I was one of the first folks to update to Lion when it became available on the app store. This is normally not my M.O. as I usually wait for the first few patch fixes to come out for any operating system. However, for Lion I was very excited because of the prospect of a better Apple Mail. Along with Apple Mail came a new iCal and a new Address Book. All of the UI enhancements closely resembled the iPad. While this was not terrible I was a bit annoyed that we didn’t have the ability to customize the appearance of iCal and Address Book back to the old look and feel. The new look had a leather appearance with torn sheets design. It looks very un-apple and feels a bit clumsy to use.

I also noticed there were a few nuances that were quite annoying. Apple by default now hides your Library folders and doesn’t allow you to mess with them. Another annoying component was the fact that Launchpad while extremely useful was very cumbersome to update and move apps around. I also noticed that if you “X”-ed an app you were actually removing and deleting it from the app directory. The only way to really organize everything was to use folders and I didn’t want to mess with my main app directory structure.

I also still never liked the 3d look of the dock. In snow leopard I actually changed it to 2d which I thought was much nicer but for some reason Lion returned it back to the 3d dock.

Last but not least was the unfortunate font issues with Apple pre-installed fonts, namely Helvetica Neue. This one was a simple solution as all you have to do is use the LinoType version of the font and you are set.

Display your library folder in Mac OS X Lion

Open the Terminal app and type

chflags nohidden ~/Library/ 

The Library folder will reappear in your user folder.

Customize and hide apps from Launchpad from the Preference Pane

http://chaosspace.de/launchpad-control/

Change Mac OS X Lion Dock Theme to 2D

Open up the terminal and type

defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES

Now reload the dock by typing

killall Dock

Remove Mac OS X Lion iCal and Address Book Leather Design

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/39514/lionbleacher

And lastly, Mac OS X Lion GrowlMail for Apple Mail 5.0 Notifications Update

I posted this last week however, here it is again here

GrowlMail 1.3 for Mac OS X Lion 10.7

GrowlMail 1.3 for Mac OS X Lion 10.7

UPDATE: New post Tweak Mac OS X Lion 10.7 – Hidden Folders, Dock, Launchpad, iCal and Address Book design

So there are a bunch of rumors that there is a live video. So far every link that is available has been false.

Live Stream – commentating only I believe
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/applelivekeynotes/v3

Here is where you can track coverage of the event through live blogging

TechCrunch – http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/07/apple-2010-wwdc-keynote
LiveTechEvents – http://livetechevents.com/
TheAppleBlog – http://live.theappleblog.com/
Gizmodo – http://live.gizmodo.com/
Engadget – http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/07/steve-jobs-live-from-wwdc-2010
MacLife – http://www.maclife.com/article/news/live_blog_wwdc_2010_keynote
MacRumorsLive – http://www.macrumorslive.com/
SlashGear - http://live.slashgear.com/
MacObserver – http://liveblog.macobserver.com/
CrunchGear – http://www.livestream.com/crunchgear

I don’t know about the coolest but it is certainly cooler then anything I have seen at Best Buy.  The secondary markets created by all of these products is just fascinating to me.  They build niches within niches.  I wonder if people stumble upon these ideas as they are going about their daily day or if they know they need to develop something to capitalize on the moment.

Would be an interesting study.  I mean we know that Belkin is an accessories manufacturer and they have a product plan in place knowing that things like this will be developed and that they need to move on it quickly.  I am just wondering what manufacturers actually get product plans from Apple in advance so they can plan for the next version of their device.

A clip from the 2009 documentary “Objectified” which is all about industrial design. Since 1997 Jonathan has had his hands on just about everything that has contributed to Apple’s success.

Ives approaches design with a minimalism that requires tons of thought. I would love to say something intelligent about the man beyond the words “sheer genius”. I am amazed at his capacity to create each iteration by combining and minimizing the impact on the user.

This is the song that Apple should dedicate to Microsoft.