If Safari had prominent wood grain I'd care, but the fact that this kind of design is isolated to a few of Apple's more obscure, lesser used apps makes this who

If Safari had prominent wood grain I'd care, but the fact that this kind of design is isolated to a few of Apple's more obscure, lesser used apps makes this whole thing a non-issue. I will say that I prefer iBook to the reading app I actually use (Kindle, since I'm in Amazon's ecosystem) - I find the subtle border and gradients on the edges (and a handsome color scheme) more pleasing to the eye than the flat "text on a plain background" that I see in the Kindle and Google Books apps. Done right, texture and shadow can subtly draw the eye to the most relevant section of a screen. To me, the flat interfaces that the anti-skeutomorph people seem to admire are unnatural and decidedly uneasy on the eyes.