[cpac]

Ok - so at some point this afternoon, the .Mac web page switched from brushed metal to aqua (along the toolbar at the top). Added to this we know there's a new theme that combines elements of Aqua and Brushed Metal in the latest Tiger builds (go see pictures at Apple Insider).

So is Apple finally owning up to the inconsistencies in their interfaces, and going for a singular replacement look?

(I, for one, would welcome an all-graphite look)

[OAW]

Indeed you are right, the .Mac pages have changed. They look a lot better now IMO. Whether this is an indication that brushed metal is on its way out the door remains to be seen.

OAW

[Chris Grande]

Now they just have to update the Web mail interface... heres hoping.

The metal UI is still on some of the internal pages.

[lookmark]

Eeeeeeeeeeenteresting.

[pendragon]

In Classic, it was possible to relocate/move a window by grabbing by its frame.

While in OS X, the windows have no frames, but it is possible to drag a window by clicking/holding on any piece of the brushed aluminum, even the �pane� divider in iTunes. And sometimes this was quite convenient (IMNHO).

I wonder what the new theme has in store.

[goMac]

In 10.4 they're adding a platinum look though...

[lookmark]

Originally posted by goMac:
In 10.4 they're adding a platinum look though...

Seems so. But you know Apple does its interface -- in dribs and drabs, bit by bit.

One might almost get the idea that brushed metal is ever-so-slowly on its way out.

Curious, btw, that three tabs in a row in Apple.com use blue -- iPod + iTunes, .Mac, and QuickTime. The whole Apple site is just itching for refresh anyway.

[NSUser]

Originally posted by pendragon:
In Classic, it was possible to relocate/move a window by grabbing by its frame.

While in OS X, the windows have no frames, but it is possible to drag a window by clicking/holding on any piece of the brushed aluminum, even the �pane� divider in iTunes. And sometimes this was quite convenient (IMNHO).

Definitely agree here -- I've never been able to decide whether I like or dislike the brushed metal theme, but the ability to grab any "metal" part of a window in order to move it is something I got used to very quickly. Hope that becomes a more general feature of anything new that's on its way.

[Mac Write]

Brushed metal is very nice:

• Safari
• Finder
• iChat
• iMovie
• iTunes
• iPhoto
• QuickTime
• Pro Apps

All look good in brushed metal. I also LOVE the embedded buttons in most of these apps, the recessed buttons are so nice and appealing. What's happening is the death of stripes in Aqua, and the continual refinement of Aqua. the new gradient for menu bars of windows, and the smoother buttons as of Jaguar, are helping to really make Aqua and the OS X inteface a very refined pleasant to use OS. I can't stand to use 10.1 and for that matter 10.2 (but have to due to my Beige G3). Panther and Tiger are really improve the look of Aqua and turning it into a very refined and visually pleasing UI. OS X is still young. wait for 10.5 (2007) and you will see how beautiful OS X really is.

[SoClose]

What's interesting about this change is that it continues to promote a major UI disconnect between Apple's web presence and the UI presented in Mac OS X 10.3. One of the biggest changes in Mac OS X 10.3 was the change from tabs to Panther's more button-like replacement. Personally, I liked the visual metaphor provided by tabs and find them much more effective than Panther's buttons. The new buttons remind me of the push-buttons on the radio in my parents' old Chrysler.

[Cadaver]

Hmmm... looks interesting. Good halfway between metal and Aqua.

[ManOfSteal]

Cool, I like the new look...

[Arclite]

The pictures at AppleInsider are down. Anyone have them here for someone who has a life? (I know, I shouldn't, but I do.)

[Cadaver]

Originally posted by Arclite:
The pictures at AppleInsider are down. Anyone have them here for someone who has a life? (I know, I shouldn't, but I do.)

Wow... that was fast. I looked at them just 20 minutes ago.

[funkboy]

Pictures, anyone? The others are gone now.

[Gee4orce]

Originally posted by funkboy:
Pictures, anyone? The others are gone now.

just imagine a standard Aqua window, with the dision beween the title bar and the toolbar removed, and the gradient fill of the titlebar continued down into the toolbar. That's the only 'new' thing I could see about these screenshots.

Looks a bit Windows XP to me.

[Parky]

.Mac looks no different to me?

Which pages have changed?

The front page has Aqua highlights now, blue bar across the top.

[Zimphire]

Aqua needs to go waay before BM IMHO.

They needed to just make a modern Platinum look.

[jac]

Just to clarify, Pro apps are NOT brushed metal.

[Dog Like Nature]

Originally posted by funkboy:
Pictures, anyone? The others are gone now.

Example at: http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/voiceover.html

[BuonRotto]

pictures are postedin this AI thread too:

http://forums.appleinsider.com/showt...0&pagenumber=2

Notice also that not only is Aqua looking a bit more like metal ,but that it's behaving more like metal -- no line between the title bar and toolbar (is all that area draggable, and if not, how do you tell where to grab the title bar from?) and a sidebar instead of a drawer.

I'm not sure graphite is the right way to describe this look. For one, the widgets are still multicolored, and two, there's no more hardware that's graphite. The only thing left of graphite is the color scheme for widgets.

Also considering that the pro apps still have their dark look, I don't expect the idea of theming on Apple's terms to go away, just that maybe they've decide dthat their so-called guidelines for "textured" windows (aka, metal) weren't so great, and that a lot of their functionality, demonstrated by iTunes, is useful for all apps.

[SoClose]

You can view the same thing if you look at the Spotlight section of the Tiger preview site. What it really looks like is that Apple has completely blurred the logical line between a window's titlebar and toolbar. If you use an NSToolbar in your application, it looks like it'll just pick-up the enhanced Panther titlebar gradient and have it flow-through the toolbar. Today's windows, Mail for example, have very hard lines between the titlebar, toolbar and main window contents (in the example of Mail, the NSTableView that holds the list of messages). I do like the return to a softer, Platinum-like appearance. It has the potential to look very professional, sleek and extremely modern.

[Disgruntled Head of C-3PO]

Wow, Apple has really gone full circle with the OSX look haven't they, from OS9 Platinum to Aqua, to more subtle Aqua and now back to aqua Platinum hybrid. Oh and some Brushed metal in the mix also.

[Millennium]

Originally posted by goMac:
In 10.4 they're adding a platinum look though...

I'm not sure I'd call that Platinum; although it lacks Aqua's stripes it bears little resemblance to the default OS9 interface. It seems to be more a fusion of ideas from the Metal and Aqua interfaces. Because of that "liquid/metal" thing, I'd be more tempted to call it Mercury.

[pat++]

It might just be that they got too many complains from .mac users because the web pages were very slow to load since they changed the pages to brushed metal background. It's way faster to load now, and looks much better IMHO.

[Superchicken]

If the new Platinum look appears in the Finder I will be very happy. It would be incredibly appropriate for Mail, Finder and Safari. That said if they also made this more universal that would be awesome! I'd love for Photoshop to begin to look this good!

[storer]

Originally posted by Chris Grande:
Now they just have to update the Web mail interface... heres hoping.
The metal UI is still on some of the internal pages.

Apple is terrible with consistency on their website!

[Cadaver]

Apple changes UI looks far too frequently... its hard for the developers to keep up. While subtle refinements are ok when done to existing UIs (as usually they don't require the developer to add/change anything), this seems like a whole new look (look at the pie chart in the prototype Mail screen capture) that will have developers either scrambling or giving up.

[Superchicken]

Originally posted by Cadaver:
Apple changes UI looks far too frequently... its hard for the developers to keep up. While subtle refinements are ok when done to existing UIs (as usually they don't require the developer to add/change anything), this seems like a whole new look (look at the pie chart in the prototype Mail screen capture) that will have developers either scrambling or giving up.

Agreed, that said Tiger is supposed to be a 2 year + release, thus I think most devs are going to say OK we'll do the tiger look soon type thing. That said if they change things again with X.5 I think the developers will be crying for Steve's head. Also, what the heck shouldn't this sort of thing have been showed off at the WWDC? If they're adding a new interface theme it really should have been more public.

[TETENAL]

Originally posted by Superchicken:
Also, what the heck shouldn't this sort of thing have been showed off at the WWDC? If they're adding a new interface theme it really should have been more public.

Apple isn't that stupid. The new look will first be reserved for Apple's applications so that they can profit on having the cool new look first. It will later be available to third party developers in the next major release. That's how they did it with Brushed Metal as well.

[Superchicken]

How does Apple profit from people using Mail.app over Entourage, Thunderbird, or anything else? I'm sorry I don't get what you're getting at. Apple has no reason to withhold new abilities in software that are going to built into the OS from other devs. CI and CV are available already in Motion, but I think that's partly why they were developed. And they would need to be installed. Now that Apple will have a solid vehicle to get them out I don't see why they would want to keep them. Likewise, if the App is on the Mac it benefits Apple. Again, this should have been shown at the WWDC, the only thing I can think of is someone thought up the look after the WWDC or it wasn't near done.

Either way, PLEASE give us the finder like this! We could shut up so many people!

Actually I'd love to see them move everything to this theme, Safari, iChat, iTunes etc. Think about it, they'd probably need to rewrite the front end of iTunes in Cocoa but still! It'd be awesome!

[TETENAL]

Originally posted by Superchicken:
How does Apple profit from people using Mail.app over Entourage, Thunderbird, or anything else?

They profit because when people use it the perceived value of the OS/apps bundle is higher -> more sales. They more directly profit with iApps etc. which are sold separately.

iTunes works very well. There is no good reason to rewrite it in Cocoa.