Widgets are coming to Apple devices this fall. Here's what came first

Apple this week revived something that by all accounts seemed to be on its way out. Widgets, or the small apps designed to display information and solve simple tasks, are now more present in OS X and now iOS than they’ve ever been. As part of OS X Yosemite, and iOS 8 — both of which are coming this fall — widgets can be found with a flick of the finger (or mouse) and show small, easily-digestible bits of information. That’s not a new thing for Apple, which had a similar idea of tiny apps 30 years ago, or a slew of other companies that have pushed the medium forward. Here’s a brief history of where widgets and tiny apps have been ahead of where Apple’s taking them this fall.