Snow Leopard QuickTime X Interface and Other Changes

[MacRumors]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/03/07/snow-leopard-quicktime-x-interface-and-other-changes/)

With the latest seed of Mac OS X Snow Leopard, Apple has made dramatic changes to QuickTime Player in both interface and features. Changes to the interface has gotten the most attention with a description (http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/03/07/a_peek_at_apples_new_quicktime_x_interface.html) posted by AppleInsider. The new QuickTime X playback window appears to be minimalistic with all user-interface pieces fading away, leaving just the video displayed: The only window-based interface element in the QuickTime X Player is reportedly the title bar, which is reminiscent of the iPhone's semi-transparent black glass interface while also adopting hues from the video frames playing beneath it. However, this too fades away and disappears with the new overlay controls so videos appear to float on the screen with nothing more than a deep shadow surrounding all four sides.While AppleInsider posts "mock ups" of the interface, Swedish site Feber.se (http://mac.feber.se/art/152311/nya-quicktime-player-far-minimalt-granssnitt/) appears to have posted a believable screenshot of the new player.

Apple's additional changes to QuickTime Player to "focus on playback" raise the possibility of the return of QuickTime Pro as a separate application. In previous seeds, it had been noted that QuickTime Pro features had been enabled by default in QuickTime Player. With this latest revamp, however, many of the "Pro" encoding features seem to be in transition, and introducing a the more simplistic "ability to export video clips in a variety of sizes to your iTunes library .... or publish them through a MobileMe account".

Article Link: Snow Leopard QuickTime X Interface and Other Changes (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/03/07/snow-leopard-quicktime-x-interface-and-other-changes/)

[Auzburner]

This is nice to see. I've alway felt QuickTime was lacking. I really hope they get rid of QuickTime Pro and that entire idea, the entire application and associated features should be standard. Sounds like it looks great! :p

[SJD]

You'll still need to pay for the Pro because of MPEG-2 licensing fees.

[jackfrost123]

@AUZBURNER, you got it wrong mate, it sounds that they stripping quicktime even more and that they make pro a necessity, shame really, very very bad apple to cripple us like this...

[dmmcintyre3]

Does resolution independence work better than Leopard? It sucks on Leopard enough that I do not use it. I want 1920*1200 on 15"

[acidfast7]

Tack så mycket feber.se!

[rented mule]

You'll still need to pay for the Pro because of MPEG-2 licensing fees.

Not if the licensing fee was thrown into the Snow Leopard price. In other words, Apple would be making less profit. But it would be a nice move.

[hiimamac]

Not if the licensing fee was thrown into the Snow Leopard price. In other words, Apple would be making less profit. But it would be a nice move.

Finder is much faster - can't wait to see final delivery and 10.5.7.

[The General]

Tiny pic has some screenshots:

Mouse over:
http://i40.tinypic.com/14ka69y.png

Mouse not over:
http://i44.tinypic.com/2chl40o.png

What that button next to the fullscreen button does:
http://i39.tinypic.com/euis02.png

You'll noticed that the naming schema of screenshots is no longer "Picture #.png" it's "Screenshot on [date] at [time].png"

[slackpacker]

Tiny pic has some screenshots:

Mouse over:
http://i40.tinypic.com/14ka69y.png

Mouse not over:
http://i44.tinypic.com/2chl40o.png

What that button next to the fullscreen button does:
http://i39.tinypic.com/euis02.png

You'll noticed that the naming schema of screenshots is no longer "Picture #.png" it's "Screenshot on [date] at [time].png"

Anything new in the finder? Nice Pics Thanks

[Beric]

This doesn't sound good. I don't like it.

[The General]

Anything new in the finder? Nice Pics Thanks

Text + labels = default, icon size slider on the bottom right like iPhoto.

[Nermal]

You'll still need to pay for the Pro because of MPEG-2 licensing fees.

The MPEG-2 component is currently a separate purchase, not included with Pro.

[rockosmodurnlif]

Maybe they're going to merge Quicktime Pro features in iLife or something. And make Quicktime into an extension of iTunes. I haven't really thought this out, obviously.

Either way, the newer, prettier Quicktime Player doesn't mean any of use will cease using VLC.

[ztigerpaw]

While it defenly screams iPhone/Touch, it seems like there going back to the classic route. As a old time Mac user, I remember Quicktime was just a window back then.

[apfhex]

I like QT Player how it is. This looks a lot less functional.

[Kilamite]

I don't like.

The timer scale bar is too small - VLC is like that. In an hour and a half long movie, trying to find the precise point is a nightmare.

It should be as long as the whole thing, like in the current QuickTime..

[sallythemac]

I use NicePlayer at the mo to get a frameless and streamlined video window. But i am looking forward to having similar functionality as default.

[Zimmer62943]

although its not completely identical, it to me looks like that picture of quicktime is what it looks like when its in fullscreen, you can easily change the numbers on the version and make the dock and bar at the top show up

[Drag'nGT]

I like it. It's the movie in a nice window with no other bs until I need it. While I'm watching, what do I need the controls on screen for? They'll never please everyone, lets hope that you can choose the standard version as an option.

[BTW]

Looks good to me. We'll see what the final product is in 3 months. I like the control out of the way as much as possible.

One possibility of minimalizing the controls is one look and feel for multiple devices. That is QuickTime X for iPhone, AppleTV, iPod Touch, and Macs either raw through QuickTime or via a new FrontRow. You'd appreciate the same controls on all devices. Especially if those controls popped-up on your iPhone or iPod Touch to control the AppleTV.

I still believe we'll be seeing televisions coming out by either Apple or OEMs with AppleTVs built-in that could also do PVR.

[11800506]

It looks good but I would prefer if they kept the title bar there at all times even when the mouse doesn't roll over the window. Without the title bar the window looks weird, out of place, and ungrounded.

[Cave Man]

Who cares what it looks like. Expand its codecs (e.g., m2ts), improve its playback performance (which is pathetic) and allow it to passthrough Dolby Digital AC3 and DTS (which is virtually nonexistent).

[Pooshka]

Much like Quick Look. Prefer something different, more original. Meh!

[Tesselator]

Text + labels = default, icon size slider on the bottom right like iPhoto.

Like Windows Vista... Hmm, I wonder who stole it from who? :) I bet Bill got it (like so many of his other ideas) from something in OS X... Yeah, maybe iPhoto. <shrug>


The New QT Player looks kinda like the current DVD Player app. ;)

Who cares what it looks like. Expand its codecs (e.g., m2ts), improve its playback performance (which is pathetic) and allow it to passthrough Dolby Digital AC3 and DTS (which is virtually nonexistent).

+1

Agree completely!

I also care a little what it looks like though. :D

[kbmb]

Who cares what it looks like. Expand its codecs (e.g., m2ts), improve its playback performance (which is pathetic) and allow it to passthrough Dolby Digital AC3 and DTS (which is virtually nonexistent).

Agreed. With the amount of codecs being built into Windows 7, I'm hoping Apple steps up and includes even more.

-Kevin

[Stridder44]

Hopefully these changes make their way to the Windows version of Quicktime. Quicktime on Windows is a bloated piece of crap (so is iTunes, but I love it too much to use anything else).

I'm still excited to see the new "marble" theme.

[Jacksteruk309]

It's interesting how Steve said when talking about Leopard that they were getting rid of all the mixed up UIs on OS X and unifying on Graphite, yet clearly they're still experimenting with lots of different styles.

I wonder if maybe they're trying to make Apple apps stand out from 3rd party apps, give themselves a bit of an edge.

[MisterMe]

You'll still need to pay for the Pro because of MPEG-2 licensing fees.No. The QuickTime Player is strictly a video player. Paying for QuickTime Pro allows you to enable the editing features of the QuickTime Player. Paying for the MPEG-2 Playback Component allows you to playback MPEG-2 content in the QuickTime Player. These are two separate fees for two separate functions that have nothing to do with each other.

[jackfrost123]

Who cares what it looks like. Expand its codecs (e.g., m2ts), improve its playback performance (which is pathetic) and allow it to passthrough Dolby Digital AC3 and DTS (which is virtually nonexistent).

Well said.

[MattJessop]

Whilst I like the idea of the new minimal user interface, I have to say I do not like the new title bar that appears when you select it. I much prefer the matte bland version currently found in Quick Look, whereas this looks just a bit too shiny. Just my 2 cents tho. Looks good overall, esp if they expand the codecs as people have already said.

[slicecom]

Tiny pic has some screenshots:

Mouse over:
http://i40.tinypic.com/14ka69y.png

Mouse not over:
http://i44.tinypic.com/2chl40o.png

What that button next to the fullscreen button does:
http://i39.tinypic.com/euis02.png

You'll noticed that the naming schema of screenshots is no longer "Picture #.png" it's "Screenshot on [date] at [time].png"

Thanks for posting those pics.

[zedsdead]

Thanks for posting those pics.

Seems pretty interesting.

[bob_the_gorilla]

This is nice to see. I've alway felt QuickTime was lacking. I really hope they get rid of QuickTime Pro and that entire idea, the entire application and associated features should be standard. Sounds like it looks great! :p
@AUZBURNER, you got it wrong mate, it sounds that they stripping quicktime even more and that they make pro a necessity, shame really, very very bad apple to cripple us like this...

The way this article is written, I think you're both wrong! Only dumbed down Pro features have been added; other features are not missing, so QTPro is no more necessary. Whether it's accurate I can't say, but that's how it reads, to me at least.

My 2¢ is that they're probably thinking that anyone serious about video should move to a proper Pro app, not use QuickTime Player; so we get basic export for free, but no more.

[swissmann]

Who cares what it looks like. Expand its codecs (e.g., m2ts), improve its playback performance (which is pathetic) and allow it to passthrough Dolby Digital AC3 and DTS (which is virtually nonexistent).

Bingo! Oh and be able to use it to convert movies to all those formats. That would be swell.

[ChrisA]

A screen shot tells us nothing. Perhaps a dialog box appears if you right click? How could you know be just seeing a screen shot?

I really do think they should split QT into two. Make one just a dumb media player and the other into the all purpose media swiss army knife. Wetter it is one or two apps is just superficial anyways. Other the GUI's skin it is all the same library functions where the work is done. That is not likely to change or lots of other apps get broken.

[Saladinos]

I hoped they'd turn it in to the iTunes of videos. iTunes just does too much now - it sells Music, Applications, Movies, TV Shows, and serves as your video/audio podcast hub. It's too damn much!

I hoped they'd delegate the movies and tv shows portion to Quicktime. A new player and database manager, like iTunes, but with a UI optimised for video.

This seems rubbish. Just about better than quicklook. Why even have a standalone application that basic? Just open it with an inactive-enabled quicklook. What I dislike most is that they're removing the export functionality.

That said, things are early. Let's see how this evolves.

[Peace]

I certainly hope people here realize this is still in alpha stage. Give Apple some time to make it what it's supposed to be. Some of you make it sound like this is the finished product.

[sbarton]

OMG this is horrible! Why would they make a core element of the OS look so radically different from the rest? Apple has been railed in the past or GUI consistency and I can't understand it. Quicktime needs to fit in with the rest of OSX.

[NT1440]

OMG this is horrible! Why would they make a core element of the OS look so radically different from the rest? Apple has been railed in the past or GUI consistency and I can't understand it. Quicktime needs to fit in with the rest of OSX.

it will.....

[The General]

OMG this is horrible! Why would they make a core element of the OS look so radically different from the rest? Apple has been railed in the past or GUI consistency and I can't understand it. Quicktime needs to fit in with the rest of OSX.

I love it. All I need to see when I'm playing a video is the video, so what could be better than making the window exactly that - just the video!

Does resolution independence work better than Leopard? It sucks on Leopard enough that I do not use it. I want 1920*1200 on 15"

It's pretty much the same, as far as I can tell. Some things work fine, but most things suck.

[Tallest Skil]

OMG this is horrible! Why would they make a core element of the OS look so radically different from the rest? Apple has been railed in the past or GUI consistency and I can't understand it. Quicktime needs to fit in with the rest of OSX.

Maybe because they're radically changing the REST of the OS to match it and iTunes? :rolleyes:

And we're just not seeing that because it's a preliminary build?

[powderblue17]

OMG this is horrible! Why would they make a core element of the OS look so radically different from the rest? Apple has been railed in the past or GUI consistency and I can't understand it. Quicktime needs to fit in with the rest of OSX.

I don't really see what the problem is. There has to be some variety and they have to be able to test new ideas. If anything this looks like what we already have with quicklook or the full screen editing in some apps and is just being extended to quicktime.

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Who cares what it looks like. Expand its codecs (e.g., m2ts), improve its playback performance (which is pathetic) and allow it to passthrough Dolby Digital AC3 and DTS (which is virtually nonexistent).

Here Here! I thought Quicktime X was supposed to be a Cocoa rewrite of Quicktime that FINALLY brought it into the modern age. I mean the darn thing doesn't support pass-through to external receivers/decoders for 5.1 sound over a decade after DVDs were introduced for goodness sake!!! That is PATHETIC! It's bad enough that Apple's hardware offerings aren't keeping up with the rest of the PC world (SLI, Blu-Ray) and that their prices are getting completely out of line, but they cannot even properly support standards introduced in the 1990s in 2009....

Maybe because they're radically changing the REST of the OS to match it and iTunes? :rolleyes:

And we're just not seeing that because it's a preliminary build?

I think you might be onto something there. I wouldn't be surprised if Snow Leopard defaults the final version of Safari 4 to going straight to the iTunes Store and adding a bunch of random junk to your cart and then telling you that you need to click checkout in order to register your new Mac.... Heck, AppleTV practically does that (completely centered around the iTunes store with half the features like search pertaining to their store and not your own media collection!)

Everything Apple does now is centered around the iTunes store and trying to sell you more crap. It would make sense for Apple to base OS X *ON* the iTunes store. I mean that 30% off the top of every develop's back would be pretty darn lucrative if they FORCED it on ALL SOFTWARE for the Mac platform too starting with Snow Leopard! Just imagine how Apple's profits would break all previous records yet again...well until people start jumping off the Titanic because Snow Leopard is a snow job (or is that Jobs?) heading for an iceberg.

Every indication is that Apple's pricing structures are going backwards in time (must be that Time Machine thingy) to the days of screwing over customers and charging prices only so-called Yuppies can afford even though their hardware is more off-the-shelf than ever. This iPhone/iPod success thing is clearly going to their heads. Jobz knows best!

[ehendel]

I don't know much about audio encoding technology, so I have a little question:

I'm planning to put some of my CDs on iTunes at a higher bit rate, but should I wait until I get Snow Leopard? Does Quicktime X encode AAC with better quality or anything?

Thanks in advance.

[Tallest Skil]

It's bad enough that Apple's hardware offerings aren't keeping up with the rest of the PC world (SLI, Blu-Ray)...

SLI represents 1% of PC users, Blu-ray, 10%.

[kastenbrust]

this isn't exactly a rumor, Quicktime has been going under modifications on all SL beta releases so this isnt likely to be its final rendition. As long as they get rid of Quick Time Pro then i'll be happy.

[deannnnn]

I don't like it... but I'll deal if they expand the features of QuickTime.

[ThirteenXIII]

the window/gui of it sort of resembles what DVD player is sort of like, pop up video controls and all that etc etc.

sometimes itd be nice to enable a feature so they "stick" or a always visible for whatever purpose but otherwise i think its sleek and pretty good navigational.

[seashellz]

It kinda looks more like iMovie

[seashellz]

Not if the licensing fee was thrown into the Snow Leopard price. In other words, Apple would be making less profit. But it would be a nice move.
--
seems a shame to cripple-true -kinda like paying premium for a superdrive
standard now

well if apple is selling SL for full price-then I think they oughta;

If they sell SL as an enhanced upgrade-then I hope no more than $75

[viniciusc]

I always thought of the UI notion of having borderless windows made only of content, with the controls and title bar appearing on mouse hover. Maybe someday that becomes standard in OS X, who knows...

[Peace]

Has nobody figured out yet the direction Snow Leopard is going is very consistent with a multi-touch GUI ?..


My fantasy about a 8-10" handheld "iTV Mobile" device is getting closer and closer and closer and......

[dmmcintyre3]

well if apple is selling SL for full price-then I think they oughta;

If they sell SL as an enhanced upgrade-then I hope no more than $75

Apple only sells upgrades. you have to upgrade from a previous version of Mac OS because all Macs included SOME version of Mac OS when they were new. Microsoft has to sell non upgrades to PC builders but Apple does not sell full installs except with new Macs.

[dmmcintyre3]

My fantasy about a 8-10" handheld "iTV Mobile" device is getting closer and closer and closer and......

It's called iPod touch

[kissmyaxe]

I realize Apple's trying to push QT as a video player, but I wonder what audio looks like in the new player. The way they've implemented the whole "borderless movie" idea, audio files would, well...disappear! Think it'll display album artwork (or lack thereof) like QuickLook?

I kinda like the new simplistic direction...I think.

[MacFly123]

I'm still excited to see the new "marble" theme.

With these changes to QuickTime now as well, I think we are going to see more interface changes globally than we expected.

I think I like the new player, but kinda feel like the top window bar should stay there at all times.

All that said, I think we will see a new "Marble" interface in Snow Leopard, but I hope it is not like the new '09 Garage Band, have you people looked at that? The interface is a patchwork out of control mess and it really doesn't look very nice (the editing interface)! :(

I think this is what we are headed for with "Marble" though.

[dwd3885]

so it looks like it's copying of of the Windows Media Player in Windows 7 with the controls fading away. I always thought the windows media player was a lot more streamlined and lighter. Quicktime just feels heavy in OSX.

[The Flashing Fi]

With these changes to QuickTime now as well, I think we are going to see more interface changes globally than we expected.

I think I like the new player, but kinda feel like the top window bar should stay there at all times.

All that said, I think we will see a new "Marble" interface in Snow Leopard, but I hope it is not like the new '09 Garage Band, have you people looked at that? The interface is a patchwork out of control mess and it really doesn't look very nice (the editing interface)! :(

I think this is what we are headed for with "Marble" though.

Garage band has generally been it's own thing when it comes to the interface. Look at the previous version of garage band. As far as the title bar goes, Garage Band from iLife '09 is Leopard's standard grey vs the black title bar in '08. Both still retain the wood grain on the sides. I personally don't think either 08 or 09 are a precursor to what's to come.

[fleshman03]

You'll still need to pay for the Pro because of MPEG-2 licensing fees.

Doesn't M$ provide that functionality in WMP?

Much like Quick Look. Prefer something different, more original. Meh!

Me too. It looks very much like QuickLook...

I wonder if they are doing a dark theme like we discussed here a while back.

It looks ... ok. A bit like Vista, if you ask me. I like the silver + Black. (Like iTunes in now.) Now to mention, it'll match the new laptops.

[Sehnsucht]

Will we see FLAC support? :p Monkey's Audio? :p

[reallynotnick]

I really like it, looks very futuristic and clean. Though I would like to see what audio playback looks like too.

[The General]

I don't know much about audio encoding technology, so I have a little question:

I'm planning to put some of my CDs on iTunes at a higher bit rate, but should I wait until I get Snow Leopard? Does Quicktime X encode AAC with better quality or anything?

Thanks in advance.

No, it will make no difference.

[jcshas]

I'm amazed at how much Mac OS and Windows (e.g. Vista/Win 7) UI's are starting to resemble each other.

[wheelhot]

I hoped they'd delegate the movies and tv shows portion to Quicktime. A new player and database manager, like iTunes, but with a UI optimised for video.

No, that's horrible! I prefer a software that can do all similar things together as long as it does well. WMP so far has been a horrible experience with me, iTunes is leagues ahead.

I'm amazed at how much Mac OS and Windows (e.g. Vista/Win 7) UI's are starting to resemble each other.

Erm, that's cause MS trying to be Apple?

Now regarding the look, I dont like the top bar, it looks too dark and like other say, it best Apple only keep the floating control bar only when the video is played full screen, other then that keep it bottom! People are too used with having the play control fixed at the bottom of a window, maybe make it like auto collapse or something. So when u viewing it in no full screen, after like 3 sec, the top and bottom bar will collapse and only leave the movie playing, move the mouse over the movie and the top and bottom bar will magically slide open again.

[CmdrLaForge]

I hope they don't completley screw up with the Final Cut Studio 2 apps. In particular Final Cut Pro 6 which depends on Quicktime.

[patriqq]

I love the new look, its very slick, I always hated the metal ugly look, this is nice, hopfully the do this stragit through the system.

[opeter]

I did look at these screenshots and I wonder myself, those that mean, that Snow Leopard will have a black default UI (or any option to choose from)?

[maplestar]

I don't have a mac yet, but I have a question about quicktime. Since there is an application called front row (i think this is what's it called) that is made for movie/dvd playing on a mac, what's the point of quicktime?

Especially since now quicktime doesn't have any special features differentiating it from a regular player, like front row...

Actually, same goes to windows, which as windows media player and windows media center. What's the point of two players?

[richard.mac]

I did look at these screenshots and I wonder myself, those that mean, that Snow Leopard will have a black default UI (or any option to choose from)?

nah i dont reckon Snow Leopard will have a black UI. the new QuickTime Player UI matches the black UI of some floating windows already in OS X like Quick Look, Movie Inspector in QuickTime Player, iPhoto editing windows.

[The General]

I don't have a mac yet, but I have a question about quicktime. Since there is an application called front row (i think this is what's it called) that is made for movie/dvd playing on a mac, what's the point of quicktime?

Especially since now quicktime doesn't have any special features differentiating it from a regular player, like front row...

Actually, same goes to windows, which as windows media player and windows media center. What's the point of two players?

Front Row is a large, full screen menu that lets you access all types of your media using the Apple Remote or, if you're desperate, the keyboard.

Quicktime is an application for playing videos.

It would be inconvenient to have to move any video you want to play into your Movies folder so they show up in Front Row. They serve two purposes.

Front Row : Quicktime :: Windows Media Centre : Windows Media Player

I realize they have different features, and that the Windows ones are slightly more feature-rich, but I think you get the idea.

[grue]

I hope they don't completley screw up with the Final Cut Studio 2 apps. In particular Final Cut Pro 6 which depends on Quicktime.

FCS3 will need to be coming soon. The main reason myself and the people in my field that I've spoken to even give a damn about Snow Leopard is the idea of Compressor and other FCS apps talking to the GPU for assistance on video encoding. That'll require new versions.

Well, that and the useless PowerPC code being dumped.

[Winni]

Apple only sells upgrades. you have to upgrade from a previous version of Mac OS because all Macs included SOME version of Mac OS when they were new. Microsoft has to sell non upgrades to PC builders but Apple does not sell full installs except with new Macs.

That simply is not true and you know it. It clearly says "RETAIL" on my OS X Leopard box (and also on my OS X Tiger boxes) and it does NOT require a previously installed operating system to be installed, neither does it perform any "upgrade eligibility check".

The retail versions of OS X are FULL operating system versions that can be installed on ANY compatible computer that has NO software whatsoever on it.

In fact, an unmodified version of OS X Leopard can even be installed on compatible PCs or on PCs that have been made compatible through some running software (like this special Linux CD that loads the environment required for Leopard).

The truth is that Apple ONLY sells full operating system versions, and the only upgrade DVDs that Apple gives away come with a computer. My first generation Mac Mini originally came with Panther and Apple put a Tiger upgrade DVD into the package; but those upgrade DVDs are not for sale.

[wheelhot]

Yea, and I hope Apple introduced Aperture 3 alongside with GPU acceleration support and lower memory footprint :D

The thing that bugs me with Aperture so far is a huge resource hogger and that it performs inconsistently and sometime after adjusting the levels and etc. It will take quite long to apply the changes. So lets hope GPU acceleration will solve that problem.

[azaas]

That looks good ;) Love the new design and the interface seems to be moving in the right direction. A player optimized for playback with a clean and intuitive interface! The ability to single click your file and add it to your itunes or uploaded to mobile me is sweet as well ;) Anyway,once again Apple seems to be moving in the right direction with that one so smile everyone :)

ps: Now that MS seems to be getting back on track with 7 - even though i'll have to wait a bit and make sure that this is really the case - i really can't wait the day i will be running Snow Leopard and Win 7 side by side on my Mac :D

[Flavioparentiq]

Tiny pic has some screenshots:

Mouse over:
http://i40.tinypic.com/14ka69y.png

Mouse not over:
http://i44.tinypic.com/2chl40o.png

What that button next to the fullscreen button does:
http://i39.tinypic.com/euis02.png

You'll noticed that the naming schema of screenshots is no longer "Picture #.png" it's "Screenshot on [date] at [time].png"

Fake. Take a close look at the colored bubble on the top left angle of the player.. badly photoshopped

[jgbhardy]

I don't like.

The timer scale bar is too small - VLC is like that. In an hour and a half long movie, trying to find the precise point is a nightmare.

It should be as long as the whole thing, like in the current QuickTime..

Maybe they should make it like the DVD player but the bar disappears after a while.

[patriqq]

Fake. Take a close look at the colored bubble on the top left angle of the player.. badly photoshopped

What do you mean?

[richard.mac]

Tiny pic has some screenshots:

Mouse over:
http://i40.tinypic.com/14ka69y.png

Mouse not over:
http://i44.tinypic.com/2chl40o.png

What that button next to the fullscreen button does:
http://i39.tinypic.com/euis02.png

You'll noticed that the naming schema of screenshots is no longer "Picture #.png" it's "Screenshot on [date] at [time].png"

anyone notice that the Time Machine menu icon is dimmed? it currently doesnt do this :confused:.

EDIT: or is that when you just dont have Time Machine setup?

[kornyboy]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5H11 Safari/525.20)

I like the interface on the iPhone and when in full screen mode in QT Pro. I think this will be a really nice thing in QT X.

[Flavioparentiq]

What do you mean?

http://i40.tinypic.com/14ka69y.png

You can see the bubble's layer is not smoothly integrated with the black bar behind them, creating an awful greyish circle aroud them. Apple would never do anything that horrible :)

And besides, even the window corners black angles are not smoothly integrated with the background... Even I can do better :D

[Tallest Skil]

You can see the bubble's layer is not smoothly integrated with the black bar behind them, creating an awful greyish circle aroud them. Apple would never do anything that horrible :)

Notice the word "beta". They're not done yet.;)

[Flavioparentiq]

Notice the word "beta". They're not done yet.;)

Naaa.. Even on a "beta" apple wouldn't do that. I don't buy it :) Check the black corners AND the top black line between the window and the background

[Flavioparentiq]

And what about the sound volume in the quicktime windows? hahaha.. god that's awful!

[Tallest Skil]

And what about the sound volume in the quicktime windows? hahaha.. god that's awful!

What do you mean?

[Flavioparentiq]

What do you mean?

http://i40.tinypic.com/14ka69y.png

Check the volume icon inside the quicktime window, it's all waved out and the design is too "complicated". Not apple's style at all. Not even centered...

[Becordial]

I'm strongly in favour of having a few good platforms to work and, for that, improvements are to be congratulated.

However, I still find it difficult to get my head excited about using new iterations of Quick Time as a robust, dependable player for all types of media.

I can't help but think they've somewhat breached our trust, as users, with the constant codec issues and crippled functionality.

[Coroe]

Does Quicktime X finally play *.mkv Files? If not, fail.

[MrCrowbar]

Does Quicktime X finally play *.mkv Files? If not, fail.

Install Perian. Makes quicktime the best Player for Mac to play MKV with soft subtitles in them. MPlayer (what XBMC uses) uses less CPU, but some multi-line subs get messed up a little.

I just hope Perian and FlipForMac work well with Snow Leopard.

But I LOVE the black translucent title bar! Wouldn't mind having OSX's menu bar like this, white text on a dark translucent bar. Would be a neat extra besides "aqua" and "graphite". I know there's a lot of skinning apps out there, but the results are usually inconsistent and ugly...

I wonder if Arn has access to Snow Leopard builds through ADC but can't share with us because of the Non Disclosure Agreement. :p

[Coroe]

Mkay. But what I would really love, is the ability to administer my collection of *.mkv movies in iTunes, with nice scanned covers. There is no way to do that yet, is it?

[nuckinfutz]

FCS3 will need to be coming soon. The main reason myself and the people in my field that I've spoken to even give a damn about Snow Leopard is the idea of Compressor and other FCS apps talking to the GPU for assistance on video encoding. That'll require new versions.

Well, that and the useless PowerPC code being dumped.

Compressor does pretty good today with 8 core procs

http://www.barefeats.com/image08/tri08_comp.gif

Yea, and I hope Apple introduced Aperture 3 alongside with GPU acceleration support and lower memory footprint :D

The thing that bugs me with Aperture so far is a huge resource hogger and that it performs inconsistently and sometime after adjusting the levels and etc. It will take quite long to apply the changes. So lets hope GPU acceleration will solve that problem.

You mean better GPU performance. Aperture's used the GPU since day 1

[MrCrowbar]

Mkay. But what I would really love, is the ability to administer my collection of *.mkv movies in iTunes, with nice scanned covers. There is no way to do that yet, is it?

Yea... iTunes doesn't really handle video well. It's alright for music videos when played in the bottom left album art thingie. But video podcasts play like crap, take a few seconds to start playing, my Macbook hangs for a few seconds when I click the full screen button. I wish iTunes would just open videos in an external player, I don't even mind it being Quicktime. Right now I still use iTunes to get my video podcasts, but to play them, I right-click and "show in Finder", then play the bastard in VLC.

iTunes is seriously overloaded with features I don't really want... takes ages to load, too if you have a medium or large sized library. WMA and FLAC playback would be nice, too...

[grue]

Compressor does pretty good today with 8 core procs

http://www.barefeats.com/image08/tri08_comp.gif




There's always room for improvement.

I have an 8x3.0, and my 8800GT is, on paper, 3 times faster than all of my CPU cores combined.

[lftrghtparadigm]

You'll noticed that the naming schema of screenshots is no longer "Picture #.png" it's "Screenshot on [date] at [time].png"

Alleluia !!!!

How many folders full of picture 1 through 20 do we all have named 'screenshots x/x/x'

[lftrghtparadigm]

Compressor does pretty good today with 8 core procs

http://www.barefeats.com/image08/tri08_comp.gif



You mean better GPU performance. Aperture's used the GPU since day 1

Compared to whats coming it won't even seem like it ever did. ;)

[nubero]

@AUZBURNER, you got it wrong mate, it sounds that they stripping quicktime even more and that they make pro a necessity, shame really, very very bad apple to cripple us like this...

Just what I was thinking… This crippled Mickey Mouse Product Strategy really, really sucks.

[numbersyx]

I thought the addition of Pro features for free was an excellent idea. It would allow QT to flourish but sounds like Apple has gone back to its penny pinching ways. Shame.

[lftrghtparadigm]

Compressor does pretty good today with 8 core procs

http://www.barefeats.com/image08/tri08_comp.gif



You mean better GPU performance. Aperture's used the GPU since day 1

i've never seen that particular graph, but makes me sad :(

My iMac is superb for video encoding, but the the difference between it and an 8 core machine just makes you sigh.

But, despite the extra time involved, it can handle quite the load. On many occasions I've run a dozen conversions simultaneously on large, hour long files. iMac takes it like a champ. But its still a project that requires you "set it and forget it" for at least an hour or two.

[lftrghtparadigm]

Just what I was thinking… This crippled Mickey Mouse Product Strategy really, really sucks.

I thought the addition of Pro features for free was an excellent idea. It would allow QT to flourish but sounds like Apple has gone back to its penny pinching ways. Shame.

Just imagine if it gets separated and packaged with 1 or 2 "new features" (that were just missing features) in such a way that QTpro owners will have to repurchase. :eek:

[pigoz]

I don't really care a lot about the interface. I just want h264 decoding using the GPU.

[silverboy31]

Fake. Take a close look at the colored bubble on the top left angle of the player.. badly photoshopped

Not fake using the build right now

[twoodcc]

very nice! can't wait for snow leopard!

[bobertoq]

I love it! They could make the slider wider, but I really hope a similar interface is applied to the hole OS. In particular with scroll bars and other aqua elements. Can't wait to see them go.

[bommai]

Not if the licensing fee was thrown into the Snow Leopard price. In other words, Apple would be making less profit. But it would be a nice move.

That is not a good argument. If you thrown in the feature for everybody, Apple owes MPEG-LA for every copy of the OS sold. They don't want to fund MPEG-LA like that. That sounds too much like Microsoft. I would say only 20-30% of the people that buy the OS buy the pro version of quicktime.

[mdriftmeyer]

I don't like.

The timer scale bar is too small - VLC is like that. In an hour and a half long movie, trying to find the precise point is a nightmare.

It should be as long as the whole thing, like in the current QuickTime..

It should be user configurable.

[Flavioparentiq]

Not fake using the build right now

Really... that sucks.. :D Unibody style on the UI, we'll see

[Eminemdrdre00]

Not fake using the build right now

Don't mind him. He was probably calling the Mac Mini pictures fake too.

[aaquib]

Don't mind him. He was probably calling the Mac Mini pictures fake too.

:D

[bdkennedy1]

So if I mock-up a picture of OS X 10.7 I can make news stories all over the world? Sweet.

[Tallest Skil]

So if I mock-up a picture of OS X 10.7 I can make news stories all over the world? Sweet.

I realize that this is sarcasm, but you should have thought about what you were posting before you sarcalized it. :rolleyes:

Referencing, of course, the fact that 10.6 isn't even out yet.

[akac]

A screen shot tells us nothing. Perhaps a dialog box appears if you right click? How could you know be just seeing a screen shot?

I really do think they should split QT into two. Make one just a dumb media player and the other into the all purpose media swiss army knife. Wetter it is one or two apps is just superficial anyways. Other the GUI's skin it is all the same library functions where the work is done. That is not likely to change or lots of other apps get broken.

ITs already like this. Reading this thread is entertaining because people are mixing two different things together.

QuickTime is a system component and has no UI. It is what plays the videos, handles recording, etc... It has all the features you see in QuickTime Player Pro. But no UI for them. It is a development API. Everyone asking for more codecs, or better playback, or what not - this is what does it. This is what does the editing (though again no UI).

QuickTime X is a playback only completely optimized version of QuickTime and new in Snow Leopard. It has no editing features whatsoever. Just playback. Again - this has no UI.

The two above system components are called "QuickTime" and are what QuickLook, QT Player, and any app that plays movies on the Mac use. Those apps are the interfaces.

QuickTime Player (Leopard and before) This is the user interface that everybody knows and loves/hates. It uses QuickTime to do its job. When you buy "Pro", this is what you are buying because QuickTime already supports all that "Pro" provides without paying a dime. This app uses QT to do all its work, but its the interface.

QuickTime Player (Snow Leopard) This now uses QuickTime X. As such its a player only. Again, it is the user interface app that uses QuickTime X to do its job.

The reason that SL is using the new minimalist interface for "QT Player" is because now QT Player is just the interface for QuickTime X which is a pure video player - no editing in it at all. For editing, you have to use the old QuickTime.

[slu]

Has nobody figured out yet the direction Snow Leopard is going is very consistent with a multi-touch GUI ?..


My fantasy about a 8-10" handheld "iTV Mobile" device is getting closer and closer and closer and......

Keep dreaming. There is zero market for the device you describe. Nobody wants an iPod that you can't put in your pocket.

[slu]

Notice the word "beta". They're not done yet.;)

I would have imagined you would have also thought it was fake, given the Mac mini threads.:D

[Peace]

Keep dreaming. There is zero market for the device you describe. Nobody wants an iPod that you can't put in your pocket.

Just watch!! ;) There will be a market for this product.

Love the avatar btw..I'm goin to the Dead/Allmans/Doobies in May.

[Tallest Skil]

I would have imagined you would have also thought it was fake, given the Mac mini threads.:D

You can fake a single instance of hardware. You can't fake a feature of software that hundreds of people have.

[tkermit]

[...]The reason that SL is using the new minimalist interface for "QT Player" is because now QT Player is just the interface for QuickTime X which is a pure video player - no editing in it at all. For editing, you have to use the old QuickTime.

How do you explain this (http://images.appleinsider.com/quicktimexplayer090307-3.jpg), then ?
(Quoting 'Appleinsider': "the new player is also said to offer overlay controls for trimming, editing, and viewing scenes of a video like in iMovie")

[The General]

I just noticed som things in Snow Leopard:

When you create a selection pane on the desktop, when you release the mouse button the pane fades away. It just disappears immediately on Leopard. The blue "selection" look on selected icons also fades when deselecting.

Another GREAT thing is that you can finally right click and "remove" certain computers from your network sidebar in the finder. I can now remove all the duplicate "PCs" that are actually iMacs with SMB turned on. This is one of the best things since Exposé. I just wish it worked. You hit "Remove from Sidebar" and nothing happens, hopefully they fix it in the release.

Photobooth is back to being like Tiger, where it can be not-the-active-window and it still shows the camera video. In Leopard when you click away from Photobooth, it goes black and the camera turns off. It's pretty annoying.

Quicktime doesn't show the video playing anymore when minimized in the Dock like it used to in Tiger. I don't know why that is, but it's still like that in Snow Leopard. I wish it would continue to play the video in the Dock. It's not useful, it's just neato.

Preview has a new "Annotate" feature, allowing you to draw arrows, lines, and text to images. It's kind of like Skitch, only lamer and less powerful.

The "Put back" feature is nowhere to be found.

Photobooth records video now. I don't know if this is new. EDIT: It's not. Guess I just never noticed when going from Tiger to Leopard.

Front Row remains the same, it isn't like AppleTV take 2.

[MagnusVonMagnum]

SLI represents 1% of PC users, Blu-ray, 10%.

What's your point? Apple shouldn't support the latest technologies because the rest of the world hasn't yet replaced all their equipment yet? Blu-Ray is becoming standard on the PC and SLI is *AVAILABLE*. Apple has neither and trying to make excuses for their lack of vision and choices is getting old. Why not simply call a spade a spade and have a community push to get them to support those things instead of making excuses for them?

BTW, your 1% (if accurate) is 1% of the PC community. That's like saying 15% of the Mac community and for Blu-Ray 100% in sheer numbers.

[CmdrLaForge]

FCS3 will need to be coming soon. The main reason myself and the people in my field that I've spoken to even give a damn about Snow Leopard is the idea of Compressor and other FCS apps talking to the GPU for assistance on video encoding. That'll require new versions.

Well, that and the useless PowerPC code being dumped.

Well - I am a happy camper now with FCS2. These aren't the cheapest apps and I didn't intend to buy FCS3. Thats why I hope everything will work fine.

[neonblue2]

Sounds a lot like NicePlayer. I'm sure someone else has mentioned it before.

[MacFly123]

So does anybody know, is this supposed to be pronounced QuickTime EX, or QuickTime 10 like OS X???

[MacFly123]

Garage band has generally been it's own thing when it comes to the interface. Look at the previous version of garage band. As far as the title bar goes, Garage Band from iLife '09 is Leopard's standard grey vs the black title bar in '08. Both still retain the wood grain on the sides. I personally don't think either 08 or 09 are a precursor to what's to come.

It is so weird to me though. Steve himself and Apple talked all about how inconsistent the interfaces were and that Leopard would "fix" that and unify them all yet there are still sooo many inconsistencies and a lot of them are new that have gone against what Leopard did since they talked about making everything so unified.

Can you make up your mind Apple and just completely implement what you wanna go for?!?!?!?!?! :confused:

[grue]

So does anybody know, is this supposed to be pronounced QuickTime EX, or QuickTime 10 like OS X???

I'd normally make a crack about ordinal numbers here, but Steve Jobs doesn't give a crap if 8 and 9 come before 10.

[grue]

It is so weird to me though. Steve himself and Apple talked all about how inconsistent the interfaces were and that Leopard would "fix" that and unify them all yet there are still sooo many inconsistencies and a lot of them are new that have gone against what Leopard did since they talked about making everything so unified.

Can you make up your mind Apple and just completely implement what you wanna go for?!?!?!?!?! :confused:

Apple literally wrote the book on Human Computer Interaction. I know this because I had to read it when I was getting my degrees in human factors psychology.

Unfortunately, when it came time for OS X they threw the book on the ground, burned it, and put it out with poop.

[cms2]

(Agreeing with MacFly123, above) the new black title bar looks cool enough, if all 10.6 windows are black. On a related note, Why is Safari 4's title bar font different than the rest of OSX? I really, really hope someone remembers to unify everything before Snow Leopard launches. Tiger's 15 different themes annoyed me.

EDIT: is it reasonable to think that maybe Apple would be deliberately trying different window styles in preparation for an aqua makeover? I thought Snow Leopard was supposed to focus on under-the-hood stuff, so probably not. :p

[wrldwzrd89]

(Agreeing with MacFly123, above) the new black title bar looks cool enough, if all 10.6 windows are black. On a related note, Why is Safari 4's title bar font different than the rest of OSX? I really, really hope someone remembers to unify everything before Snow Leopard launches. Tiger's 15 different themes annoyed me.

EDIT: is it reasonable to think that maybe Apple would be deliberately trying different window styles in preparation for an aqua makeover? I thought Snow Leopard was supposed to focus on under-the-hood stuff, so probably not. :p
Apple's quite fond of matching Mac OS X releases to the current Mac hardware designs. This is one of the reasons the overall theme (or lack thereof) keeps changing. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see some minor UI tweaks in Snow Leopard. The new UI for QuickTime Player is a perfect example of this transformation - resembles the black border around the recent iMacs, and the LED Cinema Display, no?

[wheelhot]

You mean better GPU performance. Aperture's used the GPU since day 1

oh I didnt know that cause even with GPU performance, it still becomes dog slow at certain operation. To what extend it uses the GPU? Lets hope SL will make Aperture speed improve.

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Apple's quite fond of matching Mac OS X releases to the current Mac hardware designs. This is one of the reasons the overall theme (or lack thereof) keeps changing. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see some minor UI tweaks in Snow Leopard. The new UI for QuickTime Player is a perfect example of this transformation - resembles the black border around the recent iMacs, and the LED Cinema Display, no?

With all the changes they keep making, it seems like it'd be a good idea if they would work on a themes manager of some kind and at least let you pick which previous incarnation of the OS X look you prefer. Not all of us are using the latest hardware "looks" and so having the OS change to match something we don't have doesn't make much sense. OS X could have a unified theme manager of some kind. It doesn't matter if the only themes come from Apple so long as some choice is available. I personally kind of preferred the early Aqua look to these steel gun grey metal look everything has now. Even Tiger's drop down menus have a nice transparency lined with blue shaded grids that made it SO much easier to read quickly. But I guess that didn't fit in with the stark grey look they seem to like so much right now.

I certainly hope the final version of Safari 4 at least has preference pane options to select which type of tab system you prefer, etc. Having to do some obscure CLI thing is far from the Mac way of doing things. But that's what it seems to come down to when you don't like the ever-changing "Steve Way".

[wrldwzrd89]

With all the changes they keep making, it seems like it'd be a good idea if they would work on a themes manager of some kind and at least let you pick which previous incarnation of the OS X look you prefer. Not all of us are using the latest hardware "looks" and so having the OS change to match something we don't have doesn't make much sense. OS X could have a unified theme manager of some kind. It doesn't matter if the only themes come from Apple so long as some choice is available. I personally kind of preferred the early Aqua look to these steel gun grey metal look everything has now. Even Tiger's drop down menus have a nice transparency lined with blue shaded grids that made it SO much easier to read quickly. But I guess that didn't fit in with the stark grey look they seem to like so much right now.

I certainly hope the final version of Safari 4 at least has preference pane options to select which type of tab system you prefer, etc. Having to do some obscure CLI thing is far from the Mac way of doing things. But that's what it seems to come down to when you don't like the ever-changing "Steve Way".
I couldn't agree with you more, regarding themes, though I have a suspicion Apple's going to save the theme manager support for 10.7. As for your Safari point, I say that choice is good, though I have adjusted to the new interface already and so I'm not likely to experiment with these settings.

I think I'll just have to wait and see on the minimal UI for QuickTime Player in Snow Leopard. I don't know if I like it yet.

[Nightkrawler]

http://h4xr.org/jtzh
stacks showing the name of the folder in the title at the top
http://h4xr.org/jlf3

MP3 Trimming in new quicktime
http://h4xr.org/4n17

Exporting movies from new quicktime
http://h4xr.org/e9nx
http://h4xr.org/nbr0
- Application stack now by in the dock by default like documents/downloads
- Quicklook from "Open File" finder window works now :D
- File info window: File detail text can now be selected & copied.
- Perian still works in new Quicktime, just the prefpane isn't 64 bit and requires an restart of system preferences to open it.
- Its possible that old 2006 MBPs wont get 64 bit kernel support (64 bit apps do work) even they have a cpu that supports it (merom).

[Kilamite]

I like the Export option in QuickTime!

Wonder how good quality the exports are.. current exports are rubbish compared to VisualHub.

[Master Chief]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/03/07/snow-leopard-quicktime-x-interface-and-other-changes/)
With the latest seed of Mac OS X Snow Leopard, Apple has made dramatic changes to QuickTime Player in both interface and features.
I keep looking for the "dramatic changes" but can't really find anything that I'm overexcited about - the update is nice, but that's it.

[NT1440]

I keep looking for the "dramatic changes" but can't really find anything that I'm overexcited about - the update is nice, but that's it.

I would say going from the fugly chrome everywhere to a minimalistic UI is quite a change.

[Master Chief]

I would say going from the fugly chrome everywhere to a minimalistic UI is quite a change.
Don't get me wrong here, because I like the overall changes, but there's nothing to be over overexcited about - Apple should have done some of this work earlier IMHO.

[MacFly123]

Apple literally wrote the book on Human Computer Interaction. I know this because I had to read it when I was getting my degrees in human factors psychology.

Unfortunately, when it came time for OS X they threw the book on the ground, burned it, and put it out with poop.

(Agreeing with MacFly123, above) the new black title bar looks cool enough, if all 10.6 windows are black. On a related note, Why is Safari 4's title bar font different than the rest of OSX? I really, really hope someone remembers to unify everything before Snow Leopard launches. Tiger's 15 different themes annoyed me.

EDIT: is it reasonable to think that maybe Apple would be deliberately trying different window styles in preparation for an aqua makeover? I thought Snow Leopard was supposed to focus on under-the-hood stuff, so probably not. :p

Apple's quite fond of matching Mac OS X releases to the current Mac hardware designs. This is one of the reasons the overall theme (or lack thereof) keeps changing. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see some minor UI tweaks in Snow Leopard. The new UI for QuickTime Player is a perfect example of this transformation - resembles the black border around the recent iMacs, and the LED Cinema Display, no?

I know Apple is the guru of human interface design, but that is why it is so odd to me that there are so many inconsistencies that even I see and could do better at implementing!

It seems like they are matching the new GUI elements to the hardware but moreover it seems like they are mirroring the iPhone interface onto the Mac, almost as if in preparation for the MacTablet or something, or a new fully multi-touch interface a few years down the road.

Either way Apple, if you are getting rid of Aqua, just freaking finish getting rid of it for crying out loud and make up your mind if you want Marble or black.

Apple is by far years and years ahead of Windows and their 3rd party developers in consistent UI design but still, lets take it even a step further guys!

Oh, and I think that Snow Leopard will focus on under the hood, BUT... I really think that there will be plenty of new features and UI changes and that they set us up to expect only under the hood on purpose so as to relieve themselves from the pressure of features and what happened with Leopard.

Leopard was good for me from the beginning, but it was a bit buggy. I think they have it right this time, focus on performance and stability, and then add features as a nice surprise once the rest is taken care of.

[kunze50]

Roll or Mouse over controls are very acceptable but should not appear over the video when in window mode. Controls that fade and reappear around the perimeter in a window and slide to be over when in full screen make sense.

[Coroe]

http://h4xr.org/jtzh
Exporting movies from new quicktime
http://h4xr.org/e9nx


Looks like there will be no new AppleTV on March 24th. :(

[MrCrowbar]

Exporting movies from new quicktime
http://h4xr.org/e9nx

Can I still export the old way in Quicktime Pro? I like being able to select my codec and parameters. The defaults for youTube, iTunes, etc. usually give sub-bar results compared to manual settings. Visible keyframes, no 2-pass, audio out of sync etc.

I re-encode all the videos from my small Powershot camera as Quicktime Movie, H.264, current FPS, Automatic Keyframes with Frame Reordering, Data rate restricted to 6000 kbits/sec, optimized for Download, Best quality (Multi-Pass). This looks pretty close to the Motion JPEG that the camera delivers but 4 times smaller in file size. And it's quicktime compatible, so I can replace the videos in the iPhoto library by the re-encoded ones without losing the metadata. I'd hate to see that feature go...

[wheelhot]

Wow, me likey the new export feature and love the folder stacks cause so far I find it annoying that I can go beyond the folder. Schweet!

[Sky Blue]

Looks like there will be no new AppleTV on March 24th. :(

A made up event has no new made up product? surprising!

[Virgil-TB2]

I know Apple is the guru of human interface design, but that is why it is so odd to me that there are so many inconsistencies that even I see and could do better at implementing! ...What you are forgetting (and those you quoted also), is that UI changes all the time. The main reason Apple decided to go with Unix under the hood and their own graphics on top is they realised that the UI part of any OS is flexible and fluctuating.

They may have wrote the human user interface guidelines, but anyone familiar with their OS's can tell you they did not follow them to the letter even when they were writing them. There likely never will be a "set" appearance and many other groups of designers besides Apple have sat down and tried to codify what should or should not be in a UI with mostly the same shifting incomplete results.

Those guidelines were mostly written by a guy named Bruce Tognazzini who worked at Apple in the early days, but he's just a smart guy who knows a lot about design. It's not like his word is god or anything. He recently wrote an article about how Apple's UI's are too "flat," that they don't scale well and he's really mad at them for the direction they are going in.

Now you may agree with him or with Apple or neither, but there is no one "right way" here. IMO his latest writings read like a bunch of petulant nonsense despite the fact that he is a certified card-carrying genius. No one is right all the time.

Another "genius" pushing back against Apple UI decisions is John Gruber of Daring Fireball fame. He is leading the charge that "click-through" is somehow a horrible horrible thing and Apple should stop doing it. Again, to me, (and others of course) his argument is full of holes and total BS but being against click-through is very popular at the moment, so you will see a lot of writing around the web basically miming his ideas (which he actually borrowed from others anyway).

I guess I'm going on a bit here, but my point is that there is no "one way" with UI design and even the smartest best designers out there neither agree nor always make any sense themselves when criticising Apple's take on the same issues.

[cms2]

What you are forgetting (and those you quoted also), is that UI changes all the time. The main reason Apple decided to go with Unix under the hood and their own graphics on top is they realised that the UI part of any OS is flexible and fluctuating.



Absolutely. I think what I and others were arguing is that after some of Apple's past "anything goes" attitude and its resulting every-app-has-its-own-look mishaps, the fear is that Apple will change a bunch of different aspects of the UI and take it in a dozen different directions at once. If QT were black, but finder still gun-metal, and Mail transparent, and iChat in a pink window or something (obviously exaggerating) the overall look of the GUI would be ridiculous, as I felt (just my opinion) Tiger was.

I really don't care what direction Apple takes the UI, as long as it takes the whole UI there. Maybe I'm just anal, but I uninstalled Safari 4 because the font of the title bar was annoyingly out of sink with everything else in OSX.

::: CMS2 realizes that he cares too much about this stuff and blushes :o :::

[tkermit]

With all the changes they keep making, it seems like it'd be a good idea if they would work on a themes manager of some kind and at least let you pick which previous incarnation of the OS X look you prefer.

The groundwork (http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2007/10/mac-os-x-10-5.ars/10) certainly seems to have been laid, already. Don't get your hopes up, though.

[MagnusVonMagnum]

The groundwork (http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2007/10/mac-os-x-10-5.ars/10) certainly seems to have been laid, already. Don't get your hopes up, though.

That brings up a topic/question I haven't heard much about in some time, namely the long-touted but yet-to-be-seen resolution independence. I thought Leopard was supposed to bring it when it first arrived, but it hasn't surfaced. I haven't heard any rumors that it might make its appearance in Snow Leopard either, despite all the talk about internal tweaking instead of new features for it and the high odds that it will ditch PPC support (which means things like the Quad G5 will NEVER seen resolution independence). A LOT of time has passed and I'm afraid Apple has their priorities screwed up as usual. I've heard at least one rumor about Apple laying people off when in fact they are making record profits and should be hiring like mad to keep all their projects running full steam ahead. I'm guessing most of their people have been working on iPhone OS 3.0 (amazing how fast that device's OS and features have progressed in such short amounts of time while things like AppleTV just sit there collecting dust by comparison). Instead, OS projects get delayed, pet projects like AppleTV just sit there for the most part while the iPhone STILL gets all the attention and it'll only get worse if they do lay people off. Maybe they could start with their workforce in China....

I tried a program recently in OS X that uses a black/dark shiny style to its framework and it looks AWESOME. Frankly, I'd PREFER if OS X got away from that boring 'grey' look and went dark shiny black. I guess Vista already went that way to some degree so maybe they'd be afraid of copying its look for a change, but I can't help but feel black pages are easier on the eyes and just look slick. But like I said, if they'd just offer a theme manager, people could choose which look like the prefer. Just having old-school Aqua, Gun-Metal or Black options would be nice.

[Bye Bye Baby]

could be good. will just have to wait and see

[IronRoses]

Like Windows Vista... Hmm, I wonder who stole it from who? :) I bet Bill got it (like so many of his other ideas) from something in OS X... Yeah, maybe iPhoto. <shrug>


The New QT Player looks kinda like the current DVD Player app. ;)



+1

Agree completely!

I also care a little what it looks like though. :D

I agree to, make quicktime the vlc for os x for christ sakes. Make it free too.
Support for all free to use codecs, borderless widnows and for the love of god make it more responcive will you?

Then again it doesn't bother me if Apple limit features even more in Quicktime.
I'll just keep on using VLC

[Stormbringer]

I agree with that. The interface looks great, but please let them support "everything" so we can get rid of VLC.

And I also agree they should be consistent in the interface: 100% black or 100% aqua or whatever, as long it's not a mix. Because this overall consistency is one of the big things what make OSX great.

[MagnusVonMagnum]

I agree with that. The interface looks great, but please let them support "everything" so we can get rid of VLC.

And I also agree they should be consistent in the interface: 100% black or 100% aqua or whatever, as long it's not a mix. Because this overall consistency is one of the big things what make OSX great.

Let me see if I have this right. You think VLC is great yet you can't wait to get rid of it? What a slap in the face of the VLC developers.... :eek:

Maybe it's Quicktime that needs to go. It's outdated, supports diddly-squat that isn't Apple and makes a brand new Mac Pro feel like a Mac Plus. Actually, most of Apple's software does that. iPhoto is ungodly slow. Just watch Finder try to show previews of WMV videos with the Flip4Mac plugin for Quicktime. It's like watching paint dry and then since OS X doesn't permanently buffer the results, it resets all the time and then the paint has to dry all over again. It's a bit faster for M4V files, but hardly fast. XNView on Windows shows previews for all the files INSTANTLY and it's 3rd party software. The Linux file viewer Konqueror shows them about 5x faster, but not instantly. Windows shows most formats immediately as well. Why is Apple's software so darn slow? I hope Snow Leopard works on efficiency because too many OS X routines LACK there.

[Stormbringer]

Where did you get that I said VLC is great? I said that it plays "everything", and that's why I use it.

Besides of the interface and other stuff, I want the "native" Apple-products to be the best. Simply because you're done when you install OSX, and you don't have a couple of apps which actually do the same but are a bit different.

So even if VLC was the best thing in the world and the developers have done thousands of hours of research and let us download it for free, I'd still like that the Apple stuff would be better. Not because I don't appreciate the guys from VLC or any other company.

If I'd buy a Mercedes I wouldn't like to buy a TomTom because the internal navigation system is a bit less good, or extra dim lights because Mercedes' lights aren't enough. Same thing with a Mac.

Harmony and simplicity.

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Where did you get that I said VLC is great? I said that it plays "everything", and that's why I use it.

I guess you were referring to Quicktime then when you said "it" looks great? Maybe you should write clearer. You said you agreed with the previous poster who was talking about VLC so how can you tell which one you were referring to without already knowing it?


Besides of the interface and other stuff, I want the "native" Apple-products to be the best.


Wanting something to be the best and getting something to be the best are two different things. It's more like wishful thinking.


Simply because you're done when you install OSX, and you don't have a couple of apps which actually do the same but are a bit different.


In other words, you don't want to install 3rd party software, but use a Mac like an "appliance" where it only does what Apple approves/sells/includes? Do you use any 3rd party software or do you just wish Apple would make games and everything else as well?


If I'd buy a Mercedes I wouldn't buy a TomTom because the internal navigation system is a bit less good, or extra dim lights because Mercedes' lights aren't enough. Same thing with a Mac.

Harmony and simplicity.

I think a better comparison would be to say you want whatever radio Mercedes includes with their car even if it's sub-standard like most car manufacturer's stereo systems are (very very few are any good and Bose is not a great brand despite their own horn-tooting). You WISH it came with a great stereo system because you don't want to install a great one yourself, but so far they just won't deliver what you're wishing for. Although, most manufacturer's in-dash GPS suck too and they're VERY VERY expesnive options on most cars ($1000-2000 for something a $200 Garmin does 3x better).

You see I just install whatever works/sounds best and be on my way. My WRX's stereo was "ok" that came with the car. It matched the interior well and it had an in-dash 6-disc CD changer. But my 3rd party replacement has Bluetooth, HD-Radio and Satellite options and a USB port that can take a $28 16GB micro-USB stick and play AAC, MP3 and WMA songs (holds just a "bit" more music than 6 CDs, even at 256kbps rates... about 5-6x more). It's also the same size and so it looks just as good, if not better than the stock radio. And I'm not buying a new car just to get a better stereo.

For the Mac, it's the same thing. I could use Safari, but it sucks in so many areas (extensions mostly) so I use Firefox. iTunes is useful so I use it. Time Machine is annoying (no choice about when and what to back up) so I use Carbon Copy Cloner. Choice is good.

[Cave Man]

Wanting something to be the best and getting something to be the best are two different things. It's more like wishful thinking.

Yeah, this pretty much sums up Quicktime. It's pathetic how pathetic it is.

[Stormbringer]

I guess you were referring to Quicktime then when you said "it" looks great? Maybe you should write clearer. You said you agreed with the previous poster who was talking about VLC so how can you tell which one you were referring to without already knowing it?You're right, sorry about that. I was referring to Quicktime.

Wanting something to be the best and getting something to be the best are two different things. It's more like wishful thinking.Of course it is wishful thinking. But isn't that what we all do?


In other words, you don't want to install 3rd party software, but use a Mac like an "appliance" where it only does what Apple approves/sells/includes? Do you use any 3rd party software or do you just wish Apple would make games and everything else as well?Yes, in a perfect world, Apple (or whatever brand is "best") would do everything and that it would be the best so that you don't have to look elsewhere if you need it. That's too good to be true off course, but in this case with Quicktime where they already provide an app, it is not impossible that it would be the "best" (or at least very good). So that is why I was hoping it would be able to play anything like VLC does, but with it's own great interface. Not that I'm against 3rd party stuff, but I just don't like to have multiple apps that do the same. And the Apple stuff is already there, plus it's in harmony with the whole system. So all these things make me want to be Quicktime "the best".


I think a better comparison would be to say you want whatever radio Mercedes includes with their car even if it's sub-standard like most car manufacturer's stereo systems are (very very few are any good and Bose is not a great brand despite their own horn-tooting). You WISH it came with a great stereo system because you don't want to install a great one yourself, but so far they just won't deliver what you're wishing for. Although, most manufacturer's in-dash GPS suck too and they're VERY VERY expesnive options on most cars ($1000-2000 for something a $200 Garmin does 3x better).Sorry, again I made a mistake (there are two other languages which are more native to me). I meant "I wouldn't LIKE to buy other stuff because the original Mercedes stuff is not good enough". You're comparison is exactly what I was trying to say though.

(Btw, I agree about Bose and that a $200 Garmin is better than the expensive in-dash GPS, though I prefer TomTom.)

[richard.mac]

Heres (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb4SrJwDmp4) the new QuickTime X interface if anyone is interested? Mods feel free to delete this post if i am waging the rules.

the author of the video has many other videos in his channel that show other new Snow Leopard things. looking to be really good!

[avidmacuser]

Does anyone know how QT X will be able to do HTTP live streaming? Is this handled through the QuickTime Player and through what means / application is the live video (lets say iSight camera) handled. An example setup scenario would be greatly appreciated too for this info. thx in advance.