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Sirious

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 2, 2013
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When you turn on 'use dark menu bar and dock' in Sierra, notification centre no longer goes dark too. Is there a terminal tweak I can do to change it?

Sierra is great, but that one nuance just sticks out.
 
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simonmet

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Sep 9, 2012
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Yeah this was an odd change. It does seem to break consistency and the concept of unified light and dark themes. It almost seems like an oversight were it not for the fact there've been multiple public betas.

At this point however I've kind of given up on Apple being consistent in its UI, both within and between releases (the competition is no better). UI consistency was pretty much a running joke through all the big cat releases (remember brushed metal) with the possible exception of the first and second releases. Apple always took a discordant approach to UI changes because evidently a complete UI overhaul was too much to achieve in an annual (or even biennial) release cycle. Even the new iTunes abandons themed highlight colours in album view, which I'm kind of disappointed about because I thought that was pretty cool.

Why do they spend money designing and building a user interface that lasts maybe a year at most before deciding that, no, they didn't like that after all so they're abandoning it? Do they have this pool of UI designers just sitting there with nothing to do? I get that UI trends change but why can't they design something right for now and stick with it for a few years at least?

I'm just glad we can still hide the menu bar. I'd hate for them to reverse that change.
 
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kaefpe

macrumors newbie
Sep 24, 2016
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0
Warsaw, PL
We can try to replace Notification Center files from El Capitan to Sierra and see what will happen ;)

Anyone have El Capitan yet? If yes, PLS open Finder and click from menu Go->Go to Folder and type: /System/Library/CoreServices/ GO then find "Notification Center" file, compress this file and send me to wozniakadam(at)gmail.com or upload somewhere and post link here.
 

CristianM

macrumors member
Aug 4, 2015
75
173
We can try to replace Notification Center files from El Capitan to Sierra and see what will happen ;)

Anyone have El Capitan yet? If yes, PLS open Finder and click from menu Go->Go to Folder and type: /System/Library/CoreServices/ GO then find "Notification Center" file, compress this file and send me to wozniakadam(at)gmail.com or upload somewhere and post link here.

That's a cool idea. Could you PM me if you get that file and if it works?
 
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Sirious

macrumors 68000
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Jan 2, 2013
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United Kingdom, London
Might work with Yosemite files too? I'll see what I can do too.
We can try to replace Notification Center files from El Capitan to Sierra and see what will happen ;)

Anyone have El Capitan yet? If yes, PLS open Finder and click from menu Go->Go to Folder and type: /System/Library/CoreServices/ GO then find "Notification Center" file, compress this file and send me to wozniakadam(at)gmail.com or upload somewhere and post link here.


Good idea. I'll check on the Macs at my uni and get back to this thread :)
 

vmachiel

macrumors 68000
Feb 15, 2011
1,774
1,440
Holland
Yeah this was an odd change. It does seem to break consistency with the concept of unified light and dark themes. It almost seems like an oversight were it not for the fact there've been multiple public betas.

At this point however I've kind of given up on Apple being consistent in its UI, both within and between releases (the competition is no better). UI consistency was pretty much a running joke through all the big cat releases, with the possible exceptions of the first and second release. Even the new iTunes does away with themed highlight colours in album view, which I'm kind of disappointed about because I thought that was pretty cool.

Why do they spend money designing and building a user interface that lasts maybe a year at most before deciding that, no, they didn't like that after all so they're abandoning it? Do they have this pool of UI designers just sitting there with nothing to do? Why can't they just design something right then stick with it for a few years at least?

I'm just glad we can still hide the menu bar. I'd hate for them to reverse that change.

UI is getting bad. The new music UI is terrible if you don't have Apple music and want downloaded music visible only. Come on Apple!
 

CristianM

macrumors member
Aug 4, 2015
75
173
I got the file from a time machine backup and managed to replace the file, but this doesn't solve the problem. Here's more info:

First of all, here's a copy of the El Capitan Notification Centre: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7azk14usj27pmor/Notification Center.zip?dl=0

In order to be able to replace the file you need to do two things:

1. Disable System Integrity Protection temporarily, by booting into recovery, launching terminal and typing this command: csrutil disable

2. Then follow the instructions here to disable Notifications Centre (because you can't replace it while it's running): http://osxdaily.com/2012/08/06/disable-notification-center-remove-menu-bar-icon-os-x/

What you'll find however is that while you are getting the old notification centre back, it's still white:
TmEOCVk.jpg


This means that something else controls its background colour, and we're back to square one.
 
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simonmet

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Sep 9, 2012
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UI is getting bad. The new music UI is terrible if you don't have Apple music and want downloaded music visible only. Come on Apple!

I'd say that was the intention! Apple wants to push Apple Music and the iTunes Store. The same appears to be true of the new iTunes as well.

Fortunately, you can now delete (hide?) the Music app in iOS 10 and there are plenty of good alternatives.

Apple may find their tactics only serve to push some users away from their built-in offerings.
 
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CristianM

macrumors member
Aug 4, 2015
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I'd say that was the intention! Apple wants to push Apple Music and the iTunes Store. The same appears to be true of the new iTunes as well.

Fortunately, you can now delete (hide?) the Music app in iOS 10 and there are plenty of good alternatives.

Apple may find their tactics only serve to push some users away from their built-in offerings.
You can actually disable anything you don't want (including apple music) from the preferences menu.
 
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vmachiel

macrumors 68000
Feb 15, 2011
1,774
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Holland
I'd say that was the intention! Apple wants to push Apple Music and the iTunes Store. The same appears to be true of the new iTunes as well.

Fortunately, you can now delete (hide?) the Music app in iOS 10 and there are plenty of good alternatives.

Apple may find their tactics only serve to push some users away from their built-in offerings.
Yeah I know the reasoning, it just sucks. Any tips for a music app alternative for your own music?
 

Tarek

macrumors 6502
Jun 25, 2009
398
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Cairo
That's my biggest pet peeve with Sierra so far; I just don't understand why Apple would do that!
 

Rivvvers

macrumors regular
Jun 11, 2012
115
121
The Shire
That's my biggest pet peeve with Sierra so far; I just don't understand why Apple would do that!
It blatantly been done to parallel the iOS notifications change so they look unified.
It was the only change i didn't like on iOS and now macOS.
I'm losing faith in apples commitment to macOS, it seems like a back burner project to them now
 
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simonmet

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Sep 9, 2012
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You can actually disable anything you don't want (including apple music) from the preferences menu.

I open the iOS app Music. I see Playlists, Artists, Albums, Songs and Downloaded Music. The first four show iTunes purchases. Only Downloaded Music shows what's only on my phone. Tapping that shows another set of menus for Playlists, Artists, Albums and Songs and a "warning" that it's "Showing only music on this iPhone".

Having a second/replicated menu set is inferior to the former ability to simply hide/toggle the iTunes content that isn't on the phone. And Apple feels the need to use up some of the extremely limited UI on my 5s to warn me that I'm not seeing my iTunes purchases! The whole thing is convoluted, messy and a blatant attempt to push the iTunes Store.

The app doesn't offer a way to make the default Playlists, Artists, Albums and Songs be that downloaded version only. From the home Library it always requires an extra tap. Not the biggest deal in the world but stupid nonetheless and it highlights their motivations.

Sure it can be useful to be able to view and download my iTunes purchases directly from the Music player, but I don't want this function to be the central or primary view in the app which it now is. I rarely buy music from iTunes because the value isn't there when I can usually get lossless versions for the same price or less from alternative sources so my purchases are mainly older stuff and free singles I don't care about any more (or even to begin with in the case of free singles).

I want these iTunes purchases to be relegated in the app not elevated as they have been!
[doublepost=1474919598][/doublepost]
Yeah I know the reasoning, it just sucks. Any tips for a music app alternative for your own music?

There are so many out there. Look for what's popular and try out some of the free ones. Also look for ones that have a good EQ which the iOS Music app lacks. There are also music players that support high resolution audio and other formats (like FLAC) which the iOS Music player doesn't. Some can sync or integrate with other services, even iCloud.

So basically the iOS Music player is crap and limited. I'm hesitant to recommend anything in particular as it's best to do your own research. I bought a player that supports high resolution audio as I have a high-res DAC and a few high-res albums. It was expensive and overpriced (the app that is) but I got it on sale. It's pretty good but crashes on occasion. I'll find some other alternatives first then post again.
 
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nadnosliw

macrumors newbie
Jan 8, 2017
5
0
I'd say that was the intention! Apple wants to push Apple Music and the iTunes Store. The same appears to be true of the new iTunes as well.

Fortunately, you can now delete (hide?) the Music app in iOS 10 and there are plenty of good alternatives.

Apple may find their tactics only serve to push some users away from their built-in offerings.

Yep, I have all but moved to Spotify. Although I don't own the songs I listen to I have playlists of what I want to listen to. I also believe that Spotify probably pays artists better than Apple.
 

MarsViolet

macrumors 6502
Mar 6, 2003
415
361
Why do they spend money designing and building a user interface that lasts maybe a year at most before deciding that, no, they didn't like that after all so they're abandoning it?

Because they’re designing for the new sale, rather than for long term usability.
 
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