10.2.3: iApps w/ metal skin oddity
The window buttons (close, minimize, zoom) are now *recessed* in the metal, instead of bulging above it, ala every other window. QuickTime Player still uses the old metal skin in general, and has the bulging buttons. (Updated when we get a new QT, I presume?) I certainly didn't notice this before the update...
Here are shots of iCal and iChat:
Q: Is this indeed new?
Q: What do you all think of it? I think it needs a touch of smoothing, but otherwise looks quite nice... more of a physical object.
[ 12-19-2002: Message edited by: Kickaha ]</p>
Here are shots of iCal and iChat:
Q: Is this indeed new?
Q: What do you all think of it? I think it needs a touch of smoothing, but otherwise looks quite nice... more of a physical object.
[ 12-19-2002: Message edited by: Kickaha ]</p>
Comments
Yes, the widgets are new for 10.2.3 textured windows. Apps that use the fake, custom subclass for the metal UI (iTunes, QT Player, iPhoto) obviously do not inherit it.
Personally, I don't like them. The widgets no longer look perfectly round. Also, the white highlight on the bottom of the widgets is starting to annoy me. It's just enough to catch your eye. It's like a scratch or something.
<strong>Oh, come ON Kick. Surely you're smart enough to convert your images from PDFs before trying to embed them in the page. Tsk tsk.
Oh shut UP! Jeez!
[quote]<strong>Yes, the widgets are new for 10.2.3 textured windows. Apps that use the fake, custom subclass for the metal UI (iTunes, QT Player, iPhoto) obviously do not inherit it.
Personally, I don't like them. The widgets no longer look perfectly round. Also, the white highlight on the bottom of the widgets is starting to annoy me. It's just enough to catch your eye. It's like a scratch or something.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Yeah, that's what I meant by them needing some smoothing. If they tone down that highlight, I actually think it'd look pretty good.
[ 12-19-2002: Message edited by: chych ]</p>
Warning: do NOT attempt to install a "theme" like this over 10.2.3 unless it specifically says that it has been updated for 10.2.3.
Eh, I guess I'll get used to it. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />
Or I may just hack something better in their place.
[ 12-19-2002: Message edited by: Brad ]</p>
This is just soooooooooo minor. Having said that, I like it better than that other theme which makes the "recessed" area too large, and makes the widgets look too small.
[ 12-20-2002: Message edited by: thuh Freak ]</p>
<strong>why doesn't the ****ing finder use this [shit]?</strong><hr></blockquote>Surely you must be kidding.
Why on earth would you expect the Finder to use the textured interface option?
Sure, Apple is already stretching its own guidelines and conventions by using the metal on iChat, but to use it on the Finder would just be utterly ridiculous. Does it mimic a real-world device? No. Does it interface with peripherals in the digital hub? Not really. It is a media creation app? No.
<strong>Surely you must be kidding.
Why on earth would you expect the Finder to use the textured interface option?
Sure, Apple is already stretching its own guidelines and conventions by using the metal on iChat, but to use it on the Finder would just be utterly ridiculous. Does it mimic a real-world device? No. Does it interface with peripherals in the digital hub? Not really. It is a media creation app? No.</strong><hr></blockquote>
pardon my extreme stupidity and stupidness, hadn't noticed it was only metal apps [i now cry as i read the title of the thread]. why, then, just for them? why not be consistent? they all use red close buttons. why not have all buttons recessed. it doesn't [to me] seem to relate to metal, or metalness, or metality.
And complaining, at this point, about the metal skin look as basically inconsistent with the remainder of the system seems to be a lost cause. It looks to be here for good.
<strong>...This is amateur work. And the highlight is indeed too bright and too pixelated.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I agree. The lack of professionalism is quite obvious here. Apple's GUI designers start making things worse, which need no change. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />
[ 12-21-2002: Message edited by: Quick ]</p>
1) Metal is the "simple" interface. All the elements are locked down on the windows. No moving layered gizmos like sheets. This locks the widgets down now as well.
2) Steve has legalised the use of pot at Cupertino.
"Dude, what if the widgets were sinking!"
"Shutup just shutup you're scaring me man!"
Barto
[ 12-21-2002: Message edited by: Barto ]</p>
i don't mind the apple-version of the recessed look. it just annoys me that some apps have it (like ichat) yet others don't (like itunes). you think with a 50 meg download, they could have thrown a few more resources in there to fix them at the same time.
um, everyone always forgets poor little calculator (one of my favorite apps now, simply because it can convert currency... i can actually see how worthless these canadian dollars are in my pocket!). it has recessed widgets too. guess it's gonna become icalc or something.
one thing i want to go the way of the dodo is the lines for window and dialog pattern filler. it was cute for a while, but now i love the "calmed down" feeling of the gui when i install ANY other theme that just has flat color, or much less distracting lines all over the damn place (like in adobe's save for web dialogs, where half the fuggin' screen is line pattern... yeesh!).
i am also amazed that more people haven't pitched a fit over the lack of window borders anymore... except in iapps. would it be so frggin' evil to put a few extra pixels arounf the sides so i can conveniently grab onto it and move a window around?
and finally, what sense does it make to be able to have seventeen million windows open of the same directory?!? often, i find myslef switching to the finder, and of course, it doesn't necessarily bring the finder windows forward. they may be behind another window and i don't see them. so i hit command-n for a new window, and hunt down what i am looking for. i guess it doesn't matter a ton, be cause i can only work with one window at a time, but i just don't understand why this is a better way...
hey, does anyone know if apple still has their human interface guidelines available for download? have they been updated recently? i know steve has publicly stated he has no respect for human interface designers, but i would like to see what they think they're trying to follow.
[ 12-22-2002: Message edited by: rok ]</p>
<strong>Maybe OS X is almost perfect then, if this is all you guys have to worry about. <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" /> </strong><hr></blockquote>
Good point.
<strong>a few things...
i don't mind the apple-version of the recessed look. it just annoys me that some apps have it (like ichat) yet others don't (like itunes). you think with a 50 meg download, they could have thrown a few more resources in there to fix them at the same time.</strong>
Yeah, that's the annnoying part, but it probably would have meant downloading a whole new (well, revised) app for each -- iPhoto, iMovie, iTunes, QT, etc. I imagine it would add up. but I think it would be nice to simply make a .0.1 update available that fixes this (though it's probably harder than just clicking button on their side of things).
one thing i want to go the way of the dodo is the lines for window and dialog pattern filler. it was cute for a while, but now i love the "calmed down" feeling of the gui when i install ANY other theme that just has flat color, or much less distracting lines all over the damn place (like in adobe's save for web dialogs, where half the fuggin' screen is line pattern... yeesh!).
I like having the pinstripes in toolbars, etc. but I could easily let go of the background pinstripe rendering. It does help in some apps where you have a blank document and you can see its edges more clearly when you zoom out, but very light gray wold do the trick too.
i am also amazed that more people haven't pitched a fit over the lack of window borders anymore... except in iapps. would it be so frggin' evil to put a few extra pixels arounf the sides so i can conveniently grab onto it and move a window around?
You know, i honestly forgot all about that at this point. While aesthetically I think it might look more clumsy, I wouldn't throw fits either. But as of the second before I read this comment, I didn't miss them I guess because I didn't think of them.
and finally, what sense does it make to be able to have seventeen million windows open of the same directory?!? often, i find myslef switching to the finder, and of course, it doesn't necessarily bring the finder windows forward. they may be behind another window and i don't see them.
This is why we need those get info and view options dialogs to be utility panels, not regular windows, like how option-command-i works now.