I have my iMac set to put the monitor into sleep mode after 2 hours. There are times when I want to put it to sleep on demand. Back when I had a freestanding monitor I could just hit the power button, but with an iMac the monitor is integrated into the computer - I can't turn off just the display.

Thankfully LineStreet come up with a drop dead simple Widget that you can press from Dashboard and it will put your monitor to sleep. Very handy.

And if you're not fond of Widgets, it is available as an Application too.

If you have a beautiful new iMac, you know how nice and bright the screen is. Thing is...sometimes a bright screen isn't what you're going for. Enter this widget. It allows you to IMMEDIATELY sleep just your display so that you can continue running your background jobs. It doesn't permanently affect your energy settings, so when you start working again, your monitor will not sleep immediately. It's a simple widget, but it solves an annoying problem.

I noticed that Engadget listed 10 "Useful Dashboard Widgets". Some of these I haven't run across before, they're all worth a quick look.

Full story at Engadget here.

There is a cool new BART Widget from WorryDream to help you with San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). Maps, routes, schedules, fares - it has it all.

There is also an official iPod BART QuickPlanner that is put out that can be very helpful if you're not at your computer (or soon to be released iPhone.)

When it comes to searching, there’s no such thing as too fast.

And now, if you're a Mac user, you can search the entire online archive, including royalty-free, without ever opening your browser.
With our efficient Search Widget, you have almost instant access. You can scroll through thumbnail search results, preview your clips, choose between rights-managed and royalty-free, even download motion comps—all in seconds.
And because our Search Widget is so fast, it’s a defacto idea generator. A fun way to discover the unexpected shot or spark inspiration.
Apple has built powerful, easy features into Mac OS X, like Spotlight and Dashboard, to expedite production workflow, and we intend to take full advantage of these innovations to make your creative life as easy as possible.
DOWNLOAD

I appreciate useful and well designed widgets. Here are two great ones from Interdimension. They are free, donations accepted.

Interdimension has 6 widgets in total at this time, check out their website for details on them all. I'm going to show two of them, my favorites.

GAS WIDGET

I always pay attention to gas prices, especially now that gas is at astronomical prices. This Gas Price widget shows you the cheapest gas stations in your area.

File Shredder

Some times you want to securely delete a file so that it can't be recovered, maybe it's that digital pay stub with your pay information, or that incriminating picture... Regardless what it is, File Shredder Widget is a super simple and effective way to securely delete a file.

Click the image below for a move showing it in action.

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The BBC (Beeb) has a lot of great content, a lot of that content in Radio based. I've recently been using a dashboard widget which has turned out to be the most drop dead simple way to listen to Beeb content. The only improvement I could suggest would be to have a station select button on the font of the widget instead of clicking the "i" and selecting from the back side of the widget.

The BBC Radio Widget by HawkMan at Phantom Gorilla is really nice. Treat him nice and donate a pint of ale for his efforts, as he requests. You can download the widget right here. Full list of available stations through the BBC Radio Widget right here.

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