Apple Store status widget for Mac OS X
A month ago we released an Apple Store status banner that was powered by Pingdom’s uptime monitoring service. Anyone could put it on their website to show the US Apple Store status (up or down) in real time. The reason this is interesting is of course because Apple usually updates or releases new products in connection with taking down the Apple Store.
It became a success and we got a lot of really positive feedback. One thing that people kept asking for was a widget for their Mac OS X desktops, so they could have the status icon always available in the Dashboard.
So here it is, by popular demand: An Apple Store status widget for Mac OS X (10.4 and later):
Just add it to your Dashboard and it will work automatically (when the Dashboard is activated). No more manual checking!
Above: The different status icons for the widget. The “loading error” is only shown if your computer cannot connect and get the status from Pingdom.
How it works
Pingdom handles the actual monitoring of the US Apple Store website. The widget will connect to Pingdom and update its status once per minute. For details on how the monitoring is done on Pingdom’s end, check out the post about the Apple Store status banner.
This means that no matter how many people add this widget to their desktops, Apple will not get bombarded with tests since the only tests are those performed once per minute by Pingdom’s uptime monitoring service.
Let us know what you think
We hope you like this widget. It’s actually the first one we’ve made.
Let us know what you think in the comments. 
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[...] In February we covered Pingdom’s release of a website badge and monitoring service that tracked the status of the Apple Store. A lot of our readers were resourceful enough to make their own widgets from the banner, but Pingdom has polished up and released a widget for everyone who looks forward to the excited anticipation of downtime hysteria. [...]
[...] Más Información aquí. Compártelo [...]
[...] Filed under: Widget WatchIn February we covered Pingdom’s release of a website badge and monitoring service that tracked the status of the Apple Store. A lot of our readers were resourceful enough to make their own widgets from the banner, but Pingdom has polished up and released a widget for everyone who looks forward to the excited anticipation of downtime hysteria. [...]
[...] Filed under: Widget WatchIn February we covered Pingdom’s release of a website badge and monitoring service that tracked the status of the Apple Store. A lot of our readers were resourceful enough to make their own widgets from the banner, but Pingdom has polished up and released a widget for everyone who looks forward to the excited anticipation of downtime hysteria. [...]
[...] As you may have discovered, or read, when the Apple Online Store goes offline it is usually good news. How could the store being down be good? Well, Apple takes their online store temporarily offline to put up new and/or update products. They have been doing this for quite a while now, and Apple Online Stores around the world have been known to give hints as to new product information and releases for stores globally by simply taking one country’s store down. This new widget, by Pingdom, pings all the Apple Store sites to check if they are online. It makes looking for a closing a lot easier, and will probably take some load off the servers when people constantly refresh during an outage. This one will definitely be going up on my dashboard when I get home. [TUAW] [...]
[...] C’est ici. [...]
[...] Widget Watch: Apple Store status widgetFiled under: make mischief — Tags: applestore, downtime, widgetwatch — ant @ 11:00 am In February we covered Pingdom’s release of a website badge and monitoring service that tracked the status of the Apple Store. A lot of our readers were resourceful enough to make their own widgets from the banner, but Pingdom has polished up and released a widget for everyone who looks forward to the excited anticipation of downtime hysteria. [...]
[...] Download Apple Store Status [...]
[...] Download Apple Store Status [...]