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:dragonflypro: · Sep 7, 2005, 02:26 PM

Well, iTunes 5 gets a make over alå Mail 2.0 but in a darker shade.

So, is this the beginning of the end for Brushed?

rhythmicmoose · Sep 7, 2005, 02:28 PM

And all I can say is... about freaking time. Can't wait for the Aqua mods that use something like this instead of brushed metal. (Hint hint, paging Max Rudberg).

Silky Voice of The Gorn · Sep 7, 2005, 02:31 PM

At first I was thinking this, but matters are far WORSE now.

- It's not metal, but it's still not the unified toolbar look of Tiger; it's darker.
- The sharp corners look like crap ; they're pixelated and don't match any other window style. At least metal had normal corners.

If they phase out metal for this, they really have lost their minds. iTunes looks likes a crappy PC skin. Maybe that was the idea?

edit: Here's a normal Finder corner next to iTunes 5's. Yuck.

fisherKing · Sep 7, 2005, 02:36 PM

all i know is...
themers, help!
itunes is scary with blackberry or ruler aero (or any theme, i imagine).
had to disable shapeshifter for itunes, and am looking at *gasp* the "normal" skin.

i'm sure they change the look just to f*ck with the shapeshifter peeps..............

rhythmicmoose · Sep 7, 2005, 02:47 PM

Other new stuff to note:

- VBR AAC support!
- Lyrics support (in the info window).

Kilik101 · Sep 7, 2005, 03:05 PM

i agree bout time. i love it. hopefully they continue the same style for safari.

Chris Grande · Sep 7, 2005, 03:36 PM

Its so damn UGLY, Apple what the hell!?!?!? If it was the lighter shade like Mail and had the normal round corners it would be fine but... gah. Its so friggen ugly.

ZXspectrum · Sep 7, 2005, 03:39 PM

1. looks very sharp, i love it.

2. maybe SS will let us exclude an application while keeping the menu-bar themed...

:dragonflypro: · Sep 7, 2005, 04:59 PM

…some of the people some of the time.…

drainyoo · Sep 7, 2005, 06:55 PM

Damn some of you are whiney little bastards. Im an OS design snob and apprecite a well designed app but this doesnt bother me at all. At least its not the freaking brushed metal. You guys are complaing about freaking corners! WHO CARES! Life goes on.

Silky Voice of The Gorn · Sep 7, 2005, 07:49 PM

Um...this is the GUI forum. You should expect detailed analysis of UI elements. If not, go away.

nbn22385 · Sep 7, 2005, 08:06 PM

Did they remove the option to hide the music store from the sidebar?

fisherKing · Sep 7, 2005, 08:11 PM

Originally Posted by nbn22385

Did they remove the option to hide the music store from the sidebar?

not at all, and you can remove "podcasts" now as well.

meanwhile...
themers! help...!

Silky Voice of The Gorn · Sep 7, 2005, 09:22 PM

Originally Posted by fisherKing

not at all, and you can remove "podcasts" now as well.

They did? I don't see where; in general prefs it still only lets you hide the Store and Party Shuffle

fisherKing · Sep 7, 2005, 09:23 PM

Originally Posted by Silky Voice of The Gorn

They did? I don't see where; in general prefs it still only lets you hide the Store and Party Shuffle

the Parental panel (!)

Silky Voice of The Gorn · Sep 7, 2005, 09:33 PM

Sweet christ on a crutch. What crack addicts did Apple hire to design this thing? Now we got:

1) Asstastic new UI, complete with poorly rendered and useless sharp corners (see my latest AW post).
2) A Pref dialog with no close button.
3) Disable Podcast checkbox randomly thrown under parental controls.

rjenkinson · Sep 7, 2005, 09:40 PM

http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunes.html

-r.

nbn22385 · Sep 7, 2005, 10:11 PM

Originally Posted by fisherKing

the Parental panel (!)

Wow, maybe I should look for more than 3 seconds

fisherKing · Sep 7, 2005, 10:31 PM

Originally Posted by nbn22385

Wow, maybe I should look for more than 3 seconds

why bother, when it only takes 2 seconds to post here?
you save a full second...

esXXI · Sep 7, 2005, 10:31 PM

Originally Posted by Silky Voice of The Gorn

At first I was thinking this, but matters are far WORSE now.

- It's not metal, but it's still not the unified toolbar look of Tiger; it's darker.
- The sharp corners look like crap ; they're pixelated and don't match any other window style. At least metal had normal corners.

If they phase out metal for this, they really have lost their minds. iTunes looks likes a crappy PC skin. Maybe that was the idea?

edit: Here's a normal Finder corner next to iTunes 5's. Yuck.
[Snip]

I'm pretty sure that was done because Apple don't seem to want to fix the jagged rendering of the corners (I assume to keep Windows compatibility) - so they reduced the curve so it's not as apparent.

Not sure why suddenly people are jumping on the jaggy corners issue, it's been there for a long time.

And lastly; we don't know if this is just an iTunes window style or will replace all metal windows in Leopard.

'Course many of the people complaining will use a theme regardless..

fisherKing · Sep 7, 2005, 10:45 PM

Originally Posted by esXXI

I'm pretty sure that was done because Apple don't seem to want to fix the jagged rendering of the corners (I assume to keep Windows compatibility) - so they reduced the curve so it's not as apparent.

Not sure why suddenly people are jumping on the jaggy corners issue, it's been there for a long time.

And lastly; we don't know if this is just an iTunes window style or will replace all metal windows in Leopard.

'Course many of the people complaining will use a theme regardless..

a theme? my 2 faves need updates! blackberry and ruler aero...
it's ugly as hell right now (itunes 5 & shapeshifter)

yes, i know iT just came out...but that's half-a day already!

themarvelous3 · 10:53 PM

matches my self altered system appearance...

beautifully i might add.

i like the "Show Duplicate Songs" option...has that been there before now?

i love it. i think it's absolutely beautiful. it would be nicer ONLY if you could change the sidebar background color from light blue.

jaydon34 · Sep 7, 2005, 11:30 PM

I like it as well hope they change the system gui in 10.5

dggraphics · Sep 7, 2005, 11:46 PM

The new iTunes allows you to use color in the background, finally, so this is actually good news for themers.

natey · Sep 8, 2005, 12:26 AM

Fug.

Timan · 02:45 AM

We all know finder will look like this now.

webcookie · Sep 8, 2005, 04:55 AM

Finder looks beautiful like that. I hope all brushed does end up like that. I've always been a lover of brushed, but this new look is even better.

mugget · Sep 8, 2005, 05:28 AM

i love the new-look iTunes 5!!!

really sharp (as another member put it) and streamlined.

a good point about the corners of the iTunes window... but i really like that as well. Timan - that Finder mockup is really great! i love it! personally - i think the big rounded corners make everything look a bit... childish? the less rounded corners bring a sharp, professional look i feel.

i'd be stoked to see a theme that looks much like that Finder window mockup.

*hint*

cuidado · Sep 8, 2005, 05:51 AM

Originally Posted by Timan

We all know finder will look like this now.

care to share? or tell me where i can get it?

Silky Voice of The Gorn · Sep 8, 2005, 08:31 AM

ALso note that the sliders in prefs (i.e. smart shuffle) do a translucent drag, not live as the rest of the OS, the pointer doesn't land directly on the tic marks and the translucent slider has a bad alpha channel.

Seriously, who the hell signed off on this half-assed job?

themarvelous3 · Sep 8, 2005, 09:08 AM

i think he was referring to the fact that the finder windows will be metal while they leave the main menu bar snow white (or glass)

hihowareyou · Sep 8, 2005, 09:21 AM

sure it could do with some more work to perfect it but this is 100x better than brushed metal.

the other day my partner was having a good old apple bash about itunes, his two targets were the brushed metal and limited shuffle options and now he has nothing to complain about

Silky Voice of The Gorn · Sep 8, 2005, 09:24 AM

Originally Posted by hihowareyou

sure it could do with some more work to perfect it but this is 100x better than brushed metal.

The brushed metal, love or hate was just a window texture. Yes, brushed is gone, but replaced with such amazingly slipshod work. The corners, the sliders, etc. They could have gotten rid of the texture without compromising any of these things. Why did they?

So no, to me its not 100x better than itunes 4x. Its WORSE. The new features are great, but I would have preferred them added to the old UI than this abortion.

Noted · Sep 8, 2005, 10:26 AM

I use Niqu but I dont want it to skin iTunes. Is there anyway I can keep the Niqu skin but tell it to not skin iTunes?

TheSpaz · Sep 8, 2005, 10:40 AM

Does anyone care to make a theme for iTunes 5 that LOOKS like iTune 4? I want my old corners back and the square LCD looks RETARDED!

I wonder why they didn't use a light grey for the window like Mails unified titlebar. Hmm.

aristotles · Sep 8, 2005, 11:33 AM

Originally Posted by Silky Voice of The Gorn

Sweet christ on a crutch. What crack addicts did Apple hire to design this thing? Now we got:

Do you have to swear? Is your vocabulary so limited that you feel the need to use expletives in order to express yourself?

1) Asstastic new UI, complete with poorly rendered and useless sharp corners (see my latest AW post).

You have a point. The corners should be a bit more anti-aliased.

2) A Pref dialog with no close button.

That's normal. Why do you want a close button for a preferences dialogue?

3) Disable Podcast checkbox randomly thrown under parental controls.

Let me guess, you are neither a parent or have any nieces/nephews right? It is in the Parental section for a very good reason. Parents would want to have control over the type of content their children have access to as well as the ability to purchase music. The same thing goes for the disable store option, disable shared music and filtering out explicit songs from the music store.

esXXI · Sep 8, 2005, 12:36 PM

Originally Posted by Timan

We all know finder will look like this now.
[Snip]

I was gonna mock something like that up myself - looks so sexy. I really do hope that's where they're going with the metal style.

Originally Posted by TheSpaz

I wonder why they didn't use a light grey for the window like Mails unified titlebar. Hmm.

Probably because that's replacing the Aqua style windows, where as this is replacing the Textured style windows (maybe).

cuidado · Sep 8, 2005, 12:44 PM

Originally Posted by esXXI

I was gonna mock something like that up myself - looks so sexy. I really do hope that's where they're going with the metal style.

Probably because that's replacing the Aqua style windows, where as this is replacing the Textured style windows (maybe).

Anyone up for doing a visual style or a shapeshifter theme of it? ;D

Silky Voice of The Gorn · Sep 8, 2005, 12:52 PM

Originally Posted by aristotles

Do you have to swear? Is your vocabulary so limited that you feel the need to use expletives in order to express yourself?

Sorry to offend, but if you don't care for coloring of language to add nuance, then well, I dunno. Whatever.

That's normal. Why do you want a close button for a preferences dialogue?

No it isn't. Show me another application who's preference window doesn't have a close button. If you do, it's the exception not the rule; Not a single application I have running does that.

Let me guess, you are neither a parent or have any nieces/nephews right?

Wrong again. I am a parent and an uncle, many times over. My initial dismay about them putting "hide" in parental controls was it was inconsistent with iTunes 4, where that would normally be under "General". Now that I see they moved all those to parental, it makes sense. I kneejerked on that one.

radii_22 · Sep 8, 2005, 01:03 PM

I think that this design is a good thing, and I can imagine that it will replace all the brushed metal apps (as iPhoto, iCal, iMovie, etc.)

I hope the Finder '07 will go with lighter gray interface, I find kind of inconsistent the use of the metal theme in an app that need to be more practical than beautiful.

About the corners, I guess that it has to do with differences between Carbon and Cocoa. I hope that Cocoa metal apps will have a better corner definition.

mac freak · Sep 8, 2005, 01:42 PM

Anyone else noticed that Apple's design themes seem to slowly be reverting to OS 9?

Silky Voice of The Gorn · Sep 8, 2005, 02:47 PM

Originally Posted by radii_22

About the corners, I guess that it has to do with differences between Carbon and Cocoa.

No. The framework has no bearing on the UI (for all intents and purposes).

TheSpaz · Sep 8, 2005, 03:18 PM

They need to rewrite iTunes from the ground up.

monkeybrain · Sep 8, 2005, 03:36 PM

Does anyone else notice the strong grey/black between the source list and the track list? It's more apparent when a scrollbar is visable on the source list. I don't know if it was there in v.4, but I find it really stands outs and seems to me like an oversight. Anyone else think they rushed this a bit? (ha, and thinking how long it took to get v.5 as well).

:dragonflypro: · Sep 8, 2005, 04:09 PM

Originally Posted by Timan

We all know finder will look like this now.

snip:FINDER MOCKUP

The sooner the better.

Looking forward to PathFinder 4, but I doubt it will be so.

mdc · Sep 8, 2005, 05:46 PM

that finder mock up looks *awesome!*
i really hope this becomes the new brushed metal and unified for regular aqua windows.

radii_22 · Sep 8, 2005, 07:02 PM

Originally Posted by monkeybrain

Does anyone else notice the strong grey/black between the source list and the track list? It's more apparent when a scrollbar is visable on the source list. I don't know if it was there in v.4, but I find it really stands outs and seems to me like an oversight. .

I agree, that vertical line is too dark.

Silky Voice of The Gorn · Sep 8, 2005, 09:57 PM

I just opened iTunes.rsrc in Themepark, and it looks like all the annoying elements can be changed, including the corners and (imo) too-glossy info window. I'm no themer, but I bet someone could do it easily.

Horsepoo!!! · 10:11 PM

Originally Posted by radii_22

About the corners, I guess that it has to do with differences between Carbon and Cocoa. I hope that Cocoa metal apps will have a better corner definition.

No...the reason for this is that the iTunes team, in its infinite wisdom, never went beyond to fix the hack of a GUI it has always been.

Remember that QuickTime Player and iTunes were the two first brushed metal apps. And under OS 9, it was impossible to achieve such effects without custom GUI graphics.

Since then, iTunes has started using some native OS widgets, but for the most part, it uses its own .rsrc file to draw it's fugly-ass GUI.

Why doesn't the iTunes team scrap the GUI and rebuild it using a native .nib interface? Nobody really knows. I'd like to believe it's to keep compatibility with Windows...but I'm starting to believe the GUI is so intricately tied with the ancient OS 9 code that they can't migrate to a native interface...either that or they're the iTunes team is extremely lazy.

There's no ****ing excuse to have 'Ok' and 'Cancel' buttons in a Prefs window instead of the traditional close button. I haven't seen an app with this behavior since, well, OS 9. The iTunes team had...let's see now...4 YEARS to get the iTunes interface up to par with all the other OS X apps.

Laziness? Or the interface is tied together with OS 9 cobwebs? Who knows.

Time for a rewrite, Apple.

iTunes 1 Wowoweewa!

Can you spot a single native widget on this OS 9 screenshot? Not me.

Sad part is that we used to think this looked cool.

Horsepoo!!! · Sep 8, 2005, 10:09 PM

double post