Just got this note in an email from Pandora mentioning their redesigned web site:

"We've removed the listening limit for Pandora. You can now listen to Pandora as much as you'd like for free."

Comments & Reviews below this one pertain to the discontinued Pandora Widget; this listing has been updated to reflect the Pandora One Desktop App instead.

Ooops! One more thing . . . after you make your widget, click on the "i" button in the bottom right and UNCHECK the button for "Play Audio Only In Dashboard" and now it plays with Dashboard in the background. Yipee!

for everyone that is trying to get the "file not found" error fixed you can fix it yourself.

browse to pandora.wdgt file and right click and select show package contents. Then open Pandora.html in a text editor, and change "tuner_8_8_0_0_pandora_mini.swf" to "tuner_8_8_0_1_pandora_mini.swf".
save and install the widget and your done.

hopefully the author will offer a more robust solution so we will not have to keep modifying/upgrading the widget everytime pandora changes the filename/version. Even if not, it is still a great widget and only a minor annoyance that you can fix yourself.

Excellent widget, although 1.0.5 does NOT fix the 'File Not Found' error as claimed by dev. This error popped up for me on March 4, while I never had an issue before (I've been using this widget for months). No amount of firewall tweaking, reinstalling, cache flushing would fix this. Also, CPU load will keep climbing sometimes due to this widget, as I have noticed on my Macbook. Not sure why this occurs.

There is nothing wrong with this widget. As far as I am concerned, it's the only bit of software available for Mac that actually utilizes Pandora with simplicity and doesn't bog the system down. Creating a Safari webclip is akin to running it right through an open Safari session. The Activity Monitor will quickly let you know how much of a resource hog that will become. It IS noticeable if you use resource intensive applications while listening to the webclip.

So again, this widget is perfect. So what that you have to update it each time Pandora updates it's code. Write your own widget app and then post it up here :)

For any of you who are confused at how to keep this properly updated, here is what I do each time it needs updating:

1) First install the widget. The default path is /Users/Your Username/Library/Widgets/Pandora.wdgt

2) This download is fairly old, so of course you must update it first. Right-click the widget and select "Show Package Contents".

3) In the new Finder window, find the Pandora.html file, and open it with your favorite text/ coding editor. I use Coda.
4) This file hardly has any data in it so it's easy to find what you are looking for. Just look for the line that has this info in it: https://www.pandora.com:443/radio/tuner. My complete entry right now is
"0;https://www.pandora.com:443/radio/tuner_8_9_0_0_pandora.swf".

5) Now open up Safari, log into Pandora, and then click ⌥⌘U to view source. Locate that bit of info from the html file (https://www.pandora.com:443/radio/tuner) and you'll be able to see the current entry. As of Jan. 24th 2010, the entry is "https://www.pandora.com:443/radio/tuner_9_0_0_0_pandora.swf"

6) Now just replace the entry you have retrieved from the Pandora source into the Pandora.html file- make sure to place it exactly where the old info is- and save the file. ((A special note. In front of my current "https", I have a "0;". If you do not keep that before the current entry off Pandora's site, then the widget will break. I have no idea why, but that's the only way I got it to work. So, right now it reads: "0;https://www.pandora.com:443/radio/tuner_9_0_0_0_pandora.swf"))

7) Now open up Dashboard again and viola :) You Have a Pandora widget that uses next-to-nothing in system resources, stays out of the way while you work, and IMO looks cleaner than a Safari webclip.

This may seem daunting at first to people who are not used to working inside package contents, but the next time you do it, it should take a whole "minute" to do. If you are afraid of losing one minute of productivity, then I think you have bigger fish to fry than this little app. :p

Nice concept; I really wish it would work though. For both myself and a friend, the interface freezes up and won't respond to any mouse clicks while the music still plays. This happens after only a short time of it running in the dashboard.