Apple unifies interface look in new Leopard seed

Not sure I like the squared-off corners, but Apple complying with their own GUI guidelines in a consistent manner can't be a bad thing. Honestly though, to me the squared-off corners say "placeholder graphics" to me - I don't know about those "illuminous" or "onyx" names, but I think we're going to see more of a glossy black UI come this June when Leopard is showcased more fully.

the squares are still rounded, it's just the Leopard screen capture tool that fails :-)

Not sure I like the squared-off corners, but Apple complying with their own GUI guidelines in a consistent manner can't be a bad thing. Honestly though, to me the squared-off corners say "placeholder graphics" to me - I don't know about those "illuminous" or "onyx" names, but I think we're going to see more of a glossy black UI come this June when Leopard is showcased more fully.

The square corners was supposedly a screenshot issue and not how it really looks.

Also, it looks like they're progressing with the resolution independent graphics. The refresh and webclip buttons both look both look vector to me. I think one of the reasons they decided to do away with the brushed metal effect is that it's not feasible to do with a resolution independent interface. A simple gradient like they have in this build makes much more sense.

It does look a lot like Uno, which makes sense. It's the most logical progression of the OS X interface.

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I think the current colour of system preferences fits it better, now theres too much contrast

Personally I prefer the brushed metal if I had the two side by side and had to choose one. But there is so little difference to me that I think you really have to be a nit-picker to get in an uproar over either one.

I just want my Spaces.

And I wonder if Leopard will do anything about thread-hopping (my own term). If you have MenuMeters and a Quad-something you can see what I mean. If you run some app that only has one thread you can see that thread execute first on one core for a bit, then another, and another, etc. It's got to be a bit inefficient since it will be reloading the processor cache every time it switches cores (or at least switching between chips).

If they are moving to a entirely new UI it would make a lot of sense to unify all existing programs as a first step (get them to use the same UI framework).

Either way this is good, as it makes the interface more consistent and paves the way for consistent, overall interface upgrades.

This is my feeling as well. I think it's obvious that they will ned consistency regardless of a new "theme" for the OS, but it would be vital to make sure the plumbing is in place if they want to send water down the pipes!

Now lets just hope they can get these cowboys who work on the iTunes UI in check... ;)

Can't really say how the iTunes codebase looks since it's in many ways now a cross-platform app, but I imagine they do not make use of the same "hooks" as the OS X-native apps do--which explains some of its ongoing inconsistencies.

In many ways iTunes is now in the same boat as a Photoshop or a Word: it needs a common codebase and can't always take advantage of 100% of the features of the "host" platform...

Square or not I get the impression from these screenshots that the interface change is incomplete. In a couple of them there is a too abrupt transition (black line, then light window dressing below). This could very well be by design, but I hope not.
Yea--the abrupt contrast reminds me of vista--yuck!

Not sure I like the squared-off corne.
you really notice the squared edges.
How is it not obvious that it's the result of a screenshot.

Eh..looks just like UNO to me.
Nothing UNO isn't doing now.
UNO rocks!

Anyone who even notices these things has waaaay too much time on their hands.

This link summarizes the graphic history of the OSX visual interface design:

http://veerle.duoh.com/blog/comments/mac_os_x_105_leopard_interface/

the squares are still rounded, it's just the Leopard screen capture tool that fails :-)
I would suggest it is the way in which the captured image was cropped either pre or post use of the screen capture tool. In other words, it was not the capture tool that failed, but the way the user took the image.

Notice that there is no shadow on either and I doubt highly that this is intended as well.

i dont like the multi-sized icons. supose you can change that though...

I think it would be neat to have a selection under "Appearance" where you can decide the look for the overall os. Like Uno does right now...switch between brushed metal or the more plastic look...heck even change the contrast...

Well, I guess some icons will change, like the folder icons; they are still too aquaish.
Give it some time...Apple always make their stuff look pretty - it's not going to be any different this time.

I feel like this so called "update" to the UI is a front. From the screen shots it looks like somebody took the application and crumpled it like a piece of paper and then smoothed it out on the edge of a desk. The UI needs an update bad but I don't think this is the right path that Apple should take. I am banking on the fact that this is just temporary and they are really going to release something with a lot more suave.

I WONDER WHAT APPLE WILL RELEASE IN NAP AND WWDC07 THEN!? No Leapord, iPhone and iTV are already old, MacPro has already been released, hmm.. it HAS TO BE NEW iMACS OR/AND MACBOOK F'N PROS!

First, don't get used to that new look. It's just the iLife '06 theme, and clearly it's just a placeholder. Any fancy new theme will be debuted at the hands of His Steveness, it won't just appear in a developer seed.

Second, why is Apple unifying the look now? Considering how bad it is usability wise (and in Expose) for all different applications to look identical.

A few sources have popped up on various message boards recently, and the speculation is that, given the switch to vector graphics and resolution independence, this new look is just set up for a proper theming engine in Leopard, allowing the user to dramatically customize the looks of their applications. Someone went so far as to say that Leopard would support dynamic theming, allowing windows they change their 'theme' dynamically, say to match the time of day, or to pulse red when showing an alert. He based his speculation on some prior patents granted to Apple.

Anyway, things should 'look' very exiting in June when this stuff is finally disclosed, but for now, we have the iLife '06 theme to look at.

It's more reminiscent of Openstep which of course had the most consistent UI and was out-of-the-way visually to allow you to concentrate on your WORK.

See more Leopard build 9A410 screenshots supplied by hackint0sh and Flickr.[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ] (http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2662)

Interesting if you look at the link in the article there is a finder.jpg, with what appears to be a thumbnail/preview button. So finder gets a long await update.

It looks quite clear to me that they've squared off the edges. You can even see the bevel shade all the way round. There could well be some minor clipping due to the screenshot but still I am actually very pleased with the way this is. I am tired of rounded windows because they serve no purpose. I actually noticed XP with some and I thought it was horrible too.

I'm not saying get rid of them entirely but in the real world, objects with sharp edges have such a fine bevel that you tend to only notice it due to the shading. That's how you fake it in 3D. You can model a perfectly sharp object but just modify the normals.

I could be wrong but you can't deny that if you trace the line from above the resize buttons in Tiger's Finder, you hit the base of the curve. In that screenshot, there is quite a bit of space above the buttons and no curve in sight. So at the very least, they've sharpened it to the same level as itunes, which I'd also be very pleased with. It also backs up the rumor that Apple use itunes for experimental interface developments.

I am also a big fan of the unified interface. I still want theme support or even just being able to change the button colors to more that grey and blue but at least they're moving in the right direction.

Now lets just hope they can get these cowboys who work on the iTunes UI in check... ;)

The new look in Leopard is actually identical to iTunes 7 - even the less rounded corners are everywhere now ;)

It looks quite clear to me that they've squared off the edges. You can even see the bevel shade all the way round. There could well be some minor clipping due to the screenshot but still I am actually very pleased with the way this is.

It's still rounded, just a smaller radius. Did you take a look at the images shown in Flickr account linked by the story?

http://flickr.com/photos/shrimpdesign/tags/leopard/

.They call this an improved interface?

AFAIK Apple hasn't even said a word yet ;)

It's still rounded, just a smaller radius. Did you take a look at the images shown in Flickr account linked by the story?

http://flickr.com/photos/shrimpdesign/tags/leopard/

i had a look at those pics. on one of the comments for the third picture, someone said something that got me thinking.

I noticed during the iPhone preview "there was no scrollbar" (only when needed it would appear when scrolling then disappear when not).

Hmm, I wonder if they are going to do that sort of thing in Leopard. It would make sense instead of having the arrows and an empty scrollbar bevel when not needed.

When you are not scrolling, the scroll bar and arrows are hidded, and when you scroll, either by using a mouse or two fingers on a track pad, its appears. Then, when you have finished scrolling, it fades away...

I think this would be pretty cool. They might have to make it optional though, might get annoying IMO.

i had a look at those pics. on one of the comments for the third picture, someone said something that got me thinking.

When you are not scrolling, the scroll bar and arrows are hidded, and when you scroll, either by using a mouse or two fingers on a track pad, its appears. Then, when you have finished scrolling, it fades away...

I think this would be pretty cool. They might have to make it optional though, might get annoying IMO.

Obviously that is not going to happen since there is one fundamental difference between the iPhone UI and the Mac: on the iPhone you scroll by simply dragging with your fingers anywhere in the window, whereas on the Mac you primarily scroll by dragging or clicking the scrollbar. And how would you do that if the scrollbar was hidden? Not everyone uses a scrolling mouse or scrolling trackpad, you know... :rolleyes:

sorry, forgot to add that when your mouse goes over the area where the scroll bar should be, it appears, like if you hide the dock, you go to the screen edge where you have it placed and it pops up.

sorry, should have included that.

All right, but that would still needlessly complicate things. Interface elements that hide away for no particular reason. I mean, it makes sense in full-screen QuickTime and fullscreen iPhoto because then you want to get everything else away and just see your content. But here you mean that all windows should hide crucial navigational elements simply to gain a few pixels of horizontal space? And then the user has to mouse over them everytime he wants to manipulate the sliders, or even just when he wants to see where the sliders are, to check how for down the document he has read for instance? I just don't see it happening.

And imagine: There I am sitting reading my document without any visual feedback on how far I have read. Right? Then I decide I want to use the slider to scroll my document. Ok? But since I don't know where the slider is on the y-axis (since I don't know how far I have read), then first I have to move my pointer along the x-axis to make the scrollbar appear, and then I have to move it along the y-axis to actually reach the slider that has now appeared. That's needlessly complicated and quite frankly; inelegant. Not going to happen.

so we know for sure this isnt fake...right?

Im not sure if i like the GUI that dark...

but anyways, does anyone think that this is the GUI we will end up with in the end? if not, what do you think we will see? i just want to know your thoughts, even though i know no one really actually knows

UNO rocks!

Ok, so what the heck is UNO? :?:

So, did anyone else notice that the crumpled metal and the shine are all over the FCS 2 page? (of course you did) It even has QuickLook-like popups for the products and reflections, which, though not new, are new for this context. I think this is the biggest clue, and an interesting one, because it suggests that glossy enamel is not going to be the total image of Leopard.

There has to be a compromise somewhere. Being too limited can be as dangerous as too complex. One can't expect that everyone behave the same way, and that everyone and every need conform to the same thing.

Certainly. My point was that more options is not always the better choice. And that there is a limit to the usefulness of adding more options.

Check out these pics at Think Secret for a thorough look at Leopard's UNO-like unified look.
http://www.thinksecret.com/archives/leopard9a410/index.html

The latest development build of Mac OS X Leopard finally tackles issues with consistent style that many say have plagued the Apple software for years.

While most of the test versions of the future operating system have so far handled only the many bugs still left in its code, this week's edition allegedly contains the first signs of obvious visual differences between itself and 2005's Mac OS X Tiger.

The brushed-metal look that first appeared in earnest with Panther has almost completely faded away, according to reports. Well-known holdouts for the style, including Finder, Photo Booth, and Safari, have purportedly abandoned the metallic sheen in favor of the simpler, gradiated style that first appeared in Apple Mail 2.0 and later transferred to Leopard's version of iChat and the more widely available iTunes 7.

A frequent sticking point with critics of Apple's user interface has been its tendency to use different visual elements for program windows without a clear shift in purpose, such as the use of the gradient style for System Preferences versus the metal of Finder or the Aqua style of generic windows.

See more Leopard build 9A410 screenshots supplied by hackint0sh and Flickr.[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ] (http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2662)
Certainly doesn't look like it is changed in Apple's latest release, i.e, Final Cut Studio 2.

The way I see it, mac OS X might need a real overhaul soon. If you think about the competition. First Mac OS X came out, than microsoft "caught up" in terms of UI with XP. Now we've seen minor improvements, but now Microsoft has leapfrogged with a new design with Vista. It seems to me that Leopard won't be a big of a change as XP to Vista was.

What changes do you speak of? Can you tell me what features I should be looking at in Vista? The most readily apparent feature is the glossy UI but after that I just don't know where to look to find the best features.

Because people tend to buy based on what they see and Vista is a huge leap over XP in the looks.

I am afraid that the effort Apple puts in improving the internals of OS X can be immediately appreciated only by small minorities like the present one. The average consumer knows nearly nothing and cares even less about the intermediate OS X updates. If Vista looks more shiny to its eyes he will buy it instead of Tiger or Leopard (*). Apple needs to strike back hard, not only in the under the hood, usability and quality levels, but in the looks too.

Apple knows all this very well. The iPhone runs some light version of OS X without something similar from the known OS X editions. Although I am not too optimistic about that, its interface is probably a hint about Leopard.

EDIT: (*) I mean of course he will buy a Vista PC instead of a Tiger/Leopard Macintosh.

Before you get bashed again (because one thing I noticed about this web site, they don't want Apple's OS to get a make-over -- they want it to stay professional looking, and simple) -- I want to through in my two cents.

First off, everything is pointing towards Aqua being thrown out the door. iTunes does not support the Aqua interface. And look at the iPhone -- the biggest clue on what Leopard will look like (because iPhone has Mac OS X on it). The iPhone interface is very dark. Other things that point to a darker theme is Apple's Web Site -- where it use to be all white, now they have black themes for almost all of it's new devices (including the iPhone/Apple TV).

I think we will see a grey/black/silver the me for Leopard. I also think he dock will change somehow. Maybe not a big change -- but a very subtle change. And even the icons will receive a change -- thats present wth iTunes, with the icon now having a blue instead of green,

:smokey: But what ever it is, I am sure it will be amazing.

(in fact, look at the Mac OS X Leopard Sneek Peek -- even that site has a dark theme. And look at the navigation. I could be looking too much into this, but it is black -- maybe thats how the standard dock will be -- black)

Until they open some of the control panels just to see that they are identical to the ones in Windows95.
I am afraid that the computer will already be at home when this happens. And even then, no one can tell how the average user grown in the Windows environment will react.

Fact is that Vista is the first real challenge to OS X in the appearance level at least. When it comes to sales, it does not matter who was the first to introduce and support such visual technologies that make the system more friendly and pleasing to use. No one cares, remembers or is willing to learn.

I am looking forward for WWDC or, rather, October.

I sure hope that this is just a hint of what Leopard will actually look like, because I think we were all hoping for a new theme or something, not just a 'unification' using a boring theme that's currently in use in OS X...

I would like to see apple give us a CHOICE of themes to use on Leopard. Maybe there could be:

Aqua (blue/white)
Midnight (d.grey+ various colors)
Custom - make your own theme to some degree. Different gradient styles, etc.