Aqua interface is so easy! Modern OS X
AquaSnap is a multifunctional computer program that will allow users of the Microsoft Windows XP operating system to evaluate some of the features of the Aero interface (Aero Snap, Aero Shake, Aero Stretch and Aqua Glass), as well as make the use of these functions more convenient on Microsoft Windows Vista and Microsoft Windows 7 platforms. .
One of Aero's most requested features is the Aero Snap mechanism, which allows you to pin an application window to the edge of your desktop, as well as expand it to half or quarter of the screen, with one easy move. This useful feature is now available for Microsoft Windows XP users. Moreover, users of AquaSnap software are offered advanced options for configuring the parameters of this function. Including the client will be able to disable the operation of the Snap mechanism when moving the window in one of the eight supported directions.
In the AquaSnap settings menu, you can find several other interesting options. For example, the Aero Shake feature automatically minimizes all open application windows when "shaking" a user-selected window. And the Aqua Glass mechanism will make the window moved across the screen translucent (the user can independently adjust the level of transparency).
Among the others key features product manufacturers highlight support for skins and extremely low requirements for memory and processor resources.
The AquaSnap program is distributed completely free of charge and runs under the operating systems of the Microsoft Windows family.
AquaSnap key features and specifications
- Can resize the window to half the desktop or a quarter of it.
- The program is compatible with multi-monitor computers.
- Works with child windows of the MDI interface.
- Skins are supported.
- Multilingual program interface.
- Highly optimized code (C++).
- Low consumption of RAM.
- (lat. "water"): Aqua (group) Danish-Norwegian musical disco pop group, formed in 1989 and became widely known in the 1990s. Aqua (interface) graphical user interface, main design theme ... ... Wikipedia
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Books
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- Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, Myers Scott, Lee Michael. 912 Page Practical examples demonstrate how to work effectively with Mac OS X 10. 5 Leopard. Aqua interface, OS customization and administration, connection…
Drag and drop your windows to the sides or corners of the screen, and they'll automatically be resized to fit one half or one quarter of the screen. This feature is just like the built-in Aero Snap function of Windows 10, but with more possibilities! This is especially useful on either a 4K monitor or multiple monitors.
Sometimes, splitting your desktop into halves or quarters is not ideal
When two windows are side-by-side, resizing one of them while pressing will also resize the other one. It's an easy and powerful way to modify the layout of several tiled windows.
Don't waste your desktop space; pixels are precious!
AquaSnap allows you to easily align your windows by making them behave like magnets. This simple feature is the cornerstone of AquaSnap, and has been carefully designed to assist you without getting in your way.
One click to conquer this free space on your screen!
This is another powerful way to quickly split your desktop space between multiple windows. Double-click on the edge of a window to maximize it in one direction. Perform the same action while pressing to maximize it vertically or horizontally.
Easy to manage these small floating windows
Professional applications with complex UI often scatter small toolbox windows on your desktop. Keep them grouped and move them all at once. Move one window while pressing and the whole group of adjacent windows will follow.
Make a window stay on top
Need to keep an eye on a small window?
This is the best way to have this window always visible while working on a full screen application. Shake a window to make it transparent and always on top. Shake it again to restore it to its normal state.
Add new functionalities to your windows
Add secondary functions to every clickable element of the window frames, and access all the AquaSnap features with one simple click. These mouse shortcuts are also fully customizable. With 15 different clickable areas, up to 5 mouse buttons recognized, plus the modifier keys, the possibilities are endless!
Be even more productive with keyboard shortcuts!
All the features of AquaSnap are accessible through easy-to-remember and customizable keyboard shortcuts.
Tiny and clean
A desktop enhancement tool should assist you without slowing down your computer. That's why AquaSnap is 100% composed of highly optimized native code, with no compromise on stability and performance. It uses very little memory and almost no CPU. AquaSnap is clean, easy to install and easy to uninstall.
7, 8, 8.1, 10
AquaSnap is compatible with all Windows versions, from Windows 7 to Windows 10, with true 64-bit support. We will do our absolute best to support all future Windows versions.
“ Working with OS X and Windows, I often miss polished, intuitive, high quality software with an eye for details on Windows. OS X has some great tools to make window management easier and most of the time I wish Windows has similar software to help me be more productive. AquaSnap is truly the first window management tool I miss for OS X. AquaSnap provides features which should be included in Windows out of the box. It's a must have tool, especially when you get such a great value for such a low cost. After working several months with AquaSnap, I can only recommend it for everyone to try and be amazed. Bottom line: lots of useful feature, great quality, fast and nice support, very affordable, highly recommended!„
Stefan Koell Creator of Royal TS
“ I was very hopeful when I found AquaSnap while searching for Windows user interface improvements, and very pleased when I found that it actually did what it said, reliably and stable, unlike some other user interface improvements I have tried and subsequently uninstalled. I save time moving and resizing windows and get a less cluttered desktop, letting my brain concentrate on the work I’m actually doing. This is a great expansion of the improvements that came in Windows 7, well worth the small license fee. The developer has been very responsive when I have reported a small bug in handling the windows of a specific program, and he keeps adding nifty features based on a system where users can vote for new functionality they want.„
Lars Hallstrom Eriksen Managing director of Hallstrom Bikes
“ I discovered AquaSnap at portableapps.com and I loved the free version so much that I bought the Pro software for the multiple monitor support. I wasn't able to get the Pro software working on the portableapps USB stick myself, so I emailed Nurgo support. Within hours I received a polite, professional, comprehensive and personalized response and within minutes AquaSnap Pro was working perfectly. I love this company , I love their software, and I will definitely be buying from them again. Certain monolithic software companies could learn a lot from Nurgo's business model for handling customer support!„
D. Caldwell Network Engineer
“ I "m an IT Business Consultant and often on the road using my notebook, sometimes attached to an external monitor. I know most of the shortcuts that make my life easier and me more productive. But what was still missing was some sort of utility to arrange, resize and layer the windows on my desktop. I tried out a lot of tools, but none suited my needs. Enter AquaSnap! Now, I have full control of window arrangement with a simple combination of keys. Really smart features like snapping And since I also use multi monitors there was no second thought: I purchased the full product for just a couple of bucks! that AquaSnap's team have. So, if you"re looking for something that puts you in the driver"s seat of controlling your windows, look no further!„
Russell Green IT Business Consultant
“ I was looking for some software to keep help files open on my desktop, while I work with Excel, or do some programming, but I did not want the windows to disappear every time I continue working. With AquaSnap I could keep the help files open while I worked or browse the web. I could also keep Youtube videos, web sites and movies open on my desktop while they play and still continue to program or read. I create a smaller window on the bottom right of my desktop. It is a tool I use every day, support is excellent, there are regular updates and it is worth the download.„
Kevin Paynter Lotus Notes Developer at Investec Bank
“In short AquaSnap is brilliant. It "s simple to use and learn, yet provides very useful features for everyday use of Windows. You just have to ask why Windows has not always worked like this and more importantly, why windows 10 does not do this sort of thing very well at all. It only takes 10 minutes to install and learn how to use it and it is particularly useful if you have one or more large monitors and like having many windows open at the same time. a few days!„
The interface of the new OS X 10.10, which promises to be very interesting. Opinions about the justification for using a flat interface in it were divided. Many users still feel it is inappropriate for a desktop OS, while others, including myself, believe that a redesign of OS X is inevitable and will happen. In fact, Mac OS is on the verge of global changes is not the first time. If you look back and dig a little deeper, you can see that Apple has come a long way in polishing the user interface of its desktop OS to the look we're all used to.
Blog Author 512 pixels has done amazing research into the formation of the Mac OS interface and traced its development over the past 22 years. In his article, he talks about it in great detail and, based on history, makes a prediction about the new OS X 10.10, which is already on its way.
Developing a new OS is a truly monumental task. Back in January 2000, when the Aqua interface was introduced, Apple was busy making the transition to OS X. During the development process to merge Mac OS and NeXTSTEP, Apple worked hard on the OS X user interface. OS X (and what it will look like), it's important to remember where it all started.
Visual History of Mac OS
From the original Macintosh through System 6, Mac OS looked pretty much the same:
In 1991, the System 7 user interface received color for the first time:
At the same time, Apple has been quite conservative in adding colors to the Mac OS interface.
Mac OS 8 brought a lot more color with the new Platinum interface. Notice the monochrome stripes in the window design and the simple controls - even here the use of color is rather restrained.
Mac OS 8 was released 12 years after the original Macintosh, but for over 10 years the user interface has remained the same. Screens grew in size, color support was added, but Apple moved very slowly.
NeXT
While Apple practically froze the development of Mac OS, the NeXT team worked tirelessly. The debut release of NeXTSTEP, presented in September 1989, had a monochrome interface, but later releases were full-color, including OpenStep (see photo below).
NeXT was ahead of Apple not only in terms of interfaces, but also in terms of functionality, offering a new generation of OS. Cupertino at that time could not create anything like this on their own, and this was one of the reasons for the purchase of NeXT in 1996, which also brought Steve Jobs back to Apple.
Path to OS X
After the purchase, Apple announces operating system Rhapsody, based on BSD, running on the Mach microkernel. The system contained the Yellow Box API object-oriented framework and the Blue Box environment, which provides compatibility with classic Mac OS applications, as well as a Java virtual machine.
In other words, Rhapsody was a kind of bridge between the old and the new. Also here, Apple tried out a new interface for its new operating system.
Here is how the company describes its work:
Rhapsody will combine elements of both systems (Mac OS and NeXTSTEP) but will look similar to Finder on Mac OS. We understand that customers need a common interface between two operating systems in order to deploy them within the same organization. This is important for learning and usability. One of NeXT's strengths is its support for multiplayer interface paradigms.
Rhapsody was ready in August 1997, but it looked like Mac OS with pieces of NeXT design:
Ultimately, in March 1999, Rhapsody becomes Mac OS X Server 1.0. It still remains a salad of Mac OS interface elements and OpenSteps. However, this was the first release of Apple's branded operating system based on NeXT.
After Mac OS X Server 1.0, Apple is releasing a series of developer previews (Mac OS X DP 1 and Mac OS X DP 2) that already look very familiar.
Aqua. Start
In January 2000, Apple announced a new interface for OS X called Aqua.
This user interface has been designed to take advantage of all the modern hardware features of the new Macs and to blend in visually with it. The rich colors of the new iMac and iBook looked great with the colorful and shiny Aqua interface elements.
We first saw Aqua as part of OS X DP3:
This is how John Syracuse describes Aqua in his review:
Everyone who has seen the screenshots knows that Aqua looks very nice. Apple's attention to detail, even in the first closed release, is simply impressive. Everything is polished and smooth. The interface elements look just as good as they do in the screenshots on Apple's website. Some of them are even better!
However, Aqua still had overlays. Here is another quote from Syracuse:
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and I believe that Mac OS X DP3 is just such a case. It certainly looks beautiful and impresses in action, but the devil is in the details and a lot of things don't work with the Aqua. The dock has become completely useless. It should not be repaired, but completely removed from the system, replaced with a set of components that, individually, would better perform the functions of a comprehensive dock, which is simply terrible. The Finder still needs some work, but it's on the right track, with its new browser-style interface and traditional windows. The OS kernel is very powerful and interesting as never before. Just like with the DP2, I have never been able to "hang" the system. Its performance is very good, despite all the beauty (except for the genie on the G3 and the resizing of the background windows on both machines). I still enjoy technical aspects Mac OS X and I hope that Apple will listen to its users and change some decisions in the interface of Mac OS X.
The screenshot above clearly shows all the described problems with the interface elements of the initial release. The dock is terrible, the transparency made the text on some elements unreadable (like window titles), and the single-application mode turned into trash. In addition, I got an annoying logo in the center of the menu bar.
Interesting fact. The menu was still on the left side of the menu bar. It attracted attention to itself so much that users very often missed when trying to open the menu of complex applications.
Meanwhile, after four DPs and a public beta, 10.0 Cheetah comes out in March 2001. Apple has fixed a lot of Aqua oddities, including the logo:
Looking at the photo above, modern Mac users won't find anything out of the ordinary. For many years, the OS X interface has remained unchanged. After the hardware of the "poppies" began to meet the requirements of the interface, Aqua shone.
Mac OS X 10.1 Puma was very similar to 10.0:
And Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar was similar to Puma:
Decline of Aqua
There's not much left of Aqua in OS X's interface right now. And although the interface is up-to-date on this moment OS X 10.9 Mavericks clearly originates from what Apple introduced to the world 13 years ago, today it is already obsolete.
The changes that started off so briskly with 10.3 Panther have slowly faded away. Many of Aqua's fundamentals remain intact, but the stripes that echo the design of past poppies have been replaced with brushed brushed metal:
Buttons and scrollbars in Panther feel out of place next to brushed metal, and the same goes for window controls. Mac OS X Tiger continued the Panther line, although Apple did make a few improvements to the interface, including font smoothing and dialog boxes. But as you can see from the screenshot below, even in the 10.4 interface, there are still some Aqua-like elements:
But with the release of the successor Tiger, there have been radical changes.
The Leopard interface fell like a bolt from the blue. The streaks on the windows have been smoothed out and the brushed metal removed. The rounded corners that frame the menu bar from way back in 1984 have also been removed.
Snow Leopard and Marble
According to rumors, Snow Leopard was supposed to get a single-style interface called "Marble":
The new theme is likely to combine the existing design and possibly the "flattening" of Aqua, along with iTunes and iPhoto interface elements.
At the time, such a rumor was very strange, and in the end, it was not confirmed - 10.6 did not contain a new interface. Anyway.
Modern OS X
I have no doubt that Apple plans to redesign the interface of OS X in the next version. Now the problem of discrepancy between desktop and mobile applications, which makes it difficult to brand the design across platforms.
I expect to see a flat interface, rounded icons, a new dock and Helvetica Neue as the system font.
I'll be surprised if Lucida Grande is still used as the system font like in 10.9. He meant a lot to OS X during years, but I'm sure that 10.10 will bring us more than just a new font.
There is a concept on Dribble representing OS X "a la Johnny Ive": 
But - it is not yet generally known how far Apple will go in redesigning OS X, although it will be very interesting to look at it.
Apple recently launched the OS X Beta Seed Program, which is quite unusual for the company. Of course, for the new builds of 10.9 it is not so important, 10.9.3 did not have massive features and it definitely did not require a large base of testers. But if 10.10 is going to have a new face, why not get a lot of people to test it out before the final release?
I don't know what's going to happen on June 2nd at Tim Cook's presentation, but there's a lot of smoke pointing towards fire in the Aqua colors.
