Trinity Rubicon

Firefox Theme, Mockup 2

2006-10-15T08:32:00.000-07:00

Because I've been busy for the past month or so, I haven't really had time to work on that Firefox theme I promised I would do.... however, I finally got around to making a more polished mockup and also the [hopefully] final color tones for the toolbar and bookmarks bar, as well as some other changes and minor fixes.

Notes:
- Changed color of widgets to "New Aqua", or iTunes-colored. Will offer range of colors but likely make this default to blend in better with iTunes/soon-to-be-Aqua apps.
- Scrollbar changed to reflect iTunes.
- Very present drop shadow between titlebar and toolbar. Will possibly change...?
- Status bar no longer has shine; blends in more with toolbars and scrollbars.
- Bookmarks bar now has a gradient as opposed to solid gray.
- Separators changed to blend in with other widgets.
- Refresh icon condensed about 60%.
- Google buttons currently Aqua; possible switch to iTunes metal in later versions.
- Slight changes on bookmark/toolbar drop shadows (can't be seen from the crappy picture, have to have PSD).
- Very minor fixes on the searchbar/button.

PSD available on request.

iTunes 7, Graphically

2006-09-14T15:51:00.000-07:00

The entire world probably knows iTunes was updated to version 7 a few days ago, and a lot of people have made discussions over the new- and much overhauled- appearance. It's very, er, different from most Aqua apps, mainly because it has no Aqua elements at all. And while I'm "mostly satisfied" (best way to describe it; taken from a Customer Satisfaction Form at IHOP) with the new design, let me run through it thoroughly:

Main Window

Scrollbars

Buttons

Icon

Column Headers

Movies/TV Shows

Podcasts

That... glass... thing....

Keep in mind, of course, that these are only my opinions, which in the long run will be ignored. Apple will probably stick with the design for a while and disregard my ~~annoying OCD-like behavior for graphic perfection~~ requests, but it still gives me an excuse to talk about iTunes from a designer's perspective, which is all I need to continue posting.

Fakery Analysis: Apple iMac

2006-09-07T18:24:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, yesterday saw the release of three new iMacs. This has caused all sorts of technology news sites to buzz, but I have other beliefs about this.

But what are these beliefs, you ask? Well, after taking a look at Apple's iMac page, I have reason to believe that this site- as well as the new iMacs- are completely fake. Here's why:

A look at the front iMac page would reveal that the 24-inch iMac's top-right corner is not cut correctly.

Apple would NEVER use such a cheap gradient for the page.

Where's the drop shadow, like almost every other Apple web page?

The rounded edges on the footer of the main page are more of a gray, not light blue, like the rest of the page.

The "64-bit" icon in the Intel Core 2 Duo section is lacking a drop shadow and wet floor effect.

The picture of an iMac in the "Tech Specs" page is lacking a wet floor effect.

The wet floor effect on the iMacs at the bottom of "Design" is WAY too strong.

Pixel number 1,590 on this page is actually a slightly different shade of blue than the rest of the page. Any half-brained moron knows that Apple puts a off-shade blue pixel on 1,596.

That's a whole 8 things I found! It MUST be fake! 8!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 I mean, Apple couldn't do wrong, right? They are, after all, perfect, and would never make such careless mistakes. You may be able to fool the rest of the world, Apple, but you CAN'T fool me. Guess you'll have to aim for something better during your alleged special event on the 12th- which I'm also sure is fake.

NOTE: This post was merely a comedic way to point out the problems I found on this page. Don't take it seriously, or I- and the rest of the world- will laugh at you. And yes, I know it's been slow around here lately- eventually, I will post something relevant.

My Firefox Theme

2006-09-02T23:28:00.000-07:00

As anyone who subscribes to this blog knows, I haven't really updated it with new Leopard screenshots, mainly because the real Leopard kicked in and took care of that for me (and crushed some of my more extravagant hopes for new features). However, after downloading and installing the Firefox Beta 2 and discovering how badly the Visual "Refresh" was- and my dissatisfaction with any and pretty much all Mac-like themes- I am going to start work on a Firefox theme of my own.

However, let me just state two things off the bat: first, I don't know jack s**t about creating Firefox themes. Secondly, I'm not positive on the exact design (which doesn't surprise me, especially since this idea of mine has only been in the works for a couple of days).

But since this post would be kind of pointless without posting some kind of idea, I have created a mockup of what I want it to look like. Here it is, in wonderful JPG form:

(You can also e-mail me if you want the PSD).

Essentially, the point of this project is to create a Mac theme that is eye-pleasing and subtle on the OS X candy, the latter of which I think many Mac-like themes fail to do. I don't know when I'll finish it (or start it, for that matter), but I definitely want to see it come to life, so stay tuned and give me your feedback on what you'd like in the theme.

Pre-WWDC Video Breakdown

2006-08-06T19:55:00.000-07:00

On the eve of WWDC, it looks like another video claiming to be a beta version of Leopard has risen (via LeopardTracker), and has, like all of the others, given Mac users a chance to comment on it's authenticity. And being a screenshot blogger, I'm no exception.

This video is creating mixed feelings, for me at least: in some ways, there's evidence to suggest it's real, but here's why I think it's fake:

The About this Mac box is missing a drop shadow, and the text I believe reads "Virtualization" is black, whereas the other, real items are in a dark grey.

Part of the text in the Processor item is a different shade of grey from the rest of the text.

Besides the blatantly fake About this Mac box, he's running nothing but Windows applications, meaning that could simply be an image.

The "Dock" body is too transparent (but in its defense, Apple might have made this change in Leopard).

Besides "virtualization", there is no demonstration of any other features of the OS.

The Command Prompt application title bar reads "C:/WINDOWS". Mac OS X, obviously, cannot be stored in such a directory.

The OS X menu bar only has one item in it, which I think reads "Finder". Where's the rest of it?

There are Windows-style folders on the desktop, which obviously doesn't make any sense.

So as far as I can see, this screenshot is simply Windows with an OS X theme. However, given WWDC is tomorrow, I can't make any promises, so I guess we'll find out when the Stevenote rolls around.

Screenshot Contest Submission

2006-07-25T18:21:00.000-07:00

With the results of Phill Ryu's screenshot contest slowly on the horizon, I thought I'd take a second to post what I've submitted (and because I haven't updated in a good week or so).

So for my submission, I inserted the TextEdit app I conjured up a few weeks back, and I finally got around to starting my iCal/Address Book hybrid app I promised to make (and hinted at in my original screenshots). In the Safari window, I've implemented the iTunes metal color and also added in a lovely new RSS reader, and lastly, fixed the About this Mac box to say "DDR2 SDRAM":

Because of the amount of content in the image, I had to up the resolution to 2560x1600 pixels, so it's kinda hard to read since Flickr scales my screenshots; if you want, you can e-mail me if you want the full-size version or a copy of the PSD.

Enjoy, folks.

Leopard Screenshot Analysis: "Desk 2"

2006-07-18T17:07:00.000-07:00

After what looked like an end to Leopard screenshot (and video) fakery, it appears as though it's still alive and well. Digg user "qwertymen" has posted a screenshot purporting to be Mac OS X Leopard (link), which, unlike most attempts, actually proposes new features and additions to the OS, and is somewhat different from the many photoshopped Finder and About This Mac boxes that have circled the Web for quite some time now. And while that may be enough to lead people to believe it's real, I'm almost certain it isn't. Here's a list of problems I found with the image:

- The Apple and Spotlight icons are different colors; Apple originally had them this way when testing Tiger in WWDC 2004, but changed them back to match the rest of the menu bar when it was released.
- A small strip of the menu bar is slightly brighter than the rest of the bar (look at the image from an angle to see it better).
- Is that my Desktops Switcher icon I see in the menu bar?
- All of the drop shadows in the image are at a 120 degree angle. All drop shadows in Mac OS X are at a 90 degree angle.
- The "Start Menu"'s drop shadow is nowhere near the size and blur it is in Tiger.
- The whole bottom bar looks way too Windows. There's no way Apple would put in their own versions of the Start Menu, Quick Launch and toolbar (and in their exact same places, I might add).
- The shelf that appears at the right is not rounded off on the bottom, and transparency is not used for shelves.
- Another brightness problem on the bottom bar.
- The giant "Desk 2" bezel is too large, the shadows are not right and the bezel's rounded rectangles appear to be distorted.
- Um... why the Click Wheel?
- The image quality and size is very poor; Mac OS X does not create such low quality screenshots.

So there you have it. I do give kudos to the creator for thinking of ways to improve Mac OS X, but there are too many mistakes for me to believe it's real.

Submit your screenshots

2006-07-09T14:53:00.000-07:00

After the numerous user-submitted Leopard screenshots I've received these last couple of weeks, I've decided to make this blog open for any fake Leopard screenshots people want to share. Although there are many sites dedicated to mockups of Apple hardware, this would be exclusive for software, which as far as I know, hasn't been done yet.

But what's the criteria? Obviously, you should submit Mac OS X-related screenshots only; I won't post submissions related to another operating system. Next, make sure it's not terribly big: Blogger automatically shrinks images if they're too big, so try to keep it between 1024x768 to 1680x1050 pixels. If you can just follow these two criteria, I'll look it over, probably write back to you about it and maybe post it if it looks really good.

Anyway, you can send your screenshots at my e-mail address, trinityrubicon@gmail.com. Because of the filesize of PSDs, I would prefer a JPEG or a PNG, but anything else will work fine as long as you keep the filesizes down (1MB or less).

TextEdit 2 screenshot

2006-07-02T09:42:00.000-07:00

Well, here it is: TextEdit 2, TR-style:

The idea behind this new TextEdit is to make a lightweight but versatile text editor, capable performing basic word processing tasks that would be just enough for people who only need to write an essay or a letter, and don't want to fork over $150-$300 for a copy of Office.

Of course, no screenshot is perfect, so send suggestions, complaints or just general feedback at trinityrubicon@gmail.com (and if you want the PSD for it, I'll send that too).

Leopard Fakery, Round ???

2006-06-30T09:23:00.000-07:00

I know this happened two days ago, but I thought I'd comment on the fake Leopard video posted that seems to have everybody up in arms more so than my own screenshots. But while it is extremely convincing, and far better than my screenshots, it is a fake. Here's why, split up into two sections: Technical, meaning just the general observations from the screenshot, and "Well, Now that I think About It...", which is just the mental reasoning as to why this is fake.

Technical

One of the first things the video demonstrates is a new Finder. Sure, it's pretty cool-looking: it's got that Unified look to it and tabbed browsing, but the big thing that gives it away is the label on top of the Sidebar, just like Path Finder's. Anybody can change Path Finder to look just like Finder, and with a quick trip to Interface Builder and some customization in the Preferences, you can make a damn good fake and fool lots of people.

After you finish all of that, you take a trip down to Finder's app bundle (System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Finder.icns), take the icon and replace the Path Finder icon with it, and voila! You've got a new, Leopard-ized Finder!

Now there's the matter of the About This Mac box. Although you may not know this, you can actually change that box to say anything you want: just go to System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist, then modify to your heart's content. You really can put anything in that box, but if you do that, you'll have problems getting updates, since that's what Software Update calls on to find out what updates you need (I haven't actually tried putting 10.5 in the form to see if I can get any beta updates, but I doubt it).

Well, now that I think about it...

Here's what I don't understand: If you are rich enough to get a test copy of Leopard, why can't you afford some good screen recorder software? I know it exists- just look on VersionTracker, MacUpdate, Apple's Downloads page or even a Google search for Mac screen movie and you can download some from $10-$30.

Also, only providing one video of one Leopard feature isn't too impressive, especially when it's just tabbed browsing. You want to know what would convince me? Show off something completely original and innovative- something that has never happened in a Mac app before- and I'll be convinced. But there's nothing here that can be proved with confidence that it's real, so until I do see something, I stand by my reasoning.

Lastly, the biggest and most important thing to think about when you look at these screenshots is pretty obvious: do you really think that after the last couple of weeks, after all of the fake screenshots that have been posted on Mac rumor sites, that a supposed "real" video is suddenly going to pop up on YouTube, just happen to show up after all of the fake screenshots, and be legit? It just doesn't seem likely. Now if such a thing were posted before all of the screenshots started coming up, then I think you would have a better time proving this to be real, and I probably wouldn't be writing this. But in my opinion, this just seems like the next big Apple rumor in line that will have it's fame for a couple of days, then die out- just like mine, and the one before it, and the one before it, and the one before it.

(P.S: My TextEdit screenshot is almost done, I swear. I'll have it ready by Saturday/Sunday.)

TextEdit 2: Coming soon to a blog near you

2006-06-27T09:39:00.000-07:00

I'm getting close to completing my screenshot of TextEdit 2. I'm on vacation right now and the place I'm at doesn't have Wi-Fi, so I can't guarantee how often I'll get wireless... but we'll see. So I apologize for not getting to all of your responses as fast as possible, and hopefully you'll see something complete in the next couple of days.

(here's a VERY early "beta" in case you're interested: and no, I promise it won't be a knock-off MS Word)

Leopard features I probably will make screenshots from

2006-06-25T10:06:00.000-07:00

After making those screenshots and mentioning on making fake ones exclusively for evaluation/feedback, I've decided to make a small list of the things I want to see in Leopard (that I could make screenshots out of). I probably gave everybody a good idea as to what I want the Finder, Desktop Switching and Virtualization to look like, but here's a list of everything else so far:

As seen from the first set of screenshots, a hybrid iCal/Address Book application. I'm not entirely sure how such a thing would work yet, but it would work a lot better than having to open two separate applications.

An app removal app (that sounded funny). I'm not talking about some hideous "Add/Remove Programs" menu like Windows, but something nice and easy so when I throw away an app, I don't have the Caches, Preferences and the like crapping up my hard drive.

iChat just needs to be better. Like, a lot.

Safari RSS isn't too spectacular. Some kind of interface, aside from the Bookmarks Menu, should be implemented. Maybe I'll screenshot it.

Has Apple forgotten about their "Appearance" Pref Pane? This should be extended more.

TextEdit, although a bare bones text editor, shows a lot of potential and could easily be a free alternative to Microsoft Word when it comes to writing anything fairly basic formatting-wise.

Spotlight. While it's a great quick-launch search bar (for me at least), it's one of those "love/hate" features of the OS.

Some good, free backup app. Something so simple a typical home user could back up his/her hard drive in a half hour.

Built...in...Growl....

While useless to Mac users, any Windows user would definitely like a way to transfer their files without buying any software/hard disks/CDs.That way, they take out their Mac, hook up one cable and have everything loaded up within the hour (or so).

Anyway, this is just a starting list. Most of these things are easy to make screenshots from, but stuff like the Safari screenshot might be a bit harder to pull off. If you want, send me suggestions to my e-mail address, or just comment on this post (I'll give you credit for anything you come up with), and I'll see what I can do.

Stay tuned, folks.

The jig is up...

2006-06-24T08:49:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be honest here: When I posted those Leopard screenshots on Blogger, I was never expecting quite the popularity it ended up acheiving. For it to get on the front page of digg is one thing, but to have it get commented on 200 times is pretty surprising to me. I had no idea it would cause such a debate, and I really enjoyed reading all of your comments, whether you thought it was real or not (mostly the latter, though). But, seeing as my third screenshot didn't fool anybody, I think it's about time I just give it up.

So in case you didn't just hear me admit it, those screenshots are 100% fake. They are entirely Photoshopped, done merely for fun out of lots of free time and about 6 cans of Diet Coke. I decided to make them after seeing this TUAW post, and after looking at the outstandingly fake screenshots, I decided to see if I could top it. So I'll walk you through what I did to create this, and also post the PSD in case you want to take a look at it yourself:

Desktop: Although I was going to use a better-looking background image, I decided against it for some reason, and thought that it might look more like a Beta-like if I just used a solid color. The two HD icons are there just to put something on the desktop (I think some guy thought they were Photoshopped, which they weren't)

Finder: Finder is, at the base, just a horribly-mangled iTunes window. It's the exact same color and shape as iTunes, and to hide all of the top elements I just stretched out an empty part of the window until everything was covered.

The tab bar is of my own creation, of the sorts. Although the actual bar and tabs are homemade, I just used the tab buttons from Safari since I was too lazy to make my own. Some people pointed out the bottom margin discrepancy between the active and inactive tabs, and this is only because Blogger shrunk my image, which causes it to look a little distorted.

The toolbar, aside from the standard set of icons, also has that funny little forward-slash icon. I wasn't entirely sure what to do with it, but in my mind I could imagine a little address bar coming down that would let you choose where to go. As for the bookmarks bar, well, you can kind of figure out what that does.

The sidebar, now looking back at it, doesn't have the proper spacing between icons, which at least 1 person pointed out on digg. I wasn't sure whether to eliminate it or to keep it, but I left it in since people would probably raise hell over it if I took it out.

Dock: My original plan for the Dock was to just use the Dock that's there when you first get your computer. But because of the way Cmd+Shift+4 works, I couldn't get both the Dock body and the icons in one snapshot, so I had to go into each application and manually get the icons and put them in there. Eagle-eyed observers will probably find some fault in the spacing of the icons, but I did the best I could.
Other people talked about that Address Book/iCal hybrid app icon. Although Apple strives for having an easy-to-use design with their applications, I think it would seem more useful just to combine the two apps together, and knowing Apple, they would probably find a way to make it work (and yes, I also know the icon looks like shit- I wasn't aiming for anything remarkable).

The Internet Explorer icon is the real thing. I just used my own PC (being a web designer I need a PC for IE testing; I'm a Mac geek at heart) and then tried about 5 different programs to extract the icon. I eventually got it out, but all I can say is, icon-anything in the PC world is a pain in the ass. In response to those who wonder how I got it at such a high resolution, it's only because Blogger scaled the screenshots: if you were to view it full size, you'll find the quality of the icon is actually quite lower.

Internet Explorer: This confused a lot of people and is probably the part of the screenshot that needs the most explanation. Since I have a PC with IE 7, I just went in and took a quick picture of it and sent it to my Mac. I cut out the Windows title bar and replaced it with an OS X menu bar, and then added a cheap drop shadow so it looked like an inactive window.
Like many people observed, this Windows layer would work a lot like Classic worked, being able to just run applications right alongside OS X. I'm hoping, however, that if it's ever implemented Apple would go a step further to make Windows apps work with things like the Dock and Exposé, so they seem more integrated into the operating system.

Menu Bar: Everything on the menu bar is real, except for, of course, the Windows and Switcher icons, which I just made from scratch. I didn't think anybody would look for them, so I'm really impressed.

About This Mac: This solidified a lot of people's opinions that this was a fake screenshot. Apple has changed at least one thing in the about box in every version of OS X, so I thought it would be more suspicious if I didn't change anything at all than if I added something like "Windows". Since I don't actually own an Intel Mac, I tried the best I could to see what the About Box would look like, but as many people pointed out, I did miss the fact that Intel Macs use DDR2 RAM and the Windows label isn't lined up correctly.

Desktop Switching: One truly awesome thing about OS X is the number of effects for opening or doing something with windows (e.g: Genie Effect, Ripple Effect, Cube Effect), which inspired the Hole effect. I used Core Image Fun House, as such an effect can't be achieved *easily* in Photoshop CS, which is what I made the rest of the image in. Then, I went back into Photoshop and cleared the black area Fun House creates from the distortion and put a fake second desktop underneath it. Sure, it looks cheesy, but if Apple made it, something tells me you would like it.

While I was originally considering having the menu bar and Dock change with the desktop, I realized that it's multiple desktops, and that it wouldn't make much sense to have 2 Docks and 2 menu bars. Some people pointed out that they should change too, but hey, it's your opinion. As for the "CoreWindows" tab you can see in the Finder window, I was really only doing that to see what kind of reaction I'd get from Mac users.

(and just so everybody knows, the effect wasn't inspired by goatse. Perverts.)

Overall, these screenshots aren't perfect, and you could probably assemble a list of the things that I did wrong (just look at the 200+ comments from digg and the other Apple sites). If you want the PSD anyway, just send me an e-mail at trinityrubicon@gmail.com and I'll be more than happy to send it to you.

Now that I've had my fun, I'm not sure what to do with this blog. But I kinda like the name, so maybe I'll post something else here (fake screenshots for evaluation?). We'll see.

Leopard screenshot #3

2006-06-23T17:10:00.000-07:00

Finder with Location Bar open:

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard screenshots

2006-06-22T11:42:00.000-07:00

Finder & Internet Explorer:

Desktop Switcher: