Create your own podcast widgets for Mac OS X Dashboard

SO SAY YOU HAVE A FAVORITE PODCAST THAT YOU WANT TO LISTEN TO WITHOUT HAVING TO FIRE UP ITUNES? WELL, IF YOU HAVE A MAC YOU'RE IN LUCK. I'M WILSON TANG, AND I'M GOING TO SHOW YOU HOW TO CREATE A DASHBOARD WIDGET WITH OS X'S BUILT-IN DEVELOPMENT TOOLS. EVERY SINGLE OFFICIAL COPY OF MAC OS X COMES BUILT-IN DEVELOPMENT TOOLS LIKE XCODE AND INTERFACE BUILDER, MEANING YOU CAN DEVELOP YOUR OWN OS X OR EVEN IPHONE APPLICATIONS FREE OF CHARGE! NOW, IF YOU DON'T HAVE THE OS X DEVELOPMENT TOOLS INSTALLED ON YOUR MAC, IT'S ON YOUR INSTALL DVD. JUST LAUNCH THE XCODE INSTALLER, AND YOU'RE GOOD TO GO. ONCE YOU HAVE THAT DONE, LET'S TAKE A LOOK AT THE LITTLE KNOWN TOOL CALLED DASHCODE. STEVE JOBS MENTIONED THIS A FEW KEYNOTES AGO, BUT IT NEVER GOT MUCH PRESS ATTENTION. WITH IT, HOWEVER, YOU CAN CREATE ALL SORTS OF OS X DASHBOARD WIDGETS RIGHT ON YOUR MAC WITH RELATIVELY LITTLE KNOWLEDGE OF PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES. WHEN WE LAUNCH DASHCODE, WHICH IS IN YOUR DEVELOPER APPLICATIONS FOLDER IN YOUR MAC HARD DRIVE, YOU'LL BE PRESENTED WITH OPTIONS TO CREATE WEB APPS OR DASHBOARD WIDGETS. WE'LL SELECT DASHBOARD WIDGETS. AS YOU CAN SEE WE CAN CREATE RSS READERS, PHOTO VIEWERS, GUAGES AND EVEN CUSTOM WIDGETS. FOR NOW, WE'RE JUST GOING TO SELECT PODCAST. DASHCODE WILL AUTOMATICALLY CREATE ALLTHE NECESSARY FILES AND CODE FOR YOU TO CREATE YOUR NEW DASHBOARD WIDGET. WHILE IT DOES MOST OF THE HEAVY LIFTING, THERE ARE STILL SOME THINGS WE HAVE TO CHANGE IN ORDER TO PERSONALIZE YOUR WIDGET. APPLE MAKES IT REALLY EASY THOUGH WITH BUILT-IN STEPS YOU SHOULD FOLLOW. SO FIRST, WE NEED TO PROVIDE IT A PODCAST FEED. SO BY CLICKING THE TRIANGLE NEXT TO PODCAST PROPERTIES WE'RE BROUGHT TO THE WIDGETS ATTRIBUTES PAGE. IN THE PROPERTIES SECTION, WE'RE JUST GOING TO PASTE IN THE RSS FEED OF OUR FAVORITE PODCAST. WHEN WE'RE DONE, WE'RE JUST GOING TO MARK AS DONE TO MAKE SURE WE HAVEN'T MISSED ANY STEPS. NEXT, WE'RE GOING TO GIVE AN IDENTIFIER TO THIS WIDGET. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT IF YOU'RE GOING TO CREATE MORE THAN ONE WIDGET. THIS IS HOW THE DASHBOARD KEEPS TRACK OF DIFFERENT WIDGETS. IN THIS CASE, WE'RE GOING TO CALL IT COM.CNET.WIDGET.THE404. AND MARK AS DONE. NEXT, WE'RE GOING TO CREATE A DEFAULT IMAGE SO THAT WHEN WE PULL THE WIDGET OUT OF ITS DOCK, WE WILL GET A PREVIEW OF WHAT IT'S SUPPOSE TO LOOK LIKE. CLICKING ON CANVAS IN THE PREVIEW DEFAULT IMAGE STEP, WE'RE BROUGHT TO THE FRONT OF THE WIDGET, AND WE'RE JUST GOING TO CHANGE THE NAME A BIT. IN THIS AREA, YOU'LL BE ABLE TO CHANGE THE DESIGN AND LAYOUT OF YOUR WIDGET. FEEL FREE TO EXPERIMENT TO YOUR HEART'S CONTENT, BUT WE'RE GOING TO MOVE ON AND CLICK MARK AS DONE AGAIN. FINALLY, WE'RE GOING TO DESIGN A PODCAST ICON. IN THE DESIGN WIDGET ICON STEP, CLICK WIDGET ICON COMPOSER. THEN RIGHT NEXT TO IT, THERE IS A PLACE BUTTON. THIS WILL ALLOW US TO IMPORT AN IMAGE AND ADD THE SNAZY APPLE GLOSSY LOOK TO THE ICON. AND WE'RE CLOSE TO BEING DONE! BEFORE WE CAN DISTRIBUTE OUR NEW WIDGET, WE SHOULD TEST AND RUN IT BY CLICKING THE RUN BUTTON IN THE UPPER LEFT CORNER. WHEN WE'RE DONE MAKING SURE IT WORKS, WE WILL JUST HIT STOP. NOW, IT'S TIME TO SHARE OUR WIDGET. WE WILL CLICK THE SHARE BUTTON IN THE TEST & SHARE STEP. WE'LL BE ASKED TO NAME OUR WIDGET, AND WE CAN SET A MINIMUM OS X VERSION FOR THIS WIDGET. YOU CAN EITHER SAVE TO DISK OR YOU CAN DEPLOY TO YOUR DASHBOARD. BEFORE YOU E-MAIL YOUR WIDGET TO YOUR FRIENDS, YOU'LL PROBABLY LIKE TO ZIP YOUR WIDGET BECAUSE IT MAY APPEAR AS A FOLDER IN OTHER OPERATING SYSTEMS, RATHER THAN A PACKAGE. THE GREAT THING ABOUT THESE WIDGETS ARE THAT THEY WILL CONTINUE TO RUN IN THE BACKGROUND WHILE YOU WORK SO DON'T HAVE TO KEEP ITUNES RUNNING AND YOU CAN EASILY TURN OFF YOUR PODCAST BY PULLING UP THE DASHBAORD. I'M WILSON TANG, AND THIS HAS BEEN A HOW-TO CREATE YOUR OWN PODCAST WIDGET IN OS X.