01/06/2005 - It’s my birthday

Turned 20 years old today, feel free to congratulate me

22/05/2005 - Milk available for Tiger!

After five hours of repetitive updating, Milk is ready for Tiger.
These are the changes:
- Updated for Tiger.
- Themes Spotlight menu.
- Includes new appSkin for Mail.
- Added Print toolbar button to the Safari appSkin.
- Updated iCal appskin to include new Metal button glyphs.
- Changed the look of the Help Button.
- Removed iconset.

Use the top navigation and go to Themes/Milk to download.

Some people have been requesting Milk as a package installer, but I’m afraid that will not happen. Milk is heavily dependent on appSkins to give the system a complete look and it would be too hard to make a installer for it.

Hope you enjoy it!

15/05/2005 - SmoothStripes and Aqua Extreme for Tiger

I’ve cut down the number of variations to 4 to make it easier for me to handle. The ones that are no longer available are the sunken Aqua and gloss variations. Hope I’m not upsetting too many people.

So, I’ve written down a complete feature list, this is what Aqua Extreme and SmoothStripes does:
- Includes option to use Blue titlebar buttons.
- Includes option to use squared windows and menubar.
- Restores the Menubar from 10.3.
- Improves Titlebar buttons.
- Improves scrollbars to a more crisp Aqua style.
- Improves progressbars to a more crisp Aqua style.
- Improves small and large Round Buttons to a more crisp Aqua style.
- Improves bevel buttons to a more crisp Aqua style.
- Improves Small Push buttons (like in the Finder copy dialog) to a more crisp Aqua style.
- Improves Menu Extras appearance.
- Improves Mails appearance - side panel use a light gray background instead of light blue, replaces the toolbar buttons with icons from previous Mail versions,
- Includes appSkin for iTunes that improves the “+” and “-” buttons in new Smart Playlist dialog.
- Makes all resize dimples use 90 degree lightning.
- Improves Finder button glyphs by using less drop shadow.
- Fixes the brightness of Finder column resize handle.

The difference between SmoothStripes and Aqua Extreme is that SmoothStripes takes out all the stripes and Aqua Extreme keeps them.

Both themes are available as guiKits and package installers. The functionality of iFix is included in both as they bring the new titlebar buttons and some fixes for iTunes. QuickTime no longer needs iFixing since Apple fixed all the stuff that I didn’t like about it.

You will get some additional features using the guiKit, for example it takes out the bright blue sidebar in Mail and replaces the toolbar buttons and icons with the ones from the previous Mail. Using the package installer has it’s own advantages as it will apply the theme for all users, as wells as for dialogs owned by Root and the login panel. Be sure to read the instructions for the package installers though.

Btw, I have some problem with links here and I’m not sure what’s going on, the first link never works, but the ones below it do. There’s something funky with the coding.. If anyone knows how to remedy this, send me an email!

Until I get them all working, you can use the top navigation to get to the Aqua Extreme theme page.

Aqua Extreme for Mac OS X 10.4:
Aqua Extreme 2.5 [1,5 MB]
Aqua Extreme 2.5 [7,6 MB]

SmoothStripes for Mac OS X 10.4:
SmoothStripes 4.5 [1,5 MB]
SmoothStripes 4.5 [7,6 MB]

07/05/2005 - Aluminum Alloy ready for Tiger

Aluminum Alloy 1.7
- Updated for Tiger, many minor fixes.
- Themes Spotlight menu.
- New LCD for Calculator, VLC and iTunes.
- Includes new appSkin for Mail.
- Added Print toolbar button to the Safari appSkin.
- Updated iCal appskin to include new Metal button glyphs.

Hope you enjoy this, I’m pretty sure there are no bugs. Please note that the appSkins for QuickTime and Address Book are incomplete, I will need to wait for a ThemePark update to be able to theme them.

I’ve got updates to Aqua Extreme and SmoothStripes coming out soon. For starters they will only be available in guiKit format, but I intend to make them available as package installers. I’ve rationed the number of variations to make it easier for me to maintain, so don’t be too upset if your favorite variation is not included. I hope you will enjoy them anyway.

01/05/2005 - Tiger Status

Hey Everybody
I’m sure you are all wondering when the themes will be ready for Tiger. I got Tiger loaded on my comp and I just today got the tools I needed to get to work on updating them. I feel like I have to little time on my hands though, with my full time job and all. So it’s gonna take me a while to get them ready.
The good news is that most of the themes will work very well even without me updating them. The biggest changes is the Spotlight menu and all the results windows. Then there is a lot of changes in applications, Mail especially. I’ve started updating Aluminum Alloy because it requires the least effort to get ready. Then I’m not quite sure which theme to proceed with. Milk or SmoothStripes/Aqua Extreme. I made a poll so that you can vore on which theme you crave the most.
Also, feel free to comment on how you would like me to distribute SmoothStripes/Aqua Extreme. Should I make it a guiKit so I can fix as many Aqua inconsistencies as possible, or would you prefer a package installer so that you don’t need ShapeShifter? Either way it’s gonna take me a while.. But expect a new Aluminum Alloy as soon as ShapeShifter is ready for Tiger.

17/04/2005 - New iFix, updated for iTunes 4.7.1

iFix updates iTunes and QuickTime with some visual improvements. It’s ment to be combined with SmoothStripes/Aqua Extreme or Brushed. This is what is changed when you install iFix:

iTunes 4.7.1
- Titlebar buttons from the SmoothStripes/Aqua Extreme/Brushed themes.
- Improved Volume slider track.
- 10.2 style Aqua “+” and “-” buttons in the New Smart Playlist window.

QuickTime 6.5.2
- Titlebar buttons from the SmoothStripes/Aqua Extreme/Brushed themes.
- Brighter and higher contrast metal background that better matches the regular Brushed style.
- Better looking track display.
- Improved Volume slider and Volume slider track.
- Removed small Apple in the lower left corner.
- Icon from QuickTime 7.

iFix 17/4/2005 [4,9 MB]

26/03/2005 - Milk 3.1 - Orange color variation added

This is the change log:
Milk 3.1: Blue | Pink | Green | Orange | Silver
- Added an Orange color variation.
- All variations now use the black apple due to popular demand.

19/03/2005 - “It comes in colors everywhere!”

Milk is now at version 3.0, the big change is that it now comes in four color variations - blue, pink, green and silver. I hope this is appreciated, I know a lot of people missed the grey version and I hope some will like the new colors as well.

I have also completed Milk themes for the Sony Ericsson K700, Z600, Z608, T610, T628, T630, T616. These are available at Ocean Observation’s mobile themes page!

This is the change log:
Milk 3.0: Blue | Pink | Green | Silver
- Added color variations! Milk now comes in blue, green, pink and silver colors.
- Changed the iTunes sidebar selection to use the themes color.
- Aligned the buttons at the bottom of the iTunes window (add playlist, equalizer, visualizer etc) with the AirTunes speaker button.
- Resized the VLC LCD so that the corners don’t look stretched.

12/02/2005 - Got a new job!

I have been employed by a company that makes GUIs for cellphones, called Ocean Observations. I’ve been working there for 3 weeks now and it’s fun. I’ve been making some icons for a demo and now I’m working on a full GUI.
While I find it a bit rough to get up for work 5 days of the week, I’m happy to finally be earning my own money. And I do plan on making som purchases.. Possibly a 20″ Cinema Display
So if you are looking for a GUI design for cellphones, hire Ocean Observation and you get a chance to work with me

22/01/2005 - BBX Mercury X updated

This is what’s new:
- All desktops are now bundled inside the guiKit. If you choose one of the patterns, be sure to go into the Desktop prefPane afterwards and rechoose the “Tile” option.
- Added appSkins for iCal, TextEdit and QuickTime.
- Added the Equalizer button to the VLC appSkin.
- Added the AirTunes button and Party Shuffle selection bar to the iTunes appSkin.
- Added the Bluetooth button to the Address Book appSkin.
- Customized the list and list alternating rows background color and the list selection color.
- The selected segment tab is now in the dark material with white text.
- Reworked the way the Metal windows are rendered which means that the titlebar text is always placed above the gloss. This also affects metal drawers and iChat invitation bubbles which will both look better.
- Fixed the inactive state of the Finder path button.
- Changed the way to choose between the different styles of titlebar glyphs. Before it was decided by changing between Blue and Graphite in General preferences, now it’s decided by which theme variation you install.
- Pruned Aqua elements to decrease file size.

The only thing that is not included is the MMX icons by Mikkel Madsen, I sent him an email hoping that he could put together a system set to be bundled. He hasn’t replied yet, but hopefully the icons will be included in a future update.

Also, I’ve noted that the selected segment tab text is still black in Toast 6 which makes it a bit hard to read. And the clicked state of the segment tab uses white text, which isn’t what I wanted, but it’s not possible to change that for the time being. Both are things that has to be worked out in ShapeShifter, which I hope they will be.

The BBX Mercury Extras disk image includes a read me from William Bart, Alert Sounds, a small guide on how to duplicate the look of menus in other apps such as the Terminal and a few internet links.

Downloads (Mac OS X 10.3):
BBX Mercury X 1.5 [3,4 MB]
BBX Mercury Extras [1,6 MB]