"It seems to me Apple is moving further away from a sophisticated aesthetic sense based on authenticity and function with every new bit of software, and towards a kind of cheesiness."
Apple made a mistake with QT4 and Sherlock 2 UI design. Few people disagree with this. However, the interface features evident in the preview of Aqua provide truly innovative, functional features and appearance. The "liquid" look of the buttons and scrollbars are a matter of taste, granted. I like them, but that's neither here nor there. We've had the capability (with Kaleidoscope) for a long time. What about the save/print dialogs that are attached to the document that you are saving/printing? That is a very useful feature that makes implicit sense if you think about it. The dock icons growing when the mouse passes over is another example. The drop shadows are attractive, the translucent menus are interesting, the translucent window title bars (when maximizing or minimizing) are interesting. They've created a lot of visual interest. Whether it's "authentic" or not is a tough question. How do you define "authentic" for a medium that has no native appearance? 8-)
Apple has a way of coming up with interface ideas that seem obvious in retrospect. They've deviated from the path on occasion, but for the most part they've continued to improve the experience of their users. Interestingly, they're one of the few companies that improve the experience of people that don't even like their products. Windows and UNIX-based GUIs have borrowed many ideas over the years (no amount of vociferous denials from avid (rabid?) users can honestly dispute this). It would be accurate to say there's been sharing on both sides, of course.
I played Wizardry (and defeated Werdna a few million times) without owning a computer. That's sick. I would spend the night at "friend's" houses (where "friend" is loosely defined as "someone who owns an Apple IIe and a copy of Wizardry") and stay up the whole night playing. Perverted. I apologize to all those folks to whom I committed this heinous act.
Anyone remember the old Identify "9" exploit? Also, I was the F-F-F-P-Tiltowait-Tiltowait kinda guy myself. With my delightful "CRITICAL HIT" 3 ninja front line and my dominant bishops waiting to level whatever remained standing... ahh! Gaming bliss.
Only problem was my poor characters were old farts by that time. I can just imagine my geriatric party cruising through the dungeons with walkers and dentures. Monsters were more in danger of being gummed to death than anything else.
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Oh, I dunno... email? I'm reasonably certain that correcting timezones is off-topic to this conversation. As is this topic.
Apple has a way of coming up with interface ideas that seem obvious in retrospect. They've deviated from the path on occasion, but for the most part they've continued to improve the experience of their users. Interestingly, they're one of the few companies that improve the experience of people that don't even like their products. Windows and UNIX-based GUIs have borrowed many ideas over the years (no amount of vociferous denials from avid (rabid?) users can honestly dispute this). It would be accurate to say there's been sharing on both sides, of course.
Anyone remember the old Identify "9" exploit? Also, I was the F-F-F-P-Tiltowait-Tiltowait kinda guy myself. With my delightful "CRITICAL HIT" 3 ninja front line and my dominant bishops waiting to level whatever remained standing... ahh! Gaming bliss.
Only problem was my poor characters were old farts by that time. I can just imagine my geriatric party cruising through the dungeons with walkers and dentures. Monsters were more in danger of being gummed to death than anything else.