I realized the other day that, after an initial flurry of downloading and installing widgets, I'm not using Dashboard at all.

I did a quick, informal poll of folks here and found that I wasn't alone. While several Macworlders reported hitting F12 several times a day, others (like me) just hadn't taken to it with the same enthusiasm.

For me, the reason is simple: I'm not going to change the way I work unless the new way is demonstrably easier than the old.

So it goes for [all the Dashboard] widgets I've checked out: None seem more compelling than tools I’ve already got.

CenterStage is on open source project to build a powerful and intuitive media center application for the Apple Macintosh, this project was inspired by the launch of the Mac mini, an ideal Mac to use as part of a home theatre system.

Amnesty Widget Browser is a utility that allows Dashboard widgets to live directly on your Desktop via a convenient icon in your system menu bar.

Widgets loaded in Amnesty Widget Browser run completely independent of Apple's Dashboard environment, maintain their own preferences and feature additional properties such as window level and opacity.

For widgets junkies, Amnesty Widget Browser is a great way to sample third-party widgets outside of Dashboard. And for widget developers, Amnesty Widget Browser makes a perfect rapid testing environment* (instead of loading widgets in Safari).

Amnesty Widget Browser is slated for final release Q3 2005 but is available today as a public beta for Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4 or later) and Panther (Mac OS X 10.3.9). Download your copy today and see if your favorite widgets are up to taking flight.

This document is a comprehensive timeline of the evolution of personal digital assistants. Specifically, my intention is to clarify which companies premiered each of the primary front-end features that are considered standard in modern devices, from the technology's invention to its acceptance as a mainstream product category in the mid-1990s.

Apple did invent the actual term "personal digital assistant," but it is widely known that the marketing staff ignored the design staff's plea not to hype the handwriting recognition feature - they knew it did not work well. As with many Apple products, the Newton's user interface was especially nice, and there was a widespread independent developer community. However, we can now see that it was just one of five Apple projects (the others being General Magic, Rolex, Smartifacts, and Swatch) - and arguably not even the best one. So even within Apple it was not the "first" PDA by any reasonable standard.

Just because a company has a new term to explain a product category hardly means they deserve credit for inventing the product category. Newton fans don't see it that way ... That is senseless. Regardless of how fancy the Newton's interface is, a digital handheld organizer is a digital handheld organizer, and Wizard models existed four years before the Newton (not to mention many PDAs dating back to at least 1976!).

Despite seeing its current-generation console, the Game Cube, get a thorough drubbing in the market at the hands of the more capable Sony PlayStation 2 (PS2) and Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo believes it still knows what its customers want in a next-generation game machine. The Revolution, the company says, will be a game machine only and not offer any digital hub functionality at all.

"The consumer wants a pure gaming device, rather than us forcing a less elegant solution on them," says Nintendo executive vice president for sales and marketing Reggie Fils-Aime. The Revolution is cool looking, certainly: It's a tiny black obelisk sitting in a white base, and the whole unit is about the same size as three stacked DVD cases. It will utilize a proprietary CD-like format, but will also play all Game Cube titles. Like the Xbox 360 and PS3, the Revolution will utilize wireless controllers.

From a technical perspective, details on the Revolution are vague and its still unclear how this machine will stack up against the powerful PS3 and Xbox 360 devices that Sony and Microsoft will ship, respectively, in the next 12 months.

Delivers overall improved reliability for Mac OS X v10.4 and is recommended for all users.

It includes improvements for:
- file sharing using AFP and SMB/CIFS network file services
- using DHCP in wireless networks
- user login when accessing LDAP and Active Directory servers
- core graphics including updated ATI and NVIDIA graphics drivers
- synchronization with .Mac
- Address Book, iCal, Font Book, Mail, and Preview applications
- Dashboard widgets: Address Book, Flight Tracker, Phone Book, and World Clock
- compatibility with third party applications and devices

I’ve spent a week with the Yahoo! Music Unlimited subscription music service and much as it may distress those loyal to the iTunes Music Store, I have to say that it’s a keeper. Yeah, yeah, I know. Steve Jobs says that we want to own our music rather than rent it, but Steve, you didn’t also add "unless, of course, you can rent it for the amount of money you pull from the cracks of the couch each month."

Now that I understand the appeal of a cheap subscription service, I would, however, like to see Apple add subscriptions as an enhancement to its current services. Those who like the current model can continue to purchase albums and tracks as they always have. Those who’d like to pitch in an extra amount of cash each month or year to access all the music The Store has to offer, could do so. (Heck, while you’re at it, offer those same subscription customers downloads at a higher bit-rate.)

When Apple first unveiled the iTunes Music Store, Steve Jobs made a compelling case that subscription models of the time made little sense. Yahoo! Music Unlimited has convinced me that times have changed.

It's the battle of the ages, played out with a new generation of hardware that, for the first time, appears to leave even high-end gaming PCs in the dust. Opinions about Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3 vary, but it's pretty clear that both devices are going to kick ass. Looking over the specifications, and listening to representatives of both companies, however, I've come away with a few general thoughts.

From a pure processing standpoint, the PS3 appears to best the Xbox 360, but a final determination will have to wait on actual hardware tests ... Xbox 360, however, drops the bomb on the PS3 in a few categories as well.

Win, lose, or draw, this is an interesting battle to watch. As we find out more, I'll update this table to reflect the most recent information.

On Tuesday, Microsoft revealed that its upcoming Xbox 360 video game and home entertainment system with offer integrated Media Center Extender functionality that will allow the device to interact with a Windows XP Media Center 2005-based personal computer. However, this simple description only hints at the digital media prowess of Xbox 360. In addition to offering a Media Center interface that is, in some ways, superior to that of many Media Center PCs, Xbox 360 will also aggregate content from networked PCs running other XP versions, and will directly connect with Apple iPod, Sony PSP, and a slew of other portable devices.

Unexpectedly, Xbox 360 will include direct support for two competing portable devices, Apple's iPod line of MP3 players and Sony's Portable PlayStation (PSP). Xbox 360 will natively support music and photos stored on an iPod, and music, photos, and videos stored on a PSP. "Plug in an iPod or PSP via USB, and we'll give you access to all that content," Henshaw told me. "We'll play it right off of the device. Plug it in and stream that content through your stereo."

Yahoo stunned the online music world last week by rolling out a beta version of software that allows users to access more than one million songs for as little as US$7 per month -- about half of what competitors Napster and RealNetworks offer.

Rumors are swirling around what top online music provider Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL - news) iTunes will do about the new competition, and the pressure is building.

The subscription business model "will hurt iTunes, absolutely," said Yankee Group's Mike Goodman. The question is what the company will do about it.

Most online music customers would prefer to download some songs and own them outright, and to sample others, paying a subscription for access to a wider range. This is the piece of the market that Napster, RealNetworks and now Yahoo are going after.

"This is a service that Apple certainly could recreate easily," he said.

But to this point the company has shown little interest in the subscription business, Goodman said.

"If they maintain that viewpoint, in the long run consumers will be less likely to purchase from iTunes and more likely to go to an integrated service," he said.

Sony has unveiled its new PlayStation 3 console, calling it "a supercomputer for computer entertainment".

The console is powered by a powerful new processor dubbed Cell, which Sony says is 35 times faster than the chip inside the current PlayStation.

The machine is due to go on sale in spring 2006 at an as yet unknown price.

"This is a system to be placed in the centre of the living room around the world," said Ken Kutaragi, head of Sony's game unit, at a news conference in Los Angeles announcing the PlayStation 3.

This strategy parallels that of Microsoft, which is keen to challenge PlayStation by also making its new Xbox 360 a hub for all kinds of media.

Sony's current console, the PlayStation 2, dominates the current generation of consoles. More than 80 million units have been sold worldwide, with Microsoft and Nintendo trailing far behind.

Its new console is similar in size to the PS2 but has a more rounded look. It will be available in black, silver and white.

In a dig at Microsoft, Sony said the processor was twice as fast as the one in the Xbox 360.

The controllers are wireless, using Bluetooth technology. People will be able to plug in other gadgets into the console via six USB ports.

The machine will be backwards compatible, meaning gamers will be able to play PlayStation 2 titles on it.

It also doubles up as a DVD and CD player, with support for a wide variety of formats.

Somehow humanity's most famous nerd has become kind of cool.

It's a decent metaphor for what Microsoft is trying to do in making the Xbox 360. Microsoft, known more for its bullying business tactics than its technological innovation, is trying to act in a very un-Microsoft fashion. It's trying to be quick and nimble, radically innovative, and play well with others. It's trying to reinvent itself from the corporate DNA on up.

Gates and his team have spent the past 3-1/2 years working in obsessive secrecy to build the greatest piece of game-playing hardware the world has yet seen. And they don't want to sell it just to a niche audience: they're gunning for all of us.

The Xbox 360 will be out around Thanksgiving; Sony and Nintendo are expected to follow with consoles of their own in 2006.

[Microsoft] knew the new Xbox had to look kinder and gentler [than the original Xbox]. The goal was a design that was welcoming but not wimpy, that snagged the soccer moms and NASCAR dads and Britney girls—without losing the Halo boys.

It's sleeker and slimmer than the old Xbox ... It's also a little feminine—there's a hint of an hourglass figure. There are very few cables because the controllers are wireless. It has chrome accents, but it's mostly a creamy, calming off-white that the color geniuses call chill. And if you don't like chill, it has a snap-off faceplate, so you can customize it.

There is a wow factor to the Xbox 360 because it's the first console for which all the games will be in high definition, wide screen, with Dolby 5.1 surround sound. It's like putting on a pair of glasses: everything is clearer and sharper and more vivid ... The fidelity is disconcerting: it gives you a vertiginous feeling, as if you were going to fall into the screen and come out in Narnia.

Tthe next version of Halo will not, repeat not, be ready in time for the launch of Xbox 360. It will be part of the all-important second wave next spring. "It's perfect," Gates says, radiant with bloodlust. "The day Sony launches [the new PlayStation], and they walk right into Halo 3." Microsoft is expected to announce that Xbox 360 will play Halo 2 and other Xbox games.

Let's not miss what's happening here. Microsoft, a company known primarily for making highly profitable business software, has put a box in your living room. It entered your house under the humble pretense of being a game machine, a toy for the kids, but it just ate your CD player and your DVD player, and it's looking hungrily at your telephone. It's all up in your media cabinet. It's talking to your iPod, your digital camera, your TV, your stereo, your PC, your credit card and the Internet. It has created a miniature electronic ecosystem inside your home, with itself at the center.

Games are just the condiment. This is the main course, and it's what Gates is really after. Games just get you in the door.

The final step in the process has nothing to do with what's inside the Xbox: Microsoft will have to make it cool. In addition to giving it that iPod-esque design, Peter Moore will run a very hip, very un-Microsoft ad campaign featuring quirky hipsters wearing the Xbox logo.

If it seems incredible to you that, a year from now, there could an Xbox 360 in your living room—or a PlayStation3 or a Nintendo whatever-they're-calling-it—and that you could be using it to videoconference with your brand-new gamer buddies while grooving on a Mahler symphony, think of all those iPod owners who, five years ago, didn't know what an MP3 was. Jaded as we are, the future can still surprise us. It might just be both nerdier—and cooler—than anybody expected.