> Glossy embossed days are far behind.

Could this really be happening? Could the universe be so kind?

Glossy might look good for five seconds, but when you spend eight hours staring at shiny windows flying across your screen you tend to get sick.

I have the same with glossy screens, which have so become the fashion in the past years. Instead of the pixels, I see a mirror image of myself. I was in a big electronics shop yesterday and all laptops had glossy screens!

I can't wait until the 70% transparent, white-fill gradient half-circle is no longer masked over logos and icons.

What exactly do you mean? Do you have an example?

I believe the white glossy circle is referring to that glossy shine on top of icons, much like the app icons you usually see on an iPhone/iPod.

For instance: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ikoka/3660963620/

Oh, right. Now I understand. Yeah, you see those a lot.

styles come, styles go...Better to be a trend-setter rather then trend-watcher.

That's a very interesting article there. The thing that bothers me the most about OS X is how it looks so monochrome (and, by my definition, boring and less usable), like it's mentioned on the "Less color" section. I like to use color from icons to guide myself and by going monochrome I just can't do it. On the opposite side there's Google's sidebar which has so many colors mixed-up that it's as usable as Apple's monochromatic style.

One can easily argue that monochromatic UIs are less distracting though. But it does remind me of USSR architecture...

Not just the next iteration: Apple has been toning down the Aqua look in every version of OS X. The original Aqua was very much an offspring of the 1990's iMac aesthetic with candy colors and pinstripes everywhere. The pinstripes were the first to go, and each update has switched some glossy element to a more flat look.