First of all, Apple has yet to replace the standard blue bubbly interface objects with the iTunes dark pill interface objects. The new Leopard user interface is pretty much a direct derivative of the UI work Apple has done to iTunes, however Apple has continued to ignore the new iTunes interface objects in the interface transition. While some may be opposed to the iTunes dark objects, the Aqua-blue objects seem so out of place with the new unified UI. I would also be happy if they just updated the scrollbar, if Apple doesn’t think the other iTunes objects work well on a cross-OS level. Hopefully they do something about it before Gold Master.

Many are also uncomfortable with the new folder icons. Some claim they seem too “IBM’, others too “Windows”, to other they seem too “Linux”. While I have to agree, Tiger’s folder icon set definitely needing a refresh. I think the problem with the new folders lies with its two-dimensional perspective and its overall blandness. If the folders were offset and/or made more realistically, it would definitely improve the appearance of the icons. IndieHIG has come up with a pretty detailed criticism and analysis of the new icons, which highlight many of the complaints I and many others have with the new folder icons.

Apple has improved Front Row to resemble and function very much like an AppleTV. So far, the only UI complaint with Front Row 2.0 is the launch and quit transitions. With Front Row 1.0, there’s a nice slick transition between the desktop and Front Row. Apparently with Front Row 2.0, Apple has had to trash that nice transition for a simple fade. Hopefully Apple can come up with a better transition than a fade when it comes time to the release.

Mail.app’s and Preview’s icons remain ugly. Why has Apple not yet unified the entire UI like they promised. Preview and Mail’s toolbars are totally off from the rest of the interface. It’d be alright if they were somewhat decent, but these toolbar icons are simply hideous, especially with the darker unified window backgrounds.

While these suggestions may seem like rather insignificant, I can say that I am not alone that Apple needs to really work on making Leopard the best they possibly can – and to not rush things. Because usually, the first version of an OS X is nearly identical with the final version feature-wise. So please Apple, finish the job.

With this seed, Apple continued to polish Leopard’s user interface. New app icons, new desktop backgrounds, new welcome video, and UI elements polish.

An important change Apple’s made with OS X is now some of the more important CoreService applications, like Spotlight, Exposé, and Front Row can be launched through independent apps that are now available in the Applications folder, similar to the Dashboard app. Spaces can also be launched as an application.

Other minor tweaks Apple has made with 9A559 include:

• iCal displaying the date even when not active
• New music with the welcome video
• New icons for the Desktop, Spaces, and Front Row
• New desktop backgrounds. One of them is the iPhone’s default desktop background (which was taken by NASA), the other is a beautiful profile of the Earth.
• Further universal UI polishing

It looks like Leopard is really close to reaching Release Candidate stage. As Apple continues to push out seeds more frequently, it seems Apple’s making the final UI polishes before Leopard is finally declared Gold Master. So far, I’m really impressed with the improvements Apple’s made with the UI.

New Welcome Video

Developers are also noticing some of the UI tweaks Apple has made to Leopard since the previous version. In seed 9A528a, Mac OS X now sports a space theme in Leopard. A few developers have already leaked some of the new UI elements, including Leopard’s new welcome video and the new default desktop wallpaper that complements Time Machine’s sci-fi theme. The new translucent menu bar is now less transparent by default and the dock is also receiving a few minor tweaks. It also seems the window action buttons (close, minimize, and expand) are now vector-based.

• Aperture
• Apple Pro Apps
• Front Row
• iTunes 7 (including Front Row)
• Leopard Quicklook
• iPhone and AppleTV GUI

Well, now Steve has revealed the true user interface of Leopard will be, and it comes quite close to our speculation half-a-year ago. However, Apple did not rename OS X’s interface to Illuminous, as rumored. Supposedly, Aqua remains as the OS X interface, but now its evolved into a shiny, iTunes 7-like, animated, glassy user interface that we predicted for Illuminous.

The core of the new interface seems to be centered around the Desktop and Finder, both have been revamped in Leopard. The menu bar is transparent and the dock now has a 3D “block” look. The Finder now behaves much like iTunes 7, with a sidebar and CoverFlow navigation.

Other notable user-interface details concerning Leopard:

• The Finder can now has a large thumbnail view
• The top corners of the screen are no longer rounded
• Front Row now resembles AppleTV’s user-interface
• DVD Player now sports an “iPhoto full-screen mode” interface
• Quicktime movies can now be played fullscreen via Quicklook
• Developers can now build their own effects for Photo Booth
• iCal now has a revamped interface
• iChat features new effects for video conferences and a new sidebar/tabbed navigation

The Apple TV is a great example of the typical first generation Apple product. At first it seems to lack features that make it worth the high price Apple is asking for. Just like the iPod and many other Apple products, the Apple TV will probably follow in iPod’s footsteps and eventually become that “must-have” device that every home will have. It will just take about three to four generations to catch on. In my opinion the Apple TV is going to have to meet these requirements to start flying off the shelves:

1. HD content.
2. Much cheaper price. Nothing above $199.
3. Rental movie downloads.
4. An iTunes store for the Apple TV possible.

5. Apple, give up .Mac or make it free

I know many proud .Mac subscribers may disagree, but I just do not understand how the services Apple offers in its .Mac subscription is close to being worth $99. It offers sub-par bandwidth and memory restrictions and packaged with a lot of bloatware that can be substituted for free alternatives. Apple’s already shown its lack in .Mac when it announced its compatibility with Yahoo mail’s mail-push functions and saying they will offer free email addresses and these special push functions to all iPhone customers. Give it up Apple, .Mac is a failure. The only way you are going to start getting subscribers it to either make the price worth the features or better yet, make it free!

4. Updates for iWork and iLife

We’ve all been waiting since January for an update to our iLife and iWork suites of applications, and for the first time since iWork ‘04 Apple didn’t release the new suites at Macworld. We’ve speculated the past four months and made rumors of when the new suites will be announced, but still no details on the suites have been released by Apple. Many are anticipating the new iWeb 2.0 release that hopefully will have FTP/SFTP features and new, richer, cleaner templates. Others are waiting for an update to Garageband and the other old iApps.

Many iWork users are waiting for a spreadsheet application to compete with Microsoft’s Excel program. Looking at some of the screenshots of Office 2008 for Mac and playing with Office 2007 for Windows, I feel Apple really needs to improve the interface and friendliness of iWork to really make it work. I’m a big fan of the iWork suite but the current “Inspector” interface simply doesn’t compare to the ribbon interface in the new Office suites from Microsoft. We’ll see how Apple can implement the Inspector interface in the next iteration of the iWork applications and hopefully make it a little easier to use without involving dialogue boxes and extra windows, etc.

3. iPod Update to at least iPhone specs

The current iPod is really an embarrassing video player compared to both the Zune and Apple’s new iPhone. It wouldn’t take much to turn the current iPhone product and sub in a hard drive (or a lot of flash memory) for all of the phone innards and make a killer music, video, media, internet-browsing device. Hopefully this new iPod will at least match its competitors and include a built-in Airport wireless adapter to browse websites (just like the iPhone), download media from the iTunes store, sync with your Mac or PC, connect to an Apple TV, etc. Maybe these features sound a little idealistic, but it surely is possible and would be very well received. Knowing Apple, a November release date sounds likely; however knowing Apple, you can never bee too sure.

2. Interface Updates to Mac OS X – Illuminous

It was a hot topic discussed on Appleology a while back, but its still a very important topic since we haven’t had any updates since. In my opinion, user interface and user experience is pretty much 75% of what is great about using a Mac. but I’m ready for Apple to impress me again like they did with Aqua. I want a really rich user-interface that has more feeling and depth. And it all comes back to the idea of Illuminous and a new generation of user interfaces for the Mac. Apple’s going darker, sleeker, shinier with every product they release. The iPhone, Apple TV, iTunes 7; they all have that same interface that we nicknamed “Illuminous”. Now it’s Mac OS X’s turn for a change. Leopard’s resolution independence features along with the progress Apple’s made developing Multi-Touch interfaces with the iPhone and integrate that technology with OS X and run with it. The result could change the way users operate with their computers forever. And if Apple can’t get this far by June, hopefully they will at least match Vista’s impressive GUI.

1. Lower Prices on All Consumer-Level Macs

Price has to be the biggest complaint from potential switchers whenever I try to persuade someone to consider buying a Mac. They don’t care if Macs last longer or consider the bundled software, when they are thinking about buying a computer all they only care about the price of the computer. If Apple really wanted to maximize their market share, they would have lowered their prices on all of their Macs by now. When it comes to most of the consumers today, all they want to hear is price and Apples simply can’t compete with notebooks starting at $1099.

We pretty much know that there is going to be an Apple Special Event will take place sometime in spring to showcase the new features of Leopard, and possibly even iLife and iWork 2007. Steve has has already made it clear that Leopard will include all of the new miscellaneous applications introduced in recent Mac products; such as Front Row, Photo Booth, and Boot Camp. In the WWDC 2006 keynote, Steve didn’t make it clear what other applications will be bundled with Leopard, “These are just three examples of how we’re going to ship the complete package of applications with Leopard.” iLife and iWork 2007 would be a significant addition to the new bundled applications in Leopard.

In Apple’s quarter one financial results conference call, an Apple financial advisor told an analyst to “stay tuned” for iLife-related announcements. iLife has never before been bundled with a retail box of Mac OS X, but the suite comes with every Mac. Bundling with Mac OS X would make the software product line much simple and definitely would be a major reason to upgrade to the new OS. One of Apple’s key strategies to switching consumers from Windows to Mac was the “Everything is in the Box” strategy, where everything you could possibly want is bundled with the Mac.

It wasn’t long ago when Macs were bundled with Apple’s own complete office suite, Appleworks, a port from its Mac OS 9 version and was far out-of-date and unstable to compete with Microsoft’s dominant Office suite. For a long time, people have thought the Mac could only be used for creative work. While that might be true, times are changing and many businesses and professionals are switching to Macs. Bundling iWork with Leopard and every Mac could alter the office landscape permanently. Logically, it would then make sense for Apple to include a spreadsheet application to complete the suite and therefore really compete with Microsoft Office.

While this may give Apple a license to raise the price of their operating system upgrade, I think many would be willing to pay the difference. From a marketing perspective, it makes too much sense for Apple to just bundle these great suites into Leopard. Apple didn’t break the yearly iLife and iWork upgrade tradition for no reason.

This pretty illuminating graphic screams that they are ready to kick some ass in 2007 and onward. Apple has not looked this good since 1984 with a solid beautiful operating system, a great product line of desktop and laptop computers, a great foothold in the consumer electronic and music industry, and an-ever brighter future.

From an analytical point of view, Apple’s obviously got some fantastic products yet to be released to call the iPod and all of its Macintoshes “just the beginning”. Personally, I am on the edge of my seat to see how Apple is going to make 2007 the beginning of a new era for Apple. 2006 was a great year for Apple to lay a solid foundation for Apple to build on with Leopard, the iTV, HD content on iTunes, and new iPods (widescreen). But as always this time of the year, we just got to wait and see because nothing is for sure until Steve announces Macworld’s infamous “One more thing…”

However more interesting, the article concludes that Apple has definitely glossed over a large portion of the interface with the black glass appearance, similar to iTunes 7 and iPhoto 6.

Apple continues to gloss over the interface, refining it even more and there is an overly presence of black gloss.

The seed has yet to be delivered to external developers and no screenshots have yet been posted online.

Its no question that Leopard will feature a new GUI, but no one really knows what it will look like. Its no doubt that Leopard will feature resolution-independent graphics support that will allow for greater resolution displays with the same and windows sizes. However, the details of the interface have not yet been revealed, but many are hoping that we will see the final announcement of Leopard features at Macworld 2007, where chances of a GUI announcement are high.

Apple Gazette has featured a new rumor from a supposed insider that has claimed that the new GUI that will replace Aqua will be nicknamed ‘Illuminous’. The report has no solid information on what the Illuminous theme will look like, but I believe I know exactly where Apple might be headed.

As I said, Apple’s latest trend in its software GUI is a darker, flatter, translucent, reflective, “illuminating” glass appearance. The GUI is also making headway beyond the sheer appearance, to window sizes, visual effects, icons, etc. Fullscreen applications will definitely be a hit in Leopard, to clear your desktop from clutter and manage your workspace more efficiently. Just like Aperture and iPhoto, imagine fullscreen browsing, video-editing, Garageband, iWork, etc. Sleek graphic effects when opening windows, files, applications, are also likely to be improved making the OS seem more alive, similar to the widget ripple effect. And with the new GUI change, I am also expecting Apple to replace their outdated icons. Ultimately, Apple is heading towards a sleeker, darker, simpler, livelier GUI.

Apple has been the leader in computer and GUI design for years, and Vista’s new Aero interface has probably provoked Apple’s design team to topping them off with a mind-blowing interface (that requires half of Aero’s hardware requirements). It would be a true disappointment if there was no sort of GUI announcement when Steve finished giving the major features in Leopard.

The dark translucent appearance Apple has developed over the last three years has seemed to have expanded to many of the operating system’s core applications. Here are a few of the many traces of the new dark glass appearance rumored to be featured in Leopard:

Aperture 1.5’s navigation window

iPhoto’s Adjust Window

Leopard’s new QuickLook feature

Front Row’s sliding dark glass

iTunes 7’s new darker appearance

After following the MacRumorsLive.com live coverage and watching the Quicktime keynote stream, I had some mixed feelings about Apple’s decision to hide some of the new Leopard features. The Leopard Sneak Peek showed off only a few features that will be found in Leopard and there was no ‘One More Thing’ product at the end of the keynote. I understand why Apple hid some of the new major features, but I was expecting a few more features to be demoed at WWDC.

However, I was very impressed with the new Time Machine backup solution and the new version of iChat. Finally Apple is creating a backup solution for Mac users who don’t own .Mac. I love Time Machine’s transparent UI and its intelligent backup system that looks like the perfect backup solution for every Mac user. The new iChat seems to deliver some of my most-wanted features for iChat, including tabbed-chatting, remote-client control, presentation tools (iChat Theater), and iSight effects. These two are so far my favorite new features for Leopard, and I cannot wait to see what’s next for the next version of Mac OS X.

After thinking about the keynote, I finally understood Apple’s game-plan for Leopard when it comes to a release date and new features. Apple originally had the release date for Leopard around late 2006 to early 2007. But thanks to “our friends up North”, Apple was forced to push the release date back behind Vista’s already delayed release day. Its obvious that Apple has to unleash Leopard after Vista hits the shelves to prevent Micorosft from copying some of the major features to be found in Leopard. Apple’s decision to keep some of the features unannounced is very smart, and it is another example of how important it is for Apple to keep these features from being leaked too soon.

Steve and his friends made several jabs at both Microsoft and Vista the other day, criticizing their lack of innovation, pointing out the obvious similarities between Vista and Tiger, and also the hilarious intro video featuring the PC explaining to all of the Mac OS X developers to take a break so Vista can catch up. Bertrand Serlet (the one who you could hardly understand, yet you felt compelled to laugh at every one of his jokes and jabs at Vista) explained Apple’s thoughts on Vista during the keynote and compared screenshots of Vista and Tiger. At the end of his explanation, he showed the new Windows Vista logo and related the logo to the fact that even though Vista has a new appearance, it is still a Windows OS.

On the flip side, its seems as if Microsoft is still struggling with Vista to make it ready for its upcoming release in early 2007. I have not given Vista beta 2 a spin, but I have heard from many that Vista still feels like like beta software, and the new Aero GUI really kills the performance when activated. As I cruised the Windows Vista feature list, I understood why Steve and Bertrand were pointing their fingers at Microsoft for copying all of Tiger’s features. It seems like every new feature that was introduced in Panther and Tiger are also being introduced into Vista. Bertrand and Steve were 100 percent right, Vista is just an impersonation of Mac OS X, and some of the “new” features for Vista have been included in OS X since the 10.0 Public Beta in 2000. I think the poster in the WWDC hall that said “Leopard: Vista 2.0″ pretty much explains both Apple’s and my feelings towards Microsoft’s progress with Vista.

I’m on the edge of my seat to see how this competition unravels into 2007. I have a feeling Leopard will certainly “Blow away Vista”, but lets hope the “Top Secret” features that Steve mentioned will really be good enough to have been “Top Secret”. My guess is a new Finder, Safari, refined UI, and some new apps will be some of the Top Secret features in Leopard.