macBlogger – Apple Mac Blog

SlothCam displays live camera feeds from your dashboard. The widget can display feeds from Time Square, Sydney Harbor, The Eiffel Tower and The San Diego Zoo to name but a few.

The below image is a screen grab taken of a sleeping Panda at the San Diego Zoo.

Here we have a rainy Time Square.

And finally a Whale in the Vancouver Aquarium.

I love this widget.

I visit my dashboard maybe a dozen or so times a day and to be able to catch a glimpse of either a whale or a panda is an excellent treat. (it’s far better than playing with Calculator anyway)

I don’t think there is anyone left on this planet who is not involved in a social networks of sorts. They’re poping up everywhere, some you signup for, some you ignore.

Facebook is one of those social networks which has been flying under the radar for quite some time. MySpace and Bebo get a lot of media attention but for the most part they’re on the receiving end of bad press (spam, abuse and what have you..).

Facebook on the other hand is thriving in a postive manner. They’re receiving up to 50,000 new signups on a daily basis and last week I joined the Facebook heard. (profile link)

Facebook is a far more mature alternative to MySpace and Bebo.

I signuped with the intention of just chating with friends and exchanging photographs…the usual social networking items. But there a few additional features which grabbed my attention. One such feature is simply called ‘Groups’

macBlogger Facebook Group
The idea behind Facebook’s Groups feature is quite simple. Facebook users can join a group of like minded souls and chat within their discussion threads about topics relating to their group. The exchange of information, photographs, videos and general discussion is the order of the day.

We have setup a macBlogger group on Facebook which we hope will provide valuable information on all things Apple.

Facebook Widget
A tidy little widget called Facebook Watch has been released upon us which acts as a portal between your dashboard and your facebook account. The feature rich widget allows you to view the latest postings on your wall, check who has ‘poked’ you, take a look inside your inbox and it also allows you to check the latest activity of your friends.

Here are a few other Facebook widgets available to download on the Apple website.

It’s not only possible, but it’s pretty easy and darn fun! Here’s what you need to do…

First, open up Terminal (Applications –> Utilities –> Terminal) and type in the following, exactly as you see here:
defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES

You can just copy and paste from this Web page if you’re concerned that you might type in something incorrectly, of course.

You’ll get another regular system prompt within Terminal if it works, there’s no other output to the defaults program.

Now log out of your account by choosing Apple –> Log Out, and log in again (You need to restart Dashboard or do a killall Dock).

Ready for the fun now? Press f12 to bring Dashboard up, then drag one of your Dashboard widgets around. While you’re still dragging it around (that’s critical: keep that mouse button down!) press f12 again.

Poof! Your Dashboard vanishes, but the widget’s still visible. Move it to where-ever you want on your screen and it’s there, running, fully functional, without the rest of Dashboard around!

You’ll notice that it lives above everything else on your screen (at least, I don’t know how to push it behind other app windows) so I think you’ll have the best results with small widgets that can be tucked into a corner or lined up neatly on an edge.

To move the widget back into the Dashboard world, reverse the trick: begin dragging the widget, then, while still keeping the mouse button down, press f12, then let go of the mouse button. The widget will be restored to its regular Dashboard layer.

If you are a recent migrant from Windows to Mac you have probably spent some time staring at your keyboard in search of the ‘Print Screen’ button, I know I did.

Screenshot Plus is a free dashboard widget which allows you to effortlessly take screenshots of:

• your entire desktop
• a highlighted window/finder
• it allows you to cut out a selection of the screen aswell

Screenshot plus can export in png, tiff, jpg, jp2, pdf, gif, bmp, or pict file types.Mac OS X does come with built in screenshot capabilities but the system isn’t as intuitive as you would expect. It’s quite ridiculous actually. You have the following keyboard button powered methods available to you when taking a screenshot in Mac OS X:

• Command-Shift-3: Take a screenshot of the screen, and save it as a file on the desktop
• Command-Shift-4, then select an area: Take a screenshot of an area and save it as a file on the desktop
• Command-Shift-4, then space, then click a window: Take a screenshot of a window and save it as a file on the desktop
• Command-Control-Shift-3: Take a screenshot of the screen, and save it to the clipboard
• Command-Control-Shift-4, then select an area: Take a screenshot of an area and save it to the clipboard
• Command-Control-Shift-4, then space, then click a window: Take a screenshot of a window and save it to the clipboard

I copied the above commands from the excellent Mac Rumors website. I’m sure you’ll agree that installing the screenshot plus widget is far easier than running the above commands.

The recently released Image Upload Widget allows you to nearly effortlessly upload images from your desktop without having to visit Image Shack.

Using the Image Upload widget is a fairly straightforward process. Simply locate the picture file that you wish to upload, click and begin dragging it with your cursor, and while continuing to hold down your mouse button, bring up your dashboard – by default, by pressing the F12 key. Drag the picture file so that it is above the Image Upload widget’s drop container, then release the mouse button to drop the file onto the widget. You image will be promptly uploaded to Image Shack, and depending on the preferences you have set on the widget’s back-side, the direct link to the image will either remain intact, or be converted into a TinyURL, before being copied to your pasteboard

And if that’s a bit confussing there is a demonstration of the widget in action is available on their website.

It’s a neat little widget for those who want to upload a single image in a hurry. But it doesn’t scale at all and there is no synchronization with any accounts. For the immediate future, Flickr with their dashboard widget are miles ahead on both features and service. Image Upload Widget is still a nice addition and I’m sure it will evolve over time..