Mac OS X Tiger introduced Dashboard, a wonderful world of widgets that perform common tasks and give you fast access to information on the Web. With Mac OS X Leopard, you get even more widgets, plus .Mac syncing that keeps all your Dashboard preferences on all your Macs.

Clips and flicks

Create your own website widget using Web Clip in Safari for Leopard. Just visit your favorite site and click the “Open in Dashboard” button in Safari. Dashboard launches a new clip of the site in a customizable widget. From there, you can resize your Web Clip and choose from a handful of window themes. And since your Web Clip is always live, it acts just like the website it was clipped from. Dashboard for Leopard also introduces a movie widget that finds movies and showtimes in less time than it takes to make popcorn.

Widgets wherever

Get yourself a .Mac account and your Dashboard preferences can follow you from Mac to Mac. With Dashboard syncing in Leopard, when you make a change to your Dashboard preferences, Leopard automatically keeps everything in sync across every Mac you use.

Ready, set, widget

Ever wish you could make your very own Dashboard widget? Say hello to Dashcode. With it, you can get a widget up and running in minutes, even if you’ve never written a line of code in your life. Choose from a handful of Dashcode widget templates — including a countdown timer, RSS feed, photocast, podcast, or gauge — or create a widget from scratch with a blank template. Drag in an RSS link and your widget populates with a full feed. Drag in a photocast URL and your widget transforms into a self-contained slideshow. Drag in a podcast link and you can start playing the feed right from your widget.

When your widget is ready for prime time, Dashcode packages up all the your files and the Apple-provided resources required to deploy your widget to Dashboard or submit it to Apple.com.

All features referenced in the Mac OS X Leopard Sneak Peek are subject to change.