ZDNet's Stephen Chapman discovered one of the designs, for a USA Today app, on . "In preparation for the Windows 8 release, this app is being built to take advantage of the touch-first, native environment of Windows 8, while and showcasing the content of USA Today," Dillon wrote.
(After the design started circulating through the blogosphere, Dillon wrote a disclaimer: "this is simply an early design exploration and doesn't reflect the final product.")
The second discovery by Chapman is a bit more puzzling. A handful of screenshots show what look like a travel-oriented app that also includes news, media and messaging. The design was created by Jetsoft, a company that helps design user interfaces for other app developers.
Neither of these Windows 8 app designs may turn into finished products, but they do provide a sense of how Microsoft's "Metro" user interface will become a part of Windows applications. Like Chapman, I'm not in love with these particular designs, but I dig the Metro style and I'm interested in some of the features Microsoft is promising for Windows 8 tablets, like the ability to run two apps side-by-side on the same screen.
We may see some real Windows 8 apps in action next month at Microsoft's BUILD conference, when the company is expected to describe its next operating system in greater detail.
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