The new Apple.com

okay, there are a few things that i like about the apple.com redesign, but i keep trying to figure out if i like it because it's GOOD, or just because it's different. case in point, those buttons across the top... the faux depth of the gradient and the "inner shadow" pressed state when you click just feel like, well, a photoshop "make a button action" or something. they work WAY better on the home page, in a very black colour scheme, but they stick out like a sore thumb on the interior white pages. hmmm...

but here's the thing i really hate about the new design, on the interior pages, are these, well, what do you call them? i call them "skating sidebars." the kicker is they slide (skate) really quickly out from under the cursor just on a rollover. so let's say you see something you want to click on at the top of a sidebar. if you come at it at an angle (like your cursor actually starts further down), the FIRST tab you rollover will quickly scoot downward. maybe apple thinks this is a good way to get you to look at stuff you might not otherwise look at. problem is, i often find that whatever was BELOW the tab (that just skated downward... could be one more tab, might be more) is now illegible, and i have to scroll down to view it (which, as soon as i move over it, it scoots back up... chair go up, chair go down, chair go up, chair go down, chair go up... aaaaugh!!!)

here's my primary thought on this... apple wants at least ONE web site on the entire internet that works WELL on the iphone. and with the iphone, there is no "diagonal cursor movement." you see what you like, and you tap. and i will bet you, dollars to donuts that those tabs are sized to fit PERFECTLY on an iphone screen when opened up. only problem? there are MILLIONS AND MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of us who still use computers with a mouse. unless apple starts pushing touchscreen computers fast (and i would love that... cintiq is cool and all, but it's just a monitor, that's also as big as a house and weighs about as much), they're kinda treading on weird ice here.