Snow Leopard to Bring Unifying 'Marble' User Interface?

[MacRumors]

Last year, Apple announced that they will be releasing the next major revision of Mac OS X (10.6 Snow Leopard) in 2009. The focus of Snow Leopard has been on performance and quality of the underlying codebase rather than introducing new end-user features.

Based on our sources, however, Apple will apparently use Snow Leopard's release to tweak the overall user interface for Mac OS X and unify it across applications. Exact details of the theme changes have not been made public, as the current developer seeds for Snow Leopard still retain Apple's existing Aqua theme. The new theme will likely involve tweaks to the existing design and perhaps a "flattening" of Aqua in-line with Apple's iTunes and iPhoto interface elements.

The codename for the new interface is said to be "Marble" -- though that seems likely to be an internal codename only. John Gruber had also hinted at such changes in a pre-Macworld prediction piece and had independently heard the codename "Marble".

Apple's Snow Leopard is rumored to be released as early as the first quarter of 2009.

Article Link: Snow Leopard to Bring Unifying 'Marble' User Interface?

[Sky Blue]

Sounds good. Impatiently waiting for 10.6.

Looks like a summer release

[mgpg89]

Would probably be a welcome change ... Getting pretty bored of the Aqua UI lately.

[Lesser Evets]

Sounds like a rumor.

[Shasterball]

As long as they focus on performance upgrades! I think an O/S release to streamline is a great idea...

[Shasterball]

Originally Posted by Lesser Evets

Sounds like a rumor.

Hence the title of the website?

[mgpg89]

Originally Posted by Lesser Evets

Sounds like a rumor.

No way? On MacRumors.com ?

[thefunkymunky]

Aqua is starting to look dated compared with the likes of the iPhone interface and Windows 7. It needs to be updated for Snow Leopard.

[bmcgrath]

I'm always up for a change.

[prequal995]

Is it possible the new iMac is getting a delayed release so that it can ship with Snow Leopard?

[applefan69]

I would love a new UI to keep things fresh...

but lets not forget how dissapointed we all were when leopard started up for the first time, with regular old aqua.

Although i DO agree this time, because I installed the new iWork... and it follows an "itunes-like" theme

i also imagine the new iLife will too

it only makes sense now.

[mgpg89]

Originally Posted by prequal995

Is it possible the new iMac is getting a delayed release so that it can ship with Snow Leopard?

Very unlikely.

[motulist]

iTunes' appearance is boring and unattractive (imo), but as long as the next version of OS X very significantly improves performance and quashes long-standing bugs, then I wouldn't care is they applied one of the MS Windows 3.1 custom color themes.

[geerlingguy]

Pix or it didn't happen.

[miketcool]

Apple really should be aware that Marble can be quarried in ways that aren't environmentally sustainable. Depending on the quarry, Marble can also contain high levels of radon as well. They really should stick to highly polished metals or possibly Corian.

[thejadedmonkey]

Using windows 7, I can attest to just how dated the OS X theme is. Hopefully Apple will allow users to customize the theme as well.

[YMark]

Originally Posted by mgpg89

Very unlikely.

I'm saying very likely.

[Whiternoise]

Originally Posted by prequal995

Is it possible the new iMac is getting a delayed release so that it can ship with Snow Leopard?

Where would be the business logic in that?

Much better to fleece early adopters for the upgrade!

[h.21]

Of course this is going to happen. Proof has already started showing up in the dev seeds, if I'm not mistaken. UI unification has been a long time coming.

[soLoredd]

This would be great if it's true. I'm not super high on the iTunes look but if they can get the entire UI to match, I'm more for that than having this mismash of stuff.

[jimmueller]

If they keep the Sidebar, then I hope they return it to the freedom of Tiger. Losing the ability to resize it and hide it separately from the Toolbar has stopped us from moving users' machines from Tiger to Leopard - their choice, after trying it out for several weeks.

[Theophany]

Originally Posted by miketcool

Apple really should be aware that Marble can be quarried in ways that aren't environmentally sustainable. Depending on the quarry, Marble can also contain high levels of radon as well. They really should stick to highly polished metals or possibly Corian.

Indeed! Despite this, though, the new iMac will be made entirely from a combination of mercury, uranium, polonium 210 and lead. I can't wait to lick it.

[~Shard~]

Originally Posted by Whiternoise

Where would be the business logic in that?

Much better to fleece early adopters for the upgrade!

Exactly, that makes far better business sense. If I were Apple I would try and extract the maximum amount of $$$ from consumers I could.

I've never had an issue with the Aqua UI but a change would deifnitely be welcome. I'd like to see some screenshots of the new interface first though before deciding if I like it or not.

[MacBoobsPro]

This is weird. Just the other day I was looking at the new iLife/iWork pages and noticed Apple changing the appearance of windows etc. There seems to be a lot more black transparent floating windows and a more refined app 'tool bar' to their latest stuff. Maybe a nod to whats in store.

[the vj]

Nice, specially taking care of the coding. Leopard is very reliable for me, actually as reliable as the rest of the other versions.

I still do not get the Find File window, the panther version was more intuitive.