Mac OS X Lion: 'Classic' Mail View Available, New Finder on Video

[dolph0291]

Agreed

Really? This graphic designer is going to really miss the color in the sidebars and throughout the OS as well. I think they've done a fine job elsewhere, but it's no secret that you do tie placement of objects and associations in memory to color. I know my Macintosh HD is gray, my iDisk is blue and my external RAID is orange. I know this and don't have to read it before I click, I know what it is and where it is because of color. I know my folders are blue, my link for a specific file I reference multiple times daily is orange, my downloads folder is a green circle, and so on and so on.

If color isn't such a big deal, why don't all the Adobe CS5 icons come in one color? According to you, us designers don't appreciate the color associations, they can all be gray! We just need to take a second and read the icon! No need to associate the burnt-orange square with Bridge, the bright orange one for Illustrator, the purple one for InDesign, the blue one for Photoshop or the green one for Dreamweaver. Let's not forget about the red one for Flash! These are all visual identities that are completely removed when you get rid of color.

Shape also plays into this, and is something I'm getting angrier and angrier about from Apple. I have to keep Safari, iTunes, QuickTime and the Mac App Store in completely different sections of the dock. THEY ALL LOOK THE SAME, THEY'RE BLUE CIRCLES!

I'm all for a clean look, but going for completely sterile? Not so much.

I completely agree. I'm forever switching to Safari when I need iTunes, and vice versa. Or the App Store. Using Colors as labels or identifiers is a tried and true method. I'm sad that we're being deprived of it.

 

[keruah]

Why can't Apple make it easy to do something like that? I feel like I spend half my time resizing/repositioning windows. I have better things to do! I don't want more manual resizing options..I don't want to have to worry about manually resizing!

Zoom button.

 

[cyda]

any mirrors available?

 

[MGrizam]

This is pretty funny.

The OS is supposed to fade into the background. I don't need electric blue start menus with a multi color logo encased in a gel circle to fell like my OS has "evolved."

When I am doing work or anything for that matter, I don't care about my OS. It needs to enable me to do things and not distract me.

Everyone is so concerned with aesthetics and not practicality these days. I am glad you are not a UI designed on the Mac OS team.

Actually Calderone the lack of colour actually slows things down as it takes longer to mentally ID folders... so yes practicality is EXACTLY the issue.

 

[mrpither]

Please

has anyone with the new mail app tried it out with gmail? does it work better than the current mail app?

(please say yes)

TIA!

 

[AnonMac50]

has anyone with the new mail app tried it out with gmail? does it work better than the current mail app?

(please say yes)

TIA!

I think someone said yes earlier on in this thread.

 

[meagain]

LOL There's not been one video I've been able to see before it gets pulled.

 

[jowie]

One thing I hope they steal from Windows 7, is the dragging a window to the side of the screen, and it fills the entire half of the screen.

Get HyperDock, it does that and a load of other Windows 7-style stuff. It's great.

 

[manu chao]

I saw an older version of iTunes on a friends computer yesterday, and it looked so childish and outdated to me because of the color icons in the sidebar. You'll get used to it. I for one welcome the change, as it removes visual clutter and creates consistency, something Apple has always strived for.

Funny that the iTunes Store team did not get the message yet:

And the toolbar icons in the Finder preferences are still coloured, as are list of options what to display in the sidebar.
The Finder sidebar is not as important regarding colour since most people will not have too many categories of folders in it (and there is the existing divisions into Devices, Shared, and Places etc.).
But if they take out all colour from the System Preferences, akin to what they did with iTunes Preferences, they would be overreaching themselves.

 

[jowie]

This is now in Lion (it asks you if you would like to merge or replace).

Really????

 

[jowie]

I'm also beginning to wonder how much longer we will be seeing Intel processors in Apple's computers considering the company now has the means to design their own and may be building the means to manufacture them as well.

I think it's a bit more complicated than that. Apple's chips work on a third-party architecture (ARM) and are designed for low power. Intel have decades of experience in design, architecture and manufacture of chips designed for power. I don't think Apple are really set up to compete. Intel are doing a fine job, it's not like back when Apple needed to jump ship from PPC. So long as Intel carry on the way they are, I don't see much point in Apple taking this on.

 

[blackpond]

It IS a big deal. Everything in Lion is actually a very big deal. And you thinking that the launchpad is the "same" like opening a finder window in fullscreen means you are missing the whole philosophy behind Lion and what it is trying to accomplish.

It is okay though, in a couple of years you will find out.

Why wait a couple of years? You clearly understand the philosophy. Care to explain?

 

[jowie]

Apple has explained why cut and paste doesn't exist in the Finder. It's all about the logic of it.

Could you tell me when Apple said this? I'm interested in finding out more... Thanks.

 

[manu chao]

Could you tell me when Apple said this? I'm interested in finding out more... Thanks.

My personal logic was always that when you cut file(s) and then get distracted (by an email, a phone call) and forget to paste them but instead go ahead and cut other things, you've deleted your files.

 

[jowie]

As for sliders vs. buttons, I suppose the non-greyed-out B, I and U things here mean that the text is not bold, italicized or underlined, while the non-greyed-out left-alignment thing means that the text is left-aligned, right? I hope that whatever they do, they will make the interface consistent throughout the OS and the applications.

Very good point you have there. Apple have made it inconsistent. Either they make all buttons "up" for selected, or none.

If they're going to keep the "slider" idea, they need to make it look more like a slider. Everything about it graphically screams WRONG.

 

[AidenShaw]

My personal logic was always that when you cut file(s) and then get distracted (by an email, a phone call) and forget to paste them but instead go ahead and cut other things, you've deleted your files.

Windows has solved this already, possibly before you were born....

When you "cut", file explorer (finder) hides the files.

When you "paste", they're moved to the new directory.

If you don't "paste", the hidden files become unhidden - they're not lost.

This is so obvious Microsoft probably didn't even bother patenting it.

 

[jowie]

My personal logic was always that when you cut file(s) and then get distracted (by an email, a phone call) and forget to paste them but instead go ahead and cut other things, you've deleted your files.

But this isn't how Cut-Paste works on Windows. You cut the original files and they fade slightly. If you never paste anywhere, the move isn't completed and so nothing happens. If you try to cut something elsewhere, the original files are forgotten and the new files are put into the cut "buffer".

Seriously folks, use Windows! There's *nothing* insecure about cut/paste at all. In fact, the only time I've had serious file loss in a file/folder move action, it was on a MAC

 

[jowie]

Lack of folder merging caught me out a few times, and each time I seriously considered changing OS's.

Like a bashed puppy I now have paranoid habits of folder dragging, that I honestly shouldnt have. Its the biggest set back as an OSX user for me.

Well it sounds like they've FINALLY sorted out probably my biggest gripe in Lion, which - if it works just as expected - will win me over completely.

Just a shame I have no home machines that are new enough to run Lion

 

[jowie]

does Flash work on it or do i have to boot into windows? my wife is bugging me for a MBP and running Flash is a requirement

Aw man that is funny. I mean, I know you were being serious, but it makes you think, doesn't it...

(and yes I should bloody hope it runs Flash, or my office will have to "downgrade" a lot of our machines to Windows! )

 

[jowie]

check out my mockups i made, it's to really push the iOS envelope, you delete all your dock icons except launchpad, which acts as your home button, and make the dock transparent.

LOL... So the whole bottom 50-or-so pixels of the screen are wasted for the want of one icon? And what happens if you want to see badges and other dock icon feedback? Why not just turn auto-hiding on the Dock instead?

However, I do like your rather sexy desktop picture and inverted menu bar

 

[Cougarcat]

Very good point you have there. Apple have made it inconsistent. Either they make all buttons "up" for selected, or none.

If they're going to keep the "slider" idea, they need to make it look more like a slider. Everything about it graphically screams WRONG.

IMO this isn't really an issue because the slider animates, so you "get it" right away that it's not a button.

The text buttons should remain depressed when they're selected, though. (Like Pages.)

 

[cmaier]

IMO this isn't really an issue because the slider animates, so you "get it" right away that it's not a button.

The text buttons should remain depressed when they're selected, though. (Like Pages.)

It doesn't animate when you aren't sliding. So if you just look at it, there's no way to tell if it's a series of buttons or a slider.

 

[manu chao]

It doesn't animate when you aren't sliding. So if you just look at it, there's no way to tell if it's a series of buttons or a slider.

And maybe if you have four options and one of them looks different that most people will instinctively associate this with that the one that looks different must be the active one.
Maybe people's first instinct is not whether up or down means active but just what stands out.

 

[manu chao]

But this isn't how Cut-Paste works on Windows. You cut the original files and they fade slightly. If you never paste anywhere, the move isn't completed and so nothing happens. If you try to cut something elsewhere, the original files are forgotten and the new files are put into the cut "buffer".

Seriously folks, use Windows! There's *nothing* insecure about cut/paste at all. In fact, the only time I've had serious file loss in a file/folder move action, it was on a MAC

Ok, so this is not an issue. I still prefer to not leave a file out of sight, ie, I also do not copy and paste files. I'd either duplicate the file and then drag it or I alt-drag it.

 

[koobcamuk]

It IS a big deal. Everything in Lion is actually a very big deal. And you thinking that the launchpad is the "same" like opening a finder window in fullscreen means you are missing the whole philosophy behind Lion and what it is trying to accomplish.

It is okay though, in a couple of years you will find out.

Oh Mr. Enlightened One, what's the philosophy, then? To turn your 27" iMac into a 27" non-touch screen iPad?