14 DAY TRIAL // Apple has given its official website a makeover, and likely plans to do the same with its online store, as the company is showing the typical “We’ll be back soon” sign.
There isn’t much of an aesthetic difference between the old version of Apple’s web site and the new one.
So far, we can confirm that Cupertino has blackened the navigation bar a bit, which effectively provides more contrast for the viewer, and improved the search function, which now offers more features, and better results.
One other thing we can confirm is that Opera 11.00 doesn’t get along very well with the new site. We’re assuming it’s got something to do with all that HTML5 Apple.com serves the browser with.
By visiting the Apple Discussions forum, we were not surprised to see the same old grey tab bar on top of the page.
Perhaps it is high time that Apple finally put into practice what it announced in August 2010 - a discontinuing of the service, to be replaced with “Apple Support Communities.”
Apple Support Communities was described as a more social, user profile-based service, which includes biographies, images, the ability to personalize your homepage, select preferences, add widgets, and more.
Although the company said it was launching it “very soon,” the service is still not live four months into the announcement.
As for the online store being taken down, it is reasonable to assume that Apple is doing more than just updating the navigation bar.
This kind of change doesn’t necessarily call for the service to be taken offline, therefore one may be inclined to believe Apple is also putting new stuff on its virtual shelves.
We’ll keep you updated with the changes once we stumble upon them. You can be a sport and do the same, by pointing them out in the comments.
Update: Apple's store is back online with no changes, except for the predictable redesign of the navigation bar.
