Information Addicts

Back in April (how time flies,) I wrote an article called ‘3 Smart Ways to Create More Desktop Space‘ and at the very bottom of the post I introduced an application called 360desktop. 

At the time of writing all I could show you was a video of 360desktop as it hadn’t even been released, but that was enough to get me hot under the collar.
Since that day I have been eager to get my hands on this application, and last Friday I received an email from the guys at 360desktop which invited me to download and try it.

I was at work when I got the email and couldn’t wait to get home to play around with it.
Once home I excitedly downloaded and installed 360desktop (which went straight forward,) and played around with it for a while.

So what exactly is 360desktop?

360desktop is like having a panoramic workspace which allows you to slide left or right through 360 degrees giving you extra screen space for all your open applications, windows and widgets. The image or picture that you see on your screen is basically several images stitched together and cleverly designed to spin in a complete circle.

The application is currently in beta mode, and to be honest I found it to be rather limited in what it can do, and like all beta programs is buggy. You only have a choice of 2 wallpapers and you cannot create anymore, apparently this option is to come. You can also add widgets, which are small applications that can give you extra functionality to your desktop, but I couldn’t get them to work. I found my applications opened up ok in 360desktop but when some of them were maximised in size, I couldn’t get 360desktop to scroll. There is also a program update button but when I clicked on it, I received an error message and was unable to connect to their server to check for the latest updates.
There are a few other options, for example, you can control the speed of the scrolling desktop, and panning sensitivity but thats about it.

Update: 360desktop have just released 3 new wallpapers, take a look.

Overall I was a bit disappointed with this application, sure it looks nice but functionality wise, it has very little to offer. But, and I feel there is a big but, I would certainly keep my eye on this program as I think it has great potential and may go far. When the guys at 360desktop add more features to it, and smooth out the bugs I will definitely be trying it again.

If you would like to take it for a spin :), and I recommend you do, then you can download it here. Please back up your system before you do download and install it.

Have you tried 360desktop, what do you think of it? Let me know in the comments box.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 1:00 pm and is filed under PC Software. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.