Konfabulator Strikes Back

primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' BoopinDetroit, MI Icrontian
edited June 2005 in Science & Tech
Pixoria, who had been highly praised for their Konfabulator software, must have taken the news that OS X Tiger would include "Dashboard" very glumly. Konfabulator and Dashboard do essentially the same thing - provide for graphical "widgets" that are easily authored and provide access to common tasks such as searches, weather, and package tracking. With the announcement that OS X 10.4 would include Dashboard, people claimed it was a death knell for the long-beloved Konfabulator package.

Pixoria didn't take the news sitting down. Instead they release their new version, Konfabulator 2, for Windows.

ArsTechnica has a review of this new product. I use Dashboard on my mac, and I must say it is extremely handy sometimes. Now that it's available for Windows, I will probably end up grabbing it for my home computer. It's one of those "once you use it, you can't go back" type of things.

Source: ArsTechnica

Comments

  • GnomeWizarddGnomeWizardd Member 4 Life Akron, PA Icrontian
    edited June 2005
    hmmm intersesting.... /me tries
  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    edited June 2005
    Looks cool but the lack of killer widgets really keeps me from running it. A good start that they can hopefully improve on.
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited June 2005
    No useful widgets for me. I don't need a big clock or something else to control Winamp. Besides, I have windows open that would probably cover it up. Although I didn't see any screenshots of the thing itself on their page, so I don't even know how it behaves.
  • GnomeWizarddGnomeWizardd Member 4 Life Akron, PA Icrontian
    edited June 2005
    I am liking the picture frame and the Weatehr on my desktop. Its hard for me to like a weather thing on my desktop but this one is nice.
  • entropyentropy Yah-Der-Hey (Wisconsin)
    edited June 2005
    Nifty. Prime, any specific widgets you just can't live without?
  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited June 2005
    I am so writing a folding status widget. If I can learn XML...and JS...and I find the time.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited June 2005
    THAT would be awesome!
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited June 2005
    Entropy:

    I have never used Konfabulator so I'm not sure what widgets are available, but the ones that I use daily on my mac are the package tracker, the sticky note, the yellow pages, the calculator, and a gmail notifier.

    Nothing revolutionary, but the one-button access to all of those tools is what makes it so good for me. I hit F12 and they appear, I hit F12 again and they disappear.
  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited June 2005
    I've got a few on my desk:
    the weather one
    a binary clock
    a note/to do type list
    my folding widget...

    I've been looking for a decent calculator widget, and they're all too complicated or don't work. One of them broke on 2*cos(Pi). 100% cpu usage, had to kill w/ the task manager.
  • jaredjared College Station, TX Icrontian
    edited June 2005
    very cool, not using to much memory.. yet

    I am using large digital clock (I can actually see it across the room andyou can set an alarm), to do list, weather, and the all in one search thingy. I didn't see a folding one.

    Either way for such small applications they are very nice. All XML and Javascript, just change the file from .widget to .zip and you explore the inner workings. Now lets develop something for SM :D
  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited June 2005
    Yeah, they're really easy to write neat stuff with.

    Among other things, these are really easy:
    Getting/posting data to webpages
    reading/writing text files
    timered events
    transparency
    actions on clicking

    you name it, it's probably in javascript or their javascript engine
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