Widgetational Software

Universal
Conference Call OMNI1.4.9

Sports schedules for Dashboard

View Version History

Reviews:

» [Five Stars] This is the fastest (in data retrieval) and best (most comprehensive) sports widget there is. — MacUpdate Admin, MacUpdate.com

Conference Call OMNI is "On Hiatus"

Recent formatting changes at the Fox Sports web site —which serves as the data source for CCO— have seriously broken many parts of the widget.

As a "free-time only" project, CCO is a very low priority for DL&DS, and a fix (or, what it really needs, an overhaul, perhaps with a new data source) will not be possible anytime soon. I am officially changing the widget's status to "on hiatus" ... but, to be honest, although CCO has been one of my favorite (and one of my best) creations, it may never return to active development.

My thanks for your support, and my apologies for the inconvenience. --Don

If you run a sports site that would like to "sponsor" Conference Call OMNI
as a data source, please let me know.

A little cooperation from site designers (just adding some convenient tags in the page HTML) could greatly simplify maintenance of this widget and reduce its development burden. Potential sponsors should note that, over the past years, CCO has become pretty popular, and it includes ample links to the data source site for details on schedules, teams, and so forth; many users have commented that CCO was responsible for their switching to the Fox Sports web site as their primary destination for sports information. My intention has always been that the widget-site relationship not be parasitic (as with many sports widgets), but symbiotic.

Conference Call OMNI provides a centralized source of schedule and scoring data for a variety of sports:

  • Collegiate and professional basketball (men's and women's)
  • Collegiate and professional football
  • Professional baseball
  • Professional hockey
  • Professional men's soccer
  • Professional auto racing

The widget's flip side allows for the selection of sport and team.

Tip
To track multiple teams, simply drag additional copies of Conference Call OMNI out of the Widget Bar located at the bottom of the Dashboard.

The widget fetches its data from FOXSports.com, and offers convenient links to a wealth of information on that web site, including team details and statistics, conference and league standings, and game recaps.

To save screen real estate, clicking the team logo collapses the widget to display just the logo and win-loss record.

Conference Call OMNI refreshes its schedule information the first time Dashboard opens each morning and afternoon. A button (at the bottom of the logo area) allows for manual refreshing of that information at any time.

Long-Term Memory
Conference Call OMNI can retain a team selection even after its window closes. With this option, each new window created inherits the selection of a previously-closed window in a last-closed-first-restored order. This feature simplifies the installation of widget updates (see below) by eliminating the need to re-select teams manually. (The update process still requires re-dragging copies of the widget from the Widget Bar, however, as well as re-positioning the copies within the Dashboard. (Apple restricts widgets from moving themselves into position.))

Important: Widget Updates
Occasional changes at the FOX Sports site may cause this widget to malfunction, so keeping Conference Call OMNI up-to-date is especially important. When a new version of the widget becomes available, the widget highlights the "i" button (as shown above); clicking the "i" to flip the widget over reveals a link to back to this page to learn about and download the update.

Note
Day Late & Dollar Short Software is not affiliated with FOX Sports, MSN, or any sports organization (professional or collegiate).

Team logos, team names, and some event titles are trademarks or registered trademarks
of their respective owners or sponsors. Their appearance does not imply endorsement, sponsorship, or license of this product by those organizations.
This widget operates as a highly-specialized web browser, displaying data and images
retrieved "on-the-fly" from FOXSports.com with explicit permission from that site.

Version History

  • (MAJOR BUG - 1.4.10) The teams that should appear at the top of division/conference/"all teams"-specific lists aren't showing up. Version 1.4.10 is being pulled from the server.

  • (KNOWN BUG) "Remember these settings ..." occasionally doesn't remember those settings

  • (1.4.10) Updated professional racing component for new year and new sponsorships
  • (1.4.10) Added "stripe-less" badge for professional men's football
  • (1.4.10) Minor tweaks for Mac OS X 10.5 ("Leopard") compatibility

  • (1.4.9) Minor tweaks for Mac OS X 10.5 ("Leopard") compatibility
  • (1.4.8) Updated to accommodate layout changes at FOXSports.com across most sports (23 September 2007)
  • (1.4.8) Updated team list for Women's Pro Basketball
  • (1.4.8) Bug fix (Minor graphic display error)

  • (1.4.7) (KNOWN ISSUE) English soccer data ignores the first couple of weeks of matches. (This is a problem with the FOXSports.com site and is out of our hands.)
  • (1.4.7) Updated team list for English soccer
  • (1.4.7) Bug fix (Update alert mechanism)

  • (1.4.6) Updated to accommodate layout changes at FOXSports.com across all sports (23 July 2007)

  • (1.4.5) Updated team list for professional soccer
  • (1.4.5) Bug fix (Display issue in professional soccer)

  • (1.4.4) Widget now checks for schedule updates up to twice a day (am and pm)
  • (1.4.4) Bug fix (Display issue in professional hockey play-offs)
  • (1.4.4) Bug fix (Display issue in professional soccer)

  • (1.4.3) Bug fix (Auto Racing days were computed based on the year 2006)

  • (1.4.2) Updated team list for English soccer

  • (1.4.1) Bug fix (Minor display issue with professional soccer)

  • (1.4) Added professional soccer
  • (1.4) Numerous under-the-hood improvements

  • (1.3.4) Improved retrieval of pro baseball data (thanks to change at FOXSports.com)
  • (1.3.4) Blue tint on lines of completed auto races
  • (1.3.4) Bug fix ("Team/Mascot Name Not Found" errors due to format change at FOXSports.com)
  • (1.3.4) Bug fixes (various reactions to lack of data at FOXSports.com)

  • (1.3.3) Bug fix (college women's basketball schedules no loading due to format change at FOXSports.com)

  • (1.3.2) More efficient version checking

  • (1.3.1) Bug fix (college basketball schedules not loading due to format change at FOXSports.com)
  • (1.3.1) Bug fix (error in preferences; teams will have to be re-selected)

  • (1.3) Addition of auto racing
  • (1.3) By popular demand: Left-to-right display of win-loss and win-loss-otl records
  • (1.3) Tool tip for revealing long opponent names

  • (1.2) Addition of professional baseball (Note: Baseball schedules take longer to load)
  • (1.2) Bug fix (pro football schedules not loading due to format change at FOXSports.com)

  • (1.1.2) Bug fix (automatic updating)

  • (1.1.1) Bug fix (automatic updating)

  • (1.1) "Remember these settings ..." feature
  • (1.1) Backwards-compatibility with Mac OS X 10.4 - 10.4.2
  • (1.1) Bug fixes (slow fades, jaggy logos, column mix-up in Women's Pro Basketball)

  • (1.0) Unification of entire Conference Call line of sports schedule widgets
  • (1.0) Automatic (once-daily) data refreshing!
  • (1.0) Links to team standings and team statistics
  • (1.0) Improved resistance to (although not complete immunity from) errors caused by changes to FOXSports.com
  • (1.0) Improved efficiency