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Apple Updates iWork, iMovie, and GarageBand With Refreshed Icons and Designs for macOS Big Sur
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I think both Forstall and Ive had a point. Forstall was pushing the bubbly realism too far, and it was becoming a bit out of style. Jonny Ive pushed them hard in the other direction, and it led to some great design, but he took it too far and it became a bit ugly at times too. Today I feel like we're seeing an Apple that's happy to balance both of these design languages. No need to make everything complex and realistic, and no need to avoid realism at all costs.
I just love the posts of "Those icons suck" "They are the worst crap ever". Only because it's Apple would anyone say such crap. Those icons are beautiful. And if the icons hurt your eyes so bad then there's always Windows 10's super amazing, super beautiful and super innovative UI if you can't handle it.
Ok, I’ll just say it — these are the ugliest icons I‘ve seen to date. What is going on here? Is it an icon or a how to guide? Are these spreadsheets in the background I see?
Well then you basically addressed your own question.
If it's not working from the system menu, try going to the Big Sur page on the Apple site and click Update Now. I was getting update fails all over the place, but it seems to be working through that method now (although I'm not sure why it would make any difference).
Garageband is an amazing piece of software but if youre not a music person then i can see why it wouldn't be interesting to you
Garage Band is great, especially for beginners and the less inclined - it's basically the iMovie of audio editing, where Logic is the FCP. Enthusiasts will probably get into Logic or Ableton, etc, but not everyone has the time or need or willingness to learn what it takes to use those properly.
I believe Big Sur changes a lot of the ways MacOS handles audio. I don't know why that wouldn't also affect iMovie, but I've heard that a lot of popular audio-based apps aren't ready for Big Sur yet specifically because of those changes. That's just what I've read/heard though, I may be wrong.
I get that but if that was truly the case then iMovie wouldn't be compatible with Catalina as well and we know that it is as i just updated iMovie on Catalina
I'm all set. I changed my MacBook Pro's DNS from my ISP's to CloudFlare's — at least until it was done downloading.
I, too, am not a music person... or at least a person with music talent. But I do remember loving making (royalty-free) loop-based songs with Soundtrack, back in the day. (They all ended up more or less aping the Lemon Jelly schtick of just layering on more and more loops, but hey, what a great schtick that was!
So of course Apple cancelled Soundtrack 🙄. But seemingly, every few years when I get and set up a new Mac, I inevitably download GarageBand (because hey, it’s Apple, and it’s free), and optimistically think it’s “oh, it’s got loops and sorta looks like Soundtrack, so why don’t I make a song with it.”
But whether it’s a total UI fail on GarageBand’s part (this is my presumption), or I don’t get how GarageBand is fundamentally different than Soundtrack was (aside from having greater capabilities for live instruments), or if GarageBand just isn’t designed to make loop-only songs at all, or maybe I’m just in a different place than I was 15 years ago... I’ve found myself on multiple, deja-vu occasions saying “Oh, this isn’t working; I give up. Man, I sure do miss Soundtrack.”
So long story short, yeah, dwalt, your experience does sound sort a bit like mine.
I certainly presume GarageBand is perfectly fine, or maybe better than that, for those who do use it. And that’s great if that’s the case, and that group is satisfied. But that group, evidently, doesn’t include ol’ I-just-want-to-monkey-around-with-it-and-make-something-neat talentless me. Soundtrack, however, was great for stuff like that. Man, I sure do miss Soundtrack.
Not for Logic Pro, that's installing fine for me on Catalina. I assume the same is true for FCP being part of the Pro Apps bundle, but I don't have it on this system.
Requiring Big Sur for GarageBand seems weird.
The new iWork icons are pretty poor, particularly Numbers. I don't mind the rounded square standardisation, but the better conversions are the likes of Xcode and GarageBand, where they allow elements a bit more room. Otherwise you're just squashing down identifying elements of the icon into the square, making them harder to identify.
I vehemently echo ALL the sentiments above.
I just don't understand how Big Sur is more powerful, we have current and now brand new Macs with incredible graphical performance. Why the HELL is Apple giving us years old 'flat' design UI icons?! Are they afraid anything with any drop shadows will bog down the system and user experience? Like seriously?!
YUCK ... whomever designed this icons needs to be fired! Anyone coming to Apple Mac's sees this software icons is NOT going to be enticed to use it ... it' looks like chicken scratch!
Is Apple contracting icon design from Jony Ive still? Oh wait I had forgotten the UI design lead behind Big Sur worked under Jony Ive. Was this his thank you for being nominated for top job after his departure?
Icons matter less than the functionality of the apps. I care most about that.
That's because they are preparing to merge iPadOS with MacOS, even if all they do is deny it. iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard, switching Macs to ARM, subtle design language changes, running mobile apps on Mac... the merge is coming.
Cheers. I actually was able to fix it by opening the App Store and selecting Store > Reload Page.
Seems it didn't want to do it itself.
Personally, I don’t have any fundamental problem with the convergence of the 2 (or 3 or 4 or whatever, if we count all the flavors of iOS) OSes (especially given that they’ll both be running on closely-related hardware before to all)... and long as the result doesn’t suck.
Easier said than done, of course, so that’s why I’m just volunteering to say it at this point.