Unit conversion on the Mac is easy with this Dashboard widget

Tapbots has released their new application Convertbot [app store link] – and it is great. You can tell they really focused on the user experience before they ever started up Xcode. You’ll use the (now almost instinctive in humans) iPod touch wheel motion to select the conversion units for whatever you’re converting. Then, you tap on the read-out to bring up a number pad for entering what you need to convert. That’s about it.

Selecting categories is as easy as selecting a song on an iPod classic (click the image for a slideshow)

Tapbots has a great demo on their Convertbot page. I encourage you to actually watch their demo movie rather than just the animated iPhone on their site. The animation seemed confusing to me at first, but their demo explains everything and really shows how easy to use Convertbot is.

The only fault I can find with this app is that it seems like it should start up faster than it does. It may be waiting to update currency exchange rates before displaying the interface. Don’t get me wrong, though, it doesn’t take as long as some games do – I can’t count to “Three-Mississippi” before it is ready.