Apple’s Mac OS X operating systems, used for hosting mini-applications called widgets. First introduced in Tiger, it is a translucent layer that is indistinguishable to the user unless activated by clicking its icon in the Dock. Otherwise, the user can invoke Dashboard by touching the cursor into a preassigned hot corner, by pressing a hot key, or mouse button, any of which can be set to the user’s preference.
At what time Dashboard is activated, the user’s desktop is dimmed and widgets appear in the forefront. Like application windows, they can be moved around, rearranged, deleted, and recreated (so that more than one of the same Widget is open at the same instance, possibly with different settings). New widgets can be opened, via an icon bar on the bottom of the layer, by dragging a dashboard widgets icon out into the layer. After loading, the widget is ready for use.
Even though being a very standard and non-removable part of all subsequent OS versions, actual usage of Dashboard is widely thought to be low and development of new widgets has slowed substantially since the application was first introduced.
