Junecloud

Quite a while back I decided to abandon my Bluetooth Switch and Firewall Switch widgets. I had already started on new versions of them, but they no longer worked in Leopard, few people seemed to be interested, and I didn’t have a lot of free time to spend on them. I can’t say I have any more free time these days, but I have learned a few things that made updating these pretty simple—so I decided to spend a day on it.

What do they do? Pretty simple really: just click once to turn Bluetooth or your firewall on or off. If it’s on, you’ll see a full color icon. If it’s off, you’ll see a greyed out, slightly transparent, pushed in icon. You can also set an app to automatically open—for example you could have Bluetooth File Exchange launch when you turn on Bluetooth.

Here’s what’s new:

• Now compatible with Leopard, as well as Tiger
• Bluetooth Switch no longer opens System Preferences!
• Improved graphics look nicer, make the off state more clear, and make the settings easier to use
• Now you can just double-click the widget if you want to open your selected app without toggling the switch (instead of holding O and clicking)

If you like these widgets, please let me know in the comments below! Your feedback will make a big difference in whether I continue to support these widgets in Snow Leopard and beyond. If you run into any problems please post those in the comments as well.

Download Bluetooth Switch 2.0 beta 2
Download Firewall Switch 2.0 beta 2

Update: This beta is now closed! Download the final releases here. Firewall Switch has been tweaked a bit, and no longer opens System Preferences if you’re an admin user.