Filed under: Windows, Microsoft, Freeware, Social Software
Fishbowl is a kick-ass Facebook client for Windows 7
by Lee Mathews Nov 20th 2009 at 9:30AM
When Microsoft introduced us to Silverlight 4 the other day, they also 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!
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.
Since 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.
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!
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.
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!
I don't know if this is a labor of love or merely the brainchild of four very gifted games designers, but Level Up is a really weird mash-up of gaming elements that you have probably never seen in a Flash game before.
Let's start with the premise itself: Groundhog Day meets Memento. The game experience revolves around 'days': you explore the world and the clock slowly ticks towards the evening. You bounce around picking up gems and talking to the denizens of 'Level Upland'. Eventually you feel tired and head back to ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Arnie said 9:46AM on 11-20-2009
While I am not much into Microsofts apps, I think Silverlight is one of the best things to come out of Redmond. It is so much better than Flash ever was or is. If YouTube moved to Silverlight(which I know will never happen) the web would have more people using it & discover how awesome it is.
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mah said 11:16AM on 11-20-2009
i agree. the smooth streaming demo blew my mind. if only you tube was like this.
http://tinyurl.com/cz885j
lars said 7:47PM on 11-21-2009
@mah, I've never seen anything choppier - Granted, I am downloading at the moment. YouTube is better for when you are bandwidth challenged, I guess. I will re-visit the stream test when my downloads are finished ;)
sean said 12:43PM on 11-20-2009
I love this app so far. It'll make it easier for my girlfriend to maneuver facebook as well. Only things I found so far that I don't like:
-Cant delete status or comments/info from your page.
-When looking at my profile, go to the bottom, and there is no options for "more". I dont see an option to see "more" of the wall (load additional comments/status updates)
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kojo87 said 3:45PM on 11-20-2009
i really like it but no chat functions? lameness. i'll still use it tho.
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Jason Dash said 6:17PM on 11-20-2009
Its a nice app... but I don't think this is Silverlight. It's not the same app that MS demoed at PDC that's for sure, and it actually seems to be a WPF app, considering that iit doesn't require you to install Silverlight to run it, and no Silverlight references are in the code.
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Glen said 3:27AM on 11-23-2009
@Jason and Lars... this is *definitely* the Silverlight app that was demo'ed at PDC last week.
@Matt - 30 minutes to install??? Sorry, I never experienced that myself. Only took a minute or so to install and get running for me.
Jason Dash said 5:52AM on 11-23-2009
@ Glen: Nope, this definetly ISN'T it :P The one they demoed looked more kinda like the Zune software, here's a screenshot:
http://erictric.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Silverlight-Facebook-App1.jpg
And yeah, I've done some work with it and it is actually a WPF app.
peegee said 1:38AM on 11-21-2009
Looks good and pretty slick. The News Feed corresponds to the Live Feed on Facebook though. Does anyone feel that the regular website is faster?
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maradv said 12:54AM on 11-21-2009
misleading title.. fishbowl is available for xp, vista, or 7.
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lars said 7:44PM on 11-21-2009
Fishbowl isn't Silverlight, I think. Though there is a Facebook .NET SDK for Silverlight (as well as normal .NET).
Source for fishbowl is in codeplex, which is nice. I might have a look at it at some point and see how hard it is to fix the little annoyances ;)
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KnightlyScribe said 9:21PM on 11-22-2009
Why?? This app seems totally useless to me. Would rather just use the online web app.
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Matt said 7:35PM on 11-22-2009
UGH.
So far, a rather negative experience. It took 30 minutes to install, then required a reboot, after which I had to manually search for the installed app. When I couldn't find one, I reluctantly relaunched the installer, which then actually installed it.
Then I launch it. Subjective aesthetics aside (the layout is cheesy, but to each his own) -- the first thing I notice is that Fishbowl's text rendering is a blurry disaster.
To make things worse, you cannot select/copy text. Whoever thought that was a good idea? It's only something that was invented 25 years ago and is a common interaction in EVERY SINGLE APPLICATION.
Uninstalling. I'll stick to Facebook on Firefox.
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Abhigyan said 5:32AM on 11-26-2009
I believe that this is a decently-featured Facebook client. It doesn't go overboard with features, yet gets the job done. Also, it shows-off the potential of Silverlight 4 very will. However, the speed at which it downloads data leaves a lot to be desired.
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Robert Teague said 7:15PM on 1-18-2010
It isn't Silverlight, any version. It is WPF.
Kevin Gjerstad said 6:51PM on 12-17-2009
Fishbowl now has basic inbox notifications, who's online feature & ability to invoke Facebook chat. http://www.fishbowlclient.com
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Robert Teague said 2:58PM on 1-18-2010
Fishbowl is built on WPF, NOT Silverlight.
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Omar said 4:24AM on 2-03-2010
I guess it uses both Silverlight and WPF:
The toolkit is comprised of the following core assemblies:
Facebook.dll: This is the main assembly that will be used by all applications. This has all the logic to handle communication with the Facebook application. This assembly also has specific support of XAML applications (Silverlight and WPF) to enhance the Facebook platform to make databinding and data caching easier.
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