Apple's been saying all along that
Snow Leopard would be more about under-the-hood performance and stability enhancements than huge feature changes, so take this with a grain of salt, but AppleInsider claims that a forthcoming 10.6 developer beta could potentially feature a new UI codenamed "marble." The new appearance is said to be darker and sleeker than the current Unified / Aqua look, and speculation is rampant that the new scrollbars in the current versions of iTunes and iPhoto offer a peek into the future, along with the well-circulated mockup of the new QuickTime X player seen above. We'll see if Apple breaks with its plan to focus solely on the internals soon enough -- but for right now, we're wondering what your biggest gripes with the current OS X interface are, because we certainly know ours. What do you want fixed? Sound off!
posted Mar 25th 2009 8:47PM
Well that'd be different.
wouldn't it...
I don't think this is what we think it is, either that or it is NOT anything like the final version. I mean come on, SNOW Leopard?
Doesn't that conjure up the color white or ice? Maybe that is what this is, look at the clouds coming through the bar on the movie. The bars probably disappear after you take your mouse of the window... The ice concept would make more sense to me but, if they are going with a darker look they are going to have to make a new "blackbook". And I am all for that. =)
actually, if they went with white or "icy" window decorations, they'd be regressing to around...panther? i think thats what it was.
so they've done it before. I personally don't expect apple to change very much, if any part, of their UI. it is one of the things that they've built their business on and apple doesn't just change things like that without a very, very good reason.
It's called Snow Leopard because Snow Leopards are generally white. People generally tend to associate white with clean. So this is going to be a cleaned up version of Leopard (as in better performance and UI).
@Patriks7
I thought they named it Snow Leopard because it's an under the hood update, so it's basically an extension of Leopard, but better. Like how the Snow Leopard is cooler than a regular one.
"The titlebar itself (seen in the artist rendition, above) is reminiscent of the iPhone's semi-transparent black glass interface but is also capable of adopting hues from the video frames playing beneath it. Although seen in the rendering as sporting a purplish hue (due to the underlying blue video frame) the titlebar appears glass-black when set atop a white or tan-colored video frame."
Sounds nice. As the fanboy I am I'm looking forward to the end of this year when I'm running Snow Leopard on my Mac Pro, Ubuntu on my Thinkpad x61s and Windows 7 on my Acer Travelmate. That would be best of all worlds.
@pyroluigi
That was really insensitive. I AM a regular leopard, and am deeply offended at your statement that I am less cool than a snow leopard.
@pyroluigi
That's exactly what I said...
wouldn't care
WHy hasnt engadget reported on every theme available in Windows 95/98/00/me/V/7??
I can prove they have multiple themes!
Then don't post?
is that windows vista?
*shrugs* Who gives a shit. It will still be the same OS. All Apple ever does it tweak the icons and the theme from version to version. OS 10 hasn't really changed since....well 10.0. All they have done is some basic under the hood changes with a few occasional feature updates and BAM! Slapped a $120 charge to get it.
With a third party skinning app, because god knows Apple would NEVER admit that OS X's GUI isn't perfect for everyone, your average Mactard could never tell the difference between Panther, Tiger, Leopard, or SL. Same shit....different coat of paint. generally speaking....Finally Apple is going back and cleaning up almost a decade of neglect under the hood. Something I've been screeching about for years but every Mactard kept saying I was imagining things and OS X is perfect....Where's your heavenly OS now beaches, now that Apple themselves has admitted the SL is a cleanup OS? Realistically 10.6 should be free for every user who put up with buggy initial update, after buggy initial update. I got sick of Apple running a beta test on their users with each 10.x.0 release so Apple went poof for me...thank god.
i love engadget
but isn't this a gadget blog?
i know apple posts have high viewing (77 comments when i put this)
but still.
gotta have integrity mang! don't sell out for profits!
"current Unified / Aqua look" - oh that's unified? Could have fooled me. And wow, that black bar... sooo Vista. Apple are such copycats. lol.
I would LOVE to see this change... as long as it's uniform.
The lack of consistency until Leopard drive me bonkers... to the point that I had Tiger 100% Metal just to have it look all the same. (No, I didn't run ShapeShifter.) An inconsistent interface just screams unprofessional... and Windows (ever have a WinNT dialog box pop up in XP? Lame.).
And to the guy who says OSX hasn't changed since 10.0... um... dream on. It's actually changed with every major release, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.
-Pie
XP > OSuX
I really doubt this is is true. I really don't think anyone cares what color their UI happens to be. The UI that apple has right now is PERFECT, no one is going to buy an OS just for a UI color scheme update. Apples got some pretty sweet optimizations and tweaks in snow leopard that will make your computer faster without upgrading your hardware. That's where vista went wrong, It was slower.. Even after I upgraded my hardware! and Flip 3D has got to go, you can only ever look at one window at a time!
ImaYam,
well...
first, engadget hasnt been around for that long
two, it took microsoft 10 years to update xp (not that much news to cover)
third, engadget has covered the transition from xp to vista and more recently, vista to windows 7 pretty extensively.
so stop your whinging
To everyone complaining about how the above image is copy-cating Windows, you do realize that this was a mockup by an artist, right?
Ah, the vaunted Apple UI, where users have to sit helplessly and wait for Apple to dribble out.. COLOR CHANGES. WTF? Under Windows, users can create a custom color scheme in minutes. Don't want the outdated and failed default inverse color scheme? Pull up the Control Panel and adjust the display settings to create a sensible one, maybe with a dark background and light text.
Oh, sorry Mac users. You're still stuck with the multicolored gumdrops and glaring white backgrounds that were in vogue when the translucent blue acrylic PowerMacs came out.
There's no excuse for this.
well, if you take aero and kludge an early 2000's flash horizontal scroll bar ... voila! A peek into the past.
You're an idiot.
vista? is that you?
Yeah it's me. 7 kicked me out, can I live with you?
Microsoft obviously copied Apple. When Snow Leopard comes out before 7, Microsoft will have blatently copied this marble UI and called it some hack name like 'Aero.'
John,
I am typing this on Windows 7.
It's already out, just not in retail channels.
Besides, Vista had a UI scheme similar to this as well, but not quite as slick as 7's.
This is not slicker than 7 either, not by a long shot.
This is just a blatant wannabe.
Now we know when Windows 7 will be out! Soon after OS X 10.6!
Hamixda - Whooosh!
@Hamidxa
Damn, read the actual article.
These shots are artist mockups of what they think it MIGHT look like. The source of the images isn't Apple.
Hammydixta,
If you were riding Steve Ballmer's jock any harder you'd be pregnant.
Same can be said about you and SJ, so take that thing out off your mouth when you talk biach.
@ Hamidxa:
well well, if it isn't Mr. iHater once more.
"This is just a blatant wannabe."
Did you even bother reading this post? Nilay Patel very clearly wrote:
"well-circulated mockup of the new QuickTime X player seen above."
Apple has made no official demonstrations of any new UI. Yet you, once more, start spreading Apple hate over absolutely nothing. Why do you even bother showing up at Engadget Apple posts?
Windows Vista had this look first.
This look was/is vista this go into settings(right click anywhere on desktop>personalize>window color) and move the opacity all the way over until it's transparent, then saturation, and finally move the color to whatever tint you prefer.
yes PP i believe it was your mom who said that, but I had a hard time hearing her from behind her
Do want, love alphas.
do not want.
just want them to allow third party skinning apps again.
that or just provide a dark option for reading at night so that your eyes dont get destroyed.
@ti:
It may not be a first-party solution, but you can use an app from BlackTree called Nocturne. It does that pretty damn well :P
dubdubdub dot blacktree dot com
Enjoy :)
Actually, I believe OS X has an auto color inverter option. Not sure if its the dark option you are looking for, but it definitely works when reading text. I think it toggles with Command-Control-F8, or something like that.
now it looks like vista. apple fail.
What looks like Vista? An artist's rendition that has absolutely no impact on the actual 10.6 release?
Easy there little bill. Wither it is a rendition or not, it does look like Aero; don't get all defensy.
it looks like vista??? but vista looks like aqua... who fails???
Actually looks more like Longhorn/blackcomb to me.
OT: I kinda find it funny how everyone says that Vista riped off tiger, when longhorn had the stuff well before tiger was out.
looks like aero (just sayin)
thats what I thought when I saw it... guess if you cant beat em join em. ;)
Beats that ugly "stone" look from the 90s.
"marble" looks like areo > areo looks like aqua > aqua = OS X... I like monkeys!!!
Scuba, nice try... but... No. Lol!
I try nice indeed.