PongClock is a software that displays time by autonomously playing a game of pong against itself. It's a unique way to watch the clock and an excellent addition to any desktop.
When you're not playing, pongClock will continue to play Pong against itself while displaying the current time. To start playing against the widget, simply press the racket icon located bottom-left. Use the Up-arrow and Down-arrow keys to move your player up and down, respectively. You can pause the game at any time by pressing any other button.
As the game progresses, the speed will increase if you win and decrease if you lose. The first player to reach 10 points wins. For a more immersive experience, you can play pongClock in fullscreen mode by clicking the toggle-icon below the racket icon. You can easily exit fullscreen mode by clicking the same icon again.
There are a few settings available to customize your experience. For example, you can turn off the reflective glass or increase CPU usage to get a smoother game. You can also adjust the transparency of the widget for fullscreen mode. Be careful not to set the transparency too low, as this may cause the controller to disappear. If this happens, simply hide and show the Dashboard again, or press Apple + R to reload the widget.
One of the great things about pongClock is that it's powered entirely by Javascript. This means you can run it on Camino, Firefox, or even IE:win (although we haven't tested the latter). It consumes some CPU-time, but very little. On a 1 GHz G4 PowerBook, you can expect about 11% CPU usage on low CPU usage mode and about 22% on high CPU usage mode. On a MacBook Pro, CPU usage is only around 6% on low usage and 12% on high usage. When the Dashboard is hidden, pongClock does not run and therefore consumes no power.
Overall, pongClock is a fun and engaging widget that's well worth checking out if you're a fan of Pong. It's easy to use, customizable, and consumes very little power.
Version 1.0.1: N/A