5 fun Dashboard Widgets to Decrease Your Productivity

Dashboard Widgets seem to be divided into two main categories…useful…and not-so-useful (of course, I guess most things could be divided into those two categories, huh?). There are amazingly helpful Widgets like iStat Nano that can help you track all of your system stats with minimal CPU usage…and then there are these 5 Widgets. All 5 of these are fun widgets that are amusing and entertaining…but will in no way help you be productive in the slightest.

Apple Logo – Because you don’t have enough Apple logos on your Apple Computer already, Richard Thomas released this little widget that allows you to select just about every Apple logo from the company’s history (and other fun designs) to display on your Dashboard. That’s all it does. No clock, search, timer or anything else that could – in any way – be considered useful…but it’s still a fun little Widget to have stuck off in the corner of your Dashboard if you have the space.

80s Movie Bot – Have you ever been sitting around and thought to yourself…”Dammit self, I need a random quote from an 80’s film, and I just can’t think of one random enough!” Well, my friend, you can sleep easy tonight, because now you’ll have the 80’s Movie Bot. This widget contains random quotes from the cream of the 80’s movie crop – including: “Top Gun”, “This is Spinal Tap”, “Ghostbusters”, anything John Hughes touched, Indiana Jones, and just about any other 80s movie you can think of. There are over 700 quotes in this little bugger, and each quote includes the film title and director, plus year of release. Each film is also linked to the corresponding page in the IMDB. Truely an amazing waste of time that should be downloaded immediately.

Rot Rox – Are you lonely and friendless? If so, weep no more sad little reader, for Rot Rox will be your virtual friend. Unlike those awful women that seem to think you’re invisible, Rot Rox WILL talk back to you if you talk to him (er…it). Rot Rox is actually a pretty cool little widget that is as close to having a droid (aside from a Roomba) that you’re going to get in the near future. The little guy will hold a conversation with you, and will even tell you the last thing you listened to in iTunes if you ask him (it?) nicely enough. Very cool.

Pirate Translator – Babblefish has NOTHING on this little widget. I don’t know how many times I’ve been trying to talk to a pirate and just not been able to communicate myself properly…but NO MORE! Now I can converse like a pirate gentleman, and the ladies (pardon me…Wenches) will love me for the fine “scurvy dog” that I “be”.

“Ahhr”

Chi Pet – Yeah…I’m serious. It’s a virtual Chia Pet.  Not only will it sit in your Dashboard and “grow” green crap on it’s backside, but it will also…well…nevermind – that’s really all it does….unless you don’t water it…then it will die.

Yup, that’s right, with one simple download you can kill a Chia Pet.  Get to it my friends!  Death to the Chi Pets!!!

These are only 5 of the nearly countless number of odd, useless, or just plain different widgets that users have created since Tiger was released.  Frankly, to me, it’s one of the coolest things about Dashboard.  The fact that anyone can have any strange little idea they want and make it into a cool looking widget is a great feature for any OS.  Feel free to leave links below to your own favorite time wasters…or even useful widgets if you like…it’s all welcome here.