Leopard Reviews

[bbloke]

I haven't got access to a developer's version of Leopard, and I haven't even seen the keynote speech (I keep trying to access it, though...), so I'm not best placed to make comments. But I'll do so anyway!

Originally Posted by fryke

Time Machine – Unnecessary eye-candy. Imho, is not exactly the best interface for a backup-app.

I agree. I've seen videos of Time Machine and it feels very un-Mac-like to me. It seems rather over the top! I hope that the feature itself works well, though, as it could be useful to many.

Originally Posted by fryke

Unified Leopard or whatever we'll call the "new desktop" etc., I'm also not sure whether I really like it. I *do* like that they got rid of two out of three looks, no doubt about _that_. I'm just not sure I'm down with the look we've seen in iTunes 7 for _everything_.

I'm certainly pleased they there is more consistency. Apple seems to have listened to the criticism on that note. As for the style, it's hard to say what is best (perhaps a new look altogether?), but I'm glad it wasn't brushed metal! I've always found the brushed metal Finder windows a bit... "chunky"... and a bit ugly. That said, looking back at the old Aqua windows, I realized that the styling was a bit over the top in the early days too.

I think it is a step in the right direction, but maybe a newer, single theme could be developed by Apple.

Originally Posted by fryke

The translucent menubar – Unnecessary eye-candy. Well: No, Apple. It doesn't really work well. I've read somewhere the user can turn it off, but I don't find anything about that anywhere.

Ah, I had heard, too, that you could turn it off. If so, then I think it is OK. If not, then my first impression from the screenshots was that it could get annoying. It has the potential to look nice, but also the potential to make the interface harder to use.

Originally Posted by fryke

The new Finder – Unnecessary eye-candy. Yep. Cover Flow? Please...

I agree! I really thought they're milking the CoverFlow concept now... I'm not sure I'd ever use the Finder like that!

Who knows, though... I virtually never used Exposé until I got a multibutton mouse. Even now, I don't use it much, but a feature that I might have never used has now snuck into my routine, on occasions. Dashboard looked great, but I wasn't sure I'd use it lots. I've ended up getting a few Widgets and using them now, and I especially use the calculator Widget, rather than running the Calculator app.

Originally Posted by fryke

The new Dock – Unnecessary eye-candy. You guessed right: I'm not so sure about that one, either. Yay 3D. Yay glassy effects. Yay screen candy, eh? Uuuurgh... Icons seem less distinct in the new Dock. The new "lightbulb" effect to show whether an app is active doesn't work - period. It's too subtle. Nothing wrong with the old black triangle in my opinion. Not after seing what they've come up with to replace it.

Mmm, I wasn't too impressed when I first saw the 3D effect Dock. I hoped there might be a 2D option too.......... The reflections are quite cute, but it does all seem a bit unnecessary. I also think it somehow makes things a little less clear. The glowing blue dot under the app icons looks nice, though! I don't know how clear it is in practice, but it looks very pleasant in the screenshot. As for clarity, the black triangle is, by comparison, hard to miss, however.

Originally Posted by fryke

Then again: All put together, it _kinda_ works. It _does_ feel modern. And the graphics power _is_ there, even with my lowly MacBook's integrated graphics. But it _does_ feel like they've taken a page from Microsoft's Vista, and I'm just not sure that it's been necessary to do so.

Perhaps they worry that Microsoft might actually start to take the lead in aesthetics?

...Hmm, can't believe I just said that!

Originally Posted by fryke

So out of 10 points, if you want a review, I'd rather give them zero and go back to Tiger's mishmash look of 3 looks than give them 5 points for trying... Yes, they're halfway there, but if it doesn't work completely, I don't think they should release it. Apple is the company that once did Platinum, for crying out loud! A clean look that actually _worked_. They're the ones who did NewAqua in Jaguar! A modern look that actually worked.

I certainly think Jaguar's Aqua was an improvement. I'm not so sure I'd like to go back to Platinum now, although I did think it was better than Windows at the time.

Originally Posted by fryke

(You see I'm not a fan of the old Aqua in 10.0-10.1. or of Brushed Metal.)

Me neither!

Originally Posted by fryke

Now, right now in Leopard Beta, it really _is_ a look in beta. That's _not_ finished, and I hope they'll tweak it _right_ 'til release in October.

Considering how much time they've had, and how some of the new features seem like pointless eye candy, that's a little worrying...

[bbloke]

There are also some videos of Leopard at:

http://www.brightcove.com/channel_al...5&firstVideo=0

[fryke]

Well, I've merely touched the surface so far, of course. There are various small things that are different. The print dialogue, for example, is vastly improved. I like that one very much.

I haven't had the chance to test the new iChat features yet. Then again, I hardly ever had a videoconference, anyway, so that might not be in my focus.

But I have to say that while Tiger was basically just Spotlight and Dashboard, it certainly _looks_ like Leopard is in fact a bigger upgrade overall. I might not agree with all the decisions they're making, but at least you're not going to spend 129 dollars on widgets and a search feature that gets more in the way than it actually helps finding stuff. (That said, Spotlight, too, seems better than before. Although guess what view they've chosen for Cmd-F when no Finder window is open. Right: Cover Flow.)

[Ferdinand]

Even though the blue glow, the reflections and the new grey shadow over the name of the app in the dock are all unnecessary eye-candy, it still looks great. But I could do without the 3D thing...
The Time Machine is a great feature, I think it will be very practical. What I hate is the new menu-bar with this "adapting to the desktop picture" feature... ugh!

PS no.2: Thanks to whoever moved this thread - it was really annoying going to Mac OS X System & Software and then finding the thread...

[fryke]

The thing about the menubar is: On the _desktop_, it actually looks good. But if you're working in, say, Adobe Photoshop CS3, it looks terrible, because you don't see much of the desktop picture other than what's shining through the menubar. I've installed that little app now which makes it look like Tiger's (but without the rounded edges) -> http://www.manytricks.com/blog/?id=14 ... (This of course is only useful when in Leopard.)

[Durbrow]

Can anyone talk about the ToDo items that are somehow embedded into Leopard? Is this some kind of new data item like urls? Can To Do items be denoted as such in any Cocoa apps using a service or context menu option?

[symphonix]

The new Finder – Unnecessary eye-candy. Yep. Cover Flow? Please...

I would agree that 95% of the new stuff in Leopard is eye-candy, but there are definite usability improvements in some spots, especially in the Finder. The sidebar, with its collapsible sources list that has live updating of available Macs on your network using Bonjour would be one feature alone that would make this a worthwhile upgrade. The use of stacks, and multipage previews of documents right from the finder will also make it better when sorting through your files.

Coverflow though? Ridiculous.

[fryke]

Todos are synced to my treo automatically. Suddenly my treo's todos popped up in Mail.app, which was kind of a surprise to me. I haven't looked into the documentation, though.

I'm not so sure about the stacks, btw. ... Again, I have the feeling that they're okay for three or four files, but then again, for that low a number you don't really _need_ anything like stacks. But as soon as there's a larger number of files in there, it gets complicated, and I rather work with folders sorted by date.