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SpaceTime: the final frontier

IT is going 3-D. Better late than never, says
linton chiswick

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Computer gaming long ago left two dimensions for three: virtual worlds such as Second Life offer sophisticated and convincing 3D worlds, and practically every high street computer comes with the firepower to operate them smoothly. And yet the ubiquitous computer desktop is only just breaking out of 2D. Microsoft's Vista comes with a little 3D eye-candy and Apple's Leopard operating system will have tricks, with an extra dimension, up its sleeve. It's very little, very late.

To really sample a future screen environment right now,

 

it's worth taking a look at a new, experimental and intriguing search browser called SpaceTime3D. It's free, works on almost all reasonably modern computers running Windows 2000, XP or Vista (a Mac version
Motorstorm image

is promised), and brings a convincing 3D experience to the process of search.

The developers reason that searching the Web loses out the most from the current 2D environment. Switching between a results page and the results themselves is time-consuming and clumsy. Tabs don't help much, as only one is visible at a time. Adding a dimension

 

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