“For the past several years Apple Computer has adorned its Mac OS X applications with a mixture of its Aqua and brushed aluminum interface themes. But with the release of Mac OS X 10.4 ‘Tiger’ due in a matter of months, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company is primed to add a third interface theme to the mix,” Kasper Jade reports for AppleInsider.
“An apparent blending of two themes, the new look lifts interface elements from both of the company’s existing themes and embeds them inside a sleek platinum gradient. According to sources, the first application to adhere to the new look will be the company’s email client, Mail version 2.0,” Jade reports.
Screen shots and more information, including the fate of Mail’s retractable Mailbox drawer, here.
I like.
don’t know if i like. all that greyness is a bit windows.
I love OS X
Yeah, it does look a little like Windoze. I kind of liked the Mailbox drawer. Anyone else?
Wow.. I really like the new interface. There’s a LONG overdue section for “Unread” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wished I had this, I have mail set to “view by date sent” and sometimes mail gets sent with incorrect dates, soo frustrating… grrr..
And the way the buttons are setup at the top with “get mail” on the far left, nice. Much nicer. Forget how the new App looks, it finally seems like someone who USES the App actually was involved in the redesign! I’m sure there’s still room for improvement, but I really like what I see so far.
i am not sure i like the interface. it needs more polishing. it’s too “flat”
But I do really like the “encapsulated circular interface elements” for the message counts. Very nice. And how clever is it to have a separate smart mail box for just unread e-mail. Very clever, (like the Dashboard clocks displaying light on the face when it is daytime and dark on the face when it is night time. Simply insanely clever.)
I like it , too.
Apple is trying to unify the GUI between aps. This rather simple concept will be a large difference between OS X and anything from Microsoft. People that already know iTunes for XP will be at home with most of the Mac aps.
Switchers’ (and new users’) greatest fear is trying to relearn everything all over again. This unified GUI will make the transition much easier and less intimidating. This GUI makes it easy to sort and organize your information, but if you do misplace something, Spotlight is there to find it… quickly!
Did you buy your AAPL stock yet?!
the mailbox drawer is great in principle but how often do you put it away? because i use a lot of filtering, i have to have the drawer open to see what mail has come in where… so it makes no difference to me. i just hope that all the components are as flexible as they are in the current version and that you can minimize the amount of wastage : the large icons and text definitely need to be reduced in size.
Yeah, twilight I never understood why the default position of the Get Mail button was where it was. I always moved it promptly over to exactly where these screenshots put it.
Good point, squirrel. I can’t remember the last time I put it away. I guess I was just being nostalgic. . .
Think they’ll do this for iTunes 5 & iPhoto 5??
Icons too big? Even the current Mail allows you to reduce the size of the icons. See the Mail menu item View/”Customize Toolbar…”
I think every now and then we need to go into the “Customize toolbar…” in our aps and fiddle with them. Our needs change over time, and we forget that we can go in there and make life a wee bit easier. [Is it just me or does anyone else find the way that Apple likes to slide icons around or make them go “Poof” not only functional, but cute?!]
I fully expect to be able to slide my icons around in Tiger, too.
The overall design change isn’t that much different from Panther. They removed some of the unnecessary seperating lines and simplified the design. True, in some ways it does kinda look like the pre-pre-Longhorn-wishful-thinking screenshots. But, think of it this way, when Longhorn ever does see the light o’ day, Tiger would have been out for over 2 years. Drawing pretty backgrounds is easy, making whatever is on top of them actually work is something else.
A prime example of this is WinXP. This “advanced” file system has been DROPPED from Longhorn even though it’s not due to be released until 2006-ish. Apple created a much better and more versatile file search system, Spotlight, and it already exists. Apparently, Microsoft cannot dream as fast as Apple creates.
As far as being concerned about Apple’s decision to change something, over the past 10 years, I have yet to see anything new from the Apple labs that made me say “Yuck!”. At the very least it gets a “Hmmm… nice!”, but most of the time I end up saying “Awesome! Who thinks up this incredible shit?!!”
It looks OK, but forgettable… sort of like a generic KDE app. No offense to the Linux crowd.
Prior to switching, one of the things I most admired about Apple interfaces was the 3d’ness of them; with shadows, depth, and gloss that appeared to give the windows a “rendered” appearance. Seems were moving away from that back to plain gray and flat with cartoon icons. Bleh.
One of my wishes for Tiger: that in the installation process there will be the option to not have any OS9 ( or earlier) stuff installed, thereby freeing up (hopefully) some space on my cramped hard drive. I never ever use the classic environment anymore, so I hope Apple gives us the option to leave it out. Anybody know if this is being considered?
i’m also tired of the aqua interface… of the curent mail and preview programs…
but hey.. it could be worse…
luna.. luna…luna…luna…
i like this new one alot..
furthermore.. this is probably an example of more Mac OS X Theming… which they mentioned was going to be integrated into the OS..
Apple has gotten better at developing open platforms that 3rd parties can ‘run with’.. like Dashboard..
Add an icon for Calendar and one for Contacts and you have Outlook
Apple just needs an exchange server alternative
C’mon, Apple scatch the flat gray look, it’s boring, it’s not distinctive, it’s dull, it’s too generic.
Keep the brushed aluminum look. Splash some 3D on Tiger. Baby’s gotta look “delicious”, remember?
I also like the circled numbers telling the number of messages in each box. the layout and design is nice, but the grey is depressing. Keep brushed metal but give the user the ability to change the color of the metal. Who would like to choose to use a dark blue brushed metal for iTunes and dark green for iChat windows? How about brushed black for Safari? How about a different color for the menubar? A clear background for the Dock instead of the foggy glass? Apple designers do you hear my cry in the wilderness?
Apple is trying to run a fine line between Aqua “wow” and eating up CPU & GPU power with the interface. One way to make the system “snappier” and more responsive is by lightening the load. Just a guess, but I think a well founded one.
Very true noPC, the most important thing is to keep Tiger the easiest to use (no challenge) and also the fastest OS in the world.
NO… brushed metal should be reserved for digital media apps!
Oh yeah.. and the finder lol
Oh yeah.. and this browser im using called safari..
okay okay..
the digital suite and the communication suite (safari, mail, ichat, isync)
i think i just proved why mail SHOULD have brushed metal..
oops..
The only think I don’t like about it is that there’s no division between the name bar (or whatever it’s called) and the buttons.
All it needs is a simple line and it’ll look a lot more balanced.