If you use Windows 7, there’s now a new way to quickly access your picoBeat’s data without opening a browser: the picoBeat’s Windows Gadget. Sitting on your Windows’ desktop, you can now have a brief view or your agenda, a search function and a natural-language input to create new events or tasks with just a few keystrokes. The gadget also display alarms (if you have set them in your events and tasks).

As this is the first release the version is numbered 0.9 and considered beta. There are a few extra features that’ll be added before the first official release but it should otherwise be reliable and functional. All testing has been done on Windows 7 but it should also work on Vista, provided it sits on the desktop (the sidebar being too small for it). As usual, all feedbacks and bug reports are welcome.

Because Windows Gadgets are basically Javascript and HTML applications, the code-base developed for this gadget will be reused in other future plugins that interface with picoBeat. Stay tuned for more!