Apple, give us the colors back (please)

[numbersyx]

Agreed, it was less bloated fast and feature complete imo.

Definitely far more stable. No spinning wheel for me then. I actually have no problems with the grey icons...

 

[Nameci]

Quite a ridiculous statement to make.

I do agree that it is the best OS ever from apple. Not bloated and fast.

 

[InuNacho]

$19.99, not $30.

Ahh ok, I had posted that prior to the price announcement. Still, $20 is too much for features added BACK and still no color or sidebars.

At best it will be immaterial to apple, but they are not really going to gain any more users who ll gone go, oh, love the grey circa 1980s sidebar I ll suggest macs to friends.

I actually would not mind a System 6 theme.

 

[Rychy]

I like the grey icons. I'm all for a simple unified look.

 

[Over The Hill]

I do agree that it is the best OS ever from apple. Not bloated and fast.

I'm really dying to find out what's that bloat. All i see is people throw his buzzword left and right, but no one backs it up with REAL evidence.

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Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize people don't have the ability to tell when a statement is an opinion or fact. I will be sure to make sure I confirm it in bold font in future.

Please do so.

 

[mrsir2009]

I think aqua's prime time has come and gone... I remember when I switched from OS9 to OSX, the aqua blew me away! It looked SO slick on my iMac G3 after years of grey OS9. However these days it seems to be about a subtle OS, not a colourful one that makes it look like there's water flowing through your loading bars

 

[roadbloc]

Please do so.

Here is an idea. Why don't you inform everyone else of your new rule to help you determine the clearly hard to tell distinction between fact and opinion, instead of just singling me out. Here, I've even gone to the trouble of making you a list of quotes.

I remember having the Aqua appearance set up in OS 9 because it was at the time the coolest thing ever. It reached it's peak at Tiger (which coincidentally is the best Mac OS ever) and has gone progressively downhill from there.

Give me an option to have color and you have my $30.

Agreed, it was less bloated fast and feature complete imo.

I forgot how much easier that 2D dock is to look at until I saw the picture (of Tiger, above). The 3D dock with the icons exposed really blends into background windows. Oh, I miss it all, I want it back! That's a great picture of Tiger.

Tiger looks absolutely lovely and alive. What a misguided idea to say content is highlighted via the grey hell that is os x currently... Ui elements are part of the content because that's what you use to manipulate the content. In some cases they are the content, because when one uses the finder the content is precisely the folders on the side bar. In any case if people want no colour getting in the way of viewing the content (as if anyone has ever complained btw...) why not hide the sidebars or menu bars and/or go full screen.

I've used Mac OS X since Panther and I really liked Tiger's UI best, but Snow Leopard isn't that much different. Tiger's icons and color scheme had much more character to it.

I don't see myself upgrading to Lion or Mountain Lion anytime soon from Snow Leopard, one of the many reasons is I cannot stand the grey. It's so boring.

Perhaps I just don't get it but how is dressing iCal into faux leather or making Address Book look like its real-world counterpart putting "content first"? Same with upcoming Notes app as well as Game Center. If that isn't emphasizing chrome over content I don't know what is.

As much as I agree with you that this "content first" ideology is a great thing, I fail to see how Apple is going into that direction when they are turning their apps into an inconsistent, overly skeuomorphic mess.

I agree. For me personally the look of Tiger just has to much going on. But that's just my own feeling. It just honestly for me feels a bit overwhelming. To much color pulling my eyesight all over. The grey is fine by me.

Definitely far more stable. No spinning wheel for me then. I actually have no problems with the grey icons...

Now get telling them all that their post is stupid as it is an opinion and not a fact.

 

[innominato5090]

I finally gave in and bought Pathfinder mainly for the color icons. It is significantly easier to navigate around now.

what. you clearly know how to waste money. 40$ just for some color on the icons?!

To be clear, pathfinder is an excellent product, but that is definitely not a feature that makes it worth buying

 

[Over The Hill]

Here is an idea. Why don't you inform everyone else of your new rule to help you determine the clearly hard to tell distinction between fact and opinion, instead of just singling me out. Here, I've even gone to the trouble of making you a list of quotes.

















Now get telling them all that their post is stupid as it is an opinion and not a fact.

Learning the difference i see

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I like the grey icons. I'm all for a simple unified look.

I personally don't care that much, i'm fine either way, but judging from the poll numbers i'd say there are people liking it and the numbers are very close, so i'd say all the colour addicts should let others enjoy it too.

 

[diogolg]

I don't care about the color/grey icons, what I do care is when I add a folder to the Finder's sidebar and Lion changes it to a default icon, so all my folders have the same icon what makes more difficult to distinguish between then.

 

[blow45]

I don't care about the color/grey icons, what I do care is when I add a folder to the Finder's sidebar and Lion changes it to a default icon, so all my folders have the same icon what makes more difficult to distinguish between then.

that's another problem that makes things even worse. Apparently they can't emboss or grey out (boy that would look great btw...) a custom folder on the sidebar so everything reverts to the default folder look. We've had tens of custom folders to tell things apart in the sidebar now besides all being indistinguishably grey they all revert to one look too... Talk about messing up ease of use in their os....

Again I fail to see how a usability issue that at best divides user opinion, with the currently non existent option being the preferable according to the majority, doesn't at least get a system wide option. It seems like someone high up the ui team will not let this go, and seeing as they already had to make a lot of concessions in mountain lion and revert a number of their ui choices, it's become a matter of ego, sadly, to keep some of them. Cause how can you justify your role in ui, if you revert pretty much everything you've suggested?

 

[Drew017]

I think the grey ones look better in Lion/ ML and the color ones look good in all previous OS's. The grey seems to fit better in 10.7- 10.8...

just my opinion though

 

[OSMac]

Apple's Lion looks great, except the fonts are rough on non retina displays.

Windows 8 with its multi-colored blocks does not appeal to me, but it sure has color

Think I'll be using OSX and Win 7 for some time.

 

[blow45]

Apple's Lion looks great, except the fonts are rough on non retina displays.

Windows 8 with its multi-colored blocks does not appeal to me, but it sure has color

Think I'll be using OSX and Win 7 for some time.

very well spotted, indeed the fonts are rough on non retina displays, font comes to its own only on retina in os x.

 

[hamis92]

I don't care about the color/grey icons, what I do care is when I add a folder to the Finder's sidebar and Lion changes it to a default icon, so all my folders have the same icon what makes more difficult to distinguish between then.

As if not preserving the custom folder icons in sidebar wasn't bad enough, try dragging couple of apps in there and see what happens...

 

[klaxamazoo]

what. you clearly know how to waste money. 40$ just for some color on the icons?!

To be clear, pathfinder is an excellent product, but that is definitely not a feature that makes it worth buying

I have a low tolerance for things that I find poorly designed. Grey Icons make it harder for me to do something simple and it was annoying every time I accessed Finder.

Now I don't have to access Finder just to be presented with a poor design. Problem solved.

 

[Volkstaia]

I say, bring that stuff back. One of the main reasons people switch to mac from pc is because of simplicity. And part of the simplicity was the nice, colorful, and inviting aqua interface back in the days of panther and tiger. A big part of OS X is the personality. The aqua, and the welcome videos. Aqua is being phased out. Apple's prime died with Steve.

 

[blow45]

I have a low tolerance for things that I find poorly designed. Grey Icons make it harder for me to do something simple and it was annoying every time I accessed Finder.

Now I don't have to access Finder just to be presented with a poor design. Problem solved.

of course they are poorly designed, and the other guy has some nerve to tell you where to spend your money...

I just wish I could kick the heck out of the finder from the left hand corner of the dock...

 

[TheGdog]

Heres a good one of Tiger. Colors and pretty big icons.
Image

What I loved about tiger was that is was so simplistic and very light on its feet. Don't get me wrong, I love the elegance of the new OSes, but part of me misses the simplicity.

 

[GermanyChris]

This is one of the folklore about apple that it's oft repeated and it's of course downright wrong. It's misinterpreting what Job's thought, and Job's didn't think the apple user base was made up of clueless idiots who didn't know what they wanted when using their devices, he thought that the average user didn't have a vision about the future of technology. And he was right of course. As evidenced by 80% of this forum saying what the hell is an ipad for, for months before its launch.

But apple's user base, esp. its dev, scientific, pro and creative user base, not soccer moms and chinese trophy wives (their current focus) has not only known damn well what they want, the 've actually made apple what it is today via their suggestions. Apple has either listened to their requests, or even appropriated ideas floating around to be what it is today. And more than they 'd like to admit of course they've done backflips. They've withdrawn products their user base didn't want and they 've restored options that they initially took away (matte on the mbp 15", orientation lock on the ipad, expose now in ml, etc. etc.) because their users wanted them back.

It's also a matter of whose judgment within apple at any point in apple's history they've been listening to. It certainly didn't turn out alright for apple on the brink of bankruptcy to listen to people within the organization before SJ's return. SJ brought in a lot of very talented people, who's judgment on a lot of choices was right. But several of them have left either before or after his passing, ui talent has left, programmers have gone... It's one thing to listen to the judgment of Bertrand Serlet instead of some user request, and it's another thing to listen to the current os x team. When Jon Ive distances himself on record from their ui design, when he even looks displeased about certain of their choices, that's saying something. And it's not saying something particularly flattering about the os x team. Almost no one who's got an iota of understanding is saying anything really flattering for example about the new look of contacts and calendar, some might not mind so much. This apparently isn't alarming anyone from their os x ui team.

It's one thing when you can say redmond start your photocopiers and rightfully brag about how ms has stolen even the colour scheme of your ical app, it's quite another when people either don't like at all or merely tolerate, and certainly no one's getting excited about your ical ui choices. Apple didn't get to where it is today by having users tolerate their choices, they got their by getting people excited and appreciative of their way of doing things which was much better and more elegant than the competition's. Right now we go oh here's ical looking like the ipad app, ho hum, that's it. They should question their judgment when people go ho hum, and lately they 've going like that for a lot, a lot of their decisions.

And here we are, to focus again on the topic here, talking about color cues, color sidebars and ui elements. A LOT of people have again, and again and again explained why it's a ui crime to take away color cues. At best it will be immaterial to apple, but they are not really going to gain any more users who ll gone go, oh, love the grey circa 1980s sidebar I ll suggest macs to friends.

Why then are they not offering an option?

If its any consolation we're 3 generations into iPad and I still don't know what they're good for.

 

[blow45]

If its any consolation we're 3 generations into iPad and I still don't know what they're good for.

lol!!!

 

[Major.Robto]

I like the gray icons, and they are small, 10.4 was a joke with how big they were.

10.5 made them small but still had them of a mix match of colours.

I like the gray and it looks nice to me.

 

[blow45]

I like the gray icons, and they are small, 10.4 was a joke with how big they were.

10.5 made them small but still had them of a mix match of colours.

I like the gray and it looks nice to me.

Do you use the sidebar often though? Wasn't it useful to you when you good quickly go to downloads because you had associated it with a shade of green and it popped out from the rest of the icons? Or the purple for desktop and the blue for music, or any custom sidebar folder with it's own icon? The purpose of the mix match of colours was to tell them apart.

I can understand who someone might like a uniformity in colour, well, in grey, different strokes for different folks after all, but I really find it hard to believe that this doesn't come at the expense of navigating less quickly the sidebar. Since every neurological and ui study I ve read claims that colour cues are much faster for the brain to spot and tell apart than non colour ones.

 

[Major.Robto]

I use the bar all the time,

I know what the icon looks like, the colour bothered me more to be honest

also if i need to I can read what its called...

its not hard to read.

 

[3282868]

but part of me misses the simplicity.

Amen. All this texting, IM'ing, social networking - it's created/ing a generation of anti-social individuals. I'm only 35, and I've seen it tremendously, especially with H.R. departments having difficulty in hiring individuals with reasonable social skills. Technology should be an extension of humanity, not in lieu of humanity.

On the weekends, I make it a rule to avoid as much tech as possible, it's amazing how much of the world is unnoticed when you're buried into your smart phones and notebooks.