Widgets for Mac
created: 09 Apr 2013 08:23
tags: mac productivity software
I admit that I never being too much into dashboard and widgets. The main reason was that they took long to load in my old macs (remember, I started with an ibook 12" G4) so I never bother to explore the widget power. Now, with a brand new MacBook Pro i7, I start using the widget instead of cluttering my status bar of icons.
Unfortunately, it appears widget are on the verge of extinction, since I don't really see lot of active development behind and apparently, one of the reasons, is that developers have troubles to make money out of widgets and users are still not using the dashboard to avoid wasting hardware resources. But I have some widget open and I do not notice any drain in my mac performances… of course, I have few, useful widget, and not zillion of them, all updating their status every millisecond.
So, what widget do I have? Aside the original apple sticky note, translator, dictionary, weather, calculator and calendar I have:
- screenshot plus : capture screenshots;
- gmail : check your gmail mailbox;
- twidget : tweet client;
- eject volume : eject mounted volumes;
- note file : note app with sync capabilities;
- istat pro : monitor the status of your computer;
- mighty monitor : check the battery status of connected devices;
- tea timer : a nice timer for more than just tea;
- dropbox droplet : easy share dropbox files;
- google apps : all google apps are one click away;
What I cannot find is a good widget for Facebook, so to free my status bar from MenuTab Pro (wonderful app, btw).
And what about you? Do you still use widgets and if yes, which ones?
What's new?
created: 10 Apr 2012 16:03
tags:
Chembytes is not dead. I know, I know, I'm not new to such posts, then followed by silence, but this time I back for real.
In these months I was working to a series of papers and had no time to update the wiki, nor the Facebook page. Plus, I couldn't share the new software I developed since papers were far away from publication.
Meanwhile, GROMACS, TINKER, MATERIALS STUDIO, VMD, YASC, and a bunch of other software received important updates: in particular TINKER 6.0.x now dynamically allocates memory and is parallelized. Materials Studio also reached version number 6.0
On the IT side, I ditched Ubuntu and its awful Unity interface, I sold the iPad and my old macbook pro for the new iPad and a more recent second hand macbook. I have also decided to use this space as personal webspace, rather than build a new one. A new project, called Acad-iPad will also start and together with The Mac Corner page, is dedicated to the use of the iPad in Academia.
On the personal side, family start to grow: I got a dog last December. His name is Paco and is a six and half months old english cocker spaniel.
Mac Mini
created: 31 Oct 2010 15:24
tags:
Is here! Is here! My first brand new Mac is here. Presenting the Mac Mini unibody 2010, oh yeah.
