#FF00AA

My name is Cédric Bozzi, I make apps and websites, and this is my tech blog — you’ll find news commentary here, from a very opinionated Mac-head.

Il y a une version française ici, but most of this blog’s contents are extracted from my Twitter feed, and hence only available in one language (which varies randomly).

28 aug. 2007

Mac OS X 10.5 9A527 Screenshots

The latest iteration of the menu bar does look better than in previous versions, although we still wish it weren’t transparent. I’m surprised that the default new background (which I couldn’t believe was actually the official OS X background until I saw the full Think Secret gallery — even after the introduction of Time Machine, it still looks at odds with Apple design) has a big glowing star right in the middle of the menu bar, but that could actually be a good sign: I recently realized that the transparent menu bar could actually work if they decided to blur the background beneath it (à la Aero, yes). And, if they’re leaving a star there, maybe that’s actually because they know it won’t be so visible when everything’s programmed. Or, yeah, maybe not.

What the hell is up with the fluorescent window controls? There’s something really weird with Leopard so far: on the one hand, they’re pushing everything towards medium grey; on the other, you’ve got the flashy gems and starry background and transparent menu bar that looks so out of place and distracting. All of which makes for a very weird combination.

And Apple’s designers aren’t so good at designing large-scale icons. They look terribly… crude. Plus, Cover Flow doesn’t work so well with traditional OS X icon design. I’m surprised they didn’t think of switching to real 3D icons yet. I guess the next big cat will get on that.

# 2007-08-28 23:08:24

#FF00AA

28 aug. 2007

Mac OS X 10.5 9A527 Screenshots

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