Desktopify allows you to put any web widget right on to your desktop. Just about any widget we have written about here on WidgetsLab should work with Desktopify.

The process of converting a web widget into a desktop widget is very simple. Just copy the web widget embed code and paste it into the Desktopify “embed code” field. Modify a couple of settings such as widget size, widget name and choose a category for the Desktopify Widget Gallery.

Create an account and then you will be provided with the tools necessary to promote your widget if you like…or you can simply download and install the widget to your desktop.

Desktopify adds an easy way for businesses to get their already existing widgets onto your desktop with minimal work and no coding or lengthy submission process.

Check out Desktopify today.
http://www.desktopify.com/

Related posts:

1. Amnesty Widgets: Web to Desktop Widget Importing Platform
2. Google Desktop Gadgets for Linux
3. Joost to abandon desktop client to go web based, Joost Widgets to die too?

IMPORTANT: The ability to create new Launchpad widgets will be turned off on February 1st, 2010.

Friends,

As part of the ongoing process to sunset the Launchpad platform, the ability to create new widgets will be turned off on February 1st, 2010. As a reminder, here are the upcoming dates associated with this process:

* Feb. 1st, 2010: New widget creation will be disabled.
* April 5th, 2010: Launchpad console will be turned off, however existing widget installations will continue to be served.
* January 1st, 2011: Widget serving will be shut off.

We are committed to working with you to make your transition process as smooth as possible, and have created a number of documents to help.

Resources

* Transition Overview
* What You Need to Know
* Questions and Answers
* Launchpad Transition Support Forum
* Launchpad & AddThis Platform Comparison
* More Information about the AddThis sharing platform

Going forward, we hope that you’ll use AddThis for your widget sharing. We think you will find AddThis to be an easy, powerful and fast.

If you have any questions, please visit the Support Forum above for assistance. Thank you for your continued partnership and use of Clearspring products.

Best,
Hooman Radfar
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Clearspring Technologies

I see this as a good thing. Clearspring is consolidating their product line which will allow them to focus more on their core offerings. AddThis is immensely popular (sharing over 30 billion a month) and adds far more flexibility and options to widget developers.
The transition will be smooth. As outlined in the section above, just about anything you can do with Launchpad, you will be able to accomplish with AddThis.

Congratulations to Hooman and his team for creating such a successful product!

Related posts:

1. Clearspring acquires AddThis
2. Clearspring Launches Next Generation Sharing Service
3. SproutBuilder.com wicked widget creation

Sure, Samsung TouchWIZ is now a platform open for third party developers. But for over half a year before that. The Windows Mobile prodigal hackers of Xda-Developer got their own version of that named FEWidgets.

FEWidgets Ultimate is the update and ongoing project for that. The original works for Windows Mobile 5,6 and 6.1 but requires both Compact .NET and Flash installed for it to work.  Ultimate that is the new version is Native to the device but this comes to a price and only Windows Mobile 6.1  and 6.5 will be able to use it. So if you got a Windows Mobile 5 or 6 device i recommend you to still go and install the original FEWidgets since there are dozens of widgets available and it is a good way to add something to refresh your old device.

Ultimate just like its predecessor is to be used in your Today screen. in the case of 6.1 that is straight forward, in the case of 6.5 you may end up having it into a new panel in your device.

Here are the highlights of FEWidgets Ultimate

• Haptic feedback
• Multiple Layouts/Pages support (up to 4)
• Multiple Windows for each page with 0 loading time
• Support for Landscape/Portrait modes
• Skinnable though XML files (or just modifying the images)
• Scriptable through javascript
• Extensible though C++ plugins

Some of the widgets included with FEWidgets are:

• Operator Name
• RSS Feed Reader
• Appointments
• Tasks
• Contact widget
• Battery/Phone signal Strength indicator
• Background Image Changer
• Quick Dial
• Calendar (when tapped will link to \Windows\Calendar.lnk)
• Weather. Shows you the weather for today. Current temperature and forecasted Min/Max for today.

Related posts:

1. FEwidgets:Widgetize Your Windows Mobile Phone Today Screen
2. Yahoo GO 3.0 Beta: Now also for Windows Mobile Pro devices
3. Windows Mobile SideShow Beta is now out

By now, most of Verizon FIOS’s got the option of the Widget Bazaar. But just in case you haven’t bothered to look at it or have taken the time to use them. I feel obliged to point you out a post by Sarah Perez over at ReadWriteWeb wrote a step by step guide of the experience she had while setting it up. This  may be a deciding factor for those still to get the option or still not convinced to use it to try them out.

Facebook and Twitter on TV: Hands-On with Verizon FiOS’s New Widgets

Related posts:

1. Verizon FIOS’s Widget Bazaar Now Out
2. FiOS TV and the new HSN Shopping Widget
3. Vizio Will Have It’s Own Widget Platform

Verizon gets into everything, don’t they?. The last being their own TV Widgets offering called Widget Bazaar. This is a supplemental service for Verizon FIOS users and you will start with 40 widgets that include the obvious social ones  like Twitter and Facebook or even online media content from blip.tv, veoh and dailymotion.

There are several limitations:

1.-Only one user profile can be used (multi-profile support to come)

2.-No Widget Platform planned at the moment, Verizon will provide whatever widgets they think you should get. no schedule specified for updates.

3.-No YouTube and No Hulu of course

The other limitation is that unlike Vizio, the widgets are read only since you don’t have a proper remote to interact with the widgets in a full way. this could or could not change in the future based on the success of the Widget Bazaar. but expect having to pay a fee to change of Remote if the option is added.

A good supplemental service for those already lucky you to be able to have FIOS’s (unlike me, that my triple play service sucks compared to that)  and that you can ask or active now.

Verizon

via Gizmodo

Related posts:

1. Verizon FIOS’s Widget Bazaar Guide
2. FiOS TV and the new HSN Shopping Widget
3. Vizio Will Have It’s Own Widget Platform