GUiPod attempts to copy the look and feel of Apple’s iPod OS, as well as the look of the actual iPod hardware. Where it succeeds, it does so fabulously, but it has some minor hiccups. Overall, I’d suggest playing around with GUiPod, sending feedback to Swizcore Studios, and letting it mature to version 2.

Aesthetics
GUiPod is a creative and well realized theme. If you have an iPod sitting on your desk, you can almost imagine that they are running the same operating system. All of the menus and windows look like they are straight from the iPod. The orange color used in so the theme’s buttons perfectly captures the new button backlights added to the 3rd generation iPod. I should actually note that the color isn’t exactly that used in the iPod, but that isn’t noticeable until you get larger areas of the orange. The buttons in the Finder toolbar, particularly the action & path toolbar items really stand out as having an attention to detail. Scrollbars look fantastic, and the flat looking progress indicator is simply amazing. The only problem in terms of looks has to do with the menus. When you select a menu, the menu’s name appears inset in a small LCD, which is a very cool idea. Unfortunately, the text is white and (somewhat) hard to read, as well as fairly squished into the tiny box. This seems to be exaggerated on smaller menus like the Go menu, while the Bookmarks menu in Safari feels like it has plenty of space. Lastly, the look chosen for (formerly) brushed metal style windows looks nice and smooth, as do normal windows (though not quite as smooth, though I suspect that is by design).

Usability
GUiPod is generally quite usable. It has two sore points in an otherwise very clear presentation. The first is the aforementioned menu problem, which causes menu names to be hard to read and to be bunched against their outline. The second problem is that many of the differences between active and inactive states for controls are subtle enough that the state of the control can be hard to figure out at a glance (an example is the table view column highlight). Once you’re used to the theme for a while, you’ll be able to easily tell the difference, but it could be a problem for a new user. There is also a slight issue with one of the backgrounds, which I will discuss later.

Extras
This theme comes with only two desktop pictures (in a variety of sizes) and a Safari skin. Furthermore, for many people the white desktop (which looks fantastic otherwise) may prove to be too light. In fact, it is so light that the Finder selection box becomes invisible. The black desktop is also not perfect, since it seems to use a different orange from the rest of the theme. The Safari skin is well done though, and makes Safari feel right at home on GUiPod. Overall, these extras are good enough, but not fantastic. As Swiz does not provide a system icon set, the Block OS Iconset, originally created by Linestudio and ported to the Mac by DigitalJames is recommended.

GUiPod is a theme that almost realizes a beautiful vision. A lack of substantive extras and some usability problems mar an otherwise solid presentation. If you’ve fallen in love with both the external and software looks of the iPod though, this theme might be beautiful enough for you to ignore the problems.

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