overall, the last year of running with my Nike+ iPod sport kit has been very smooth and very fun. It hasn’t been perfect but it has been very close.

Pros:

• Great way to get started and keep motivated to run
• Not as expensive as most GPS units, especially if you already have an iPod Nano
• Surprisingly accurate even with non-Nike shoe options
• Widgets help keep goals in mind
• Mapping is a cool way to remember routes and discover other’s running paths

Cons:

• Questionable quality and fit of Nike shoes
• Nike+ shoes can be expensive
• Those outside of USA pay slightly inflated price for Nike+ iPod Sports kit
• Non-USA residents who use their nations’ “local” Nike+ site may be disappointed by lack of features
• Shuffle seems to malfunction when starting a run  same playlist starts with the same song every time
• Still only compatible with iPod Nano  presumably because hard disk iPods would damage during running

Before I found out about Amnesty Singles, I ran widgets on my desktop using this tip from Mac OS X Hints. It allowed widgets to be brought to the desktop, but they were still a part of the Dashboard, and would sit above everything on the screen. Amnesty Singles, on the other hand, makes the widget a stand-alone application.

It is extremely easy to create a stand-alone widget, as Amnesty Singles does all of the work. To create a widget-application, go to the folder *username*/Library/Widgets and find the widget you want to convert to an application. Drag this file onto the Amnesty window. Here, you need to select whether you want the widget to launch externally or internally. Externally means that the widget will launch from the file that you dragged onto the window. Internally means that a copy of the widget will be bundled with the application, so that is a true stand-alone application. Note: Widgets that launch internally will only run on computers with a licensed version of Amnesty Singles.

If you have ever had the need to run widgets on your desktop like I have, Amnesty Singles is definitely the best solution that I have found. If you know even more ways to run widgets outside of the Dashboard, tell us about it in the comments!

Amnesty Singles is shareware and is available for $9.95 USD from Mesa Dynamics.

You simply select the track in iTunes, click the iTunes logo in the widget , choose the correct album art, and then click “Set as album art in iTunes.” In my experiences the widget does a great job selecting album art, but if it does not pick the correct art, clicking the logo in the upper right allows you to see thumbnails of all the matching album art. It is as simple as that to solve your iTunes album art woes.

As you would expect from a creation of the Iconfactory, Dine-O-Matic features skillfully rendered, eye-catching graphics and an interface that is very approachable. You just flip over the widget enter a number of your favorite restaurants and places you’d like to try, tagging each with it’s respective type of cuisine, flip it back over and start making choices.

I know it’s just a silly little widget but I really find Dine-O-Matic helpful when I can’t make up my mind and I think you will too. I can’t promise that ‘fate’ won’t still send you to MacDonald’s sometimes though.

While Photo Drop features a very simple interface it is deceptively full of cool features. After dragging your image onto the widget, by dragging the image and activating the Dashboard, it only takes a couple of clicks and you can apply one of a number of stylized effects to your photo. Photo Drop includes eight excellent Quartz-based effects such as 1 Bit color, Pushpin, Shadow, Toy Camera and Reflection. Shadow and Tape are two effects in particular that make me wish something like this had been around years ago. It seems I’m always taking time to start up an application like Photoshop just to add a very simple drop shadow or a stylized boarder to a couple of shots, a task that would only take moments to do with Photo Drop.

Further adjustments you can make in Photo Drop include scaling images, rotating them to correct crooked or sideways pictures and applying a copyright watermark of your name and the year. When you start scaling or rotating your image a grid and some useful information like image dimension and angle of rotation appear to aid you in editing the image to perfection. Exporting your edited photo is especially easy. When you are happy with the changes you have made to the image press the “Done” button and Photo Drop will display the edited photo with a few options. From here you can choose one of three handy ways to export: you can save to the desktop, save to the clipboard or simply drag the photo to wherever you want to place it. Photo Drop gives you the option of exporting your image in a number of standard formats including PNG, TIFF or JPEG.

Generally all of Photo Drop’s features are easily controlled; the cropping, scaling and sizing are controlled from the widget’s front, and the watermark, export, and effect selections are made on the back of the widget. The single concern I have about Photo Drop’s interface is the presence of a mysterious “Color Adjustment” toggle located on the back of widget, the use of which is completely beyond me. In a number of trials I was unable to find any difference in color output with and without the Color Adjustment toggle enabled. That said, for it’s intended purpose Photo Drop is almost perfect. Photo Drop doesn’t include batch processing so it probably won’t replace Photoshop or Fireworks for users who are adding effects to dozens of images at a time, but it supplies a satisfying, stylish and simple way to quickly edit a couple of photos in a few seconds – and all for free.

I’ve really enjoyed my experience using Dropping Inc.’s widget Photo Drop. It has made me more productive and I plan on keeping it in my Dashboard indefinitely. I think the Japanese duo Kenichi Yoshida and Tomonaga Tokuyama of Dropping Inc. have hit a home-run with this handy little widget and I’ll be keeping an eye out for their future creations. Photo Drop is free, and can be downloaded from Dropping Inc.

Should someone call your cellular phone and it was not answered, the call gets forwarded to Callwave. Callwave will then record the voice mail if the caller leaves one, and present it on the widget with the call number, the date, the time and the duration of the message. Even if your caller does not leave a message, Callwave will still log it as illustrated on the screenshot below.

You can also delete voice mail (and undo) and add / edit caller’s name right from the widget. You can also specify how many calls you want the widget to show on its preferences’ window and whether to display the activation instructions (you only need to activate your phone once) as shown above. If you want to look at past history calls, simply click on “See All Calls” at the bottom of the widget and you will be forwarded to their website, where you can view deleted calls, refresh lists of calls, and manage your contacts.

One feature that I wish I can turn off is that Callwave will always send you an sms if you miss a call. A note will be displayed on your phone’s screen when you miss a call anyway, so I don’t need to be reminded twice. In addition, for some people, receiving sms on their phone will actually incur charges.

There is one cool feature called “Call Back” that you might want to try when you are on your account’s website. Let’s say after you have listened to a particular voice mail, you decide to return the call. Instead of fiddling with your phone to go to the “missed calls” menu, you can have Callwave connect both of you automagically with a single click.

Callwave Free Visual Voice Mail widget works with major U.S. carriers like Cingular, T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon and 30 others. Download and give this widget a try here

First up, and yes this is one I’ve reviewed before, is Minutes. This is the best countdown/timer widget out there. A very intuitive interface and packed with features despite its small footprint. It has recently been updated, now allowing a simple noise to be played. You can select from any of the system sounds you have on your computer. This sits alongside other options like playing or stopping iTunes and launching specific files. Get Minutes here.

Next is Capture, a brilliantly compact widget alternative for taking screenshots. As someone who takes a lot of screenshots, it is often a bit of a hassle to keep Grab open all the time. Capture allows me all the same options and more, ever so simply. As this screenshot will show, Capture can be as simple or as fully featured as you like. You can do full-screen, specific windows, or a selection – all things you would expect. You can also however, take screenshots of the dashboard, save screenshots straight to the clipboard, change filetypes, save destination, scale and image quality. A nice addition would be to add timed capturing but it’s still a great tool in my books. Capture is available at Vanilla Soap and they have a whole bunch of other cool stuff, aside from a great collection of widgets.

iTunes stats is a widget that is for all you err… iTunes stats nerds. It shows nearly everything you could possibly want to know about your iTunes library. The screenshot shows them better than I can list them. Some stats are even clickable, switching between numbers of songs or a percentage figure. Currently I’m having a rendering problem with a couple of the stats as you can see, but hopefully this gets fixed sooner rather than later. Pick up iTunes stats over at Dashboard Widgets.

If you’re like me and you dabble in web design every now and then, it can be difficult to create a design if you don’t know what it will look like when you put content in. This is where the next little widget will come in handy. Dolor Sit Amet is a basic widget that will come up with as much of the famous “lorem ipsum” placeholder text as you tell it to. Specify a certain number of characters, words or paragraphs, copy it to the clipboard with a simple click, then paste it into your new design for testing. I could only find this widget available at the Apple Dashboard Widgets page. The developers page seems to be out of action.

The final widget I wanted to look at is iPhoto Mini. This little gem will display either a random photo or a photo of your choosing. You can browse through your albums, set any picture as your desktop background or open the image in a range of apps including Safari, Preview and Mail. iPhoto Mini can also use a custom application to open your photo so you can have full control over it. My favourite part about this widget is you don’t have to open iPhoto to use it! iPhoto Mini can be found at e dot studios.

That’s all for now, leave info about your favourite little widgets in the comments!

For Yahoo Widgets 4, the team has made extensive optimizations under the hood to decrease RAM usage and increase overall speed, a welcome feature of any application update. The app includes a new major feature, the widget dock. Much like the tray and sidebar in Dashboard and Vista, this easily hideable dock sits to the side of your screen and offers instant access to your widgets. In addition, Yahoo has made it even easier to find new widgets and update existing ones with one click widget browsing and automatic widget updating. And of course, the best feature of Yahoo Widgets still holds true in the new revision: it’s 100% free. Even after it’s acquisition by Yahoo, Konfabulator is still a solid Mac app. The design is sleek and stunning, as one expects from any native OS X app.

The new platform integrates well into the operating system, and yet sadly, the once simple Konfabulator widget interface has become increasingly complex with numerous buttons of the same size and shape aligning many widgets, and some may find the uncluttered widget layout of Dashboard is still preferable. Whatever your opinion, for the price, Yahoo Widgets 4 is still a best-of-breed app that deserves a fair look from any Mac user.

The first option, the Character Pallete, is built in to OS X so you don’t even have to download anything. If you only speak one language you may not have ever discovered this feature, because it’s hidden in the International section of your System Preferences. In this pane, navigate to the Input Menu tab, and check the box beside Character Pallete, which should be the first item in your list. Once you’ve enabled this item, the input menu will appear on your menu bar if you hadn’t already been using it. Aside from giving you that warm patriotic feeling inside, this menu actually serves some useful purposes. When you need to insert a special character, just click on the input menu and call up the Character Pallete from here, double-clicking on the character you need to insert in your text.

The second choice is to download the CharacterPal widget from Taco Widgets. This widget is simpler to navigate than the menus of the Character Pallete, but it doesn’t feature as many special characters, and of course it hides itself away in the Dashboard when you’re not using it. If you really need it sitting on your desktop for easy access, you could enable the developer mode for Dashboard or, like I did, use Amnesty Singles to make the widget its own little app.

After using both of these options pretty extensively, I find that I’m really fond of the Character Pallete for its immense depth, its ease-of-access from the menu bar, and the ability to set favorite special characters for even quicker access. Either way you decide to go, though, you’ll be inserting special characters left and right before you can say “interrobang.”

When the timer reaches zero, Minutes can be set to stop or start an iTunes playlist, open a file, or put the computer to sleep. You can also set the timer to repeat, a very useful feature that works well alongside the Growl integration. For example, if you needed a notification every hour, half hour, or even 10 hours, this would be a perfect solution.

For me, Minutes is a great combination of style and functionality. Check it out here!

This is where Matthieu Beaumel’s Deep Sleep widget comes to the rescue. This simple widget changes the default sleep mode temporarily on your laptop, from hardware suspend (suspend to ram), where your main memory is kept powered allowing the machine to wake up quickly to software suspend (suspend to disk), also referred to hibernation mode. Essentially on the latter, It dumps the state of your machine and the contents of primary memory into the hard drive and consequently turns your machine off. Hence, you do not have to worry about it waking up en route to your destination. When you wake your machine by pressing the power button, the saved data, called sleepimage, is reinstated to the main memory. It will take your machine approximately 10 seconds to perform a restoration, however, so it is not as fast but the benefit is there. One side note: if you are running Mac OS X 10.4.3 or later, Apple introduced another variation to its default sleep mode called safe sleep. In addition to powering your RAM to maintain its contents, and the state of your machine, this data is also saved into your hard drive at the first stage of sleep operation in case the battery on your machine runs out of e-juice.

Prior to discovering Deep Sleep widget, I have to go into the Terminal and use the pmset command to accomplish the same objective Deep Sleep does. However, it is lucidly a hassle. I have to amend the hibernate mode every time it wakes up. Of course, I could write my own simple script around pmset to curb the inconvenience but with Deep Sleep, one click is all it takes to get the job done. One current minor downside is that Deep Sleep does not return you to the desktop immediately after clicking on it prior to commencing its operation. Hence, when you wake your machine up, you need to press f12 one more time to get rid of the dashboard. Nevertheless, Deep Sleep is a free widget that I suspect many of you will find it useful. So the next time you are scurrying across campus with your laptop because you are late for class, you can rest assured it will still sleep safely and soundly.

Get a better sleep here. Make sure your machine is supported.

It does this so well through the Mac’s drag and drop methods, all you have to do is drag the widget file into the application and select where you want to save it. And then the widget acts just like an app. It even uses the widget icon for the application icon. Amnesty Singles also adds some functionality to the widget, this includes being able to change the refresh time and window level through the application’s settings.

As soon as we used Dashboard on Tiger, we knew Panther users were missing out on something. But now they have the opportunity to use widgets anytime since Amnesty Single makes all the applications compatible with OS X 10.3.9.

The whole purpose of Dashboard is to “perform common tasks and provide you with fast access to information” but as soon as you open it, you obviously cannot use any other applications. That’s why Amnesty Single is so great, now I can use my widgets while working with any other applications.

It’s an amazing program, and for $9.99 you can’t go wrong. There is a demo version available here, but the program is definitely worth it. Check it out.