If you’ve seen the completely overhauled Apple.com recently (that is, within the last three weeks), you would’ve seen that the Dock for October’s Mac OS X v10.5 has been “fleshed out”, gaining a 3D, reflective look that immediately divided the opinions of Apple fans.
Me, I like the new dock, but I don’t really like the new top menubar (others don’t, either).
The reason why I’m interested in this new dock is because, all of a sudden, something as common as program launcher icons (which are passe to most Windows and GNOME/KDE users) are given the appearance of tiny applications with a life of their own.
Furthermore, the “3d”, inward-reaching appearance of the new dock, IMO, may be a preliminary shot for breaking the paradigm of the flat, WIMP user interface that we’ve all been used to seeing since the advent of the commercial desktop GUI in the 1984 Macintosh.
Does this mean that the future of the user interface is reaching *into* the desktop?
Already, this appearance has been added to two of Linux’s current killer apps, the bouncy Kiba-Dock (yes, its Naruto-related) and shiny AWN (with decent-looking screenies, sans the reflection).
So this should be interesting.
oh WOW nice new layout. it’s…. sexy. :O
you mean we don’t have the option to make it NOT transparent? I like the menubar as it is right now. I’m most excited so far about Finder’s renovations, although it reminds me of Vista a bit with its organization. And yes, with apps like Time Machine and stuff, “reaching into” the desktop may become a reality soon enough.
I’m really hoping however that they a) fix the wifi so that it won’t error out while switching networks and b) put previews into iPhoto so you can see what’s on the camera before you import.
That’s what the main question in the comment war on that TUAW post. Of course, there were the usual evangelists who beat the doubters over the head with the Apple gospel, but the ones who had something sensible to say were asking if non-transparency would be an option.
No word on that, apparently.
Oh, and an anonymous WWDCer posted some grainy, tell-all Leopard demo videos to Brightcove, but Apple sent them (and MacRumours) a C&D notice.
Features of note:
* New screensavers
* Preview with Mail-style buttons
Not much else that wasn’t already announced, from what I remember.