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OS X 10.5 'secret features' prediction poll...
Authored by: JulesLt on Jun 09, '07 08:43:19AM

Along with everyone else, Finder is an obvious one seeing as there was a job advert for someone to work on it something like 18 months ago.

I'd wager something more iTunes like - although the Time Machine UI seems based on the current Finder. Maybe also solving the document management issue someone spoke about through better integrated preview.

iPhone integration - we'll see how well you can sync data, etc, launch calls via Address Book, etc, maybe up to the cheesy point of watching a movie on an iPhone, then finishing watching it via AppleTV.

Teams - this app was named as a client for the Calendar server on the Calendar server Wiki. Then it disappeared. We know from the public pages that there's a lot of collaboration features in Leopard server (the Wiki, Calendar server, etc) and core ToDo functionality in the desktop version. There's iChat theatre, allowing apps to live screencast. That's quite an emphasis on collaboration and productivity in business, which seems a direction Apple haven't really emphasised since the early days of AppleTalk.

Some more announcements over web service collaboration with Google and Yahooo. i.e. Google Maps and address book rather than MapQuest.

Wish list :

A clipart manager - MS Office for Mac lacks the clipart manager of Office for Windows, third-party ones are often app specific, and using iPhoto feels 'wrong' (plus it doesn't support the various metadata formats).

A package manager, integrated with an Apple hosted third-party software store - should make it as easy for people to discover, buy and keep their third party apps up to date as iPod games.

Protected DVD import - I'm sure Roxio had a beta product that did this, but it seems to have disappeared off the site, and far as I recall it just took an image of DVD including CCS protection, so it didn't invalidate DMCA. But what I really want is auto-conversion to H264 in original resolution. OK, I can do it right now using FOSS software, but that's me. Make it iTunes easy. Then AppleTVs will fly off the shelf.

Replace .Mac with iSpace. mySpace is an awful website, taking 3 pages to perform a simple task like adding a band to your list of friends. The basic page design is ugly. Yet it's a success, largely because unlike Friendster it addressed a specific market first. Apple already have huge presence amongst musicians and listeners. Now imagine Apple launching a free social networking site, with deep integration with the iTMS, iChat, iPhone, and iWeb as a design client. 'Friends' in a tab in address book. mails in Mail, rather than a mail telling you to log in to mySpace to read a mail. And less adverts, because the purpose is simply to sell Macs, iPhones and iPods.

Better iWork/iLife integration - I create title sequences in Keynote, render out to Quicktime, then bring back into iMovie. Make it cut and paste simple.

Long shots :
A non-desktop interface - i.e. something more like FrontRow or the iPhone. It wouldn't be a replacement, but would be a simplified approach, aiming at a similar 'appliance computing' market to the iPhone.

iChat theatre player/Keynote player for Windows - I think that would be a killer app. It would mean delivering a huge part of the Mac graphics layer wrapped inside an app, but if they can do CoverFlow (which is only OpenGL not Quartz) it's not unfeasible. But it would open up the authoring market for iWork to a huge degree - much as PDF has.

Keynote playback on the iPhone. Would be easier than the above, but is there a use? Would it's existence create it's own use, like pod-casting?



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