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Yahoo Launches Dashboard

Posted by Zonk on from the must-have-more-widgets dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Engadget has a 'live' post from a Yahoo press conference this morning showing something called Yahoo Dashboard. It looks awwwfully familiar. They brought out Ellen DeGeneres to demo it, and Tom Cruise to show an MI: 3 trailer for some reason." From the article: "I would like to announce right now what we call Yahoo Go. If you have some of the same problems dealing with things as Ellen .... Yahoo Go ... is a revolutionary way to connect users to Web services they already use. We're installing new applications right on devices (pix of laptop, TV, phone)." Dashboard is the relaunch of Konfabulator. We reported on Yahoo!'s purchase of Konfabulator last year.

25 of 320 comments (clear)

  1. Imitation is the sincerest form... by daveschroeder · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm not sure if the submitter is insinuating that Yahoo "Dashboard" looks suspiciously familiar to Apple's Dashboard on Mac OS X 10.4.x (Tiger), but we should be reminded that Yahoo Go/Yahoo Dashboard is in fact Yahoo! Widget Engine, which is in fact Konfabulator renamed.

    And Konfabulator, by Arlo Rose (of Kaleidoscope fame) and Perry Clarke, was around on the Mac OS X platform first, until a Windows version was also released with the help of Ed Voas before Yahoo!'s purchase. In fact, if it weren't for the Windows version, Yahoo! may never have come knocking.

    And it's easy to say that Apple ripped off Konfabulator to make Dashboard, but if we go back a step further...say, a couple of decades, we find that the idea of Konfabulator - little modeless applets that do useful things, like an address book or a notepad or a calculator or a little game - actually hearkens back to Apple's original idea of Desk Accessories.

    It all comes full circle!

    No, wait. That's not full circle. It all leads back to Apple. ;-)

    1. Re:Imitation is the sincerest form... by Dylan+Zimmerman · · Score: 4, Funny

      It all comes full circle!

      I think you meant to say that it all goes in one infinite loop.

    2. Re:Imitation is the sincerest form... by calzones · · Score: 4, Interesting

      > ...you could say Konfabulator copied Active Desktop in a more effective way...

      YES! I have always thought that active desktop was a great idea with a horrible implementation, and when people showed me Konfabulator, it seemed to me to be a better implementation, but still not good enough.

      The idea of having desk accessories, small, one-purpose quick apps handy, is just sooo obvious, you can't give credit to anyone for that. The idea of embedding them in an out-of-the-way-yet-easily-accessible layer of the OS is also really obvious. So Konfabulator can't take credit for much, and neither should Apple, and accusations of copy-cat in either direction are totally ill-founded.

      That leaves the only aspect to this whole deal that can be remotely considered 'innovative:' using an html layer in the OS that the user can configure and control to create such apps of any flavor. And as much as I love Apple, credit for that has to go to MS, who unfortunately sought to make the entire OS revolve around some bastardized browser concept, instead of just this one special layer.

      What Apple can take credit for is simply for taking the initiative of making this available as part of the OS and supporting it. If you ask me, though, the implementation is still not ideal. I'd still like to access widgets that are embedded in my actual desktop in addition to in the "modal-ish" Dashboard layer, as well as being able to hide widgets behind hotspots around my monitor (like flip the mouse to a corner to bring up the calculator, flip it back to that corner to hide it again).

      Finally, Yahoo's decision to name their product Dashboard is really sad. Apple named theirs dashboard because they had no better name handy, and that was the easiest way to effectively communicate what the product is. The people who came up with the name Konfabulator really hit on a gold nugget from a sheer marketing perspective. Who doesn't want to own a 'Konfabulator?' Yahoo should have kept that name and leveraged it. It's akin to Apple buying the iPod from another company and then renaming it to 'MP3 Player.'

      --
      Asking people to think is like asking them to buy you a new car
    3. Re:Imitation is the sincerest form... by generic-man · · Score: 2, Informative

      The article implies that widgets on the desktop were the only things being announced today, but Yahoo! also announced an interface that lets you navigate through web services on a TV using a Windows XP computer. Basically they've created a "10-foot user interface" that lets you view photos, listen to music, etc., using a TV as the center of attention and the Internet to retrieve extra content.

      Unfortunately it's not available yet, but I'm sure commenters can assure me that MythTV and FrontRow are superior to it.

      --
      For more information, click here.
  2. Can't they stick with a name? by ruiner13 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It was Konfabulator 3 months ago, then it was Yahoo! Widgets, and now it is Yahoo! Dashboard? Are they trying to confuse people? I wonder if they'll have problems with Apple for using "Dahsboard".

    --

    today is spelling optional day.

  3. Isn't it Widgets? by Geoffreyerffoeg · · Score: 2, Funny

    I already downloaded the Yahoo! Widget Engine. Why do I need Ellen Degeneres and Tom Cruise?

  4. I tried it and had a gripe, so I stopped using it. by Rude+Turnip · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'm conditioned to hit Windows-D to drop back to my desktop when I need to get back to my desktop. Unfortunately, this simple and practical key combination also hides the widgets from my view, making them much less useful.

    --
    Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
  5. That's got the lesbian and gay community covered.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    They brought out Ellen DeGeneres to demo it, and Tom Cruise to show an MI: 3 trailer for some reason.

    Well, that covers the lesbian and gay community. No representation for us straight folks?

  6. Everyone Copying Everyone by minimunchkin · · Score: 3, Funny

    Dashboard steels the look of Konfabulator, itself a stolen idea. Yahoo buys Konfabulator and steals the name of Dashboard. Whatever next?

  7. Well, it wasn't Justin Timberlake... by Billosaur · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...but negative style points to Yahoo for trotting out Ellen Degeneres (really not that funny anymore) and Tom Cruise (Scientology poster boy and general nutcase). If these are the kind of people using Yahoo Go, I'll just do without thanks.

    --
    GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
  8. Idea is useful for some things by jacobcaz · · Score: 2, Interesting
    The idea of a dashboard is okay, but the application it's useful has to be pretty specific. I run OS X and the only widgets I've found useful have been the weather widget and the calculator. I have the dashboard bound to one of my mouse buttons and I can call up a 5-day weather forcast or calculator at the click of a button.

    Otherwise I haven't been able to find another good application - that fits my needs - that I'm willing to give up RAM to.

    All of these dashboard ideas seem like a solution looking for a good idea - and from personal experience and talking to friends that idea hasn't really been found just yet.

  9. Ellen DeGeneres? by timtimtim2000 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Ellen DeGeneres is an authoritative source on technology, which is why Yahoo! has lured me into using their dashboard.

  10. Its not called Yahoo Dashboard... by RockClimbingFool · · Score: 2, Informative

    Its called Yahoo Go and its derived from Konfabulator. Doesn't Konfabulator pre-date Apple's implementation of their Dashboard?

  11. Best quote from TFA by PagosaSam · · Score: 5, Funny

    10:40 Outside, a guy talking into his phone: "Well Steve Jobs is a fucking Jedi Master of this shit compared to these other clowns."

    I love this business!

    --
    :q! Oh crap, not again...
  12. Ripping Off Apple Ripping Off Konfabulator by Wizard+Drongo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    OK, so Apple ripped off Konfabulator with OS X Tiger's Dashboard. Now Yahoo (who bought Konfabulator) are ripping off Apple by rebranding it "Yahoo Dashboard". Clever, since Dashboard is waaay more famous a brand than Konfabulator, but Apple can't sue Yahoo for ripping them off since if they did Yahoo would counter-sue on the basis that Apple ripped off Konfabulator.

    --
    The truth shall always be free: Boris Floricic is Tron.
    1. Re:Ripping Off Apple Ripping Off Konfabulator by atomm1024 · · Score: 2, Informative

      That's ok, because it's called Yahoo Widgets, not Dashboard. The article submitter lied, I guess, and Slashdot's "editors" did no fact-checking.

      --
      Signature.
  13. Steve Jobs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    "is the fucking Jedi Master of this shit" sums it up...

  14. Not Dashboard by hondo77 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yahoo! (wisely) isn't calling it "Dashboard". They're calling it Widget Engine.

    --
    I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
  15. Greatly Exaggerated Merit? by blobbo · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I've completely disabled Dashboard on my iBook. I can't see the advantage of it over standard desktop apps - especially given that they each use about 10MB of real RAM. Give me Calculator.app any day. Launches in a single bounce, and has a whole ton more functionality than the widget. Many if not most of the widgets don't take advantage of the ability to write Obj-C code, making them simple Javascript/HTML apps. Those things I'd rather look at in my browser window.

  16. Just one part of the package... by smorky · · Score: 2, Informative

    the article seems kinda of skimpy on details, so you can find some more information here. It appears that Konfabulator/Yahoo! Widget Engine is just a part of Yahoo Go and Yahoo Dashboard.

  17. bad comment to make during demo glitch by pyros · · Score: 2, Funny

    "we know who's software we're using."

    um .... yours?

  18. They're calling it 'Dashboard'? by macsox · · Score: 2, Funny

    Lawsuit from Apple in 3, 2, 1...

    --
    go get it
  19. Does anybody really care about this? by cypherz · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Other than Yahoo execs? I'm a Mac user, and while I thought Dashboard was pretty kewl at first, my enthusiasm quicky waned. Now I've disabled it. Most of the funchtionality of it was already available on various web pages, and I can close the browser down and reclaim resources. With Dashboard, those widgets are consuming memory and other resources even when Dashboard isn't showing. Will Yahoo's version act the same way? Maybe a Konfabulator user can weigh in on this.
    Mod this down as a troll, but I just can't care about Yahoo's version of Apple's version of Konfabulator. Big waste of resources.

    --
    This sig kills fascists.
  20. yep. just head here... by jpellino · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://widgets.yahoo.com/

    --
    "Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
  21. Re:I tried it and had a gripe, so I stopped using by slthytove · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you hit the F8 key, it will bring up the "Heads Up Display"), showing you all your Widgets. If you hit Win+D, it will show you your desktop (which is sort of what Win+D is supposed to do). If you would rather use a Windows combination to see your desktop AND your Widgets, then hit Win+M, which will minimize all windows.