The unlickable Leopard UI

[VanNess]

Apple claimed that the main reason for the Leopard delay was due to the diversion of OS X programmers bought over to help out with the development of the iPhone. After seeing the screenshots of Leopard (in it's current state) it couldn't be more obvious that Apple was being quite truthful

But which OS X programmers were bused over to the iPhone lab? I think I have an idea who some of them must of been. It looks like every last member of the lickable UI team for OS X got iPhone duty:

The first shot below is just one of the iPhone screens, with it's beautifully rendered and aqua-esq buttons and controls. Colorful, mouth-watering, lickable buttons that look like someone actually sweated over the design details until they were nothing less than perfect.

The next shot is what you're getting with Leopard.

Whoever is working over at the iPhone lab - please come back.

 

[GoCubsGo]

Whoever is working over at the iPhone lab - please come back.

I couldn't agree more. Your story however is cute...sorry maybe it's the wine.

 

[Nermal]

Hey! I actually LIKE the Leopard UI!

 

[reubs]

I misread the thread title as "unclickable" Leopard UI and really wondered what you were talking about.

 

[osirisX]

Aqua elements on metal look awful anyways.

 

[dartzorichalcos]

Do you mean this kind of UI? If so, I really like it and I think Leopard will have that interface.

 

[mad jew]

Hey! I actually LIKE the Leopard UI!

Same. Not to the point of licking it, but it's good nonetheless. It's certainly better than Tiger although UNO is fantastic for burying my brushed metal demons.

 

[iShak]

Apple can just make mac skin-able .. sober types would get a unified look without any childish jelly bean scrollbars (e.g me) and rest can have all the aqua/transparencies they want ..

I am not too bothered about leopard's UI (now that I know that menubar transparency can be turned off by hook or by crook) ..

 

[epochblue]

Do you mean this kind of UI? If so, I really like it and I think Leopard will have that interface.

It's hard to tell from that thread, but do you need ShapeShifter to use that theme?

 

[Cormier6083]

Aqua was ugly when it came out, too. Not as refined as today. Hopefully this will be that same with the pre-Mac OS 11 Leopard.


I feel like this is platnum all over again.

 

[SheriffParker]

I like parts of leopard. The dock is lickable. I actually like the transparent menu bar a lot. But the new folder icons are almost unbearable... The increased drop shadow of the active window looks incredibly sexy though.

 

[mkrishnan]

The problem with licking your computer is that you end up with saliva all over it.

Now, phones, sometimes it's necessary to put some saliva on your finger and clean the screen. You see what I mean?

 

[xUKHCx]

I think the difference is that with the shot of the iPhone the colours really help use the device. Where as with the shot from Leopard lots of colours would really distract from actually using the OS.

I quite like the look of leopard from the screenshots.

 

[dartzorichalcos]

It's hard to tell from that thread, but do you need ShapeShifter to use that theme?

No, you don't need Shapeshifter to use it, it's free, and uses an installer. That theme will also give consistent window look to the system.

 

[daze]

Aqua elements on metal look awful anyways.

I agree 100%.

 

[jmmo20]

Apple claimed that the main reason for the Leopard delay was due to the diversion of OS X programmers bought over to help out with the development of the iPhone. After seeing the screenshots of Leopard (in it's current state) it couldn't be more obvious that Apple was being quite truthful

But which OS X programmers were bused over to the iPhone lab? I think I have an idea who some of them must of been. It looks like every last member of the lickable UI team for OS X got iPhone duty:

The first shot below is just one of the iPhone screens, with it's beautifully rendered and aqua-esq buttons and controls. Colorful, mouth-watering, lickable buttons that look like someone actually sweated over the design details until they were nothing less than perfect.

The next shot is what you're getting with Leopard.

Whoever is working over at the iPhone lab - please come back.

I have actually installed this last Leopard beta.

1) The dock looks fine first. But when I went back to Tiger i realised I found Tiger's dock way more useful and nicer looking (i mean, the pseudo-3D-angled-dock vs. straight square dock in Tiger). However, functionality-wise, Leopard is way cooler, for obvious reasons.

2) Transparent menu bar.. same as dock. Looks nicer at first. Until you get a window fully maximised (e.g. Console.app maximised to take all space but the menu bar and the dock. It looks ridiculous.

I'll try to get some screenshots when i get back to Leopard (for some reason I can't use my wifi network in Leopard)

 

[VanNess]

I feel like this is platnum all over again.

At least platnum was, in its time, an advance over System 7 and earlier.

On the other hand, The "new" finder in Leopard, an allegedly "top secret" feature so innovative that it couldn't be publicly disclosed at the 06 WWDC - lest MS decide to copy it - consists of nothing much more than iTunes 7 hand-me-downs.

 

[Taylor C]

Copied from my post on another Mac community forum:

Mail works fine for me. I have yet to try Time Machine. However, I still can't get iChat video chat to work, which is irking me, as it's something I use on a daily basis. It's definitely not final. I hate the new dock, don't particularly care for the menu bar, and booting into Tiger makes me more happy than the first time I unpacked my shiny new MacBook Pro to replace my aging PowerBook. Leopard has a ways to go yet. I know I'm going to miss Tiger's UI, but I'm definitely digging the new unified, darker-metal look.

Other than that, not much to say. I really like Stacks and Spaces, the new Finder is really useful as well. A welcome upgrade.

 

[mad jew]

Now, phones, sometimes it's necessary to put some saliva on your finger and clean the screen. You see what I mean?

I can fit my whole phone in my mouth. Of course, technically I'm sucking, not licking.

 

[Tozovac]

Fun reading this thread. I've been using Apple computers since 2006 and never felt any of the pangs described above until Jony Ive slung his wrath onto ios7 and Yosemite, whose UI I detest today no less than that awful day I "upgraded" to iOS 7. Ah, the good all days when the above problems were hardly problems compared to today!