So I was bored today and reading The Unofficial Apple Weblog, when I came across a post about UNO, a mac ‘theme unifier’. It takes a bunch of applications that most mac-heads use, and modifies their look a bit so that they all match. It sounds like a great idea, and it works pretty well, but there are a few big flaws:
First of all, it doesn’t support nearly enough applications. The ones it shows in that screenshot on their front page are the whole shebang. That’s less than 15.
It doesn’t really work that well with iTunes 7.
And lastly, it doesn’t do a great job with Firefox if you’re using a theme. Which I am. Namely this one.
But the finder and OSX message boxes (and login) are drool-worthy enough to make me keep it. Whatever.
Another thing I tried out today was Optimized Firefox. It’s a specially-compiled version of Firefox which is optimized for the Mac. It’s pretty cool, though there aren’t too many noticable differences. The main thing is that you can get a version which uses Aqua buttons and things, so Firefox is better assimilated into iShiny™. Personally, I like having theme-defined buttons, but I guess it’s a personal preference thing.
Somthing I find a little wierd is that Mozilla doesn’t allow unofficial releases of Firefox to use the Firefox icon or name, so technically this is the Bon Echo browser, not Firefox. Don’t be fooled, it’s basically the same. And the icon is just missing the actual fox du feu.
Finally, a complaint. Why doesn’t anyone make good themes for Shapeshifter? They’re all so ugly! I don’t want my shiny Macbook Pro to look like its running OS9! I don’t want tiny, pixelly squares instead of buttons! I don’t want “titanium” themes that are so shiny and shrink-wrapped that they make it impossible to use the computer! I’ve been running Cold as my theme for a while, but I’ve kinda fallen in love with Aqua again so I’m giving Shapeshifter a break until someone makes a better theme for it. Think about practicality and elegance. I don’t want the shiniest possible OS ever (cough cough vista cough cough), nor do I want one that makes everything neon orange. Who would want that?! I mean come on, people!
Try out Eternal and Eternal Aqua.