Tiger Facelift [Archive] - MacRumors Forums

mkrishnan

Jan 11, 2005, 09:08 PM

http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/

If you take the Mac OS X Tiger tour, it appears that Tiger has received a face lift in comparison to the screenshots we've previously seen.

Huh. I noticed earlier today that they redid a lot of the Tiger preview pages. Here's an interesting tidbit...any link to the document identifying coreimage compliant video cards is GONE. And I could not find it in search anymore either.

Does that mean anything in relation to the choice in video chipset for the mini? Who knows... ;)

chameeeleon

Jan 11, 2005, 09:54 PM

I just noticed this as well, and the high-quality videos allowed me to confirm what I'd suspected during Steve's keynote - Mail 2.0 has some very different icons in its toolbar! At the moment they don't really match anything outside of Mail. Plus it looks like they've changed the Apple and Spotlight bottons on the title bar as well (I like the new Spotlight one - leave it!) And the Dashboard has been cleaned up A LOT (the new "add widgets" bar along the bottom is much nicer than that ugly black thing that used to float around"). I'm not really sure why the Dashboard has a dock icon, and hope it can be removed. Tiger's visual style has progressed a lot since the almost-but-not-quite-exactly-the-same-as-Panther looks first shown at WWDC. I wonder where we'll end up.
And speaking of Tiger - that photo slideshow thing that Steve showed from Mail was amazing (when it didn't crash, lol)! The sort of photo expose thing, and the "Add to iPhoto" button. Tiger seriously is going to be a big step up.

mox358

Jan 12, 2005, 02:58 PM

Mail 2.0 has some very different icons in its toolbar! At the moment they don't really match anything outside of Mail...

...Tiger seriously is going to be a big step up.

When I watched the keynote, this was the biggest thing that stuck out about Tiger to me. They are now (assuming they don't retool the whole system with this Mail 2.0 look) have brushed metal, aqua, and plastic. (what i'm calling mail 2). I would like to see this new look in more of the system, as it looks very pleasing to the eye. But I suspect we'll have several visual styles for a while longer...

P.S. - Just out of curiosity, did this happen alot in the OS9 days? I used OS 7.5 back in the day for a few years, and then came back in at 10.0. So I missed a good portion of Apple Timeline, but I never remember there being so many different types of window styling for apps.

rendezvouscp

Jan 12, 2005, 03:53 PM

From what I remember, this just didn't happen in pre-Mac OS X. I'm guessing that in 10.5, one of the major features will be that users can switch between all of the different styles, if the app allows it. But, who knows. I think Mail in brushed metal would look absolutely ugly, and I can't imagine the iApps in any other interface form (like "plastic"). So, while I don't think they'll do this, it'd be nice if they did.
-Chase

TigerPRO

Jan 12, 2005, 07:39 PM

I desparately hope we are still in major interface shiftings. Because the new mail interface reminds me of M$ Outlook. I don't care for it. It seems very clunckly and ditzy. New styles don't scare me, but I really enjoy the clean, streamlined interface we have at present. With these new bulking toolbars having so much dead space in them, it doesn't look very trim and clean.

Just as a whole I've noticed that all over all the new screenshots. Everything seems to be more "slapped on" and less "neatly packed", organized, and centered. Sometimes things even seem to clash a little with all the different type of UI element being combined. Does anyone see what I mean?

johnnyjibbs

Jan 13, 2005, 06:42 AM

JupiterTwo

Jan 13, 2005, 07:15 AM

Huh. I noticed earlier today that they redid a lot of the Tiger preview pages. Here's an interesting tidbit...any link to the document identifying coreimage compliant video cards is GONE. And I could not find it in search anymore either.

Does that mean anything in relation to the choice in video chipset for the mini? Who knows... ;)

Nah - Core Image is still there - linky (http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/coreimage.html) , just looks like they've herded it together with H264, Xcode et al :)

iGav

Jan 13, 2005, 07:23 AM

Looks like pinstripes are out!

You say that like it's a bad thing... :eek:

The one thing that peeved about OS X 10.0 was those pinstripes... :eek:

Diatribe

Jan 13, 2005, 07:29 AM

Edit: I somehow managed to delete my original reply... oh well
Old post did just say that many more widgets are shown too and that
some of them are U.S. only.

Applespider

Jan 13, 2005, 08:21 AM

It guess that it will be up to non-US developers to produce a local version of the Yellow Pages widget and other country-specific options.

MrSugar

Jan 13, 2005, 08:40 AM

Hmmm... where HAS Aqua gone? I might have to put off purchasing Mac OS XP Tiger until they sort that out!

Looks like pinstripes are out!

The GUI is all flat - that search button in Mail seems to suggest we'll see no more of the gum-button blue buttons. And yet the scroll bars from 10.0 remain.

Mail is hideous! What the hell are those toolbar buttons?! And how could Mac OS X get any more inconsistent?! I'm all for evolution of looks, but I thought Panther hit the sweet spot. I hope the rest of the apps don't look like that (although they'll need to be for consistency.. hmm.. strange dilemma).

Everything is suddenly milky white and pretty much untextured!

Apple really has turned this into some sort of milky Windows XP. Shame, because I was getting to like the look of Spotlight...

I understand where you are coming from. However, I remember when I was upgrading from Jaguar to Panther I was really worried about how bad panther was going to look. I thought for sure it would be hidious. Then my friend said something to me that I will now relate onward to you.

"Apple changes the look, and in the end it always ends up looking great and feeling great. They are overly concered with design, trust me it will be great once you have used it."

Well, I have used it.. and it is great. I have faith in the fact that Apple will always make a consistant and good looking OS.

Diatribe

Jan 13, 2005, 09:48 AM

It guess that it will be up to non-US developers to produce a local version of the Yellow Pages widget and other country-specific options.

Shouldn't be that way though. :(

TigerPRO

Jan 13, 2005, 10:33 AM

"Apple changes the look, and in the end it always ends up looking great and feeling great. They are overly concered with design, trust me it will be great once you have used it."

Well, I have used it.. and it is great. I have faith in the fact that Apple will always make a consistant and good looking OS.

Well said. Let's not freak out yet.

whooleytoo

Jan 13, 2005, 10:39 AM

One of my big concerns is that Tiger is going to seem very 'old' when launched as we've seen it so often now. The actual launch keynote (if there is one) could be very flat.

...unless they're going to update the UI before launch. Perhaps a new theme along the lines of the 'ivory'/shiny white window style of the Tiger System Preferences?

TigerPRO

Jan 13, 2005, 11:03 AM

One of my big concerns is that Tiger is going to seem very 'old' when launched as we've seen it so often now.

I don't think so. There's a lot more to Tiger than what's being said by Apple. They almost make it look like a small release when they only focus on the big "outward" changes such as Spotlight. But that's what grabs consumer attention, so they don't focus on all the cool new "geeky stuff". I find it interesting that at the keynote on tuesday, they actually changed the "advertised" number of new feature from 150 (used at the WWDC when it was annouced) to 200! This release is huge compared to all the last 4 major releases. Trust me, there will be great plenty of miscellaneous surprise features and functionalities in Tiger that aren't being talked out. We just are getting a little board of only hearing about dashboard, spotlight, and iChat all the time. But there's a lot more to it than that! Just you wait. Patience.

munkle

Jan 13, 2005, 11:30 AM

One of my big concerns is that Tiger is going to seem very 'old' when launched as we've seen it so often now.

As opposed to the spring chicken that is Longhorn, shipping with only half the features sometime in 200andsomething! :p

The technology being incorporated into Tiger really is something special. Just because we know what to expect doesn't mean it's going to be 'old', Tiger is going to change how we currently our computers. For example, I can imagine Spotlight and especially smart folders being an integral part of how I interact with my computer. There's a big difference between seeing and using! I'm sure Tiger will feel very 'new' once you start using it, that and the fact there won't be anything else on the market even close! And like others have said, I'm sure there are plenty of surprises too! :)

mkrishnan

Jan 13, 2005, 11:39 AM

Nah - Core Image is still there - linky (http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/coreimage.html) , just looks like they've herded it together with H264, Xcode et al :)

CoreImage is still there...the list of CoreImage compatible Video Cards is not there anymore. There used to be a list of which video cards fully supported CI, and that list of course didn't include the card that's in the iBook and the Mac Mini.... ;)

whooleytoo

Jan 13, 2005, 11:51 AM

This release is huge compared to all the last 4 major releases..

I wouldn't agree with this statement. I felt Panther's features were much more interesting/useful from a user's perspective (Expose, fast user switching, redesigned open/save dialogs, better performance etc.), while Jaguar was more interesting from a developer's perspective (Quartz Extreme - which so many of the new technologies are built upon, Rendevous etc.).

Spotlight is a very useful tool, but I don't believe it's quite as earth shattering as it's made out to be. Will most people pay $130 to search faster? Some certainly will, others will require more.

The most interesting thing about Dashboard is that it could lower the bar for developers entering into Mac development. It seems squarely aimed at people with design talent but relatively little technical/developer know-how to develop for the platform. But in the end, it's another widget (in the loosest meaning of the word) architecture like desk accessories, docklets, menulets or Sherlock plug-ins, just prettier. We'll have to wait and see if it turns out to be genuinely useful or just eye-candy.

After that, there are a lot of things to appeal to developers, but only time will tell if we'll see the benefit of these in Tiger or in the next big OS release.

munkle

Jan 13, 2005, 12:08 PM

I wouldn't agree with this statement. I felt Panther's features were much more interesting/useful from a user's perspective (Expose, fast user switching, redesigned open/save dialogs, better performance etc.), while Jaguar was more interesting from a developer's perspective (Quartz Extreme - which so many of the new technologies are built upon, Rendevous etc.).

Spotlight is a very useful tool, but I don't believe it's quite as earth shattering as it's made out to be. Will most people pay $130 to search faster? Some certainly will, others will require more.

Tiger has the best both of worlds. For the user, you have new features like dashboard, spotlight, automator, an improved UI, smart folders etc, etc.

And for the developers you have spotlight again, core image, core data, 64 bit developement, H.264, XCode 2 etc, etc.

Tiger is definitely not just about faster searching!

TigerPRO

Jan 13, 2005, 01:57 PM

Spotlight is a very useful tool, but I don't believe it's quite as earth shattering as it's made out to be. Will most people pay $130 to search faster? Some certainly will, others will require more.

Keep in mind how much longer the development cycle has been (and will be) for Tiger. If this was merely another Panther-like addon of a some much needed features, it would have been released by now. No, there are some major, world first, core system innovations taking place. That's why Apple is working so much longer on this release. From a simple user's prospective, OS upgrades are taken in an overly simplistic fashion, where new features appear to be nothing more than extra code with an addition of some new GUI elements. Nothing is wrong with that, but it underestimates the real power and significance of some of the other "behind the scenes" and "under the hood" enhancments.

The Janguar upgrade was an important milestone, the Pather upgrade was a mainly a feature "gag", but Tiger is another milestone plus the feature "gags".

ravenvii

Jan 13, 2005, 02:31 PM

Personally, I think the new mail looks great. I have to admit that I didn't really like the current Mail's interface, but the new one seems to appeal to me much more. I look forward to using it!

As for features and upgrading, before Panther was released, I felt the same way as some of you do now - it doesn't have enough features to justify upgrading, etc etc. But now, I just can't imagine going back to Expose-less Jaguar. Expose has truly revolutionized the way I use my computer. Using Windows XP is such a chore without Expose. I keep thinking "I need that window right behind this one... Expose... oh that's right there's no Expose... What's that window's name? (looks at the taskbar)" :D

Maybe Spotlight and Dashboard will be like that.

wwooden

Jan 13, 2005, 02:50 PM

found the coreimage part of the Tiger Preview, here (http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/coreimage.html) . It was under the finder preview icon.

Interesting though, I could find anything on corevideo.

TigerPRO

Jan 13, 2005, 02:51 PM

I just can't imagine going back to Expose-less Jaguar. Expose has truly revolutionized the way I use my computer. Using Windows XP is such a chore without Expose. I keep thinking "I need that window right behind this one... Expose... oh that's right there's no Expose... What's that window's name? (looks at the taskbar)" :D

Maybe Spotlight and Dashboard will be like that.

That's really funny. lol. I have this odd syndrome where when I hop on an XP system, I'll find myself constantly bumping my mouse up to my normal screen corner for exposé and getting nothing. Then I proceed to drag windows here and there to find what I need. Either that I attempt to read and itentify the window by it's 5 character abbreviation (i.e. "intern...") among the other gazillion windows in the task bar. I know exactly what you mean about exposé, I really start to appreciate it when using a windows machine for more than a minute. It's become such a subconcious activity that it's seems as normal to me as being able to do something simple like minimizing window.

TigerPRO

Jan 13, 2005, 02:57 PM

found the coreimage part of the Tiger Preview, here (http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/coreimage.html) . It was under the finder preview icon.

Interesting though, I could find anything on corevideo.

Corevideo is actually hidden under the description of Coreimage. If you read down the page there, you'll see a paragraph or two about it. That first caught me by surprise too when I went looking for Corevideo; but it's there.

maya

Jan 13, 2005, 03:01 PM

Tiger is old news lets move onto Lion. ;) :p :) :D

BWhaler

Jan 13, 2005, 04:50 PM

Huh. I noticed earlier today that they redid a lot of the Tiger preview pages. Here's an interesting tidbit...any link to the document identifying coreimage compliant video cards is GONE. And I could not find it in search anymore either.

Does that mean anything in relation to the choice in video chipset for the mini? Who knows... ;)

Funny, I was just looking for that info 10 minutes ago to decide if I should buy a mini.

Hopefully, the final version of Tiger will support more video cards, especially those shipping today.

stcanard

Jan 13, 2005, 05:03 PM

Spotlight is a very useful tool, but I don't believe it's quite as earth shattering as it's made out to be. Will most people pay $130 to search faster? Some certainly will, others will require more.

I think you'll find that Spotlight will become something that is that important.

Spotlight is more than a "faster search", it's a new way of organizing the information on your computer.

I have noticed that I don't organize things into folders anymore. With the speed of the searches in Mail, iPhoto, iTunes, Finder, and quicksilver (http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/) that it is faster to search for things than it is to go through a folder hierarchy, and I no longer have the pain of deciding what category to put items that match multiple categories.

With spotlight building on this, integrating into everything, and allowing me to save searches it will change the way I currently work with my computer. It will take a while, but it's going to have a long-term effect on everyone.

Gee

Jan 13, 2005, 05:29 PM

Spotlight is a very useful tool, but I don't believe it's quite as earth shattering as it's made out to be. Will most people pay $130 to search faster? Some certainly will, others will require more.

I have to agree - how much stuff do the rest of you have on your computers that you can't find what you need? I rarely use the 'Find' facility now, and I don't think I've ever thought to myself:

"Now, where did I put that file? Can't remember whether it was a pic or a pdf, but I think it had the word yosemite in it somewhere..."

What's the big deal? Am I missing something?

stcanard

Jan 13, 2005, 06:30 PM

I rarely use the 'Find' facility now

Do you use smart playlists in iTunes?

If so, you are using find constantly... that's all a smart playlist is.

whooleytoo

Jan 13, 2005, 06:44 PM

Tiger has the best both of worlds. For the user, you have new features like dashboard, spotlight, automator, an improved UI, smart folders etc, etc.

And for the developers you have spotlight again, core image, core data, 64 bit developement, H.264, XCode 2 etc, etc.

Tiger is definitely not just about faster searching!

No, but Spotlight is the 'flagship' feature that gets the first and most demo time at the keynotes, implying indirectly it's the most important feature. Dashboard certainly looks nice, but only time will tell if the widgets are actually useful and it becomes an important feature. I fear Automator will either be overlooked or too complex for newbies, and too inflexible for power users (though I'd love to be proved wrong).

As for the improved UI, I actually don't care much for the Panther Finder, or the Tiger additions. (Especially the search additions which are too cluttered for my liking). But perhaps that's subjective.

The developer additions certainly are very interesting. I can't wait to see how they take advantage of them in 10.5! ;)

Gee

Jan 14, 2005, 02:28 AM

Do you use smart playlists in iTunes?

If so, you are using find constantly... that's all a smart playlist is.

Actually, no I don't. I admit they're reasonably cool, and could be useful occassionally, but not on a daily basis.

I think spotlight will be a nice feature, and there must be something in it because microsoft and google are also at it, I just don't think it's earth shattering.

AmigoMac

Jan 14, 2005, 04:47 AM

Tiger is old news lets move onto Lion. ;) :p :) :D

My thoughts exactly, an other keynote / Preview about tiger and it will smell "Longhorny" ... just bring it on.

I've noticed that I do need the smart folders in mail and finder, have had to do a lot of work organizing files from work. by now, I had to move my workmail to Thunderbird because of the smart folders... Waiting for Tiger and looking forward to Lion or whatever cat comes after... but for sure it will be before "longhorn service pack 1" :p...

AmigoMac

Jan 14, 2005, 04:52 AM

Actually, no I don't. I admit they're reasonably cool, and could be useful occassionally, but not on a daily basis.

I think spotlight will be a nice feature, and there must be something in it because microsoft and google are also at it, I just don't think it's earth shattering.

Man, Spotlight will save a lot of people working on datasheets, customer emails attachments, as I posted before, now I see that I do need it , maybe you don't, by now, but isn't that the reaction to whatever apple release, (iPod, iPod mini, Exposé...) J/K ;) , I hope that if you will need it someday, it will save you a lot of time, I should be right now thinking on my date for tonight ;) but work is work ...

stcanard

Jan 14, 2005, 12:06 PM

Actually, no I don't. I admit they're reasonably cool, and could be useful occassionally, but not on a daily basis.

Then you're right, you probably won't get any use out of spotlight, and I can see why you don't see the point.

In iTunes and iPhoto I have nothing except smart folders. My philosophy is to get the metadata right, then let the files organize themselves.

I'm definitely a target market for spotlight, maybe it's because I spend too much of my day working in databases...

TigerPRO

Jan 14, 2005, 12:21 PM

Waiting for Tiger and looking forward to Lion or whatever cat comes after... but for sure it will be before "longhorn service pack 1" :p...

...or maybe even before LONGhorn.

johnnyjibbs

Jan 14, 2005, 02:51 PM

Ok, so we all resist change. And Panther will look outdated as soon as Tiger ships. I admit that I could never go back to the Jaguar look now.

That said, Panther's pinstripes are much more subtle. My main problem right now is the toolbar icons as seen in Mail. I noticed that Preview's icons have yet to change (although the pinstripes have been removed) and so everything is still subject to change. But those new icons look very amateur-like, they don't fill the space very well and are more confusing to look at (without conveying any extra style or function) and it's yet another layer of inconsistency in the OS that we don't need. (For example, can anyone explain why the iPhoto 5 edit palette is black and translucent, not the standard OS X palette type?)

One thing that is quite strange is that, if you look at the drawer on Preview (Tiger Spotlight video) and the drop shadows and also the highlighted text items in the spotlight menu, etc., the pinstripes can still be seen! It's as if they've erased the pinstripes from everywhere else quickly by airbrushing them out but not bothered on the more difficult-to-do shadows, etc! How strange!

chameeeleon

Jan 14, 2005, 03:27 PM

I'd assume iPhoto's palette is black and translucent because it allows the user to still see the picture they're manipulating. As Quicktime 7 also uses this kind of window for its fullscreen controls, I'd say its a good bet that this new design is specifically for palettes that don't block the content the user is... using, lol.

Thanatoast

Jan 14, 2005, 04:27 PM

Dashboard certainly looks nice, but only time will tell if the widgets are actually useful and it becomes an important feature.
I would use the dictionary, translator, and calculator on a daily basis. I think dashboard will quickly become as important as expose.

And best of all - pardon my Mac snobbery - Windows doesn't do it, and won't. Not until 2012, anyway. :D

jhomayne

Jan 14, 2005, 04:51 PM

dashboard is the most appealing feature in Tiger for me.

:cool:

TigerPRO

Jan 14, 2005, 06:35 PM

And best of all - pardon my Mac snobbery - Windows doesn't do it, and won't. Not until 2012, anyway. :D

LOL. Good point. But by that time, then it'll be something else.

TigerPRO

Jan 14, 2005, 06:38 PM

dejo

Jan 14, 2005, 06:39 PM

LOL. Good point. But by that time, then it'll be something else.

Maybe it'll be Mac OS XII. I can dream, can't I?

TigerPRO

Jan 14, 2005, 07:01 PM

Maybe it'll be Mac OS XII. I can dream, can't I?

Yeah, like he said it'll be like 2012, and Microsoft will be implementing crude betas of a not-so-cool immitation of exposé, while Apple is releasing some new technology allowing an integrraded AI to monitor and learn your activities so it can do your work for you while you're away from your Mac...

JFreak

Jan 14, 2005, 07:12 PM

i guess this web site change means feature freeze for tiger and therefore declaration of a "beta" status...

TigerPRO

Jan 14, 2005, 07:17 PM

i guess this web site change means feature freeze for tiger and therefore declaration of a "beta" status...

Why would you think that?

chameeeleon

Jan 14, 2005, 07:53 PM

Apple is also using those same palette styles in Motion.

Exactly! Because Motion is all about seeing the video you're working on while you manipulate it, further the reiterating the black translucent = overlay for work areas the user still wants to see while working in the pallette.

Overall predictions for Tiger Appearance:
Here to Stay:
- Brushed
- the new light grey bars seen in the iApps (currently one's replaced the old Party Shuffle controls in iTunes 4.7.1 and one also houses the action buttons in iPhoto 5 now) will be migrated into Safari, Address Book, etc. Not only do they look very clean, but the grey colour has close ties to the background being used for Spotlight, adding SOME consistency

- Black Translucent Palettes, which as mentioned, seem to be meant for situations where the user still has to see whatever the palette's floating over (hopefully DVD Player will also nab these cool controls when in fullscreen mode). I wonder who the first developer to totally screw this up and make their regular palettes black will be?

On the Fence:
- The "Ohmigod the Title Bar ate the Window!" look (ala Mail 2.0, Spotlight)
- Mail's new icons might signal that toolbars everywhere (Preview, iWork?) are on their way to becoming a very light shade of purple, forcing all developers to redo their app icons to match Tiger. I for one like the Mail icons, they look very Aqua-y to me and look official but still fun.
- The "Light Purpley Colour is the new Blue and light grey!" thing, also seen in Mail. Right now even the "Save" and "Slideshow" buttons in Mail 2 are a light purpley color, while the "Save" button in the Mail search bar above the results is the old light grey. I think this suggests Apple's just really throwing a lot of ideas around right now and seeing what sticks. But if they're really digging this purple colour (it's like they're rediscovering the colour wheel - what with the overly-green iPod shuffle campaign and now all this purple!) I wouldn't be surprised if scroll bars, etc. went default purpleygrey in Tiger.

On the Train out of Town:
- Pinstripes. Tiger seems to be all about smooth, and there is no room for backgrounds in smooth (unless it's brushed, in which case refer to "Here to Stay"). Besides, pinstripes kind of hurt my eyes in the menubar. A welcome change.
- The boxed Apple menu button seen in earlier Tiger builds. It went from in-your-face-blue to purpleygrey (which is now incorporated in Mail 2 - see the "seeing what works" method), to right out of the picture. Again, smooth move.

parrothead

Jan 14, 2005, 08:22 PM

That's really funny. lol. I have this odd syndrome where when I hop on an XP system, I'll find myself constantly bumping my mouse up to my normal screen corner for exposé and getting nothing. Then I proceed to drag windows here and there to find what I need. Either that I attempt to read and itentify the window by it's 5 character abbreviation (i.e. "intern...") among the other gazillion windows in the task bar. I know exactly what you mean about exposé, I really start to appreciate it when using a windows machine for more than a minute. It's become such a subconcious activity that it's seems as normal to me as being able to do something simple like minimizing window.

I have this same problem all the time. Expose has become second nature to me now, and any time I am on a windows or pre-panther computer I feel very deprived.

ruud

Jan 14, 2005, 08:52 PM

I'm not really sure why the Dashboard has a dock icon, and hope it can be removed.
To a new Tiger user (who hasn't watched all the keynotes) there would otherwise not be any visual indication that the dashboard functionality is available. I suppose Apple could put (yet another) icon up in the menu bar, though. Or alternatively a "Desk Accessories" entry in the Apple menu ;)

unfortunate

Jan 15, 2005, 12:48 AM

i've heard that the most recent build does not have the dashboard icon in the dock.

johnnyjibbs

Jan 15, 2005, 06:41 AM

Here to Stay:
...
- the new light grey bars seen in the iApps (currently one's replaced the old Party Shuffle controls in iTunes 4.7.1 and one also houses the action buttons in iPhoto 5 now) will be migrated into Safari, Address Book, etc. Not only do they look very clean, but the grey colour has close ties to the background being used for Spotlight, adding SOME consistency
I've only just noticed those in iTunes 4.7.1. I have to say, the OS is heading back towards the creaky Mac OS 9 look - toned down from the earlier wonders of Aqua. (My opinion, of course ;) ). I think, with further development in the next few months and more interface changes, Tiger's launch will be accompanied by Steve Jobs grabbing a big blue blob of aqua and putting it into a coffin. That's it folks.

TigerPRO

Jan 15, 2005, 10:47 AM

I've only just noticed those in iTunes 4.7.1. I have to say, the OS is heading back towards the creaky Mac OS 9 look - toned down from the earlier wonders of Aqua. (My opinion, of course ;) ). I think, with further development in the next few months and more interface changes, Tiger's launch will be accompanied by Steve Jobs grabbing a big blue blob of aqua and putting it into a coffin. That's it folks.

Maybe for you seasoned old Mac users who came from OS 9 the aqua seems horrible. But when I first started looking a Mac OS X, the interface was something I immidiately fell in love with. The beautiful colors and textures where a welcome enhancement to the slop and blah of windows. I think they are loosing that by moving to a generic, less accentuate look.

You see, I came on board with Apple when OS X was in full swing. So seeing them demolish the interface that brought me in is very dissapointing. While windows seems to be stuborn with it's styles and appearances from the 90s, Apple was moving on to more bold, modern styles. It was really ostentatious of OS X's superior technology to have an advanced, more modern look to match the technology in the OS.

johnnyjibbs

Jan 15, 2005, 10:57 AM

Maybe for you seasoned old Mac users who came from OS 9 the aqua seems horrible. But when I first started looking a Mac OS X, the interface was something I immidiately fell in love with. The beautiful colors and textures where a welcome enhancement to the slop and blah of windows. I think they are loosing that by moving to a generic, less accentuate look.

You see, I came on board with Apple when OS X was in full swing. So seeing them demolish the interface that brought me in is very dissapointing. While windows seems to be stuborn with it's styles and appearances from the 90s, Apple was moving on to more bold, modern styles. It was really ostentatious of OS X's superior technology to have an advanced, more modern look to match the technology in the OS.
Actually, I agree with you entirely. Like you, my first Mac was running Jaguar, and then I upgraded to Panther. I've never used Mac OS 9 and hated that look. I too loved the stripes, textures and colours of OS X that were also, in my opinion, more stylish than Windows XP's Fisher Price look (which incidentally must have been hastily added to Windows before the launch of XP, as this came out about 6 months after Mac OS X 10.0.)

I know that Mac OS X is evolving, and now I much prefer Panther's look to Jaguars. But Tiger seems like a massive leap towards flatter, greyer, more untextured looks. It's like Mac OS 9 and Windows 95 all over again... :(

Not to mention, we're getting all inconsistent again. The iTunes shot in question below just highlights one such inconsistency in the OS. We have two types of drop-down menu styles in the same window! (Admittedly, this was also the case when they were the old Aqua style party shuffle mixes, but it still illustrates the inconsistencies!)

TigerPRO

Jan 15, 2005, 11:18 AM

I know that Mac OS X is evolving, and now I much prefer Panther's look to Jaguars. But Tiger seems like a massive leap towards flatter, greyer, more untextured looks. It's like Mac OS 9 and Windows 95 all over again... :(

Yeah, oh well. Let's just hope it is IN FACT "evolving" as you said. I do have some confidence in Apple on interface design. They can't all have absolutely no taste or intelligence on what looks cool. A couple of more months of Tiger development is plenty of time for another couple overhauls. Let's hope they are really just playing around, and that it will all resolve to something beautiful. After all, as far I know, the same people that worked on the interface in Jaguar and Panther, are working on Tiger. And it's my guess that the interface designer at Apple probably care more about Tiger than we do; as they are responsible for A LOT!