New screenshot gallery shows more polished Snow Leopard
A new and extensive screenshot gallery taken from the near feature-complete build of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard distributed at this week's Apple developers conference shows off a more polished operating system nearing its final stretch of development.
The screenshots, published on MichaelFlux.com, were snapped from build 10A380, revealing a handful of previously unseen interface changes and other enhancements spread throughout the software and its bundled applications.
AppleInsider has extracted some of the more relevant shots from the gallery along with their descriptions, such as those showing Snow Leopard's new Stacks grid view, which has recently seen the addition of a transparent frame between the stack background and the drop shadow.
It's long been reported that Stacks displayed in grid view will allow you to jump from one folder to another without ever having to leave the Stack. However, Apple appears to have recently added a button at the top left-hand corner that lets you easily jump back to the parent directory -- or the "Applications" folder in the shots below -- similar to the back and forth buttons offered on iPhone navigation screens.
The Desktop & Screen Saver control panel now only renders thumbnails of available Desktop pictures that are in view, preserving system resources and cutting back on lag:
Icons for Folder Actions Setup now reside in Finder contextual menus:
Welcome improvements to the speed in which Mail renders IMAP mail indexes are also reported, though this discovery can be put up for debate given these advances are seen following a clean install of Mac OS X in which Mail's database is largely empty:
You can now make a note out of the selected text or have it spoken out loud and added to iTunes from Safari's contextual menus:
VoiceOver Utility has been completely overhauled with a sleek new interface that takes design cues from AirPort Utility:
The AirPort menu in Snow Leopard's menu bar now shows the signal strength of all available wireless networks:
Both Audio MIDI setup and Image Capture have seen their interfaces refreshed along the lines of AirPort Utility and VoiceOver Utility:
A new version of Apple's Preview app sports some snazzy new Contact Sheet and Annotation view modes:
And finally, a few more shots show off the new QuickTime X interface:
MichaelFlux.com also published an earlier and less revealing set of digital photos taken while installing the new Snow Leopard build:
Apple said early this week it will make Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard available in September as a $29 upgrade for all owners of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.
The screenshots, published on MichaelFlux.com, were snapped from build 10A380, revealing a handful of previously unseen interface changes and other enhancements spread throughout the software and its bundled applications.
AppleInsider has extracted some of the more relevant shots from the gallery along with their descriptions, such as those showing Snow Leopard's new Stacks grid view, which has recently seen the addition of a transparent frame between the stack background and the drop shadow.
It's long been reported that Stacks displayed in grid view will allow you to jump from one folder to another without ever having to leave the Stack. However, Apple appears to have recently added a button at the top left-hand corner that lets you easily jump back to the parent directory -- or the "Applications" folder in the shots below -- similar to the back and forth buttons offered on iPhone navigation screens.
The Desktop & Screen Saver control panel now only renders thumbnails of available Desktop pictures that are in view, preserving system resources and cutting back on lag:
Icons for Folder Actions Setup now reside in Finder contextual menus:
Welcome improvements to the speed in which Mail renders IMAP mail indexes are also reported, though this discovery can be put up for debate given these advances are seen following a clean install of Mac OS X in which Mail's database is largely empty:
You can now make a note out of the selected text or have it spoken out loud and added to iTunes from Safari's contextual menus:
VoiceOver Utility has been completely overhauled with a sleek new interface that takes design cues from AirPort Utility:
The AirPort menu in Snow Leopard's menu bar now shows the signal strength of all available wireless networks:
Both Audio MIDI setup and Image Capture have seen their interfaces refreshed along the lines of AirPort Utility and VoiceOver Utility:
A new version of Apple's Preview app sports some snazzy new Contact Sheet and Annotation view modes:
And finally, a few more shots show off the new QuickTime X interface:
MichaelFlux.com also published an earlier and less revealing set of digital photos taken while installing the new Snow Leopard build:
Apple said early this week it will make Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard available in September as a $29 upgrade for all owners of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.
Comments
A new and extensive screenshot gallery taken from the feature-complete build of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.....
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Phil say it was a NEAR feature-complete build?
Also, I'm liking the muted pallet and scroll bars.
This will be like getting a whole new Macbook for $29. That's the awesome part.
This will be like getting a whole new Macbook for $29. That's the awesome part.
Not really....
Looks beautiful! I hope all the backgrounds are available as seen in the screenshots.
This will be like getting a whole new Macbook for $29. That's the awesome part.
I'd say.
Pic of Snow Leopard cub at http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...eopard_Cub.jpg
Not really....
Snow Leopard increases speed across the entire system and for newly re-designed Apps that use the new technologies by between 50-130%. How isn't that getting a new computer for $30?
I find it ridiculous (and very very hard to believe) that Apple would re-design the entire finder using Cocoa and RI, which basically means re-doing all the artwork and resources, and then carefully added the aqua "blue blob" stuff back in. Also what about all those rumours of scroll bars only activating when you hover over them? That was all scrapped?
Why would they do that? There is nothing attractive, innovative, or good about those aqua scroll bars anymore. They are almost ten years old at this point.
Also, the "black glass" stuff is so obviously just "tacked on" to the rest of the GUI. Why re-design the GUI from the ground up but leave even more visual inconsistencies than they already had? None of this makes any sense.
Why re-do all your hardware in black glass and grey aluminium, and then re-design only *half* of the GUI of the software to match, leaving the other half kind of ugly-retro looking beside it? Especially when the graphics work all had to be re-done anyway?
Like I said, I'm still hoping against hope that there will be a surprise on launch day because otherwise the $30 price tag is looking less like a deal and more like an unavoidable necessity considering this new Leopard is going to look pretty much exactly the same as the old Leopard.
Snow Leopard increases speed across the entire system and for newly re-designed Apps that use the new technologies by between 50-200%. How isn't that getting a new computer for $30?
200% faster?
It's like getting TWO new computers!
Call me hopeful but I'm still looking for some new GUI love. I can't believe that they are actually going to release this thing with the same interface as regular Leopard.
I find it ridiculous (and very very hard to believe) that Apple would re-design the entire finder using Cocoa and RI, which basically means re-doing all the artwork and resources, and then carefully added the aqua "blue blob" stuff back in. Also what about all those rumours of scroll bars only activating when you hover over them? That was all scrapped?
Why would they do that? There is nothing attractive, innovative, or good about those aqua scroll bars anymore. They are almost ten years old at this point.
Also, the "black glass" stuff is so obviously just "tacked on" to the rest of the GUI. Why re-design the GUI from the ground up but leave even more visual inconsistencies than they already had? None of this makes any sense.
Why re-do all your hardware in black glass and grey aluminium, and then re-design only *half* of the GUI of the software to match, leaving the other half kind of ugly-retro looking beside it? Especially when the graphics work all had to be re-done anyway?
Like I said, I'm still hoping against hope that there will be a surprise on launch day because otherwise the $30 price tag is looking less like a deal and more like an unavoidable necessity considering this new Leopard is going to look pretty much exactly the same as the old Leopard.
Go on then. Say Windows 7 looks better. I challenge you.
I can't believe people are still bitching for having to pay $30 to get a new computer.
Like I said, I'm still hoping against hope that there will be a surprise on launch day because otherwise the $30 price tag is looking less like a deal and more like an unavoidable necessity considering this new Leopard is going to look pretty much exactly the same as the old Leopard.
Pretty much my feeling at this point. I thought it was dismaying that the article said that these screen shots were the "most revealing" of what we'll get from Snow Leopard. From this I take it that Snow Leopard is going to be a bit of a snooze. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but personally I'm completely lacking in anticipation of this release.
200% faster?
It's like getting TWO new computers!
Sorry about that. Edited.
FINALLY! My old Thinkpad had this 3 years ago. Glad to finally see it in OS X.
It looks AMAZING!
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Phil say it was a NEAR feature-complete build?
Also, I'm liking the muted pallet and scroll bars.
The scroll bars are the same ugly-as-sin Aqua scroll bars we've had since Cheetah.
I still don't understand why they haven't been changed to match the iTunes scroll bars, which fit in much better with the Snow Leopard interface.
This will change the way we use forums.
...
I find it ridiculous (and very very hard to believe) that Apple would re-design the entire finder using Cocoa and RI, which basically means re-doing all the artwork and resources, and then carefully added the aqua "blue blob" stuff back in...
The aqua UI artwork was already IN Cocoa--nothing to add back in. The new Finder and everything else uses what Cocoa has built in.
In any case, even if redoing apps using old UI stuff WOULD mean lots of extra work... it's still clearly what they've done, because we've seen it (some if us have even used it) and it has the old artwork. Even if secret other artwork exists somewhere, the work to use the old artwork has been done too.
I'd like to see a new UI, and it would be cool (not for developers!) for Apple to surprise us with that in September. But I can see why Apple would reserve that for a BIG update (10.7).
The scroll bars are the same ugly-as-sin Aqua scroll bars we've had since Cheetah.
I still don't understand why they haven't been changed to match the iTunes scroll bars, which fit in much better with the Snow Leopard interface.
I like either style OK, but the mix (iTunes not matching) is just weird!
Really excited about this. Although there aren't any new "eye-candy" features this will be great update for everyone.
Go on then. Say Windows 7 looks better. I challenge you.
I can't believe people are still bitching for having to pay $30 to get a new computer.
It's called opinion. I know it's hard to believe, but some people just flat out prefer Windows to Mac OS X.
Also, it's $30 for a new operating system... Not a new computer. And when you consider that Snow Leopard can only legally run on Apple hardware, you also have to factor in the hardware costs on top of the $30.
Pretty much my feeling at this point. I thought it was dismaying that the article said that these screen shots were the "most revealing" of what we'll get from Snow Leopard. From this I take it that Snow Leopard is going to be a bit of a snooze. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but personally I'm completely lacking in anticipation of this release.
You people are not very grateful. Read up on Snow Leopard or watch the WWDC keynote. If you have not taken any time to notice what Apple is saying about this upgrade is that it is, for the most part, an under the hood upgrade. Apple didn't have to re-write the entire Finder in Cocoa but guess what? They did. That alone is worth 30 bucks.
30 Dollars is like going out to dinner twice a week.