Widgets Lab

Fedora 12 Constantine countdown

Derek Anderson — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:39:43 +0000

This is a simple countdown widget to the release of the new Fedora 12.

Distro release counters seem to be popping more frequently. The first one that I posted about was the Ubuntu 8.10. It appears as though the Ubuntu counter resets for each release. So if you embed the Ubuntu countdown widget in your site, it will display a new counter for the next impending release. Sweet!

Does anyone know which distro was the first to release a “distro release date counter” widget?

Do you by chance have an image of that counter?

Will the 2009 Winter Olympics widget appear here?

Derek Anderson — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:59:57 +0000

Since the 2008 Beijing Summer Games are over…I’m waiting to see if this widget will auto-switch to the 2009 Winter Games.

I am actually excited to possibly see some new features for the widgets this year.

TechCrunch excerpt:

“NBC Prepares For The Winter Olympics With Silverlight, HD Video, And Facebook Connect“:
NBC will be using a video player based on Microsoft Silverlight technology to offer full HD videos. Except this time, the video player will have DVR-like functionality, with the ability to rewind the video, highlight clips and save them.

NBC’s old slug encouraging you to utilize their widgets:

Stay up to date on the Beijing Olympics without leaving your favorite site. Grab an NBCOlympics.com widget and put it on your site for news, video clips, and more. Select a widget from the list below and follow the simple instructions to get started.

Featured Widget > TOP NEWS, VIDEO and PHOTOS I have pasted here so I can easily see the switch.

I have taken a screen capture for posterity. It seems that some work may be happening. Notice the lack of images accompanying the stories. Yet the stories are up to date about current events in the Olympic field.

There are 7 widgets in all to choose from (so far)
* > TOP NEWS, VIDEO AND PHOTOS
* > SLIDESHOWS
* > VIDEO
* > ATHLETES TO WATCH
* > MEDAL COUNT
* > RESULTS & SCHEDULES
* > TV & ONLINE LISTINGS

Click here to pick up the NBC 2009 Winter Olympics widget. (as soon as link is available)

Click here to pick up the NBC Olympics.com widget.

Twitter List Widget

Derek Anderson — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:11:24 +0000

Twitter has recently enabled the Twitter List feature for all users.

Now they have released the Twitter List Widget which will display any Twitter list you choose.

It appears to be a simple widget, yet you can alter many of the colors and choose the exact size that you desire.

This is a JavaScript widget so there could be limitations as to your ability to embed this into your blog.

Below, I have created the TechCrunch Twitter List widget. I picked TechCrunch because I was sure that they had already taken advantage of the Twitter List feature. I was not disappointed either…as you can see.

I’ve included an image in case the widget doesn’t load. There were some issues in the preview.

Read Write Web has a “10 Twitter List Widgets You Can Grab & Embed Right Now” post.

Power Pinball widget from widgipedia and ninjawiki

Derek Anderson — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:11:40 +0000

Power Pinball is an online pinball game that you can now embed into your blog. This is a fun pinball game that utilizes two boards (side by side). Your ball can make it onto the second board through various passages and once over there you have another set of flippers to control.

The controls are simple, right and left arrow keys equal right and left flippers. Down arrow controls the plunger to shoot the ball and the up arrow is the “tilt” function.

Unfortunately the embed requires a large area. 940 X 680. I suggest placing this at the bottom of your site, out of the posting area.

Get Power Pinball widget here!

Visit the ninjawiki homepage here!

Twilight Saga New Moon

Derek Anderson — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:54:51 +0000

Check out the new, interactive Twilight Saga: New Moon widget

The Twilight Saga: New Moon widget allows readers to log in and register as Team Edward or Jacob and then see where other fans are in their area and how the nation is split between the two teams. It also has lots of downloads and a countdown so the fans know how long they have left to wait!

Twilight Saga: New Moon/widget

early Google Wave Gadgets

Derek Anderson — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:32:52 +0000

If you haven’t yet heard of Google Wave…you may need to peek out of the tech cave and have a look around!

Google Wave has been billed as an “email killer” and as such, has some pretty huge shoes to fill.

Developers interested in the phenomenon of Google Wave have started to add increased functionality to Wave in the form of “Wave Gadgets” (”Gadget” is Google for “widget”)

I thought it would be interesting to write about them in the early stages of Wave development and then re-visit this topic later on to see the progress.

Here are some of the first Google Wave Gadgets: (from the gallery)

Emoticony
Lee Stone – Sep 20, 2009

Emoticony is a robot for Google Wave which replaces text representations of emoticons with the relevant image. There are currently over 50 different emoticons available, with this number continuing to grow. Look out for themed emoticons focused around specific events (Halloween, Christmas etc.) More details can be found at: http://emoticony.leestone.co.uk

Map Gadget
Pamela Fox – Oct 23, 2009

Lets users edit a map together, adding markers and polys with titles and descriptions. Users can also search for addresses and businesses and add those.

Check out a video tutorial of the Map Gadget on Youtube.

Craigslist Searchy
Vincent Etter – Oct 21, 2009

Craigslist Searchy is a Google Wave robot that monitors results of a given search on Craigslist. It simply takes the URL of the results page of a search on Craigslist, and adds each result item (with its title, date, text, and pictures) to the wave, in a separate blip. The bot includes code to update the Wave when new results are found, but it is not yet functioning due to API issues.

IMDbotty
Vincent Etter – Oct 19, 2009

IMDbotty replaces links to movies on IMDb with a small gadget that displays useful information about the movie (title, year, rating, cover, director(s), actors).

Likey
Ben Griffiths – Oct 17, 2009

A simple like/dislike gadget that can be added to a blip for intuitive user rating. It tells you how many people have liked, how many have disliked, and what you selected. You can also change your selection.

Map Cluster Gadget
Pamela Fox – Oct 15, 2009

Lets each participant locate themselves on the map, and clusters all the locations.

Here is a huge list of more Google Wave Gadgets on DocStoc.
If, after viewing all the cool possibilities for Google Wave, you are interested in creating your own Wave Gadgets, here is a good place to start.
Wave Extension Design Principles

I can’t wait to see what else is in store for Google Wave. Stay tuned!

So Long Widgets Lab, Thanks For Everything

Avatar X — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 01:00:00 +0000

I had a great time at this Blog. Enough for me to have written 900 posts for it (875 published) as Widgets Lab Lead Blogger and at one point in time i can say i saw it grow 10 times the size in reach from when i started in it.

But today i say thanks for everything to Derek Anderson, Thanks for everything to all Widgets Lab readers for having me and writing to me via comments and e-mail.

I don’t want to promote myself here, so if you want to find me just look for me at Twitter (@AvatarX)

So Long and Goodbye.

I leave the floor to my friend Derek.

blipbomb video comments widget

Derek Anderson — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:01:13 +0000

blipBomb lets you add video comments to almost any page.

By “any page” they mean that you can record a comment using your webcam and blipbomb, then paste the resulting code into the comments section of your favorite social site.
Facebook and MySpace are supported as well as a bunch of others. I assume with the proper permissions, you can post video comments to blogs as well.

Here is a screen capture of what a blipbomb video comment looks like. (I’ll also post a random working comment from the blipbomb site…but I assume that users can delete these, so…)

MAKE YOUR OWN BLIPBOMBS!

blipbomb and blipback are creations of Ojingolabs.com which bills itself as “Social Media Software To Go”. smells like widgets to me!

Check out blipbomb and blipback for video commenting and to maybe drop a video comment into Facebook once in awhile!

iDon’t run widgets.

Derek Anderson — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:38:18 +0000

Google’s Android will definitely make a huge splash in the coming months, there is no doubt.
android
android code

Verizon takes a shot at Apple and the iPhone with this new marketing campaign.

Jenson Button and F1 widgets

Derek Anderson — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:10:14 +0000

Jenson Button wins Formula One world title!

JensonButton.com

Get the Jenson Button news widget on Netvibes, iGoogle, Apple, Opera, Vista and Windows Live.

Jenson Button /netvibes

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Awesome collection of MAC F1 widgets can be found at f1-widgets.blogspot.com

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F1 race countdown from Widgipedia

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F1 widgets at Widgetbox.com