Personal addiction

I CAN'T live without the qube.

I've been purposefully trying to avoid just giving shout-outs to whatever widgets I'm grooving on, but I can be silent no longer.

You need this widget.

This is a widget for the ADD generation, the generation of on-the-go, all the time. You can get an overview of everything you need to know to get through the day, and if you happen to have an extra 45 seconds, the qube links you to the provider site.

It's a terrific business proposition, too. Widgetqube makes money of advertisements placed (sort of) innocuously, and the provider sites make money (eventually) because the qube drives their page views.

The presets for news outlets on the qube are pretty solid--you get a good variety of traditional and non-traditional media. But you can add your favorite news outlets, and check them all at once (I have the BBC, the Washington Post, and the Huffington Post on my general news tab). I'm also a fan of the different tabs--health, technology, politics, and the likes. Too often, RSS widgets limit themselves to just the top headlines, or just hard news. While widgets thrive on specificity, there is something to be said of having such a huge variety of topics there. Presumably, the widget serves those just needing a thorough but quick survey of what's going on in the world. Having a variety of topics naturally extends from this idea; these folks need a wide-range update. It's something that broadcast, paper and even news online cannot provide.

This is what a news-based, RSS widget should be. I know there are tons of RSS feed widgets out there, some from a third party, some that feed just from one news provider's Web site. Personally, I prefer mixed feeds in general because you get a diversity of voices. But it is the options, the customization, and the variety of the qube that makes it stand out.