
iCloud Beta Incorporates iOS 7 Look and Feel - chucknelson
http://beta.icloud.com
======
publicfig
I've been hearing it since it was announced, and I've yet to see for myself,
but I really am starting to agree that a lot of the disagreements with the
design decisions of iOS7 will go away once people start using the OS. Of
course, there are still elements that seem half-baked at best, but it's
interesting to see how some of the interfaces really shine when it's your own
information being displayed instead of screenshots of information you ignore.
I'm actually excited to see how I adapt to the new changes once iOS7 come out.

(Yes, I am a developer and could install the developer preview, but I only
have one iOS device right now and no way am I installing a developer beta on
my one device)

~~~
woj
I've been using iOS7 since Beta 2, and I still hate it.

I don't like the look, but this might be personal. So putting this aside, to
me iOS7 is actually harder to use. The flat buttons (which are just labels
now) are harder to press. I do not know if this is psychological since they
appear smaller, or is it that the target area is actually smaller now. Toggles
are grayed out in their off state, so they appear disabled, as in "you are not
supposed to be pressing it now" (see Speaker control in the Voice Memos app).

There are also a lot of other things they changed during the redesign for
worse from my perspective. For example: in the Voice Memos app I used to be
able to record and play back a sequence quickly. Now * I stop recording a
sample * Press Done * Am forced to label it (why!!) * Expand the memo I just
recorded (why is it collapsed - I am still working on it) * Hit play

I record 20+ samples a day I need to listen to quickly, and this is so
frustrating.

There are other things like this throughout the OS. In calendar for example
you can't expand the Notes on the meeting, so god forbid someone puts
important meeting information there.

It seems to me like people at Apple actually stopped using their phones. These
little things scream at you once you actually try to get something done.

~~~
martingordon
I had issues with the controls that appear during a phone call. I've been an
iPhone user since day 1, but the borderless buttons made me hesitate and hunt
around for the button I actually wanted to press. Apple fixed this in Beta 4
or 5 and I feel much better about it.

I still find the Repeat/Shuffle buttons confusing in Music.app and I hope they
gets fixed before GM.

------
navs
So I guess we're stuck with the Reminders and Contacts icons looking that way.
I know it's a silly thing to be upset about but damn if they ain't two of the
more hideous icon redesigns for iOS 7.

Notes has this subtle textured background. I'm not a visual designer so I
don't understand the reasoning behind why but shouldn't it be a clean white
like the calendar, more in keeping with the iOS 7 aesthetic?

~~~
k-mcgrady
What are your objections to the contacts icon? I'm not fond of the reminders
one but contacts doesn't look too bad. My only problem with it would be that
it still maintains a slightly skeuomorphic look with the ABCD tabs down the
side.

~~~
navs
That's my primary objection. While the rest of the icons look so light and
minimalist, the Contacts icon feels heavier, more complex.

------
famousactress
Anyone else wobble their Macbook back and forth to see if the background
shifts in response? (it doesn't)

~~~
joethompson
Going to
[https://beta.icloud.com/?crazyAwesome](https://beta.icloud.com/?crazyAwesome)
does give you a similar (exaggerated) effect you can play around with using
your cursor.

~~~
danabramov
I'm curious; how did you know that?

Edit: Ah, of course it's in the source.

~~~
joethompson
Yeah, just poking around curious as to how they were implementing the
animation.

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btipling
The wireframe icons, the blues in the mail, the red in the calendar. It looks
interesting and terrible at the same time. I just don't like it. Maybe I don't
because of the sparseness, starkness and of course the notorious gradients.
Next to the iWork icons you can tell that the ios7 design update does make the
old style look dated, but that doesn't mean it's appealing.

------
MatthewPhillips
Is the contrast[1] as bad as the screenshot in The Verge article[2]??

[1][http://contrastrebellion.com/](http://contrastrebellion.com/)

[2][http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/14/4621422/beta-icloud-
websit...](http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/14/4621422/beta-icloud-website-
overhauled-with-ios-7-design)

------
smackfu
Find My iPhone is still using Google Maps. Guess they don't have Apple Maps
set up for web embedding.

~~~
UVB-76
This will likely come with OS X Mavericks, which will introduce a Maps app

~~~
Aloisius
Why would a JS library to show maps on the web come at the same time as a Maps
app?

~~~
dougbarrett
The Maps app could use the JS library for rendering. It's possible the app
could have a chrome with different features, but use Web Kit to render the
actual map.

~~~
comex

        % otool -L /System/Library/Frameworks/MapKit.framework/MapKit | grep Web   
        %
    

Nope.

------
doe88
I guess it's a nice design but I really think it's wrong, really wrong to
design a webapp like a native app and their apps look empty. For instance, I
personally don't care about different kinds of templates in Pages, what I want
is collaboration between different users, this is the whole point of the
internet to enable synchronization, live updates and sharing... And imitating
a desktop with sticky notes on it, it's unbelievable. I wonder if real people
use their online apps, I can't imagine this is the case. All it shows to me is
how much they don't get the Web and how much it's not in their DNA, it's
scary.

~~~
k-mcgrady
>> "For instance, I personally don't care about different kinds of templates
in Pages, what I want is collaboration between different users"

On the other hand I'm sure a lot of people do care about templates and would
never use collaboration. I'm one of them. I don't create text documents often
and have never needed to collaborate on one. Collaboration seems like more of
an enterprise/business feature to me and that's a market Pages really doesn't
seem meant for.

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spartango
It also has iOS-style notification popovers at least for mail and calendar.

------
hnriot
I have never understood why I can't get to photostream through this.

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k-mcgrady
Interestingly it looks like they're still using Google Maps in Find My iPhone.
I wish they'd also change the name of that seeing as it finds iPhone's,
iPad's, and Mac's.

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stephanerangaya
This is a good way to see the general direction Apple is taking. I can't wait
to see what they're going to do with OS X.

~~~
millerm
Just for fun, this is not a real peek: [http://9to5mac.com/2013/08/08/a-look-
at-what-an-ios-7-inspir...](http://9to5mac.com/2013/08/08/a-look-at-what-an-
ios-7-inspired-os-x-could-look-like-gallery/)

~~~
gecko
That looks more like what Windows 8 should've looked like in some alternative
universe, rather than an upcoming copy of OS X. (Which is, I think, telling
about the aesthetic movement going on right now.)

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acak
Helvetica Neue - that wonderful font again.

Sorry for being off-topic: can anyone please recommend a (legal/accepted) way
for licensed use of Helvetica Neue on websites/apps without having to purchase
it from expensive font vendors like Adobe or Myfonts?

~~~
naner
Web use appears to start at 29$:

[http://www.fonts.com/font/linotype/neue-
helvetica](http://www.fonts.com/font/linotype/neue-helvetica)

[http://www.linotype.com/1266/neuehelvetica-
family.html](http://www.linotype.com/1266/neuehelvetica-family.html)

------
johnymontana
I'm curious what technologies are being used for the web version of Keynote /
Pages / Numbers. Is Apple using a javascript implementation of Foundation /
CoreGraphics, etc. - similar to Objective-J / Cappuccino?

~~~
joethompson
Still seems to be based on SproutCore. You can see the list of
acknowledgements at the top of one of iWork's source files
([https://beta.icloud.com/applications/iw/1ABeta108/editor/1AB...](https://beta.icloud.com/applications/iw/1ABeta108/editor/1ABeta108/en-
us/javascript-packed.js)) to get a rough idea of what they're using.

------
k-mcgrady
I really like this redesign. The old one was horrible imo and I was worried
they'd update iOS 7 and forget about iCloud (even though I don't use the
website that often it would still bug me).

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artgon
Seems like it's still being built in Sproutcore, FWIW.

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esusatyo
I'm still curious what they're going to do about these apps: Find my friends,
Airport Utility, Apple Remote, iTunes Connect Mobile, Apple Store.

~~~
threeseed
Probably update them after iOS7 ships.

It wouldn't surprise me if they are in the same position as external
developers i.e. have to wait until iOS7 GM before the App Store will accept
the binary.

------
richbradshaw
So… how are they doing the blur before you log in? Quick poke around, can't
see any -webkit-filter, and can't see any canvas…

~~~
madisp
looks like they are doing it in javascript with data:image/png;base64 urls.
Not sure if the blurs are precomputed/stored or computed in the browser.

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nhlx2
Is there a way to enable EMACS style bindings in the iCloud Beta iWorks
programs? They work in iCloud Mail.

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cremnob
I like the new look. They still need to update the iWork icons though.

~~~
mynameisvlad
They need to update the iWork suite as a whole. All the iCloud bits have the
new UI (Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Reminders, Find my Phone) but the iWork bits
all have old UI.

Maybe it's going to be an overhaul of the iWork UI across all their systems?

~~~
k-mcgrady
It's strange they created it using the old look when it was presumably in
development around the same time as iOS 7. I imagine the iWork team saw iOS 7
announced at the keynote and though "shit, why did nobody tell us?".

~~~
pornel
Judging by class names in the div soup of iWork webapp it supports theming, so
presumably they'll flip the switch "when it's ready".

------
AsymetricCom
Works quite well in FireFox, which is nice until you use the find my phone
which requires Google API for some reason (which I have blocked). I prefer
developers to use their own javascript. Why wouldn't they?

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phr4ts
Correction: iCloud Beta Incorporates windows (Metro) look and feel.

~~~
cenhyperion
Except not at all. This has a very different look and feel.

Everything with a modern design is not a copy of Metro. Windows wasn't the
first to do flat designs, and most designs (like this) that people say look
like metro don't resemble it.

~~~
tmister
But it is Microsoft who made it trendy among web designers and even influenced
Apple. Ironically this trend started by a company which was remarked as
"tasteless" by Steve Jobs.

~~~
caryhartline
There really wasn't one company that made flat design trendy. Microsoft wanted
to use web technologies as part of their main OS and flat design was already
popular. Microsoft went with the flow like everyone else and they didn't set
any trends.

