When Microsoft introduced us to Silverlight 4 the other day, the demoed a slick Facebook application. It's called Fishbowl, and it's now available for download. Not only does Fishbowl provide a nice, clean display of your stream (read: free of sidebar annoyances), but it's packed with excellent features, responsive, and extremely intuitive to use.
It's also ready to add some sizzle to your Windows 7 taskbar with jumplist and Aero Peek goodness. Read on after the break!
One of Fishbowl's best features is the way it lets you explore photos. Pick an album to browse, then flip through the images using your mouse's scroll wheel. Zooming is also supported, and you can also print or save images - or an entire album - in a single click. There's even a full screen slideshow mode for hands-free viewing. As for uploading your own images, that's as simple as dragging and dropping onto the Fishbowl window.
Want to check on new notifications? Both the superbar icon and the navbar in the application window will let you know when your attention is required.
It's also ready to add some sizzle to your Windows 7 taskbar with jumplist and Aero Peek goodness. Read on after the break!
One of Fishbowl's best features is the way it lets you explore photos. Pick an album to browse, then flip through the images using your mouse's scroll wheel. Zooming is also supported, and you can also print or save images - or an entire album - in a single click. There's even a full screen slideshow mode for hands-free viewing. As for uploading your own images, that's as simple as dragging and dropping onto the Fishbowl window.
Want to check on new notifications? Both the superbar icon and the navbar in the application window will let you know when your attention is required.
ince the app is built by Microsoft's own people, it makes perfect sense that Fishbowl takes advantage of Windows 7's superbar. The preview thumbnail also includes controls for jumping between pages or opening the Facebook homepage...Which is where the one real downside to Fishbowl appears.
If you've gotten used to browsing Facebook using Chrome or Firefox, be prepared for some slowness. Fishbowl is likely using IE8's rendering engine, so opening external web content is going to feel slow. You can, however, force such links to open in your web browser - just click the gear menu and check the appropriate box.
You can also switch color schemes, though that only effects the bar across the top of the window. Still, if you've got a nice, dark Aero Glass scheme set up, you might want to flip Fishbowl to Dark as well.
Fishbowl does and excellent job of showing off both Silverlight on the desktop and Windows 7's slick new taskbar upgrades.
If you're a status-updating, photo-sharing machine and Windows is your OS of choice, Fishbowl is well worth the download - so go get it!
