While rumors swirl around so-called Phones, Mac Pros, new iPods, media center Macs, and MacBook Pro upgrades, there’s really only one thing I’m terribly interested hearing about at Monday’s Stevenote: Leopard.
Oh sure, I’d love an Apple Phone (but I don’t think it has a chance in hell of appearing). The office may be getting me a MacBook Pro sometime down the line, so I wouldn’t complain about upgrades there. But in the end, the single most important thing to me — the reason I use a Mac in the first place — is the operating system.
So, just for fun, here’s a handful of things I’d really like to see in Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard.”
- Resolution-independent user interface. I don’t think the Mac community at large gets just how big of a deal this is and just how important it’s going to be to the future of screen-based devices. Apple doing this before Windows would be the most significant leapfrog, technology-wise, they could possibly achieve. While it would be an incredible enhancement for the desktop computing experience, especially as screens get higher and higher resolution, it might be an even bigger deal for smaller devices like phones, tablets, handheld game consoles, etc. It only takes one look at the Nokia 700 Internet Tablet’s 220dpi screen (800 pixels wide on a four-inche screen) to see what incredibl detail and clarity high-res screens are capable of.
- Better integration of the personal productivity and communication apps. It is, frankly, appalling that iCal, Mail.app, Address Book and iChat know very little about each other in the current Mac OS X environment. I want Google-like recognition of phrases and other natural-language idioms in e-mail. If Matt e-mails me and says, “we need to have the weather page working by noon tomorrow,” Mail.app should prompt me to create a to-do item in iCal with a due date of 12:00pm tomorrow, a summary of “Have weather page working”), with Matt included as an attendee and a link to his Address Book card. If I get an e-mail from Dan that says, “Let’s chat about this tomorrow around 3pm,” I want a pop-up on my screen tomorrow at three that says, “Dan is currently online. Would like to start a video chat?”
- Much improved Mail.app. I love the overall UI of Mail.app and I haven’t found anything I like better. But, still, there are several improvements that can be made, especially in terms of performance. Mail.app sucks with large IMAP folders, and I’ve got several of them. Could I break them into smaller folders? Sure. Should I have to? Hell no. Smart Mailboxes, a true gem of Mail.app, are a little underpowered. Compared to iTunes, there just aren’t enough filtering attributes. Many people want a widescreen version of Mail.app, so it seems like a worthy addition, even though I’m not sure it’s something I could get used to personally. And yeah, we could stand to loose the gel-cap icons (although I don’t find them nearly as offensive as some folks do).
- GTD-friendly iCal. Oh sure, this is a very selfish and personal need, but it’s my list, so I can do that. There are a lot of iCal haters out there, and I’m not one of them. I use iCal all the time and actually rather like it. Its incredible simplicity, though, is starting to be more of a hinderance than a feature. As I’ve gotten into David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology, I’ve found limitations of iCal that could be solved simply by giving me more options and letting me customize things a bit more. This is especially true in the area of to-do lists. For whatever reason, calendar programs seem to universally favor events over to-dos (see Google Calendar and Backpack, for example, which don’t support iCalendar to-dos at all). This seems crazy to me, as most people have far more to-dos than they do events. Also, it’s ridiculous that iCal doesn’t write new items out to disk until you close the program. This means, if I’ve had iCal open all day, added 20 to-dos and five events, and then suffer a crash — I’m fucked. Lame.
- iSync that works with my phone. I’m probably dreaming on this one, but I have an otherwise-great Samsung A900 “Blade” from Sprint that doesn’t work with iSync. It supports Bluetooth, has a calendar, to-do list, MP3 player, address book, etc. — and they’re all basically useless to me because I can’t sync them with my Mac. C’mon, iSync team — why can’t Sprint phones join the party? It’s not fair! Sprint has the best data network in the USA and is finally getting some cool phones. So c’mon, Apple. iSync for Sprint!
- Improved finder.
- No more brushed metal.
- Better iChat.
- Spotlight that isn’t slow as fuck.
- Safari improvements.
Didn’t quite get time to flesh out numbers six through ten, but I’ll be back to do it.
There is some good news. This info at O’Grady’s PowerPage suggests that many of the things I want are in the works for Leopard. I hope so. I love my Mac OS, but there are several things that need fixing if Apple wants to complete with Vista early next year.
So what’s your list? What Leopard features are you looking forward to?
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001 // Kyle // 08.06.2006 // 5:42 PM
My list: Spotlight enhancements (primarily speed). I’ve slowly moved away from using Quicksilver in favor of Spotlight, but there are days when the beach ball is spinning that I curse Apple.
iSync that works with my phone I just ditched Sprint and bought my first Bluetooth-enabled phone. Not to rub it in, but being able to sync contacts, iCal, make my own ringtones, and up/download photos for free (I’m talking to you, Sprint) is the bee’s knees.
Now that I’ve started using iSync, I’m transitioning from Entourage to iCal and Address Book. I really wish Mail, iCal, and Address Book were one app or iSync played nice with apps like Entourage.
Safari enhancements: rearrangeable tabs and PDF handling that doesn’t take over my processor. I’m looking forward to using FTP in Safari too. I doubt it will replace Transmit, but it’s one less app to open for a quick change.
002 // Joshua // 08.06.2006 // 6:01 PM
For anyone who is offended by Mail’s gel cap icons, try Mail Stamps.
I wholeheartedly agree with you about the entire Mail, iChat, iCal and Address Book integration and out of all the Mac community crap I read, you’re the first one I’ve heard mention it. Apple has a fantastic fleet of communication and productivity apps, but because their separation is so definite, I can not use them as a good CRM solution, which is what I really need. Here’s hoping, but I doubt it.
003 // cpawl // 08.06.2006 // 10:35 PM
I have always been curious about the why’s and what’s of Spotlight haters. I use a dual450 G4 as my main machine running Tiger. When I use Spotlight everything loads relatively quick. For example, I just search for “Apple” and got 4357 results in less than 20 seconds. I searched for some text, got 1209 results in 6 seconds. Now I know that most are using newer computers than I am using… so I ask, “Just what are you searching for that is so so slow?” I SERIOUSLY need to know since it seems every mac user expect myself bitches about Spotlight.
004 // Jeff Croft // 08.06.2006 // 10:42 PM
cpawl:
Sportlight’s problem are mostly about performance. If you consider 20 seconds “relatively quick,” i would say you’ve never used a system that qualifies as “fast” by today’s standards. I want near-instant results for any search ‘ and that’s not an unreasonable expectation in today’s world.
To give you a totally-non-scientific benchmark, though, I just searched for “Apple” on my brand new 2.0GHz Intel iMac Core Duo. It took a whopping 40 seconds to find 18,481 results. FORTY. You can’t possibly think that’s reasonable, can you?
005 // Brian // 08.06.2006 // 11:25 PM
I’ll second Jeff’s call for decent IMAP in ANY Mac email client. None of them seem to handle IMAP well. While they are at it, how about a decent import/export path from various older mail clients. Entourage particularly. Finally a real file browser. Finder is terrible and Windows has kicked Macs hiney for file management and browsing for YEARS. There needs to a be a tree view and something that makes better use of the space and makes moving and managing our ever growing collection of files easier so the whole world does not HAVE to use spotlight to find everything. I’m a heavy PC user and always find myself scratching my head about why these things are still an issue for Mac users. So many other things are so good on the platform. I guess everything has its fundamental weakness. Windows is just in other things that also matter like security.
006 // Joe Grossberg // 08.07.2006 // 7:26 AM
Why no details on #6-10, particularly 6 (like Quicksilver?) and 7 (Yahoo! compatibility?) ?
I’d like to hear what your specific gripes are.
007 // Jeff Croft // 08.07.2006 // 8:43 AM
Joe: Note the spot at the end where I say:
008 // Brad // 08.07.2006 // 9:53 AM
Amen for the Sprint support in iSync. Although I think it is more a Samsung support issue. Apple needs to work out whatever they need to work out to try to get across the board support for iSync with mobile phones.
009 // Michael // 08.07.2006 // 12:58 PM
Look’s like you’re getting your improved Mail app.
010 // Wilson Miner // 08.07.2006 // 4:06 PM
Happy now?
011 // Noah // 08.07.2006 // 5:53 PM
RE #9
some people enjoy a good slow f*ck
RE #7 probably the best thing, I hated it when it was new and I hate it even more now that it’s spotty.
012 // Dave // 08.08.2006 // 7:56 AM
A little off topic, but what DO you use for GTD management?
WWDC was entirely and incredibly dissapointing. Not seeing ANY finder enhancements has prompted be to download Path Finder and consider ponying up the $35 registration fee.
And dashboard STILL isn’t innovative, whether or not I can pin a Dilbert cartoon to it. Rather, it’s just a resource hog.
013 // sng // 08.08.2006 // 12:51 PM
RE Dave:
No idea what jeff uses for GTD management but I’ve been playing with a demo of OmniOutliner Pro with the http://kinkless.com/kinkless GTD plugin (I’m not sure plugin is the right word, it’s a collection of applescripts).
Now I’ve never actually read Allen’s book and know next to nothing about GTD, but the kinkless GTD with OmniOutliner allows me create digital version of the paper lists that have served me well for years. And they sync with iCal and can be tied to notifications via mail.app.
OmniOutliner Pro It isn’t cheap but it might work for you.
014 // Cody // 08.14.2006 // 2:30 PM
I have to concur with that iSync with phones argument. It seems most of the phones on the list are GSM, which is a great world standard, but when something better is available (CDMA), there should be support as well. I recently bought a new phone (I’m a Sprint user), and I could find no model that was listed there. As far as I know, the new Samsungs are compatible with whatever the new syncing standard is (though I can’t remember what it’s called), so what’s the hold up!?
Cody
015 // David // 08.30.2006 // 7:56 PM
This means, if I’ve had iCal open all day, added 20 to-dos and five events, and then suffer a crash ‘ I’m fucked
Suffer a crash, gasp, why, Macs don’t crash, blashemer!!!
lmao, wink, wink. -from a Macs & PC lover, am I on the endangered list?
016 // Jeff Croft // 08.30.2006 // 8:53 PM
Mac OS X rarely crashes, but that doesn’t mean iCal doesn’t! :)
017 // aknudsen // 09.07.2006 // 7:47 PM
With all the new templates coming in mail. I know a lot of people out there would rather not see that as a new feature :) I’m looking for mail merge similar to what’s in Pages. If this is happening, the templates might be a welcome addition.
018 // Clifton // 09.16.2006 // 10:01 AM
Speaking of Finder, it’s time for a new icon. As cute as it is for kids, it doesn’t look near as hip as the other icons available in OS X.
019 // John Stagaman // 12.25.2006 // 4:32 AM
So far as syncing address book with your Samsung phone, I was able to sync to my Samsung t509 with Bluetooth using OnSync from http://www.onmadesoft.com/
It’s shareware, so if it doesn’t work for you, you needn’t pay for it. It took a few tries to get it to work—for me I had to set the Default Number Type to “Mobile” and set Sort Numbers to “by number or email”. Attempts to sync using the other options failed.
Also, the problem is apparently with Samsung using a non-standard sync protocol which they will not publish. It also varies from one phone model to another, so Apple has been unable to add Samsung phone support to iSync. It has nothing to do with Sprint.
020 // Gabe // 02.04.2007 // 5:03 PM
Hey Jeff just ran across your site. Nice work. My two cents… make the productivity apps play nice, and introduce a new one. Strip the “to-do” out of iCal and put it into its own GTDstyled app… iDo? (Sounds like a wedding planner.) Maybe iDone ot iDid? I don’t care what it is called as long as it still plays nice with everything else. I would like to see it play well with my iPod as well. Sync tasks to the iPod and be able to check them off via click wheel as the day transpires. Yeah.