Mac OS X 10.5 ideas

[Lt Major Burns]

system restore. windows has had it for 5 years now. when i bugger up my computer, there's no easy and ultimately little way of just putting it back.

system restore.

 

[winterdude]

ya, something like that, with the additions that chevy said

 

[chevy]

And other nice techies tricks....

But the main improvement should be a unified style, either based on a style preference selector or a single style, but unified.

 

[cyprus mac man]

right now, since i am living in cyprus, at my house i cant get any good/fast internet like ADSL, so i have to settle for Dial-up. also, i like to listen to my iTunes music while I am surfing the web. BUT there is one problem, the Internet Connect app. why cant there be a "Mute" button on it so i dont have to pause my songs on iTunes while I get all those crazy dial-up noises. That would be awesome. and hey, i am not asking for even a volume control, just a simple mute. thats all

 

[Lt Major Burns]

there are settings in the network set up in the system preferences for dial up that you can silence the modem, depending on your modem.

 

[McSedgley]

system restore. windows has had it for 5 years now. when i bugger up my computer, there's no easy and ultimately little way of just putting it back.

system restore.

It would be nice if it works too. I've never managed to get it to work on Windows.

 

[McSedgley]

But I agree that the Finder's FTP support must become, well, full FTP support. While I like Fetch as my FTP client, I'd probably ditch it the moment the Finder _writes_ to (S)FTP servers as well.

This would be a most useful feature - direct ftp rather than through a client
like transmit or fetch.

And rather than just more eye candy stuff - they need to sort out 'mail' and the way it handles vector eps files - it just seems to hang when it tries to display them.

 

[Ifrit]

Somebody should fix this overstretched icon in 10.5 - its driving me nuts.

Utilization of more than 3 mouse buttons is quite limited. I want to assign the functions to additional mouse buttons without the help of third party apps. The same could apply to every HID you connect.

Another addition should be the support of h-scroll functionality of current mouse models.

Allow me to to create my own keyboard layout or offer additional layouts. Currently I am using a no name USB keyboard. Of course it has a slightly different layout than the traditional mac keyboard. I am sure new (german) users (who bought the mini for example) are wondering why the are unable to create the @ character with their keyboard. Not everybody knows to use "option + L". I am also unable to create a reverse slash on a traditional german keyboard which is often used while working with the *nix command line/apps and the terminal. (For example to introduce special characters in file names and folders)

Integrate the Audio-Midi configuration program in the sound preference pane. Make it a "advanced" tab or something.

As others already said, the unification of the styles would be neat. I know that every program has something like a own methaphor for achieving certain things, but we still deal with lots of different interfaces/styles - this could be avoided. For example some of the pro apps look like being risen from the OS9 grave. Sometimes Apple even went against it own aqua guidelines. Remember the paragraph about "not using an aqua button in order to create a contex menu". Yeah...

edit:

A plug-in architecture for Front Row would be awesome. Imagine eyetv integration in Frontrow, or support from other third party developers which could integrate their own solution. This would make the mac mini (or every mac which runs Front Row) a awesome HTPC.

Maybe not entirely related to OSX, but to iTunes.

I am just wondering - If the ipod is connected to a mac or the PC... Why are the playback options (iPod content) so limited? You can't do party shuffle with the content on the iPod. You can't share it's content like the iTunes library. You can't even play music/videos stored on your iPod in Frontrow. Why isn't that possible? Honestly, its not the case that I try to "redistribute" the music. Before anybody argues, I see no reason to store my music on two different places (and wasting additional HD space by doing so)

 

[chevy]

...
As others already said, the unification of the styles would be neat. I know that every program has something like a own methaphor for achieving certain things, but we still deal with lots of different interfaces/styles - this could be avoided. For example some of the pro apps look like being risen from the OS9 grave. Sometimes Apple even went against it own aqua guidelines. Remember the paragraph about "not using an aqua button in order to create a contex menu". Yeah...

...

Thanks Ifrit for this very interesting list of points. Indeed the print dialog is very "bizarre". As you mention the PDF button should not go to a pull-down menu but to a new dialog window, and the third pull-down menu should not be a pull-down menu but a series of tabs showing different sub-dialogs. This print dialog being used quite often it really needs to be reworked ASAP.

 

[fryke]

On the other hand: It works. I rather see them fix things that _don't_ work first.

 

[Ifrit]

On the other hand: It works. I rather see them fix things that _don't_ work first.

Yeah I know, but if Apple keeps doing the "Whats wrong? It works." way we end up with a UI disaster like Windows. Please, don't get the wrong impression, I am able to get all the things I need, to work within the Win OS, but not exactly in a elgant way.

To be honest I don't know exactly how the additional PDF functions in the printer dialogue could be integrated without creating a mess of new dialogues or cluttering up the printer dialogue.

IMO the "export to PDF option" should be a new entry in the program's main menu all together. Its not exactly "printing". The addional functions make it worthwhile for this feature to to embeded it in a seperate dialogue. Maybe Apple could create a export dialogue like the one found in iWork and Pages. Make it available for all the apps which are able to send informations to the printer. This way you can get rid of the double entry in the iWork apps. (You can convert your document to pdf with the print dialogue and you can convert to pdf with the export dialogue)

edit:

And often I don't want to export my document to pdf, sometimes I want to create image files. Some of my coworker's machines are not capable to display *.pdf, but they can view *.jpg, *.png files just fine. (and they can't change this behaviour because they don't have the necessary rights to install new programs)

 

[chevy]

On the other hand: It works. I rather see them fix things that _don't_ work first.

Yes, it "works", but I have lost lot of time going through this stupid 3rd pull-down menu when I would have found my target parameter much faster with tabs. And frankly, Windows "works" too.... if you have time to find out how the "advanced" parameter of the print setup is expected to operate.

 

[MacFreak]

I've read somewhere that Phil Schiller said BootCamp won't go the virtualization way. That it's about dual booting after all. And I think Apple - sadly - will keep it that way. That'd mean _no_ cube effect switching between OSs. (The Cube effect alone would mean that OS X is still loaded and not suspended.) They _could_ however actually suspend the OSs instead of powering them down completely. This way, you'd get back where you were, although with a little more time than it takes for a Cube effect.

Well well..

They tend to denied about new product. They like to keep it surpises for us. For example in past that everyone want to ipod video. Steven Jobs said its too early to have this since video online is not good market. Apple end up release new ipod video within two months later. I am sure that Apple will surpised us.

Just wait till this Aug 7th

Funny thing that My father worked for NuTek inc of Mac Clone/PC that allow everyone to run PC and Mac applicatons on NuTek. Apple sued NuTek and forced to shut down. It was in 1990 something.