14 DAY TRIAL // Widgets are great little things that offer very specific functionality, often with a very specific look and feel. They are the perfect little desktop ornaments of the computing world; however, they do have their own particular limitations. The most notable of these in Dashboard is the Dashboard environment itself. If you place a calendar widget in there, what is the point of having to move to Dashboard simply to see the date? it is the equivalent of keeping a desk clock, but on another desk, and changing desk whenever you want to look at it. There are other widget alternatives, such as Konfabulator, but each has its own problems.
As a developer, Panic has always made great programs that I loved, so, when I read about Stattoo, I thought they might have some great new insight into widgets.
What it does Stattoo is a small application that places small widget like things called 'tattoos' right on your desktop. Much like traditional widgets, the tattoos only have one function which is usually to display a specific piece of information. The main difference between Stattoo and other similar programs is that everything stays at a desktop level and never gets in the way.
Working with it Working with Stattoo is quite easy and straightforward. When you open the program, you will see a transparent strip floating above everything. This strip is similar to a dock and is where all the tattoos that you decide to use will get housed. Tattoos can be added to the strip simply by dragging them from the Stattoo window. Each of the tattoos has several settings that can be changed to better suit your preferences. Once present on the strip, the tattoos can be rearranged by drag and drop, and the entire strip itself can be repositioned on screen by dragging it.
While you are changing the Stattoo settings, the strip will float above everything else and will be modifiable. However, once you change focus from the program it will slip down below everything else and get out of the way.
The Tattoos The tattoos that come with the program are the standard ones that all such applications have and which can also be found in Dashboard and Konfabulator. They include a time display, a date display, an iTunes status, a RSS feed, hard drive status and weather. They all do their job, although the ones that have a lot of information to offer, such as the RSS one, do look very cramped, but all of the tattoos have a uniform look and feel to them.
While the tattoos that come with the program are acceptable as a default offering, they are not really much to write home about. I have looked through the program's documentation and there is no mention of where and how to get more tattoos, nor is there any option in the menus. A quick look on the web revels that there are no additional tattoos on the developer's site. When Konfabulator and Dashboard have hundreds of widgets that are readily available all over the web, the Stattoo offering starts looking like very slim picking indeed. Why on earth the developer made this choice is beyond me.
The big picture Leaving aside the lack of choice when it comes to tattoos, Stattoo is still quite nice and probably the better choice for those who don't want a whole cartload of widgets; still, what if you just want a few of the default ones.
If you start adding tattoos to the Stattoo strip you soon realize something? there is only so much screen. If you put half of the available tattoos in there, they quickly take up all the space available, and then start growing outside the screen. The mind boggles. Unlike Apple's dock which resizes the icons whenever they get too big to fit on screen, Stattoo does nothing. The tattoos simply pile up and float outside the edges of the screen. What is even more baffling is the developer's take on this. "Yes -- this is a known issue that we will most certainly address in a future version of Stattoo. In the meantime, why not pick up a beautiful new Apple Cinema Display? :)" OK? so I buy a $12.95 widget program that only has a mere handful of widgets, and I can't even use all of them because they drift off screen? solution, buy a bigger monitor.
The Good
A very easy to use and accessible widget option that keeps everything close by on the desktop. The uniform look is nice.
The Bad
Very limited choice of tattoos, and incredible bad handling of many tattoos;
The Truth
Before this program, I had great respect for Panic for the other great software they released. Now I am wondering if this is an April Fool's joke that somehow accidentally got published.
Here are some screenshots, click to enlarge:
