The laptop computer felt hot to touch. How hot is too hot? That basic information was not evident with a Google search. Then, a bright idea. Yesterday the MacMedia email had arrived with the clever heading, "Geek Goods for your Mac Daddy!" We had purchased the MacBook Pro at the MacMedia store down in Peoria in September. Who better to call? A helpful guy, Rob, didn't seem in too big of a hurry to chat. I explained, relating some of the temperatures I'd noted from iStatPro widget. He explained the range of temperatures, reassured me that mine were OK, "That's why we don't call it a 'laptop' anymore." The helpful widget is here.
How's Your Battery Doing?
"Do you have a Mac laptop? Do you run on battery often? Like to know more about how your battery is performing and the condition it is in?" Jim Hamm asks. He offers this link, saying, "You might take a look at the 'Battery Guru' app."But Jim, how does that compare with the iStat widget that comes up Function 4 key? Two shakes later we have his answer. "Somewhat similar, I presume. Here is the article in Small Dog Tech Tails #821 that describes more about the app." When you open that Tech Tails you'll also be entertained by the YouTube video of a truck running over an iPad. Did you expect that?
Here's Mickey Mouse!
Want a Mickey Mouse clock to show up in Dashboard? "Well, of course! That would make my day!" you're probably replying.
Jim Hamm wants to tell us how. He sets such a good example for us! "Here's a tip on how to do it from the Cult of Mac newsletter. Not particularly useful, admittedly, but fun to just try it. I couldn't get the white border to line up square around Mickey, but it looks okay. You'll find you can't move the cursor to click 'add,' as the instructions state—just tap the 'Enter' key and it will appear in Dashboard."
Click on the illustration to enlarge. Just think how your kids and grandkids will be impressed when you show off this skill!
Widgets That Make You Say, "Wow"
Quick little smidgeons of information, awaiting your summons. Touch that magical key F-4 and there they are, the chosen few, popping up in front of anything else you have up on your screen. (Click on the illustrations to enlarge the screenshot.)
Choose them from a long list of categories at http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/ There are thousands to choose from! What fun to explore the possibilities.
You'll see that many are free, so how nifty is that! They're simple to add, and when you change your mind, they're easy to delete.
A Google search for Mac:widgets brings up other websites with comments and suggestions. You’d want to specify a time limit under “Any time” so that your search could have a reasonable date. Here I wanted to check Past Year, but there are other specifications at your finger tips.
What are the Top Widgets today?
When you’re done viewing the widgets on your screen just click anywhere on the screen off of a widget and you’re back in business with whatever.
Even if you’re satisfied with the widgets you already have you might spend some productive moments viewing what else is available.
Some, like Astronomy Picture of the Day (below) have a place to click (here is is D) to show you the reverse side for more info.
Click on the X at the bottom left on your screen and bring up a wide view of your choices. Here’s just a few for my illustration.
Here’s a view of the corner of my screen with 5 of my widgets. They can be dragged to any position on the screen. Here mine are in front of a blank Pages page. Widgets come up in front of whatever you already have open.
The National Doppler Radar widget enlarges when it’s clicked.
What widgets do you use?
(The above is today's PMUG handout. If you missed the meeting we MISSED you. If you were there now you see the color version of the screenshots. See you later! -- Elaine)
Alternative Website Editors Are Available
"Although Apple's MobileMe web hosting apparently is going away permanently in a year, you can still use iWeb to create websites in other places," Art Gorski comments. "But any Apple widgets you are using will probably no longer work, and it looks like Apple may be dropping development and support for iWeb. So here's a good article on alternative website editors for Mac users."
The Best Weather Map
If you're relying on a Widget for a weather map you might want to select this instead. Jim Hamm wants us to take a look here at the NOAA map site.
iStat Proves to be Useful
"After reading some of Jim Hamm's comments on iStat I located the widget and added it to my dashboard." David Passell continues, "Yesterday I ran it after noticing the fan on my Mini seemed to be working rather hard. I found that something, I still don't know what, was continuously consuming 95% of processor time. Both processors were being involved. I decided I had better give the machine a rest and shut it down for the night. This morning when I started the Mini I looked at iStat and found more reasonable numbers." Above is the first screen shot. (Double click on it to enlarge the view.)
"As I write this email here is a screen shot of current usage.
I noticed earlier that when the Time Machine backup was running, usage went up to 47%. I just thought it interesting to note and it may have saved my computer to shut it down when it was whirring away.
"Now I keep the CPU Monitor on the screen out of the way so I can spot anything like happened yesterday. The Mini is now nearly silent, as usual." David adds, "Any ideas, anyone?"
Now, Art Gorski has some suggestions: "I've used iStat for years now, and it's occasionally useful as a Dashboard Widget, but can be unnecessarily distracting. Usually, the first sign of a runaway process will be the cooling fans spooling up. iStat won't tell you anything useful, it just confirms what's going on.
"Restarting the computer is unnecessary. Just launch Activity Monitor (in your /Applications/Utilities folder), select all processes from the pull-down menu, and then click on the column header to sort by CPU usage. This will tell you what application is the culprit. If it's not a critical application, use Activity Monitor to quit or force quit the offending process."
What's Going On Inside Your Mac?
Jim Hamm files this report today, "If you've installed Snow Leopard, Menu Meter (iStat Menus) is now compatible with this new OS. The new version has been completely revised, and is much better. It sits in the menu bar, and you can click on one of the icons to get a variety of information about your Mac. You can also customize which icons you want to show in the menu bar: open System Preferences, then click iStat Menus. Drag the items from the 'Available Box' into the 'Active Box.' I use the app occasionally just to see what's going on in my Mac, and which app is consuming so much memory. Usually it's Safari. Closing and reopening Safari gets the memory usage back to a much smaller number. If you've not tried this app, it might be worth a look. It also works with Leopard, as well (OS X 10.5 or higher)."
More Widgets
Widgets can give some quick information at the click of one key, coming up in front of whatever you're running. And so many choices!
Jim Hamm sends us links on the top 20 widgets: The first twelve and then eight more. He says he definitely likes the iStat Pro. And look at all the info it displays here. Want to see the whole huge list of Widgets? Look at this.