Why is the drop shadow at an angle other than straight down? It stands out like a sore thumb within the rest of iOS and makes the button design look sloppy. I appreciate the usefulness of a button class like this but the default design just doesn't look polished.
We're just at the very beginning of building this, so specific styles aren't finalized yet. We are also talking with as many designers as possible to make sure it's themeable in the way they want. At the end of the day, we won't define how it looks, but rather enable you to be as creative as you want to be.
No matter if the angle is configurable or not, the current default is a bug rather than a question of taste. The lighting angle is one of the few design choices where there is a clear right and wrong on iOS.
The thing with round rect buttons is not that they're irreconcilably ugly, but that they're only meant to be used in pinstriped table views. It's rare to see them used correctly anymore since pinstripes are dead as a popular design style in third-party apps. (The original Tweetie 2 was a notable exception.)
Instead they just get used because they're the only freely placable styled button in Interface Builder.
Well like it or not with the App Store you need to go Big or go Home. There is almost no place for default interface elements in most Apps because you get lost in a sea of crappy generic apps. I only use them as a placeholder to wireup the button in IB and the off to custom button land I go.
This is extremely cool. One of the things I find lacking about Cocoa Touch is the lack of native, powerful customization of the default UI elements. Sure, iOS5 added the appearance APIs, but I still find them lackluster. I look forward to playing with this thing.
Thousands? Most that don't a) are games b) have goofy design.
You have to be very careful with redesigning native controls (see drop-down lists on the web), most of the time it's just an excuse for making the app not look "plain", instead of doing good design.
Thousands out of over half a million. It's very rare to see the default rounded rect button used anywhere anymore. It's even rare to see apple use it in their own apps.
Since when is 85% satisfying? If there's a 17-18% increase in downloads out there by simply using a slightly different API and memory technique (not being able to use weak references), then I'd say it's worth it.
I do but I've not blogged about iOS stuff really. You've got a couple things to consider. One of the big ones is maintainability going forward - old code & processes cost more to maintain and add to software entropy overall.
