Well Look at that
So whilst drooling over the offerings at Apple.com I decided to just pop in at the MacOS X area and WOW, am I glad I did.
It seems Jobs and company have updated the mini-site with new videos and pictures of the latest iteration of Tiger, serious changes ahead people. Until a couple of months ago I was running the WWDC release of Tiger on my main server and desktop machine at home, for the most part there was little difference between Tiger and Panther (10.3) visually. That is all gone by-by now.
Look ma, another new UI!
Soooooo this is UI number three that Apple has created for Mac OS X, the other two being Aqua and Textured (Brushed Metal). Now don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of this newest UI, it is much easier on the eyes, but people some consistency please! Apple's HIG was already a joke, now it will be a farce.
This is distressing for me, since Apple has classically been one of the stalwarts when it comes to consistency of UI design. To see them becoming so unfocused is a real warning sign. I would much rather they retire Aqua in favor of this new UI which as yet remains nameless, than merely add a third UI choice. Speaking of UI choices, what the hell is up with those gummy icons in Mail.app? Sheesh.
Please note: I am aware that I am not the first person to bring this up, John Gruber has spoken about it, at length and did a much better job I might add.
Man that is just beautiful
Watch the movie for the latest version of Dashboard, I mean just watch it... it is a thing of beauty, a masterpiece of User Interface engineering and lickability. How will we ever have gotten through life without it once we have it?
Seriously though, while technologically I think it is fantastic and innovative, its success will depend wholy on third party developers getting it done and building widgets. The only problem of course is that most of us will have to wait until we pick up a copy of Tiger to actually build anything for Dashboard. I would like to see Apple step up and have some serious contests for widgets after the release of Tiger, maybe some hardware giveaways for the best widgets...
Apparently not really like a Robot
Yeah so Michael's astute observation not-with-standing, I think Automator will be the hidden gem of Tiger. I have long known the bliss of Applescript with its sudo plain speech syntax, but I think that now with a slick UI in front of it Applescript will finally come into its own in Tiger.
I mean with the predefined actions at the users disposal we should see a whole new era of user empowerment which will be translated directly into higher adoption rates and switching. I already know of at least three people that will be buying a Mac mini the moment I show them the power of Automator. I also plan on releasing a couple of Automator tasks, or scripts or whachahoogies when I get Tiger.
Fun for the whole family
This is just a great addition to Tiger. Being of the age where my wife and I are starting to think of procreating, knowing that I will be able to protect my children from some of the unsavory parts of the 'net is very comforting. Now I know that there are many 3rd party solutions that attempt to do this as well, with varying degrees of success, but I prefer to have a solution that is actually integrated into the OS as this one is.
This also is a serious feature that will be pushed in School settings. Apple has been losing its presence in the Education Market lately, and I think this is a good beginning to getting some of that mindshare, and hopefully marketshare, back.
Parting Words
I think that with the extreme coolness of the Mac mini and iPod Shuffle announcements Tiger was basically ignored and as you can see that is a bit of a shame.
If you have a minute you should really go over and watch a bit of the videos about Tiger, they are very interesting, to say the least.
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