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Im a mac user and the new iTunes theme is very nice if i were apple i use this theme more and get rid of that annoying brush metal look!

Unless Apple are doing a grander scale of things and using different themes for different type of apps? Who knows what they are doing. But no doupt in 10.5 Apple will turn everything on its head once again.

Either way if Apple do get rid of the brush metal look that would be great, well done on the new iTunes UI though much nicer.

I'm not so fond of using 6 different themes (its pro apps also have a seperate theme). Tiger looks far less polished than Panther due to this (Tiger saw the introduction of that Plastic theme, ie. in Mail).

Personally, the themes don't look bad or anything (except the new one in iTunes). It's just that I value consistency a great deal, and it's that consistency that I appreciated about OS X-- it now looks as if Apple is randomly using themes everywhere, without a logical explanation behind it.

Too bad, I hope they get their act together on this.

PS: I detest the new look of iTunes 5. It's ugly.

Does it matter that much what theme Apple goes with for their applications? I find that despite the different looks of various Apple apps, they are still generally fairly easy to get to grips with. Most of the time it's a cosmetic difference between the apps, rather than one in behaviour.

Personally I preferred the old iTunes look, but meh, what I am going to do about it. I was also hoping for more from iTunes 5, ideally a complete re-write in Cocoa, but I'm out of luck Also, I'd like to see better music sharing features - i.e. the ability to control your library from another copy of iTunes, not simply play tracks from it.

What really annoys me though sometimes, is the proliferation of small applications by various Freware/Shareware developers where they've used the Brushed Metal look simply because they think it makes their app look more professional. Generally it doesn't, and instead makes it clunky and awkward to use.

I'd prefer one theme for all apps, that I can adjust from a preference panel. But I don't use OSX so what do I know?

I've never figured out why anyone cared that apple used different themes in different apps. The themes don't clash and generally the apps look nice. In fact I very much like the variation.

Besides, most of the time I am using firefox or other thrid party products so I wouldn't get this vaunted consistancy anyway. At least the variation in themes makes for a consistantly heterogenous enviornment rather than makeing my other apps stick out and look strange.

The real point with Mail and now iTunes 5 is that Apple is obviously experimenting with the user interface.

The have to completely ditch parts of Aqua and brushed metal, in order to be ready when Long-delay-horn aka Windows Vista comes out.

Vista wil look 2004 whereas Mac OS X 10.4 / 10.5 will look 2006 by the time it's 2006.

Apple is experimenting with the look... the theme of the GUI. The interface guidelines have not been touched. For example, placement of buttons, position of menus, windowing behaviour, etc. All are laid out in the AIG and have not changed.

I have to say that I really like the way iTunes 5 looks. It could be made a bit more consistent, but they may be working on that.

I wonder though why Apple does not set a specific look and apply it system wide. Is there really a need for applications like iTunes, Safari, etc. to be different from Photoshop and Dreamweaver?

I like the Aqua look, but because of the inconsistencies, and I hate the brushed metal look, I bought Shapeshifter and applied a nice and more consistent look, and demetalifizer to diminish the number of metalized apps.

I switched from Windows about a year ago, and now have finally gone completely Windows free with the PC running Fedora, and I will not be going back any time soon. My next PC will be a Macintel, no doubt.

"So was this additional theme needed? Personally, I like the new look, but that's not what this is about. This is about consistency and usability."

Nope, this is about someone getting his name in lights... Who cares if there are different themes? They're all fundamentally similar.

Jeez, someone does HCI 101 in University and thinks they're Tog.....;-)

I love the new look as well. The brushed look is ugly in comparison. Because the new look is also more "compressed" and takes less screen space, I find it a bit easier to browse through my MP3 collection.

I hope that the new theme is released for all Mac users. I wish Apple would release some new themes instead of having to use Shapeshifter.

I sure hope that the dark platinum theme is the sign of brushed metal's impending death. It's almost as if Microsoft and Apple are trying to out-do each other WRT to who can create the ugliest UI that is the most inconsistent with their own stated guidelines.

"Oh yeah? Well I'll see your Tiger Mail and raise you a Windows Media Player!"

The number of visual styles is pretty silly, but brushed metal is particularly hideous. The first thing I think every time I see a brush metal window is, "Hey look, a shitty wallpaper image from Win3.1." Someone at Apple must have missed the lesson the 70s and 80s taught us: fake textures look like ass.

..the typical desktop linux discussion with people complaining about their qt apps looking different from thei gtk+ apps, but in this case are all aqua apps!
by the way, who cares??? the important how applications work not how they look!!!

The author's spelling is poor, and his rant about iTunes 5 features was tangential to the topic of the article, but I generally agree. The first thing I thought when I saw the new interface was "Great, another twist on Aqua from Apple." I really wish the window themes were more consistent. Hopefully they will overhaul the Aqua look and consistency in 10.5. That being said, the new iTunes look is a lot cleaner and better looking than the brushed metal theme. I do not, however, like the fact that there is *no* border on the left side of the window, and only a one-pixel line separating the playlists from the songs.

there is something in common between the new iTunes theme and the Mail theme, don't you see it? the new iTunes theme is the brushed metal equivalent of the Mail theme. Or at least that's how i see it

I wonder if this might be an indication that apples is trying to lessen the number of used themes. We now have Platinum, which is basically a refinement/reworking of traditional Aqua, and iTunes 5, which is the same refinement/reworking applied to Brushed Metal.

It seems like a reasonable bet that they might be intending to phase out both Aqua and Brushed Metal in favor of their updated versions.

http://daringfireball.net/2005/09/anthropomorphized

;-D

I want a black iPod nano theme, system-wide. You know, glossy black (with light reflections), and an occasional chrome popping through (say on the rotating cube).

Apple controls the themes of it's OS because, quite frankly, people on average are just horrendous in their implementations and creations.

The number one way people get to learn about a Mac is through friends who have one. So instead of the UI reflecting on the merits of the user, it reflects upon Apple.

If your serious enough, one can hack and apply their own theme. But at least it's out of the capabilities of most people thank god.

I think Apple, with it's different themes intermeshed, is offering gradual change, but trying to keep it looking good.

First Mail got changed and now iTunes 5. More serious it seems.

Oh well, we will get used it it I guess

If you just search google for a free program called CageFighter, you can download and run it to change the settings of Mail.app so that the buttons don't have that rounded orb behind them. Once you do that, the Mail toolbar looks very much like the new iTunes look, except the gray they used in Mail is lighter.

n/t

I like the new theme and I hope iLife '06 uses it, and kudos to Apple for getting the iTunes player and music store closer to being a single application. Both got the search bar and the player got the browser. The power seach would be too much for a person's library, but works great for 2 million songs. I would like to see a button on the search bar that says "Go To Store" when you are in your library and "Go To Library" when you are in the iTMS.

The layout in iTunes and Mail is very similar, but there are a few differences. iTunes has a dark toolbar and it does not change when it loses focus, but Mail has a light toolbar and when it loses focus the toolbar has pinstripes. I am guessing this is the original Aqua interface, but I did not switch to the Mac until iTunes for Windows came out so I do not know how apps looked prior to Panther. I think the apps should have the dark toolbar when they are the active window and the light ("Platinum"?) toolbar when they are not the active window.

Make a utility which lets users tweak application themes on a per application basis. Then they can't complain about slight differences or total conformity...
Complain complain complain. I don't like OS X, but critiquing them on having different themes (especially when all the themes are nice)?!

I don't get the hatred of Apple Mail in 10.4 - I use Thunderbird on my PC and Mail in 10.3 Panther on my Mac, and the right-hand folder list tray really irritates me. If Mail could be upgraded to the latest release on Panther I'd do it in an instant, it looks far better and having played with Tiger in an apple store seems more usable too.

Anyone know how to change the colors in aqua. I have the brushed metal look, but I've seen an orange theme-look that I really liked.

Ken

Personally, I prefer the new iTunes interface; you could say, "streamlined brushed metal" - now, if they made their browser, Finder and Mail application all adopt the same consistant look, I would be a very happy chap.

But regarding HIG, I think people need to realise that HIG is more than just skin deep; it relates to menu layouts, menu setups and so forth; yes, the look does play a roll, by the main idea behind HIG is to ensure there is a consistant layout, thus ensuring that the maximum skills can be transposed from one application to another, with the end user always knowing that a certain function will always sit in a certain location either in the menu or how the widgets are layed out in a window form.

With that being said, I wished they had just stayed with Aqua the whole way through; I personally don't see the buzz as to why they need to use different themes as to make their applications, 'cool', 'hip' and 'funky' - when in reality, it makes it look like amateurish crap designed by an over zealous, theme obsessed 15 year old who is experimenting with XCode for the first time.

All the themes are not nice. Brushed metal is on a par with the Atari ST system font.

What would be good is a decent article on WHY Apple foist this abomination on a system which has user interface at its heart.

Boo hoo hoo....boo hoo hoo...but I like brush metal... Stop crying you babies!!! I'm so glad they are killing brush metal.

The menus seem like they're in the right spot to me. The Windows version works more like a Windows app that most other media players I've used.

This is the reason apple hasn't succeeded on the desktop. There is no unified user experience or API. Once apple gets this right there might be hope for them on the desktop.

*slaps knee*

mod away!

Interesting. I place a lot of value on having my apps look similar (I go out of my way to use Qt apps). Consistency seemed a strength of OSX, and one that was slipping away lately.

But reading TFA, It occurred to me that finding iTunes in the middle of a bunch of other apps would actually be easier if it looked different. It might actually be nice to have apps look different.

Of course, you might accidentally get Safari or Quicktime when looking for iTunes (<=4). With enough apps, the theme used is by itself not enough to find the one you want. Having a different theme for each and every app isn't too good either..

It seems like 4 or 5 is a good number. They still go together, there aren't too many for that. And there are enough to differentiate apps, unless you have a ton open at once.

Different themes might be a good thing. Time to figure out how to get different themes per app in KDE, test it out

With vista's classy glass look, ms is finally beating apple at it's own game again! It is clear isn't it?