The dreamDeals widget

How does it work

Most of the "heavy weight" work is done behind the scenes by the dreamDeals.org server, which continuously scans Amazon's catalog. Information about "dream deals" products is packed into an XML feed, which is periodically sent to the widget.

Resources

Every possible effort was made to minimize the resource requirements of the dreamDeals widget. When in the background, the dreamDeals widget uses very little resources (in fact, it uses less resources than Apple's Dictionary and WorldClock widgets).

When shown, the widget does take up more resources. However, the dreamDeals widget uses Quartz Extreme to handle the animation, which means that most of the work is handled by the graphics processor.

Affiliation

Yes, Amazon pays me for any item bought using the widget, but at no cost to the widget user. Most people find it perfectly acceptable, given that the widget is free. Maintaining the server costs money; developing and maintaining the widget takes a lot of time. Affiliate earnings help cover those expenses.

Acknowledgments

The dreamDeals plugin, which handles the animation is based on HMDT's Quartz Composer Plugin. The flying numbers layer of the animation is a twist on a composition by Futurismo Zugakousaku. This website is based on the open source Kubrick template.