Widgets Of Worth, Widgets Of Mirth, In Widget Heaven.

Remarkably, and despite all the static from Mac360, Apple’s Dashboard Widgets remain popular.

The situation for criticsm is so bleak, that I’ve added a few new Widgets to my Mac, you know, to help with personal productivity. Not.

Dozens of times we, the Mac360 staff, have pointed out that most of the thousands of Dashboard Widgets are not worth much, but those that are, well, they’re worth plenty.

For example, take the Major League Baseball Widget. My husband stuck this Widget on our Macs so we could keep track of our beloved San Diego Padres and their fight to the death for first place.

The Baseball Widget does just what you want a Widget to do. Quick access to scores and standings—the basics, runs, hits, errors. Every guy wants to know what’s happening and details, such as the box score, are just a click away.

Of course, this Widget is also perfect for helping my husband keep track of his beloved New York Yankees and their never ending quest for very expensive mediocrity.

Checking weather, stocks, and scores using a Widget is efficient, effective, and fun. Using FuguMaze to wile away the hours is, well, it’s only fun. It’s not Google Street Maps, which I find more interesting, despite the lack of cities.

Thus the paradox of Dashboard Widgets. They’re either totally worthless wastes of time, or they’re almost spongeworthy to the guy or gal with a real need.

Take the Banana Warehouse. Yep, it’s another game, so don’t expect productivity on your Mac to increase any time soon. My husbands scores are truly five times higher than my scores. What is it about men and forklifts?

Why are games the Top Downloads on Apple’s Dashboard Widgets site? It’s that pesky paradox again.

More than half the hot Widgets are worthless time wasters of the highest order. I am sooooo into Sudoku these days. San Diego isn’t much for weather change but we constantly check The Weather Channel Mac Widget. Does anyone know how The Weather Channel makes money from weather? Or, is it just a hobby?

Trying to find a Dashboard Widget that does something useful—sufficient that you use it every day on something other than waiting for the next Dr. Who episode—is just short of impossible.

Yes, there’s iStat Pro, the Widget that tells you what’s going on inside your Mac, as if that’s important when things are going on quite well, thank you.

One of my favorites is Wikipedia Widget, which is just a little faster at digging up in worthless information that opening Safari, or Camino, or Firefox, or Opera, or OmniWeb, or iCab, or Shiira, or Netscape Navigator and doing the same.

Then, there’s all those Sudoku Widgets. There’s even a Sudoku Solver which helps you solve the Sudoku you’re working on. The world is going to hell and a handbasket—politically, economically, spiritually, and thoughtlessly—while I hunt for numbers.

Such is the bi-polar, schizophrenic, paradoxical nature of Apple’s Dashboard Widgets. Worthless and priceless. All at the same time. Got a favorite Widget you’re using regularly? Share in the Comment section below.