Since last November, I’ve been the proud owner of a widescreen PC monitor, running at 1280×768 pixels. (Purely because of a posting on HotUKDeals alerting me to its bargain price, I might add.) The extra space may not sound much, but it opens up all sorts of possibilities.
I’ve grown to love Desktop Sidebar, which permanently occupies the far right of my screen, showing me RSS feeds, data from Outlook, the weather forecast, system info, etc etc. I used to use it on a standard 1024×768 monitor, but I found it took up too much screen space. It’s a great way to use the extra 256 pixels.
It’s fantastic for the sort of information you always want in your field of vision. For example, I have an RSS panel for the latest top news headlines from the BBC. (You could use it as your primary RSS reader, but I personally prefer a tailored tool for my full RSS reading list.) I also use it for my Outlook tasks; they’re there as a permanent, nagging reminder – and it ensures nothing gets forgotten.
After some flip-flopping, it’s now been confirmed that Windows Vista will have a sidebar. For ordinary users, it could well turn out to be the product’s ‘killer’ feature, and I was amazed when I read suggestions (of questionable accuracy) that it was being dropped from the plans. Google’s sidebar, available as part of their Desktop Search product, isn’t bad, and the latest version has some interesting peer-to-peer ideas.