Appletell

In what is perhaps the coolest thing I have ever seen, Troika has created a “virus” for Mac, though its status as a virus is debatable. It lives on a USB key, and you have to have physical access to the computer to install it. The virus was created in an attempt to get back to the tme when viruses were just amusing little programs run to make the user chuckle. Nowadays, viruses are used for malicious intent, but back in the advent of the personal computer, “viruses [were] born out of the wit of early computer adopters, viruses whose sole purpose was to surprise and amuse.”

Troika says that they “chose to do it for mac as the platform is still a virgin territory.” If this is what Mac viruses will look like, I will download and install every suspicious looking thing that comes my way. The “virus” causes the menu bar to crack in half and fall, along with all desktop icons, to the bottom of the screen. Then, by turning the computer around, the icons and menu bar halves respond just as they would if they were really in a box.

The only problem? You can’t actually get it. If anyone can figure out how to get this, please comment. I want it really badly. Now, to see it in action, look after the break.

MORE »

Leopard’s new folders have many flaws. A few are aesthetic, but any are just plain practicality issues. The Leopard folders can’t be distinguished at low sizes, because of the only small difference from folder color to label color. They are all the same shape, and color, meaning that at a quick glance you will have no idea which is which.

Many people have complained about these icons, and this new icons set ha risen from those complaints. It takes the elegance of the leopard folders and pairs them with bright easy to identify badges.

There are currently a few issues, such as the fact that you will need to change the movies icon’s filename from “Movies...” to “Movie...,” and that there are a couple consistency issues in the set, but these will be all fixed with an update soon.

The icons are a free ~4.5 MB download, and instructions are included.

Download

If the three-month wait for Leopard is simply too much to bear, you can always try a couple of workarounds. The Leopard desktop is freely available for download on the internet, while other things like Spaces and the transparent MenuBar can be emulated in Tiger through third-party apps.

With the recent update of the System Preference icon in the latest build of Leopard, I’m sure there are eager folks out there who just want to get their hands on it. Thankfully, Sebastian de With over at the Cocoia Blog has a copy of it for download. Don’t go pestering developers to upload their icons, it’d be a violation of their agreement with Apple.

Read [Cocoia Blog]