The Best Free Gadgets & Widgets app downloads for Mac: iStat pro App Store Preview Kung Fu Panda 2 Weather Underground Weather Widget The Weather Chan. 1703 Dashboard Widgets Home > Downloads > Dashboard Widgets Shop the Apple Online Store (1-800-MY-APPLE), visit an Apple Retail Store, or find a reseller.

Advertisement How long has it been since you used your Mac’s Dashboard? If you’re like most users, it’s been a long time – and that’s too bad. While many users have forgotten it’s there, the Dashboard can be a quick way to check a wide variety of information, from tracking packages to sending texts to finding special characters. It doesn’t help that Apple seldom issues updates for this widget screen, though Mavericks did bring You probably already know about the major features of the latest, free upgrade for Mac OS X. Here are the hidden ones. The main problem, in 2013, is that decent widgets can be hard to find. With that in mind, here are 11 actually useful widgets worth installing even if you’ve forgotten the Dashboard still exists.

Know When To Expect A Package A package is coming. You want to know when. Is the widget you’re looking for. This handy tool, and seemingly supports every delivery service on earth. It even notifies you as your package moves around the planet, making it useful even if you rarely check the Dashboard itself. If you get packages regularly, and own a Mac, there’s no excuse: you should be using this widget.

Keep Up With The Weather Weather happens pretty much everywhere, I’ve noticed. Keeping track of it is also probably the single best argument for something like the Dashboard: it’s information you only need occasionally, but want quickly when you do. I showed you There are many ways to find the weather forecast on your Mac, but nothing beats a dedicated app. Here are six of the best., but my personal favorite tools is the Seeing radar, forecasts and a text description all at a glance is hard to beat – even if this particular widget is ugly. If you don’t need all that information, and want something beautiful, I’d recommend the default widget that comes with your Mac. Demystify Timezones Scheduling meetings across time zones can be a pain.

Ask anyone who works for MakeUseOf: our staff is scattered from Australia to the Middle East and Europe to North America. Planning meetings can be confusing, but happily can help. Add as many cities as you like. You’ll see the current time, and can move the slider to see others. It’s and simple way to calculate time zones, and essential for anyone who coordinates with people overseas.

Always Know The Score Believe it or not, many Mac geeks are also sports fans. If you count yourself among them, you owe it to yourself to check out the. With support for the “big four” sports in North America – baseball, basketball, football and hockey – this app lets you oversee realtime scores across your preferred league: Follow more than one sport? Add the widget multiple times, then change the sports in the settings. Control Your Media Center Do you have XBMC on your TV? Then you need the on your Mac. The buttons work as you’d expect, but the real treat is using your keyboard when the widget is selected: you can control XBMC as though your Mac’s keyboard was plugged into your XBMC device.

Countdown To Anything Looking forward to an upcoming holiday? Remind yourself how long you have to wait with the, which lets you Always know exactly how long it is until.something. The countdown dashboard widget for Mac is a fun way to obsessively keep track of the exact seconds until the greatest events in your life –.

It’s amazing how a simple countdown can remind you of all the good things you have to look forward to. Check Your Texts Are you a Google Voice user? You should be using, which lets you send Google Voice SMS message from the Dashboard. The app lets you send text messages, but only lets you read them in a Growl notifications.

Still, it’s a quick way to send a text. Monitor RSS Feeds Want to keep up with some feeds? The lets you add as many feeds as you want. Scroll through headlines, or use the arrow to switch feeds. Find Special Characters You need to add a price to an email – in Euros.

How do you do that again? You could memorize the keyboard shortcuts for every obscure symbol on earth, or you could just download. This widget lets you Quickly find and copy obscure symbols, then post them into any program. Symbol Caddy is among those long-forgotten class of Mac apps - the dashboard widget.