widget

10 'widget' stories April 2013 - October 2015

Fantastical 2.5 adds Split View & Slide Over, 3D Touch, watchOS 2 app + complication, more

Zac Hall Oct 7 2015 - 6:59 am PT

Fantastical 2.5 is out now with new multitasking features for iOS 9 on iPad, a 3D Touch app icon on iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, a native Apple Watch app on watchOS 2 with its own watch face complication, and much more. Both the iPad and iPhone plus Apple Watch updates are available for free for current Fantastical 2 customers. The new versions come just two weeks after Split View in Fantastical hit the Mac with OS X El Capitan. See the new features in action below:
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Apple releases iTunes 12.1 with OS X Notification Center widget, syncing improvements, and more

Mike Beasley Jan 29 2015 - 4:03 pm PT

43 Comments

Screen Shot 2015-01-29 at 7.08.22 PM

Apple has released a new update for iTunes on OS X that introduces support for a Notification Center widget. The widget will allow users to control their music and buy songs from iTunes Radio directly from the system-wide panel.

iTunes 12.1 also includes a “quick tour” feature that runs on the app’s second launch. It’s the same quick tour that has been available on Apple’s website since last year, but it is now included natively in the app to help users get acclimated to the new design.

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Things for iOS updated with Notification Center widget, improved inter-app functionality

Mike Beasley Jan 15 2015 - 2:23 pm PT

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Cultured Code released an update for its Things to-do list manager on iPhone and iPad today that added support for a Notification Center widget. The new plugin allows users to keep a list of reminders in the Today view, mark off completed tasks, or quickly access a shortcut for creating new to-dos.

The widget pulls its data from the app’s Today list, and can also let you know which items will be due soon so you can prioritize your activities.

The update also adds a new URI scheme that enables developers working on other apps to integrate their software easily with Things.

You can grab the iPhone version of Things for $9.99 on the App Store. The iPad version is available separately for $19.99.

Drafts for iOS regains Notification Center widget in latest update

Mike Beasley Dec 17 2014 - 2:38 pm PT

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A few weeks ago, the popular note-taking app Drafts for iOS was updated at Apple’s request to remove its Notification Center widget, which the company said violated the rules for extensions. Now, it seems the tech giant has reversed its decision. Today’s 4.0.6 update to Drafts re-introduces the widget, which has gained additional functionality since the previous version.

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Review: Deliveries for Mac and iOS is the perfect way to track your online orders for the holidays

Sarah Guarino Nov 30 2014 - 9:00 am PT

13 Comments

With Cyber Monday coming up, a lot of us shop online, as opposed to going out to the store. It would be nice if there was an easy way to track all of your packages. Of course you could set up mail rules to filter any emails that contain the words, “the tracking number,” but all that does is put all of your emails into a folder without notifying you of any changes in the status of your package. After initially receiving the email most forget about it and never track their packages, which happens all the time to me causing me to not pick up my packages for weeks. Or you can be the type of person that can obsessively track your package by constantly pressing the refresh button hoping that there’s an update to no avail. Well there’s an app that can track your tracking numbers and keep you updated about the status of your order. Deliveries is powerful, handy and easily notifies you of your packages.

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Apple making iOS 8 Notification Center a bit less useful by banning calculator widgets

Jordan Kahn Oct 29 2014 - 10:27 am PT

25 Comments

Developer James Thomson of popular calculator app PCalc announced today via his Twitter account that Apple is forcing him to remove the app’s Today Widget due to a restriction that iOS widgets “cannot perform any calculations.”

Apple’s new Today Widgets feature in iOS 8, which allows developers to build functions into the system-wide Notification Center, does have some limitations that Apple outlines i n developer documentation. For example, Apple encourages developers not to use Today Widgets for multistep tasks: “If you want to create an app extension that enables a multistep task or helps users perform a lengthy task, such as uploading or downloading content, the Today extension point is not the right choice.” There doesn’t, however, appear to be specific references to apps that perform calculations in Apple’s developer guidelines.
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Weather Underground updated with iOS 8 widget featuring radar view and current conditions

Mike Beasley Sep 29 2014 - 4:13 pm PT

14 Comments

The popular Weather Underground app has been updated with support for iOS 8’s widgets that sports a lot more data than most weather widgets will give you. The new at-a-glance view in the Notification Center provides a look at current radar images and current weather conditions.

You can grab the free Weather Underground app from the iOS App Store. For even more iOS 8 widgets, check out our recent round-ups of general-purpose and weather-specific widgets, and more.

Apple removes Launcher app from App Store for ‘misuse’ of iOS 8’s widget capability

Mike Beasley Sep 28 2014 - 12:50 pm PT

87 Comments

An iOS 8 app that allowed users to create custom shortcuts and access them from a Notification Center widget has been removed from the App Store by Apple for what it calls “misuse of widgets,” the developers said in a notice posted on the app’s website.

The app, called Launcher, worked by letting users enter a URL or select an application to be launched when a shortcut was tapped. The shortcuts would then be displayed in Notification Center, allowing quick access to a variety of tasks such as starting a phone or FaceTime call, creating a new text message, email, or iMessage, opening an application, or more.

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Apple updates Remote Desktop Client and Dashboard Widget with fixes

Mark Gurman Dec 3 2013 - 11:33 am PT

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Apple has issued a pair of updates today to its Remote Desktop software. The first update is Apple Remote Desktop 3.7.1 Client:

The 3.7.1 update is recommended for all Apple Remote Desktop clients and addresses several issues related to overall reliability, usability and compatibility.

The Client works hand-in-hand with the main Apple Remote Desktop administrative software, which is available on the Mac App Store. The second update issued today is version 3.7 of Apple’s Remote Desktop Dashboard widget:

The Apple Remote Desktop Dashboard widget* gives you an instant, at-a-glance view of the remote computers in your network.

It’s fully integrated with the Apple Remote Desktop administrative application, so a click on a particular computer will allow you to select and start working with any computer in the system.

The widget requires a user to have the administrative app installed.

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Apple updates iAd Producer with support for iBooks Author widgets, iTunes LPs, iTunes Extras, more

Jordan Kahn Apr 23 2013 - 1:29 pm PT

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Apple’s iAd Producer tool for creating HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript ads for its iAd platform gets updated to version 4.0 today and adds a number of notable new features on top of some performance enhancements that Apple outlined in a knowledge base article. The updated app now allows users to create iBooks Author widgets, iTunes LPs, and iTunes Extras. Apple provides more information on the new features, such as creating an iBooks Author Widget for iBooks Author projects on the iAd Producer support page:

You can create an iBooks Author widget for use in your iBooks Author projects. For example, you can create a widget that allows users to stream video from the Internet, draw using their finger, or interact with a timeline.

A full list of what’s new in iAd Producer 4.0 including: folder-based organization support, new HTML, Stack, Drawing, and Panorama objects, in-app quick previews, CSS filter support for objects, and much more below:

New in iAd Producer 4.0

This release contains a number of new features and improvements

Improved Object library interface
Improved Actions library interface
Support for folder-based organization in the asset library
New HTML, Stack, Drawing, and Panorama objects
New actions for adding and removing CSS classes, animating background position, animating image masks, and text slide-in animation
Support for applying CSS filters as well as image and gradient masks to objects.
In-app quick preview
Project-wide search in the Code Editor
Better export performance
Improved menu layout
Improved font support, including support for OpenType fonts
Improved rulers and alignment guides
Enhanced inspectors, with pop-up color pickers, and gradient sliders that now represent opacity
Support for QuickLook previews in iAd Producer project files
Support for iTunes LP, iTunes Extras, and iBook Author widget project types
Other fixes and improvements

(via MacStories)