The reflection is completely unnecessary but the 3D dock is very functional in my opinion (but only when you apply it to stacks). Stacks show the icons of its contents layered on top of each other. This means you could replace the single applications on your dock with Stacks.
I could delete my Safari icon and create a Browser stack with Safari, Firefox, Opera, Camino, Shiira and OmniWeb inside. Then I could have an iLife stack next to it with all the iLife apps and so on. That means I can house pretty much all of my apps in the dock in dedicated categories.
I get frustrated with the navigation of Overflow. I have to open Overflow and then select a category and then select an app. The new dock allows me to perform the same tasks quicker. Click the relevant stack and select my weapon of choice. Done.
You know that's a damn interesting idea. Give Quicksilver a try though. Thanks to that I never keep a single application in my Dock except the ones I'm using right now.
Sebastian
I asbo-lutely love Quicksilver but I'd still prefer this as a solution for launching my apps.
I don't get why you would use a Dock at all other than force quitting the occasional app if you could just use Quicksilver....
Sebastian
I kno it sound crazy
Quicksilver is super smart at pretty much everything it does but it doesn't feel at all natural to me. I launch it and play with it occasionally if I'm super busy in multiple projects but I'd rather drag my hagged mouse round the screen and point and shoot. The Keyboard is a pain in my ass.
The reason Quicksilver is not seeing anymore development is because the superior performance of Leopard's spotlight (in comparison to Tiger's spotlight) QS will become redundant, just like Konfabulator.
Sure it's pretty. I guess. I can definitely live without it.
Quicksilver is super smart at pretty much everything it does but it doesn't feel at all natural to me.
Not sure 'smart' is the right word - QuickSilver still can't automatically create smart folders for every filetype on your hard drive like LaunchBar can. That & the fact it's stil slower than LaunchBar keep me from switching
The black is definetly better than the white, but I'm still undecided if it's an improvement in any case....
Quote:
Originally Posted by Karelia
The black looks less like a dock and more like a hole in the desktop. Add to that the fact that it's way too reflective (as in 100% reflectiveness), and we have a problem. I say stick with the white.
Ok here are some new ones:
original again for reference:
I added a drop shadow on the menu so that it shows up no matter what background it's on (hence the image with the white square). It's not great on white but I doubt many people will have a pure white backdrop. Outlined fonts don't look very good.
I made the reflection on all of them at 50%. In the third one, I reduced the size of the Dock more dramatically in image 3 and I thought I'd prefer it but I actually don't. I think Apple's one is clearly too big but if it's too small, it might as well not be there at all.
Now that I see that setup with the white in image 2, I'm not sure I prefer the black in image 4 now either.
As we all know though, whatever happens, Apple won't let us choose what we do with the desktop. It's their way or no way at all. If they say there's to be a transparent menu or huge dock then that's how it will be.
Neither can the Finder and that's supposedly built in! I tried to create a Folder of PDFs and it's so damn clunky. Then again, why create smart folders when everything on your HDD is a Command+Space away!
Well, that's easy. Say you're looking for an Excel, Logic, Quartz Composer document, but you can't remember the name. Or you're looking for the OpenType version of a font. LaunchBar can automatically show me a list of filetype related documents of every kind of filetype on my hard drive. Even when you do remember the document name - it's still a handy feature, and one I use often.
So what does anyone think about the fact that this comes right out of Sun's Looking Glass demo?
Did an Apple designer just see it, and say "cool", or does it suggest anything more?
Lets not get carried away here. I think it is Sun taking the "Dock" concept here. All Apple has done is taken the White background and turned it into a floor. There are probably 100 versions of the dock at Apple HQ.
Lets not get carried away here. I think it is Sun taking the "Dock" concept here. All Apple has done is taken the White background and turned it into a floor. There are probably 100 versions of the dock at Apple HQ.
I'm very organised myself as well, but when it comes to more lesser used or more obscure programs, forgetting a document name is not all that uncommon. And like I said, sometimes it easy having a complete overview of all filetype related documents. I happen to use Logic Pro and often do versions of a song, like mix 1, mix 2 etc. Being able to open a particular mix almost instantly is a godsend. I'm surprised really tat something like that isn't built into Quicksilver yet.
I'm familiar with Papers, and although it's quite good, I'm currently using Yep (and eagerly awaiting v2, which will support a whole range of document formats). Meanwhile I've become quite addicted to tagging files with Punakea, a Finder replacement / add-on (whatever you want to call it). Seriously recommended!
Although, admittedly, using some random element from a theoretical UI is a funny way to express it....
Looking Glass is not theoretical, you can download the installers for Linux and Solaris. Requirements: 1.4 GHz or faster CPU, 512MB RAM, 3D accelerated GPU with at least 32MB VRAM and driver support for OpenGL 1.3 or greater.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin
I added a drop shadow on the menu so that it shows up no matter what background it's on (hence the image with the white square). It's not great on white but I doubt many people will have a pure white backdrop. Outlined fonts don't look very good.
Cool, the translucent menu bar should be user configurable (font color and font size). I hope it's optional, I don't really want a translucent menu bar to begin with.
The Dock floor is gonna be horrible if it's still visible while the Dock is on the side. On the bottom, I can't say I'm too offended about how it looks.. but the Finder needs major reworking and is not getting it as far as I can see. All I'd fix about Dock graphics would be to make it better visible which app is running and which one is not. It would be even better if users truly didn't have to care which apps are running, but I guess it's too late for that now. Maybe in OS 11...
I have this feeling it might be time to try DragThing again.
Quicksilver's been crashing on me once a day or so. It doesn't even have any special plugins installed. Still, it's a great app and if I can figure out how to get rid of the crashes (full uninstall and reinstall maybe?) I'll depend on it even more in the future. With QS, Spotlight, Expose, Dashboard, Time Machine, etc. things are getting crowded. There will probably be trouble with software like Eclipse if I use up all the function keys for global stuff. I might even be interested in fixing Expose and Spotlight to run via QS to save the keys.
Comments
I could delete my Safari icon and create a Browser stack with Safari, Firefox, Opera, Camino, Shiira and OmniWeb inside. Then I could have an iLife stack next to it with all the iLife apps and so on. That means I can house pretty much all of my apps in the dock in dedicated categories.
I get frustrated with the navigation of Overflow. I have to open Overflow and then select a category and then select an app. The new dock allows me to perform the same tasks quicker. Click the relevant stack and select my weapon of choice. Done.
You know that's a damn interesting idea. Give Quicksilver a try though. Thanks to that I never keep a single application in my Dock except the ones I'm using right now.
Sebastian
I asbo-lutely love Quicksilver
w00t another Quicksilver user
I don't get why you would use a Dock at all other than force quitting the occasional app if you could just use Quicksilver....
Sebastian
I kno it sound crazy
Quicksilver is super smart at pretty much everything it does but it doesn't feel at all natural to me. I launch it and play with it occasionally if I'm super busy in multiple projects but I'd rather drag my hagged mouse round the screen and point and shoot. The Keyboard is a pain in my ass.
You are crazy...
I've trained my hands to use Quicksilver as a natural extension of them when I'm on a computer and it's the most common way for me to launch ANYTHING.
Whenever I use a computer and Quicksilver isn't installed it's like losing an entire limb
Sebastian
That kind of dependancy is not good for your health!!!!
Sure it's pretty. I guess. I can definitely live without it.
Quicksilver is super smart at pretty much everything it does but it doesn't feel at all natural to me.
Not sure 'smart' is the right word - QuickSilver still can't automatically create smart folders for every filetype on your hard drive like LaunchBar can. That & the fact it's stil slower than LaunchBar keep me from switching
The black is definetly better than the white, but I'm still undecided if it's an improvement in any case....
The black looks less like a dock and more like a hole in the desktop. Add to that the fact that it's way too reflective (as in 100% reflectiveness), and we have a problem. I say stick with the white.
Ok here are some new ones:
original again for reference:
I added a drop shadow on the menu so that it shows up no matter what background it's on (hence the image with the white square). It's not great on white but I doubt many people will have a pure white backdrop. Outlined fonts don't look very good.
I made the reflection on all of them at 50%. In the third one, I reduced the size of the Dock more dramatically in image 3 and I thought I'd prefer it but I actually don't. I think Apple's one is clearly too big but if it's too small, it might as well not be there at all.
Now that I see that setup with the white in image 2, I'm not sure I prefer the black in image 4 now either.
As we all know though, whatever happens, Apple won't let us choose what we do with the desktop. It's their way or no way at all. If they say there's to be a transparent menu or huge dock then that's how it will be.
Neither can the Finder and that's supposedly built in! I tried to create a Folder of PDFs and it's so damn clunky. Then again, why create smart folders when everything on your HDD is a Command+Space away!
Well, that's easy. Say you're looking for an Excel, Logic, Quartz Composer document, but you can't remember the name. Or you're looking for the OpenType version of a font. LaunchBar can automatically show me a list of filetype related documents of every kind of filetype on my hard drive. Even when you do remember the document name - it's still a handy feature, and one I use often.
So what does anyone think about the fact that this comes right out of Sun's Looking Glass demo?
Did an Apple designer just see it, and say "cool", or does it suggest anything more?
Lets not get carried away here. I think it is Sun taking the "Dock" concept here. All Apple has done is taken the White background and turned it into a floor. There are probably 100 versions of the dock at Apple HQ.
Lets not get carried away here. I think it is Sun taking the "Dock" concept here. All Apple has done is taken the White background and turned it into a floor. There are probably 100 versions of the dock at Apple HQ.
Oh, you should see #57. Hot-ness.
I'm familiar with Papers, and although it's quite good, I'm currently using Yep (and eagerly awaiting v2, which will support a whole range of document formats). Meanwhile I've become quite addicted to tagging files with Punakea, a Finder replacement / add-on (whatever you want to call it). Seriously recommended!
Although, admittedly, using some random element from a theoretical UI is a funny way to express it....
Looking Glass is not theoretical, you can download the installers for Linux and Solaris. Requirements: 1.4 GHz or faster CPU, 512MB RAM, 3D accelerated GPU with at least 32MB VRAM and driver support for OpenGL 1.3 or greater.
I added a drop shadow on the menu so that it shows up no matter what background it's on (hence the image with the white square). It's not great on white but I doubt many people will have a pure white backdrop. Outlined fonts don't look very good.
Cool, the translucent menu bar should be user configurable (font color and font size). I hope it's optional, I don't really want a translucent menu bar to begin with.
I have this feeling it might be time to try DragThing again.
Quicksilver's been crashing on me once a day or so. It doesn't even have any special plugins installed. Still, it's a great app and if I can figure out how to get rid of the crashes (full uninstall and reinstall maybe?) I'll depend on it even more in the future. With QS, Spotlight, Expose, Dashboard, Time Machine, etc. things are getting crowded. There will probably be trouble with software like Eclipse if I use up all the function keys for global stuff. I might even be interested in fixing Expose and Spotlight to run via QS to save the keys.