Sadly, the Safari on Windows experience hasn’t changed Apple’s approach. While working the other day, I was interrupted by the following prompt:

Firstly, the wording in the prompt indicates a Software Update. Despite the fact that .Mac is being replaced, Mobile Me is still new software (ie. not an update to existing software). Apple’s marketing department certainly wants you to believe this, and the $109/year (CAD) price tag would seem to underline it. So, Apple has interrupted my workflow (as far as I can tell launching this prompt independently of Software Update or any other process) to sell me something. That’s not OK. This follows the same sneaky pattern as prompting Windows users to install an entirely new browser on their systems as a ‘software update’ to their iTunes service.

To add to my frustration, this prompt for new software comes after weeks of idiosyncratic activity in Leopard. Notice the default Apple wallpaper behind the MobileMe prompt? That’s not there by choice. Rather, the Desktop pane of my System Preferences has been buggy and inconsistent for weeks, as I swap between monitors. Without going into detail, the folders for my desktop images (including the OS defaults) become inaccessible, rendering me unable to change my desktop wallpaper. I’ve found various workarounds…but this just underlines that Apple’s philosophy is broken. Rather than fixing bugs in existing software that I have paid for, I’m prompted to install and pay for new software that I don’t want! Apple’s always been known as a ‘Design company that makes computers.’ Perhaps they are actually a ‘Marketing company that makes software.’

So, a bit of an annoyance, and a reminder not to trust Apple. Then, this:

As you can see, when connecting my (hacked) iPod Touch, my iTunes interface becomes an advertisement! Again, a new piece of software (indicated by the price tag) labeled as a Software Update. What’s worse, the ‘update’ is primarily intended to install new software (the App Store) to allow me to give yet more money to Apple! Secondarily, it adds features to support MobileMe (which I would also have to pay for), and finally to install software that should have been on the device in the first place. What’s wrong with this picture? Well, maybe I’ll be convinced to upgrade to get the scientific calculator…

To add insult to injury, this message will be displayed every time I connect my iPod for all eternity, as the only options to dismiss the message are “Buy Now” or “Remind Me Later.” What about an “I’m not interested, stop using my desktop as a billboard” button?

UPDATE: Two days after posting this, the iPod software update interface changed. I knew Steve Jobs would read my blog:

After missing the Purolator guy by ten minutes on Friday, I had to wait out the weekend to get my hands on Leopard. However, once I let it out of its cage, I found it had eaten the following parts of my favourite pet Tiger:

• My hard drive! Well, then it regurgitated it. Upon initiating the install from the Leopard DVD, I clicked through the setup options (Language, License Agreement, etc), only to get to the Select a Destination screen…with no hard drives displayed. Confused, I clicked back through to the beginning, wondering what was happening. I then moved back through to the Select a Destination screen, again with no drives displayed. I opened up my old iBook and went online to see if anyone else was having the same problem, and found this forum post, which explained that Leopard was inspecting the drive for problems before offering it as an install disk. I waited, as suggested in the Apple forum, and after a few minutes, my internal hard drive appeared, but greyed out. After another 30 seconds, it became opaque, and I selected it to install. Not so slick, Apple. Would a progress bar have been so hard to implement?
• My custom icons for Terminal, Grab, and my external drives (but not for other apps, including Address Book, Mail, iTunes, and iPhoto). Not sure why it would lose some and not others.
• Inquisitor. Perhaps because this isn’t really its own app, but rather a ‘plugin’ for Safari that resides as a Preference Pane in Safari Preferences. It’s fully compatible with Safari 3.0 and Leopard, but I guess it was too tasty to pass up .
• My hotkeys in Adobe Illustrator CS (but not Photoshop CS). I hadn’t realized how consistently I use the hotkeys until they stopped working. Apparently, forthcoming Adobe updates will address these kinds of bugs, although this quote has me concerned: “Users of older Adobe applications, including Creative Suite 2, may find unexpected compatibility issues. Adobe stated that it has not tested its older applications for compatibility, and will not provide any Leopard-specific updates for pre-CS3 apps or the applications it acquired from Macromedia.” (source). Really? CS is only 3 years old, and they will not test it for compatibility with the OS that the majority of their creative professional users will upgrade to? That’s disappointing in a lot of ways.
• My custom Terminal welcome message.
• My energy saving settings. I don’t want my display to go to sleep after 1 minute, thank you.
• My (everyone’s) black arrow active application indicators, though you can get them back with a little bit of hacking. I find the new glowing blue dots inferior both aesthetically and functionally. Change for the sake of change is not a good thing!
• My Junk folder in Mail. I got it back by selecting Mail > Preferences > Junk Mail > Enable junk mail filtering. Not sure why this would be turned off by default, as it was on and working in Tiger.
• My notes in iCal. The new pop-up interface is kind of cool, I guess, but not as functional. Plus, it keeps opening up halfway between my two displays, rather than recognizing the screen edge and opening in the appropriate direction.

The Things Leopard Threw Up

When downloading an application and opening it for the first time, Leopard prompts “‘AppName’ is an application which was downloaded from the Internet. Are you sure you want to open it?” I know this is here to protect users from accidentally running malicious software, but I should at least be able to disable it. It’s just annoying. Also, it’s the first time I’ve seen OS X copy a Vista ‘feature’, especially after making fun of it.

Besides that small thing, the new aesthetic generally feels heavy:

• the darker drop shadows on the Apple menu and active window
• the darker metal on application windows
• the chunky iTunes-style menus in Finder
• the new default folder icons
• the heavily depressed active buttons in toolbars
• the more heavily saturated red yellow and green window icons
• the over the top highlighting of matches using Safari’s Find feature
• the gears System Prefs icon

It’s all quite dense and technical looking. Not sure how I feel about it just yet, but I’m not sure that most of the visual changes are improvements. It doesn’t look bad, it’s just not as graceful as Tiger. However, I’m sure I’ll get used to it.

There are lots of good things about Leopard: spacebar to QuickLook a document (awesome!), Spaces, WebClips, improved Safari functionality (movable tabs, finally), and many more that I haven’t yet found. Additionally, the upgrade from Tiger to Leopard was actually remarkably smooth, especially in comparison to other operating systems. And it must be said that OS X is still the finest operating system interface design yet invented, both visually and functionally. These are just a few odd changes/omissions I thought I would point out!