Let the Longhorn Sideshow Begin
eWeek | at | by Mike
Microsoft is honing the user interfaces of a number of its forthcoming products in a way that the company hopes will help users find and access information. At the heart of the redesign is the so-called task shelf component, code-named Sideshow, that will likely debut first in MSN 8, and later, in the Longhorn Windows.
"Sideshow is built to use the skinning capabilities of XP and uses XML/HTML for the tasks that are 'pinned,' or stuck, onto the shelf itself," reads the related text on the WinBeta site.
According to the site and the accompanying screen shots, Sideshow will present users with an integrated view of MSN Messenger, Outlook and other task panes. The task panes, which are called "tickets," the site says, can include other feeds and notifications, providing regularly-updated information, such as weather maps, traffic maps and Webcam feeds. Sideshow will be the way that Microsoft exposes to users data and information that is organized using the programming framework, code-named Avalon, that will be at the heart of Longhorn, sources said.