Will iOS 7 Improvements Come at OS X 10.9’s Expense?
The Mac Observer’s Jeff Gamet says that the push to get iOS 7 for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch ready for its promised preview at June’s Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple has pulled engineers from OS X 10.9 update development off the case to assist in to keeping iOS 7 on schedule.
Gamet says that’s good news for iPhone and iPad owners because it shows Apple’s dedication to keeping iOS fresh and improving the user experience, but it could spell trouble for Mac users hoping for the same in the next version of OS X.
In short, he says, “iOS 7 may rock, but at the expense of OS X 10.9.”
Is Sir Jonathan Ive’s Perfectionism Holding Back iOS 7’s Release Date?
“The best is the enemy of the good,” as the saying goes, and The Register’s Jasper Hamill suggests that visionary Apple designer Sir Jonathan Ive’s perfectionism could be holding back development of the iOS 7 iteration of the software used on iPads and iPhones, according to a recent report.
Long head of Apple’s hardware industrial design division, Sir Jony was recently handed control of software design as well by Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Hamill notes that an insider recently told Bloomberg that Ive has pulled the team so far behind deadline that staff from the Mac and OSX teams have allegedly been drafted in to help him get iOS 7 out the door.
Ive is widely rumored to be giving the iOS a radical aesthetic makeover, including a so-called “flat design” thematic motif and getting rid of pseudo-realistic graphical flourishes like the virtual bookshelf on Newsstand, as well as reworking email and calendar software.
OS X 10.9 Needs A Smarter, Faster Finder
T-GAAP’s E. Werner Reschke says that while rumors indicate that the next Mac OS update appears to focus on the Power User with tabbed Finder windows and tags, there are still a few things on his OS X Wish List hed like to see Apple deliver.
1) The Finder needs to remember how windows were arranged when in dual-monitor or single built-in display modes are used. The Dock should also remember its different placements, dependent upon monitor configuration (e.g., single display to the left, dual on the bottom).
2) Apple removed the Spaces number from the tool bar after OS X 10.6, and they should bring it back, so with a quick glance the user can recall where the heck they are, instead of spending an unnecessary extra mousing cycle or two. [Hear, hear. ED.]
3) Add a clock to the desktop, because the widgets screen doesn’t cut it.
4) Provide a window that keeps track of the files used during the past 24 hours by frequency accessed, or by date/time.
5) Make the System Preferences Dock icon into a List or Stack.
6) Implement translucent control over all windows like in the Terminal.
I agree with all of the above, especially 2, 3, and 4.
Apple Working On Ways To Simplify Updating OS X?
AppleDailyReport’s Dennis Sellers says that recent U.S. patent applications indicate that Apple is working on methods to simplify updating OS X. A patent filing (number 20130111466) at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office involves installing software onto a computer, and more particularly to updating a computer with a new version of an operating system.
Citing the the patent document, Sellers says an indication is received from a user to initiate installation of an operating system onto a storage device of a computer. The storage device is than partitioned into an original partition and a new partition and installation software for the operating system is loaded onto the new partition. The computer is then booted into the installer on the new partition, the OS is installed onto the drive’s original partition via the installation software on the new partition, then re-booted into the newly-installed OS on the original partition and the new partition removed from the storage device.
Sounds like a lot of media churning. Your old-school editor prefers to keep a copy of OS installers archived for future reference laments the passage of optical disk or USB mini-drive OS installer software.
