Mac OS X Leopard 9A581's Dock Visual Tweaks

[yetanotherdave]

Good to know, although how is this "much faster" than clicking an icon on a dock?

-Zadillo

Quicksilver, press 4 or 5 keys, application is launching. Time taken, about 0.5 seconds.

Dock, take hand off keyboard, move to mouse, locate item in dock, click it, move hand back to keyboard. Time taken 2 seconds.
That's 4 times faster.

 

[kap91]

Now this I like!

I never minded the 3D shelf, at the bottom OR the sides, but it did take up a bit more space on the screen (unless you use smaller icons or hide the dock). This new side-dock looks like it takes about the same space as the old one. Nice.

It seems odd to me that people keep thinking this. I have said before in other threads that if you actually take a screenshot of the Leopard 3D dock, place it next to the tiger dock, and make sure that the icons are the same size you will see that the Leopard dock is actually a few pixels shorter than the tiger dock. The Leopard dock takes up less space.

 

[TheSpaz]

Not that it bothers me, per se, but how difficult is it to have a setting in Dock Prefs that offers this level of control? Simple toggle boxes. Or more iPhone "ON/OFF" sliders. Whatever.

Since moving from 9 to X, I feel I have less control over my environment than at any time I have used a Mac (since '91).

Maybe I'm just snippy about the Rockies ticket fiasco...

I agree with you. It sucks to be forced into these changes all the time. They hardly ever offer an on/off switch for any of their GUI changes, so people either upgrade and deal with it or don't upgrade and deal with software being incompatible with their Systems or not using their computer's true processing power.

I can't wait for the minor features/enhancements and the speed boost.

 

[frozentoast]

Good to know, although how is this "much faster" than clicking an icon on a dock?

-Zadillo

Your cursor is not always hovering over icons in the dock is it? I assume you do some work. QS cuts out having to navigate with the mouse to a location to click - it's instantaneous wherever you are.

 

[zioxide]

would it be that hard for them to add a radiobox in system prefs to allow people to use that at the bottom too?

stupid ass apple

 

[MBX]

This is so much prettier than the clunky looking 3d glass dock!

I wish this look option was available for bottom too!

PLEASE APPLE, make it available in a next leopard update.

 

[Cloudsurfer]

I wish they would stop wasting their time on the dock. Who the hell uses the dock? It's like people who use the 'Start' menu in Windows. It's all fluff and for show.

Uh..., well, considering apps open and minimize in the dock anyway, I'd say it isn't really something you can just ignore.

And I'm certainly not ever going to live only by Spotlight.

 

[dogtanian]

Anyone think Apple are going to slip in loads of ON/OFF iPhone style sliders into the OS so that it works well with a full sized Multitouch display they're planning for...?

Radio boxes are clearly more effective in a mouse driven interface as you don't have to click, hold, and drag in the right direction. All points to multi-touch baby!!!!!

 

[age234]

Unless you're performing brain surgery or docking the Space Shuttle remotely through your Mac, does the 1.5 seconds or whatever of dock vs Quicksilver really matter enough to even discuss it?

 

[tkn]

I'm glad they did this, but did they add an option to the dock prefs to switch between the two looks? I think if people want to use the 3D on the side or the 2D on the bottom they should be able to choose to.

This isn't linux, and that would just be an annoying pref to have. Better that they hadn't made the 3D dock in the beginning, but adding a pref is even worse. Frankly I prefer Jobs's my way or the highway approach to interface design.

 

[LoganT]

It's called a dock, it just seems to make sense that it would be on the bottom.

 

[HLdan]

Now, if we just had "fan out" stacks even with the Dock on the side, I would run out of things to complain about. XD

Somehow I doubt that.

 

[runplaysleeprun]

I've used clear dock for so long, I don't know how to feel about the new look...

 

[TheSpaz]

This isn't linux, and that would just be an annoying pref to have. Better that they hadn't made the 3D dock in the beginning, but adding a pref is even worse. Frankly I prefer Jobs's my way or the highway approach to interface design.

Hey... so you hate choices... why should we all suffer with Job's "My way or the highway" approach? Did you realize that people have different tastes for what looks good and what doesn't? Why not let those people decide what they want to look at all day... I mean, it's their eyes and they have to deal with looking at it while they work... so let them have choices!

On a side note: QuickSilver is extremely annoying and does not improve my workflow. The Dock is ALWAYS right there where I need it and it's easy to access. And as for switching Apps, I just press cmd-tab. I like having my Dock icons in plain view all the time and when I need something, I can get it super quick because I don't have to press a cmd for a window to pop up and then find what I'm looking for and then open it... that seems like a longer way to something.

 

[MBX]

This isn't linux, and that would just be an annoying pref to have. Better that they hadn't made the 3D dock in the beginning, but adding a pref is even worse. Frankly I prefer Jobs's my way or the highway approach to interface design.

I prefer to have options as every individual is different. If someone doesn't like the 3d-looking dock, why not build in the option to switch to the dark transparent one that is now available for the side?

i'm sure it's not a big deal for apple to do that. but i find it a little arrogant to not give people these options. even windows has more than 1 theme built in.

 

[frozentoast]

Unless you're performing brain surgery or docking the Space Shuttle remotely through your Mac, does the 1.5 seconds or whatever of dock vs Quicksilver really matter enough to even discuss it?

If you could place your entire machines contents on your dock then of course...

 

[HLdan]

I wish they would stop wasting their time on the dock. Who the hell uses the dock? It's like people who use the 'Start' menu in Windows. It's all fluff and for show.

Who in hell doesn't use the Dock? That's where the apps are. How else you would you launch apps? If you do it through the Finder it's an extra step. If you do it through Spotlight, again an extra step. If you place aliases on the desktop for quick launch then you might as well use the Dock. Stacks is like the Start Button in Windows without all the extra fluff. The Dock rocks!

 

[milo]

Your cursor is not always hovering over icons in the dock is it? I assume you do some work. QS cuts out having to navigate with the mouse to a location to click - it's instantaneous wherever you are.

Sure, it cuts out the work of having to move the mouse to the dock, but adds the work of moving your hand to the F13 key. That's not instantaneous either. Maybe if you assigned a keyboard shortcut that was closer to reach. I'd almost say using spotlight would be quicker depending how fast you type.

I can see why apple doesn't want to have prefs for every little graphical option. They want a consistent user interface on macs. I'm sure the option is hidden in the OS but just doesn't have a pref for it, some third party (cocktail?) will figure it out.

 

[Clive At Five]

Awesome!!!! It's so good when Apple listen to us. Microsoft never listened to people like this (in my opinion).

I love it when they listen to the users. That's who they develop for anyways.

That looks nice.

It's nice when Apple listens.

Three out of the first three comments in this thread are saying the same thing, now it's my turn:

MID.

RANGE.

TOWER.

Got it?

Excellent.

Nice dock, btw. I like it.

-Clive

 

[milo]

Three out of three of the first comments in this thread are saying the same thing, now it's my turn:

MID.

RANGE.

TOWER.

Got it?

Excellent.

Nice dock, btw. I like it.

-Clive

Gotta love the threadjack. And amen to the midtower.

The OS update is looking pretty good, I wonder when Apple will start listening to their customers about desktop hardware?

 

[Much Ado]

MID.

RANGE.

TOWER.

+ Proper graphics cards in MBP/MP
+ Updated Apple TV w. 5.1 surround sound etc.
+ Ultraportable Laptop
+ Sir Ian McKellan on the board of directors
+ Timeline in iMovie '08
+ Free dotmac
+ Better dotmac

We could go on for hours Good to know Apple are at least listening, though.

I love the dock now from all...err...angles, by the way.

 

[Steflinsky]

Super

je le trouve pas top class le doc du Leopard, mais la c 'est mieux ...non.. mais pourquoi vous repondez pas??

 

[Simmerl]

Quicksilver, press 4 or 5 keys, application is launching. Time taken, about 0.5 seconds.

Dock, take hand off keyboard, move to mouse, locate item in dock, click it, move hand back to keyboard. Time taken 2 seconds.
That's 4 times faster.

What makes you think I have my hands on the keyboard all the time?

Anyway, I use QS for a lot more tasks than launching apps.
Apple should really integrate it into OS X.

 

[Kebabselector]

Gotta love the threadjack. And amen to the midtower.

Midtower, yes please. Dock happy with it as it is. If it changes i'll get used to it.

 

[MacsRgr8]

What makes you think I have my hands on the keyboard all the time?

Don't let's get this thread dirty...