konfabulator 2 is out

rokrok
Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
i downloaded it on my computer at home last night. certainly more configurable than it used to be, and apparently there are a lot more system hooks they've worked in for widget authors. it doesn't have all the visual oomph of dashboard effects (ripples, zoom fades, flips, etc.), but it feels way faster and allows me to set the level of appearance for each widget (desktop, konspose only, floating, etc) and transparency.



i haven't kicked terminal and top on to see what's happening with my cpu usage, though. i'm sure arlo and ed are working on getting various tiger techs into their widget environment. i'm not so sure their improvements warrant calling it konfab 2.0, but hey, they're tryin.' anythign that creates a horse race between apple and them is fine by me. means we get to pick whichever one works the best for us int he long run.



wonder how that windows support is going for them?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 9
    dfilerdfiler Posts: 3,420member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by rok

    anythign that creates a horse race between apple and them is fine by me.run.



    Exactly. Three cheers for competition!
  • Reply 2 of 9
    maccrazymaccrazy Posts: 2,658member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by dfiler

    Exactly. Three cheers for competition!



    and MSN Desktop Search is providing competition for Dashboard. I think Dashboard needs major tweaking - it doesn't fit with OS X. It barely follows it's own GUI rules, it's slow and the apps only work in the dashboard layer.



    Is Konfab 2 more stable because it used to slow my old iMac a lot?
  • Reply 3 of 9
    rokrok Posts: 3,519member
    one thing that i like about konfabulator (or perhaps what i don't like about dashboard) is that, when you have a lot of internet-enabled widgets, dashboard can feel like it takes forever to get going the first time in a session, because it retrieves all of the information for the widgets at once, and then tries to load them simultaneously (or at least that's what appears to be happening). but with konfab, it loads them sequentially. it's not any faster, but you attention darts around to each widget as it loads, distracting you from anything that's loading slowly. it's a total smoke-and-mirrors trick, but it makes konfab SEEM way faster than dashboard at times.
  • Reply 4 of 9
    maccrazymaccrazy Posts: 2,658member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by rok

    one thing that i like about konfabulator (or perhaps what i don't like about dashboard) is that, when you have a lot of internet-enabled widgets, dashboard can feel like it takes forever to get going the first time in a session, because it retrieves all of the information for the widgets at once, and then tries to load them simultaneously (or at least that's what appears to be happening). but with konfab, it loads them sequentially. it's not any faster, but you attention darts around to each widget as it loads, distracting you from anything that's loading slowly. it's a total smoke-and-mirrors trick, but it makes konfab SEEM way faster than dashboard at times.



    I don't like dashboard or konfab if I'm honest - neither have been thought through properly.
  • Reply 5 of 9
    ipodandimacipodandimac Posts: 3,273member
    i'm probably in the minority, but i like dashboard a lot better. it's prupose serves me well, as there are often things i want to check on or look up, but not have running in the background, on my desktop, or in my menu bar. just MO.
  • Reply 6 of 9
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by MacCrazy

    and MSN Desktop Search is providing competition for Dashboard. I think Dashboard needs major tweaking - it doesn't fit with OS X. It barely follows it's own GUI rules, it's slow and the apps only work in the dashboard layer.



    Is Konfab 2 more stable because it used to slow my old iMac a lot?




    Um, Dashboard and MSN Desktop Search aren't close to the same thing. Do you mean MSN Desktop Search and Spotlight?
  • Reply 7 of 9
    maccrazymaccrazy Posts: 2,658member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Placebo

    Um, Dashboard and MSN Desktop Search aren't close to the same thing. Do you mean MSN Desktop Search and Spotlight?



    Yes I do! Bit of a typo - has MS got a copy of dashboard yet?



    (1700 post)
  • Reply 8 of 9
    rokrok Posts: 3,519member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by MacCrazy

    Yes I do! Bit of a typo - has MS got a copy of dashboard yet?



    (1700 post)




    i believe the closest you'll find is the windows-version of konfabulator, though it's not included in windows (yet... i'm betting arlo, perry and ed are hoping for a check with lots of zeroes to be issued from redmond any day now)
  • Reply 9 of 9
    maccrazymaccrazy Posts: 2,658member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by rok

    i believe the closest you'll find is the windows-version of konfabulator, though it's not included in windows (yet... i'm betting arlo, perry and ed are hoping for a check with lots of zeroes to be issued from redmond any day now)



    I'm not so sure.
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