Mac OS X Leopard
Apple has announced the feature set for Leopard. The general consensus for Mac users is… lukewarm towards the announcements.
Jobs promised “top secret” features, and these new features were mainly cursory and suspect.
- A transparent menubar
- Stacks
- 3D Dock
- “New” Finder
Let me have a few lines to express my own dismay on these features/updates.
The menubar is clearly an attempt to show “Apple can do transparent windows” like Windows, but not with the Window. It looks stupid. I want to clearly see my menu bar. Not have to look at a glass version of it. At the worst, make it an option. Don’t make me use this!
The stacks are interesting, but are presented in a very uninteresting way. That “fan” view looks stupid. It’s a half-made attempt at something un-grid like. The Vista way of doing Exposé (3D windows, in a stack) would be a much better implementation of a stack than a weird fan shape.
There have been demos of a new UI approach where stacks are made on the fly, and the icons lay on a surface organically… this is where this concept should go. In its current state, it’s laughable.
3D Dock. This is “3D” because we can. Not because it offers a new feature. In essence, it is as if the third dimension has been wasted for only eye candy. What if… clicking on a dock icon, made it move over, or twist, to see a side-view. And option buttons were displayed… in otherwords, using the 3D space for functional reasons. Hey, there’s an idea.
What about a dynamic dock that re-arranges icons based on… processor activity, RAM usage, or frequency of use… Mac OS X just knows what apps you spend the most time in… and makes them bigger, or re-orders them that way.
3D is incredible, and is where things are headed. But we’re smart enough to know working in 3D in a 2D space has serious limits. Make the new dimension of depth have a purpose… please.
The Finder is up there with the menubar, for me. The two big features, coverflow and the new preview features, are questionable. Isn’t one just the other? Coverflow… icons that are “real” previews, and require plugins for developers to write. I can’t picture Adobe doing this… but who knows.
And the preview? How frustrating to be able to read something… but not edit?! Yes, looking at PDFs and Keynotes are fine.. but what about other docs?
Seems like some good ideas that need refinement. I’d prefer to right-click on little icons and get a super snazzy animation pop up and show me.
iTunes works for iPhoto. iPhoto works for some of iMovie. But the Finder? Will someday iTunes and Finder merge? Just listening to files that happen to be music?
We need better organizational tools… not folders… and “stacks.”
I don’t have all the answers… but the solutions so far aren’t inspiring.
Mac OS X Server for 10.5 appears much more interesting…
June 12th, 2007 at 11:28 pm
I totally agree with you on this. I enjoyed watching the Keynote as I always do. However, I have to admit this keynote speech was less inspiring than those in recent years.
The introduction of Intel was exciting to watch. I even enjoyed watching the introduction of the iPhone. I was expecting much more during this Keynote. He claims hundreds of new features and updates. Really? Where are they?
If there are more inspiring updates to Leopard, tell us on the Apple website. Give us something to look forward to other than eye candy.