Well, among other things, I’ve started to take some first steps into Dashboard Widget development. Of course it’d be too easy to put together some basic html-only-based widget, so in the spirit of exploration, I’ve prototyped 3 widgets simultaniously:

Daybreak - will be a widget that helps you visualize the passing of time in your day (and hopefully help you manage that time better) by displaying the hours of the day as a long strip, with an arrow that slides along, showing you how much time has passed, etc. Some planned features include alternate views (eg. showing the day as a pie chart, or other shape), and note taking (so you can quickly jot down items in your day). iCal integration would pwn.

Lifeline - report your airport signal strength using audio, this widget will play back a healthy 80bpm heart monitor if your signal strength is solid. If the signal strength drops, the heart monitor will speed up, and if you lose connectivity it’ll flatline. I’m sure someone will find a use for this. Audio will most likely not be constant, but periodic (for sanity!). For extra kung fu, it will be created using Core Image and Quartz Composer.

Simulacra - iPhone simulator. I know, I know. But this gives me an opportunity to make a widget that has a lot of functions built in, and a great way to learn about a bunch of different technologies (widget development, javascript, Quartz Composer, etc. etc.) The general rule of thumb behind widget development is to choose one function per widget, and do that well. Simulacra is an experiment to see how fancy you can get with Dashboard Widget dev, and an excuse to apply a bunch of technologies together. My first version of this widget had a clock implemented simply in JavaScript. I’m currently working on displaying the entire screen and interface as a Core Image view, where I use JavaScript to pass data to the display, etc.

I’ll post progress on these widgets as I go, and hopefully working versions once there is something for everyone to see and play with.