For those who are looking up for an enhanced desktop experience and haven’t found it yet, Yahoo presents the “Yahoo Widget Engine”. This is a platform application that you need to have installed and running on your computer if you want to access and use the thousands of widgets available on the Yahoo Widget web site.
So what is a Widget you might be wondering right now. A widget is an accessory application that performs a very specific task and is managed by the Widget Engine. Usually this widgets are docked on a side bar provided by the engine and from there you can see brief information about things you’re interested in or get quick access to applications or web sites. In addition, a widget can be undocked from the side bar so it “floats around” your desktop. In general terms when a widget is undocked provides better visualization and control.
As mentioned in the beginning of this review, the first thing you have to do is to download and install Yahoo Widget Engine. You will see that the basic installation file already includes a set of very popular and useful widgets for you to get started. Let’s know a little bit about them:
• Analog clock: on top of the side bar by default, you will see an analog clock showing the current time and date. You can select some preferences like: show/hide date, show/hide second hand, chime, colors and some windows preferences as well.
• Battery monitor: useful for notebooks users, monitors and shows the battery level at all times.
• Day Planner: plug-in to use either with Yahoo! Calendar or Outlook as a personal agenda.
• Digital clock: digital version of analog clock.
• iTunes Remote: remote access to play music on iTunes. Requires iTunes to be installed on your PC.
• Picture Frame: to display pictures from one of the following sources: flickr, Yahoo! Photos and My Computer.
• Yahoo! Finance: to keep track of the markets.
• Yahoo! Mail checker: to remotely check you yahoo e-mail account.
• Yahoo! Weather: provides weather information of the location you select. Current and extended forecast available.
Yahoo Widget Engine is available for Windows and Mac users and is totally free. Enjoy it!
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