Steam, the program used by Valve to provide us gamers with such presents like [i]Half Life 2[/i], [i]Garry's Mod[/i], and [i]The Ship[/i] is going to be giving us some special after Christmas gifts this year. The update, starting net week, will include such things as Guest Passes, Background Client Updating, a new user interface, and a good deal more.

Valve gave us some more information on the upgrades Steam will be featuring. Here you go:

Guest Passes

Guest Passes allow owners of certain Steam games (purchased either via
Steam or at retail) to let their friends play games for free, for a
limited time trial. The first game to take advantage of this new feature
will be Day of Defeat: Source.

Background Client Updates

Since the Steam client was first released, it has always kept itself up
to date — but now it'll do so without making you wait during startup.
Instead, it will acquire new updates in the background and then (once
they're downloaded) ask if you'd like to restart and apply them. Steam
will also let you know what's new whenever a new update is ready to
apply.

New User Interface

Steam's got a new coat of paint. We've stripped away all the
non-essentials and created a new streamlined appearance, available in
five different colors.

Favorites

Steam's catalog of games has grown quite a bit over the past year or so.
The new Favorites feature in the My Games tab of Steam allows for quick
access to your favorite Steam games and additional functionality for
personalizing your Steam library of content.

Steams cosmetic surgery will be finished starting next week so get ready to see the brand new look of Steam.