“The latest development build of Mac OS X Leopard [build 9A410] finally tackles issues with consistent style that many say have plagued the Apple software for years,” Aidan Malley reports for AppleInsider.
Malley reports, “While most of the test versions of the future operating system have so far handled only the many bugs still left in its code, this week’s edition allegedly contains the first signs of obvious visual differences between itself and 2005’s Mac OS X Tiger.”
“The brushed-metal look that first appeared in earnest with Panther has almost completely faded away, according to reports. Well-known holdouts for the style, including Finder, Photo Booth, and Safari, have purportedly abandoned the metallic sheen in favor of the simpler, gradiated style that first appeared in Apple Mail 2.0 and later transferred to Leopard’s version of iChat and the more widely available iTunes 7,” Malley reports.
Full article with screenshots and links to more images here.
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I too liked the brushed metal.
OMG, it was delayed just for non brushed metal look?
I like the new look at alot, it fits together really well and sort of stays out of your way better. The grey is darker and stands out against the rest of the window. It all makes the colors appear more vivid in apps and icons.
Have I mentioned Safari’s new Find? It’s beautiful. It highlights all instances of a string and colors the current focus orange, while greying out the rest of the page. No more searching for that one tiny little highlighted sting on a wordy, busy page (like MDN, for instance).
It’s coming along very nicely. =)
I liked the brushed metal for certain apps. I feel that Apple could go as far as to give users a method of easy customization where people could select the color, texture, and button setup for each app or for all. It would be nice to set up OSX to have a different color for each app so that its easier to see whats open and track things easier. I would love for Apple to buy shapeshifter and add it to OSX so people could customize the look of their machine the way the linux desktops allow.
UNO rocks! Been using it since day one. Brushed metal was cool for awhile, but it has appeared dated to me for some time now.
I love the look of Mail. Xtorrent and Acquisition too. Unified is the way to go. I can’t wait to see core animation integrated into the UI as well.
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Thanks for the input Cuber… WTF?
WOW!!!! What amazing, revolutionary news. With this kind of news, no one has the right to be pissed about Apple’s endless delays and nearly complete abandonment of the Mac platform. Oh my gosh, brushed metal to flat gray. Now I can see why Apple can’t help but fall behind with this kind of amazing advance. Finally, a SECRET FEATURE revealed!!!! Sure was worth the wait don’t ya think?
actually, this is scary…we got the glass look with the pinstripes – the hardware matched accordingly. Then, we got brushed metal – the hardware matched accordingly(for the pro line at least).
So, if we’re getting this gray crap does that mean we get dull grey boxes to go with it?
If that’s the case, dell has been “innovating” this whole time!
If we dont like the interface look then buy shapeshifter and make your own thing and be done with it.
i use it and it works
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What we need is apples kameleon computer and then have an interface that changes with different light and you can change it as you want.
they have been working on this kameleon computer for years now when are they going to release it?
Here’s an excerpt from a comment on the AppleInsider forum:
A few sources have popped up on various message boards recently, and the speculation is that, given the switch to vector graphics and resolution independence, this new look is just set up for a proper theming engine in Leopard, allowing the user to dramatically customize the looks of their applications. Someone went so far as to say that Leopard would support dynamic theming, allowing windows they change their ‘theme’ dynamically, say to match the time of day, or to pulse red when showing an alert. He based his speculation on some prior patents granted to Apple.
Pretty interesting. I’ve been thinking of an interface that changes the lighting and shadows with outside influences like the time of day or weather or something, but don’t know if it would necessarily be useful. On the eye-candy front it would be really beautiful though.
That would be really cool– and useful in some instances.
Resolution Independent Interface = everything has to look simpler for it to work more smoothly on slow Macs. The new interface is all about it.
The “brushed metal” look never bothered me and I liked the rounded corners on the windows. More important, I liked the icons in the left-hand navigation column. These new ones are somewhat lame – like the ones in the latest iTunes. Are they trying to appeal to the windows crowd?
DLMeyer – the Voice of G.L.Horton’s Stage Page Pod cast
The WinTards are out in full farce tonight!
MDN,
Would you please pull posts where the person is just hawking for business. Today’s examples are: mac user and Cuber.
I just hope that the hue of the app windows could be chanced so that when I use Exposé I would have little more cue than 25 identical gray boxes. Then we could start fighting over more meaningful things like which color is proper for Safari (orange of course), iPhoto (yellow), iTunes (shiny black) etc.
I am a mac fanboy and I still HATE that Leopard is delayed. So why dont you hardcore mac fanboys lick my anus? There comes a time when mac fanboys need to bend over and smell the coffee i.e. stop being a fan and wake up to the shitty reality that apple really is NOT the perfect company.
xodok.infostore.org
I’m a pretty big mac fan, but there are a lot things of about Leopard that I’m not digging. First of all, the delay. That was a huge strike in my book, they are really going to have to make up for that. I swear, if iPhone and Leopard are not reasonably flawless when released, then Apple and I are going to have some serious beef.
Another thing bugging me about Leopard is this bland grey style. It just looks lame. And the scroll bars in iTunes 7, that dark blue / gray color they picked was just horrible. I will say one good thing about the new UI is that it’s far from distracting. After a few days of getting use to the new interface, your eyes avoid the gray areas and focus more on what’s going on. I’m sure I must have wasted many seconds in OS X just having my eyes drawn to the brushed metal texture for brief moments. But apple is sacrificing a lot of style for little productivity gain. I really hope their is more to it, that the gray interface they have now is just a place holder for a really well done interface.
As a Windows user the only brushed metal effect I ever see is from QuickTime. Presumably this piece of crap works a lot better on a Mac than on a PC. I’m surprised that Apple hasn’t taken account of the fact that this is one of the few Mac-type experiences Windows users have. To begin with it acts like a piece of spyware as soon as you download it – trying to hijack all your codecs by default and taking up residence in the System Tray to hog resources. (The only way to remove it from there is through system reconfiguration). I always dread when I come across a file that needs QuickTime because know it’s going to be so slooooooow, and often doesn’t respond at all. If it weren’t the fact that a large – though thankfully decreasing – number of web designers use Macs, this application would have turned belly-up years ago. Anyway, to come to the point, I for one will be glad when they replace the over-designed brushed metal effect.
Actually Wendy, Apple is just being honest and showing your windoze people what OS X is really like, i.e. it is slow compared to what you are used to. But it works better thna what you are used to. Simple and honest.
consistency is the key
Wendy, your should read roughly drafted and Apple’s Quicktime saga with Microsoft.
“If it weren’t the fact that a large – though thankfully decreasing – number of web designers use Macs . . .”
Wendy, screw you. Stupid twit.