Where are my blue dots?

[RightMACatU]

Fired up my long awaited 2012 13" ML MBA for the first time last night and coming from a 2010 13" SL MBA, the first thing that popped was the fact that the blue dots no longer exist for open apps in the Dock.

Instead, it's a very small and narrow grey rectangle that's barely noticeable, even with a 20/20 vision. Can we bring back the blue dot?

 

[maflynn]

Mountain Lion has a new way of displaying the dock

 

[MonkeySee....]

Isn't the "grey" dot blue?

I don't see any issues seeing it?

 

[RightMACatU]

...I don't see any issues seeing it?

Not if you have a 21.5" screen (as per your signature block)

 

[MonkeySee....]

Not if you have a 21.5" screen (as per your signature block)

haha. very true. I have seen the Airs in the Apple Store though and I though they were ok.

Maybe i'm superman

 

[mrtune]

I agree with the OP. It's much harder for me to tell whats running as well. They put it so close to the bottom of the screen I can barely tell what's running and what's not. Simply moving the dock up a few mm so there is a gap between the blue dot and the screen edge would help a lot.

 

[recryl]

Move dock to side for clear dot

Hardly a direct fix, but if you move the dock to the left or right side (System settings -> Dock Location: Left/Right), the "old" clearer dots are shown.

This layout actually makes more sense when you think about it, as you have 60 % more space to spare horizontally than you do vertically.

It's a matter of taste of course - I'm actually in the opposite situation, as I went back to the horizontal dock from years of having the dock in the right side of the screen, just because I thought the new Mountain Lion dock looks oh so sweet

 

[RightMACatU]

@recryl

Cool, I will try the vertical Dock thing. Funniest thing, I've had a vertical left-side toolbar in Windows for years

 

[dcorban]

I'm actually in the opposite situation, as I went back to the horizontal dock from years of having the dock in the right side of the screen, just because I thought the new Mountain Lion dock looks oh so sweet

I did the same thing. I have always had dock on the left with my 2008 MacBook so it would take less screen area and was more clear to read. With Mountain Lion and my new MacBook Air, I tried putting it at the bottom and I am leaving it there. Auto-hide is a must, so it doesn't consume precious vertical area, but otherwise it feels better there.

I find that with the Air's SSD and overall speed, I don't really care what is "running". I just leave apps open and direct my mental effort to other things. I never run out of memory with 4GB, and the performance is not affected. I appreciate how the little glowing bars are at the bottom just in case I need to confirm something is running, but they are not visually distracting or draw attention.

 

[KPOM]

I agree with the OP. It's much harder for me to tell whats running as well. They put it so close to the bottom of the screen I can barely tell what's running and what's not. Simply moving the dock up a few mm so there is a gap between the blue dot and the screen edge would help a lot.

That's deliberate. The idea is that Mountain Lion is efficient at managing memory so that you don't need to worry about which applications are open or closed.