Leopard's Core Animation to herald more than shiny tricks

Core Animation is more about animating UI either in a 2D or pseudo 3D space. As with any technology there's the chance it will be abused but there's also the chance that some unique ways of presenting data or modal changes occur. CoverFlow is a great example of a "3D feel" that is nicely applied to a 2D workspace. I'm not excited about Core Animation...I'm excited by the new way of displaying content that it provides.

on the one hand i'd hope that most developers are smart enough to avoid tacky "because-we-can" interface designs... but then i see the gilbertson article gushing over an app that apparently occludes your desktop in smokescreen. why does a non-interactive process like disc burning require an interactive fluid dynamics simulation? it seems for every 1 way animated feedback could improve productivity, there are 10 ways it could be abused to create time wasting distractions. don't get me wrong: core animation is a great tool and i'm glad apple is laying the foundations that it is --but i am distressed by notions that weird and funky should replace consistency and structure.

Bullocks! Again and again websites are preaching '3d interfaces' as if it's the new desktop metaphor.

But as long as we keep using a mouse, keyboard and monitor, this 3d stuff will get in your way of doing things, not help you. The desktop metaphor is ment to be 2D. Why should we put a 2D based metaphor in a 3D environent?

As an example take the ALT-TAB on Windows Vista. It's unusable since it's placed in perspective. Expose is "2D" and is actually very handy because of that.

Time Machine is a very clever exception. It uses "time" for the z-axis, and doesn't get in your way since the windows itself are still on X and Y.

As long as I don't see new forms of input devices (3d hologram monitors, multi-touch interface replacing the mouse, etc.) I'm going to be very sceptical on "flashy 3d interfaces".

When the first websites were on the Internet, they made you navigate like a book (forward, backward...). The first car looked like a horse trailer with motor. The first Photoshop images contained ugly lens flares...
Core Animation will be a disaster until developers evolve in using it.

Hmm, sounds like gratuitous Flash animation taken to the next level. Were I a religious man I would pray there's a special corner of Hell reserved for bad interface designers.

I think the 'Delicious Generation' are claiming far too much credit, it's not like they produced the first applications with a 'pretty' interface, and using animation in the UI has been there since OS X 10.0, back when the genie effect and zooming dock icons were the big thing.

To paraphrase something my brother used to say as a kid in relation to the build up to an exciting event - only 3 more sleeps until WWDC!

I meant Monday... even better. (So used to it being on a Tuesday).

I can't wait to see how Apple implements Core Animation into their own software - especially Finder. I guess we'll find out on Tuesday!