GagaMarkets Lets You Monitor World Financial Markets On Your Desktop

by , 4:30 PM EDT, October 29th, 2008

Gaga Factory announced Wednesday GagaMarkets, a Mac OS X control panel that lets you monitor world markets in 30 countries on your desktop. The software offers a 2D (flat map) or 3D (spinning globe) with color coded countries that give you a visual indication of where world markets are in real-time.

The company calls GagaMarkets, "the first real-time visual market index monitor for Mac," and its intent is to give users a feel of how the global markets are preforming at a glance. You won't get specific numbers for those markets, but rather color indicators that give you six degrees of performance from down by more than 5% to up by more than 2%. Translucent colors mean the markets in question are closed, while solid colors indicate open markets.

The information is displayed as a desktop image (users can choose to have it overlayed on their preferred desktop background, or to replace their background with GagaMarkets). The 3D map can be made to spin in real-time (imperceptible), or at 10X, 20x, 40x, 100x, or "fast."

"Gaga Factory strongly recommends that users take any necessary blood pressure or anxiety medication before using GagaMarkets," the company quipped in a statement. "We hold no responsibility for anger or exasperation resulting from the use of this program."

GagaMarkets is a free download, but registration is required to activate it. On an eight-core Mac Pro, our initial observation showed only a point or two of CPU use, if that.

The company's rendition of GagaMarkets on a MacBook Air.