Aqua is dead, long live Aqua!

I like the Unifed look. If any of you guys use iTerm 0.9.0+, you'll appreciate the ability to chose Unified, Aqua, Adium, and Metal (Brushed) tab styles. Although using tabs for things other then browsing is debatable, I suspect that tabbed Finder windows could be the future, considering that Konqueror in KDE and Path Finder from CocoaTech already do this. Tiger Finder sucks for lack of a better word, it has improper sorting of Folders, they should be put at the top before files, but are not. Further Spotlight integration, including regex support is welcomed and appreciated, but things that obviously need improvement are: Finder and Terminal, otherwise you wouldn't had seen me mention iTerm or Path Finder.

I am quite excited by the rumors about a less gaudy aesthetics for Leopard than before. Rotating garishly coloured wheels are an annoyance. The operating system should not be the multimedia event, but an efficient minimalist environment, highly configurable. In Quicksilver there is a square that you can mark to eliminate what they call superfluous visual effects – such a thing should be universal in all applications and system versions. After all, anyone who likes such effects is probably running games or whatever and so will have them anyway. I don't like having stuff thrown at me either, even virtually. Liked your column!

The new gray plastic color scheme is dull. The random buttons placed all over the frame are confusing. The super-sized iPod preference took up screen real-estate unnecessarily and grouping of functions were illogical at best. And finally, the worst and totally depressing -- I DON'T NEED THE ALL UPPERCASE SECTION NAME SHOUTING AT ME. Apple, are you doing alright?

First of all, let me just say that when I saw the new iTunes 7 interface, I thought Apple had lost it. I understand that they might want it to look more professional, but it's a MUSIC PLAYER. It shouldn't look professional, at least not by default.

Second, Apple should give its users choices. We should be able to choose whether we want Aqua, Graphite, or whatever they want to call their flat plastic crap in iTunes 7. For cryin' out loud, WINDOWS and it's music player are fully skinnable without needing any shareware utilities. Why can't Apple do the same thing?

I'm now working on a "repair" for iTunes that will restore the Mac feel to the interface- it won't be the same colors, but will use the general feel of the Aqua OS. It will be primarily dark blue and chrome- I should have it done in a week or so- that's what lecture classes are for!

I guess it's another step closer to looking and acting "windowsy". Gotta make it easy for those windows users switching.. Darn!

If you think iTunes 7 is ugly. Download the iTunes 6 skin from my web site. It's an exact port of iTunes 6 to iTunes 7. There, now iTunes won't be ugly anymore. Note that you'll need the skin program for iTunes

Skin Program: http://www.aqua-soft.org/board/showthread.php?t=38334
iTunes 6 skin for 7: http://www.blazingraptor.com

Download iTunes 7? Not with THESE scrollbars... If this is the future of Mac OS X, i'm not gonna be there. I'm perfectly fine with 10.3.9 and iTunes 6. Movies aren't available in Germany anyway, so what's the point...

I am surprised you all didn't complain about the nightly WebKit's UI the latest does show the change (I don't mean the scrollbar or the finish... I mean the radio button or text box such like that has changed ) compare the nightly WebKit to latest Safari and visit a site that has lots of radio buttons. you will notice the difference.

Hey here is an idea: offer us both ideas. Then the minimalists and those of us with taste all get our ways :). Seriously though, this a major, major let down to those of us who like Aqua. In fact I downgraded back to iT6 because I hate the drab, boring grey. I would be really disappointed if 10.5 looks like this. Maybe it time to give users an extra option.

The new UI is poor, it looks rubbish and is lesss intuitive than before, and way too flat and grey, many bits are half done and useful bits have gone, I really miss the nice round multi function browse/burn/import button from the top right. The sources pane is OTT with the sub categories and I don't like the shopping cart and purchased icons always present, the old tree menu was much cleaner and less cluttered. Where the Videos icon gone, the new Movies icon is useless to me as I only have music videos which don't show up in this. The new UI colours are just awful, bring back blue aqua i say (or GIVE US A CHOICE). The new check boxes are less less clear, I'm almost squinting on a 20" display to see if tracks are checked. Where's the full screen button gone for movies? The visualiser button is missing? The prefences need a complete rethink - it's getting confusing with the extra features. On a positive note, video playback is better and gapless playback is a welcome addition, as are some of the new smart shuffle options - however where is the Smart Shuffle criteria for gapless playback??? Almost feels like a beta release. Anyone know where I can download iTunes 6 please!!!