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Astrophysics Preprint Reader

Lists the latest batch of arXiv preprints in a low-profile widget for the Mac OS X Dashboard.

An information button alongside each article title gives access to the full abstract (including the author list). Clicking on the title takes you to the article's page on arXiv.org, where you can download a complete version of the article. The widget can display preprints from any of the available categories, but it's primarily intended for astrophysicists (hence the astronomy-themed graphics).

Other features include:

  • widget can be interactively resized by dragging the bottom-right corner
  • ability to restrict results to a particular sub-category (e.g. astro-ph.CO) [new]
  • optional automatic notification when new versions of the widget are available [new]

Disclaimer: the RSS feed used by this widget "is experimental and may be changed without notice". In the event that this breaks the widget, I'll try to fix it as quickly as possible.

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Requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later. See below for installation instructions and a list of known issues.

Installing the widget

Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger or later is required. Click the download button to download the widget and then follow the instructions for your browser.

Safari

If you’re using Safari, click the download link. When the widget download is complete, show Dashboard, click the Plus sign to display the Widget Bar and click the widget’s icon in the Widget Bar to open it.

Other browsers (e.g. Firefox)

If you’re using a browser other than Safari, click the download link. When the widget download is complete, unarchive it and place it in /Library/Widgets/ in your home folder. Show Dashboard, click the Plus sign to display the Widget Bar and click the widget’s icon in the Widget Bar to open it.

!If you're upgrading from an earlier version of the widget, you may have to manually refresh the widget before it will display correctly. You can do this by clicking on the widget and pressing ⌘R or by logging out. This problem only affects users of certain (beta) versions of Safari.

Known issues

  • Occasionally the widget may fail to display any new articles, even though there are articles listed on the arXiv website. This is caused by an intermittent problem with the RSS feed used by the widget and is beyond my control. The problem usually only lasts for a day or two.

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