I personally think skeuomorphism used well can be a good thing, but it has to be used well. Does the leather texture on Lion's iCal harm the app? IMO, no (thoug

I personally think skeuomorphism used well can be a good thing, but it has to be used well. Does the leather texture on Lion's iCal harm the app? IMO, no (though the specific choice of texture and color could be argued with), and I think textures/colors like this can give an app a "face", something to visually distinguish it, and that's important. But the stitching underneath it? It's superfluous, takes up extra space, and adds significant distraction and visual noise. Glad to see it's gone in Mountain Lion. Likewise, I thought iBooks on iPad looked great at first glance, but over time the extra visuals got annoying and cluttery. I was very happy to see them add Full Screen Mode.