Guys, we had to edit and reconstruct the message portion of one of the mail screenshots to protect the anonymity of our source. So yes, we replaced the content portion of the screenshot and apparently forgot a scroll-bar and whatnot. The shot was meant to demonstrate the platinum theme and we didn't anticipate that it would be analyzed to such an extent. In any event, for all the doubters, I'll post a few unedited shots, with the mail, etc as soon our sources clean up their mailboxes. Sorry about this.
I don't like the theme at all. It reminds me very much of the Windows 95/98/NT/2000 boring grey appearance, albeit a smoother gradated one.
I think they should try a "glassy" theme such as how an empty glass looks like without liquid (transparent) for an inactive app and then make the active app look like frosted glass (opaque, so you don't get confused with stuff in apps behind). How cool would this be using Core Image?
Or just have everything brushed metal and be done with it.
The one thing I do like about drawers is being able to make things a little more compact so I can click on various windows when I'm using a small screen. Application window sizes seem to keep growing as OS X evolves. System 9 was nice and compact.
Any word if this version allows you to have different signatures assigned to each mail account you have? It's always a pain to choose what e-mail address I'm using, and then the corresponding sig.
I never liked the brushed metal look and a while back installed a small freeware app called "Whiteout" to eliminate it from virtually everything (except iTunes). In fact, my windows look remarkably like the screen shots from Tiger - perhaps explaining the belief of some that the shots are fake - though there seem to be subtle differences in the title bar and the formerly metal parts have a subtle, horizontal stripe.
In any case, Whiteout works perfectly and comes with an installer/uninstaller. I remember having to reinstall Whiteout when I upgraded to Panther.
IMHO, those screenshots are quite lovely. The gradients are subtle and using shades rather than lots of blocky borders and too much highlighting and shadow make the appearance calm and clear. I like the numbers in the mailbox (er, source) view, that they don't pop out more than their icons or anything in the main pane. I also like the buttons at the bottom of the source view and the subtle but apparent highlight on the mailbox. Very clean. Apple's gotten over a lot of its look-what-we-can-do Aqua, though some transparency, properly used, was not ojectionable. Remember how people thought the Aqua UI was so distracting when it first came out, the pinstripes with too much contrast? I bet a lot of those people who found that Aqua gave them a headache will like this a lot.
That is really wired that the resize dot -- if that's what it is (what else is it?) -- is on the far left of the horizontal divider. To me, just add the dot to the lefthand pane. It needs a margin anyway, so to keep it clean, just make the margin the same light gray as the rest of the pane. I suppose highlighting mailboxes won't be as clean as it is now -- going all the way to the edge of the pane. Then again, maybe that isn't necessarily the case.
In all of this, I wonder what will happen to the slightly silly blue and graphite appearance options? It seems a little funny to have graphite, especially since it's not a color in the hardware lineup any more. Really, as much as I can understand why Apple won't give users theming ability (easily), a "pro app" appearance might not be a bad idea at this point in place of the graphite theme.
BTW, I'm looking at this on a Windows box that uses the old Win98 theme, and believe me, those screenshots are head and shoulders better than the window that they're in.
[added] is it a nice touch, a compression artifact or am I seeing things? It looks a tiny bit like the text, "Inbox," is not only bold and blue but looks as though it's slightly depressed into the background, i.e., with a small shadow and highlight?
Odd. The left vertical pane divider appears to have its 'move dot' on the horizontal divider. Really not sure I like that.
And if you think about it you should only need that one on the left to begin with... it should be able to control not only the up-down portion of the horiz. bar as well as the left right of the left side area.
What's exciting (for me) about the leaked Mail 2.0 pic (as much as the new look) is the (finally!) official de-emphasizing of drawers and beginning of a kind of savvy sidebar, akin to the Finder's, in all applications. Much, much better, and a big step forward from the so-so drawer concept, toward a better UI.
<snip>
Kinda like windows XP does in its version of finder (explorer) and most of the office apps (entourage / outlook etc)...
On the finder front though, I admit I quite like some of its features like adding shortcuts to specific folders in the left pane of the finder and the whole 'smart folder' thing will be fantastic when Tiger finally emerges. But I also like the windows version because you can actually do a lot of things from the finder window left-hand pane options like playing a media file, email a file, burn it to disc etc.
[added] is it a nice touch, a compression artifact or am I seeing things? It looks a tiny bit like the text, "Inbox," is not only bold and blue but looks as though it's slightly depressed into the background, i.e., with a small shadow and highlight?
I noticed this nice touch as well.
I quite agree that Apple has moved past the initial, look!!!! stage of the UI -- which, bet you anything, was at least partly Jobs-dictated, for both good and bad. They're discarding what's commonly agreed works less well, gathering from what works and looks great, and focusing in on the lush and delicious little details.
Kinda like windows XP does in its version of finder (explorer) and most of the office apps (entourage / outlook etc)...
You bet. I think MS has been using panes pretty intelligently in its applications for a while now, and for far longer than Apple. (I'll refrain from mentioning some of the various odd and occasionally downright terrible features in MS's applications, but panes are often well done.) At last Apple is swallowing its pride a bit and seeing the light.
Quote:
On the finder front though, I admit I quite like some of its features like adding shortcuts to specific folders in the left pane of the finder and the whole 'smart folder' thing will be fantastic when Tiger finally emerges. But I also like the windows version because you can actually do a lot of things from the finder window left-hand pane options like playing a media file, email a file, burn it to disc etc.
-indy [/B]
Well, OTOH, I find the Explorer bar in XP's Explorer a wasted opportunity. I'd much rather have a useful collection of locations and context-sensitive actions in my navigational system than a big wide always-visual contextual menu that's continually animating and scootching around.
BTW, you can certainly burn a disc, eject removable media, and play media file all from the OS X Finder, and very nicely too. Note the little gray notfication buttons to the right of certain items in the Sidebar.
You bet. I think MS has been using panes pretty intelligently in its applications for a while now, and for far longer than Apple. (I'll refrain from mentioning some of the various odd and occasionally downright terrible features in MS's applications, but panes are often well done.) At last Apple is swallowing its pride a bit and seeing the light.
I think you're pushing it...Apple has been using 'panes' for years now. iTunes was the best use of panes back in the days and this hasn't changed. In fact, pretty much all iApps make use of panes extensively because they're all using the 1-window interface.
The problem with Microsoft is the over-use of panes. They're everywhere...even where they don't make sense (as you mention). So it's only natural that sometimes they get it right.
Horizontal space is precious...it's super-easy to scroll down to read text but scrolling right is not fun. Sidebar panes on most computers aren't such a good idea...but Apple is changing this with widescreen monitors.
I think you're pushing it...Apple has been using 'panes' for years now. iTunes was the best use of panes back in the days and this hasn't changed. In fact, pretty much all iApps make use of panes extensively because they're all using the 1-window interface.
The problem with Microsoft is the over-use of panes. They're everywhere...even where they don't make sense (as you mention). So it's only natural that sometimes they get it right.
Perhaps "by far" is pushing it. iTunes is definitely where Apple first saw the glimmering of the light -- its first (IFIRC) single windowed multi-paned UI, with a central pane on the left, the playlist. That was MWSF 2001.
MS was already in the process of making a significant shift to address the Tiny Cryptic Endless Toolbars Problem (still very far from solved in most MS apps) to panes to focus on sidebars / panes in... was it Office XP? Which has started well before then, in Outlook, and Win 98 (rather clumsily). I can't keep track. Point is, it's very potentially useful UI element that I think Apple was wary of from some time because it seemed.... Microsoftian.
What's an example of MS overusing panes? I'm curious; I'm more familiar with their use of panes for trivial purposes.
Tabs in Safari enables the user to open up a new viewing pane but without having to open up new application window. Tabs are about workflow. Please introduce Tabs for Mail. Eudora has something similar where your last folders are tabbed. Would be great!
Tabs in Safari enables the user to open up a new viewing pane but without having to open up new application window. Tabs are about workflow. Please introduce Tabs for Mail. Eudora has something similar where your last folders are tabbed. Would be great!
Comments
Kasper
I think they should try a "glassy" theme such as how an empty glass looks like without liquid (transparent) for an inactive app and then make the active app look like frosted glass (opaque, so you don't get confused with stuff in apps behind). How cool would this be using Core Image?
Or just have everything brushed metal and be done with it.
Any word if this version allows you to have different signatures assigned to each mail account you have? It's always a pain to choose what e-mail address I'm using, and then the corresponding sig.
Kasper
[::::::EDITED BY APPLEINSIDER::::::]
Sorry guys, Apple legal says these shots have to go.
[Images Removed]
[::::::EDITED BY APPLEINSIDER::::::]
In any case, Whiteout works perfectly and comes with an installer/uninstaller. I remember having to reinstall Whiteout when I upgraded to Panther.
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/21363
That is really wired that the resize dot -- if that's what it is (what else is it?) -- is on the far left of the horizontal divider. To me, just add the dot to the lefthand pane. It needs a margin anyway, so to keep it clean, just make the margin the same light gray as the rest of the pane. I suppose highlighting mailboxes won't be as clean as it is now -- going all the way to the edge of the pane. Then again, maybe that isn't necessarily the case.
In all of this, I wonder what will happen to the slightly silly blue and graphite appearance options? It seems a little funny to have graphite, especially since it's not a color in the hardware lineup any more. Really, as much as I can understand why Apple won't give users theming ability (easily), a "pro app" appearance might not be a bad idea at this point in place of the graphite theme.
BTW, I'm looking at this on a Windows box that uses the old Win98 theme, and believe me, those screenshots are head and shoulders better than the window that they're in.
[added] is it a nice touch, a compression artifact or am I seeing things? It looks a tiny bit like the text, "Inbox," is not only bold and blue but looks as though it's slightly depressed into the background, i.e., with a small shadow and highlight?
Originally posted by Kickaha
Odd. The left vertical pane divider appears to have its 'move dot' on the horizontal divider. Really not sure I like that.
And if you think about it you should only need that one on the left to begin with... it should be able to control not only the up-down portion of the horiz. bar as well as the left right of the left side area.
Dave
Originally posted by Hobbes
<snip>
What's exciting (for me) about the leaked Mail 2.0 pic (as much as the new look) is the (finally!) official de-emphasizing of drawers and beginning of a kind of savvy sidebar, akin to the Finder's, in all applications. Much, much better, and a big step forward from the so-so drawer concept, toward a better UI.
<snip>
Kinda like windows XP does in its version of finder (explorer) and most of the office apps (entourage / outlook etc)...
On the finder front though, I admit I quite like some of its features like adding shortcuts to specific folders in the left pane of the finder and the whole 'smart folder' thing will be fantastic when Tiger finally emerges. But I also like the windows version because you can actually do a lot of things from the finder window left-hand pane options like playing a media file, email a file, burn it to disc etc.
-indy
Originally posted by Hobbes
Speaking of brushed metal being swept away, check out .Mac at Apple.com.
What's up with Apple's Flash phobia? They always use this strange breed of Quicktime to do their animation.
Originally posted by BuonRotto
[added] is it a nice touch, a compression artifact or am I seeing things? It looks a tiny bit like the text, "Inbox," is not only bold and blue but looks as though it's slightly depressed into the background, i.e., with a small shadow and highlight?
I noticed this nice touch as well.
I quite agree that Apple has moved past the initial, look!!!! stage of the UI -- which, bet you anything, was at least partly Jobs-dictated, for both good and bad. They're discarding what's commonly agreed works less well, gathering from what works and looks great, and focusing in on the lush and delicious little details.
Originally posted by Indecisive PC user
Kinda like windows XP does in its version of finder (explorer) and most of the office apps (entourage / outlook etc)...
You bet. I think MS has been using panes pretty intelligently in its applications for a while now, and for far longer than Apple. (I'll refrain from mentioning some of the various odd and occasionally downright terrible features in MS's applications, but panes are often well done.) At last Apple is swallowing its pride a bit and seeing the light.
On the finder front though, I admit I quite like some of its features like adding shortcuts to specific folders in the left pane of the finder and the whole 'smart folder' thing will be fantastic when Tiger finally emerges. But I also like the windows version because you can actually do a lot of things from the finder window left-hand pane options like playing a media file, email a file, burn it to disc etc.
-indy [/B]
Well, OTOH, I find the Explorer bar in XP's Explorer a wasted opportunity. I'd much rather have a useful collection of locations and context-sensitive actions in my navigational system than a big wide always-visual contextual menu that's continually animating and scootching around.
BTW, you can certainly burn a disc, eject removable media, and play media file all from the OS X Finder, and very nicely too. Note the little gray notfication buttons to the right of certain items in the Sidebar.
Originally posted by Placebo
What's up with Apple's Flash phobia? They always use this strange breed of Quicktime to do their animation.
Maybe because Flash is a horrid creature that needs to be put to sleep...on Macs at least.
Originally posted by Hobbes
You bet. I think MS has been using panes pretty intelligently in its applications for a while now, and for far longer than Apple. (I'll refrain from mentioning some of the various odd and occasionally downright terrible features in MS's applications, but panes are often well done.) At last Apple is swallowing its pride a bit and seeing the light.
I think you're pushing it...Apple has been using 'panes' for years now. iTunes was the best use of panes back in the days and this hasn't changed. In fact, pretty much all iApps make use of panes extensively because they're all using the 1-window interface.
The problem with Microsoft is the over-use of panes. They're everywhere...even where they don't make sense (as you mention). So it's only natural that sometimes they get it right.
Horizontal space is precious...it's super-easy to scroll down to read text but scrolling right is not fun. Sidebar panes on most computers aren't such a good idea...but Apple is changing this with widescreen monitors.
Originally posted by kim kap sol
I think you're pushing it...Apple has been using 'panes' for years now. iTunes was the best use of panes back in the days and this hasn't changed. In fact, pretty much all iApps make use of panes extensively because they're all using the 1-window interface.
The problem with Microsoft is the over-use of panes. They're everywhere...even where they don't make sense (as you mention). So it's only natural that sometimes they get it right.
Perhaps "by far" is pushing it. iTunes is definitely where Apple first saw the glimmering of the light -- its first (IFIRC) single windowed multi-paned UI, with a central pane on the left, the playlist. That was MWSF 2001.
MS was already in the process of making a significant shift to address the Tiny Cryptic Endless Toolbars Problem (still very far from solved in most MS apps) to panes to focus on sidebars / panes in... was it Office XP? Which has started well before then, in Outlook, and Win 98 (rather clumsily). I can't keep track. Point is, it's very potentially useful UI element that I think Apple was wary of from some time because it seemed.... Microsoftian.
What's an example of MS overusing panes? I'm curious; I'm more familiar with their use of panes for trivial purposes.
I have added the following to our Apple Mac OS X Wish List:
Tabs in Safari enables the user to open up a new viewing pane but without having to open up new application window. Tabs are about workflow. Please introduce Tabs for Mail. Eudora has something similar where your last folders are tabbed. Would be great!
Cheers Daniel
Originally posted by dahacouk
Tabs For Mail
I have added the following to our Apple Mac OS X Wish List:
Tabs in Safari enables the user to open up a new viewing pane but without having to open up new application window. Tabs are about workflow. Please introduce Tabs for Mail. Eudora has something similar where your last folders are tabbed. Would be great!
Cheers Daniel