Need to know the time in different cities? Time Map overlays city locations on a world map. It shows the current time in your selected cities and tells you at a glance whether it's day or night anywhere in the world.

Time Map requires Mac OS X 10.4.3 or later and is licensed under GPL v2.

Installation Instructions

1. Download Time Map 1.0.2.
2. Decompress the resulting file and copy Time Map.wdgt to the Library/Widgets folder.
3. Activate Dashboard (usually by pressing F12). Click the “+” button in the lower-left corner to show the widget list and then select the Time Map icon.

Upgrade Instructions

1. Download Time Map 1.0.2.
2. Decompress the resulting file and copy Time Map.wdgt to the Library/Widgets folder.
3. Activate Dashboard (usually by pressing F12). Click on the old Time Map widget and press Command-R. You should see the widget swirl as it reloads.
4. Hide Dashboard and reactivate it to complete the initialization.

Version History

1.0.2	Added a preference to keep track of the city list position. This allows it to open automatically when you log back in.
1.0.1	Fixed a bug where name/time popups near the right edge of the map could be clipped. Also fixed a minor issue where popups may not appear reliably if the corresponding city marker is occluded by another popup.
1.0	Display a popup when the cursor hovers near a city marker to show the city name, day of week, and time.
1.0 beta 2	Improved city search interaction by disabling form controls while a search is in progress and aborting the search if the preferences pane is not active when the results are received.
1.0 beta	Initial public release.

Frequently Asked Questions

• What does “error contacting name database” mean? When you attempt to add a city, Time Map queries GeoNames, a third-party database, look up a list of potential matches. If your network connection is down or if the GeoNames web service is not responding, this error message will be displayed.
• Why can't Time Map find my city? The city you're looking for is probably not listed in the GeoNames database as a city or village with a non-zero population. You can try posting a message in their forum or you can contact me. I can't make any guarantees either way.
• How accurate is the map? It depends on what feature of the map you're talking about. The day and night images are static so they are only an approximation of what the earth actually looks like. The terminus (boundary between night and day) may lag by up to 20 minutes. The cloud overlay may lag by three hours and is probably not particularly accurate at all. It's mainly there for looks.

Author

Time Map was developed by Harry Kao but would not have been possible without publicly available code and data created and generously shared by others. Three projects deserve special mention: World Sunlight Map, GeoNames, and zoneinfo.

Please send bug reports, feature requests, and other comments to harry@hairycow.name.

Donations

By my estimate, the creation of Time Map has taken about 150 hours of my free time. I am very fortunate to live in a place where my interests and skills align to provide me with a comfortable living. I don't need more money but I would like you to help me build libraries instead.

Room to Read is an organization that coinvests in Asia to construct schools and libraries in areas where an education would otherwise be impossible. “Think how much books meant to you as a kid, or to your own children. Then imagine taking that away. It would have a profound impact on your life path.”^[1]

For $2,500 we can fund ten student-years of scholarships. For $4,000 we can build and stock a library. For $30,000 we can build an entire school. I have personally donated $1,000 and I am asking you for $10. Join me by investing in our future, not in a year, a day, or an hour, but right now. Your contribution can literally be made in under a minute.

At the time of this writing, Room to Read has benefited 1.7 million children since its inception in 2000. I cannot imagine the profound dividends that will be paid over the course of my life but I am thrilled by the possibilities.

U.S. Residents – The easiest way for U.S. residents to contribute is through PayPal.
Everyone Else – Visit the Room to Read donation page for instructions.

1. Wood, John (2006). Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, p.18. HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 978-0-06-112107-4.