Leopardy wishes
Well... everyone else in the macosphere is doing it, so here are my leopardy wishes on this fine WWDC-eve.
New character palette
Using the character palette is a hideous experience. It truly is horrible to use. Having a low screen resolution doesn't help. For it to be useful I like to have its window relatively large but this obscures everything else, plus it forces itself atop of all my other apps. It's slow, especially when involving font variation, and the search is often less than useful. On a number of occassions I have hit ⌘W to close it away only to find I've accidentally closed the app I'm working with.
However, I love its category organisation view and it's certainly a lot better than Windows' character map. I would love to see Leopard introduce us to a new way of using non-keyboard characters. In my head I view a pop up along the bottom of the screen, much like Dashboard's available widgets pop up area. It would have all the features of the current character palette but it would be neatly tucked away below the screen. Edit > Special Characters and a system wide keystroke would invoke it.
In fact, I feel so strongly about this one, that I've actually done a Photoshop mock-up:
Okay, so my mock-up is, well, crap... but Apple could pull it off nicely. I know they could. The current character palette is such an unbelievable pain in the arse.
Faster Spotlight
I love using Spotlight to find documents, applications and such like. For me it's just more productive. I hit ⌘Space and up pops my faithful detective, ready to hunt down exactly what I need. In Leopard Spotlight needs to be faster and more intuitive, although to be fair I am currently using a G4 1⅓Ghz. I would like to see Spotlight having a short delay before it begins its search. Currently it wastes resources searching for the initial letters of a search command. And, once I actually select a hit I would prefer Spotlight to pause searching, as again, this is wasting resources while an app or document is trying to load.
Better Finder
Finder is awful. Dare I say I prefer Windows' Explorer? It needs to be entirely rethought. Tabs, split views etc. Finder right now is not what you expect from a built in Apple 'app', and can often be awkward to use. Integrated FTP would be sexy too, for the once-in-a-year occasion when I'd need to use it, and would usually end up downloading an FTP client.
Loose the brushed metal
Brushed metal is so 2004. I want to see Leopard sporting the gorgeous unified-iTunesish look which we are now becoming so accustomed to. Currently Tiger is a bit of a mess in terms of stylisation, Apple need to pull it all together and settle on one style throughout.
MSN support in iChat
That would be heaven, assuming Apple supported it well. Microsoft Messenger is too Windowsish. aMSN is too Linuxish. Adium is a little behind and buggy as regards MSN. iChat is the app I can only dream of using.
Exposé for tabs
I ♥ Exposé. Quite often I find myself in Exposé looking for a particular website, only to realise that it's in a separate tab within Safari. I want the tabs in Safari to all be shown as separate Exposé items so I can move between websites and other apps more fluidly. I also want tabs to be saved when I close a Safari window.
Better SMS support
I love the way Apple's Address Book can handle incoming and outgoing text messages via a bluetooth phone. However, I want Spotlightable messages stored in a small mail-like app and the ability to properly send and receive mulitipage SMSs. Think BluePhoneElite, but nicer.
Better security
Firewall on by default, it's just plain silly otherwise. FileVault not limited to just the home folder, I want my whole Mac encrypted, so long as the system maintains its speed and reliability.
And that's everything really.
New character palette
Using the character palette is a hideous experience. It truly is horrible to use. Having a low screen resolution doesn't help. For it to be useful I like to have its window relatively large but this obscures everything else, plus it forces itself atop of all my other apps. It's slow, especially when involving font variation, and the search is often less than useful. On a number of occassions I have hit ⌘W to close it away only to find I've accidentally closed the app I'm working with.
However, I love its category organisation view and it's certainly a lot better than Windows' character map. I would love to see Leopard introduce us to a new way of using non-keyboard characters. In my head I view a pop up along the bottom of the screen, much like Dashboard's available widgets pop up area. It would have all the features of the current character palette but it would be neatly tucked away below the screen. Edit > Special Characters and a system wide keystroke would invoke it.
In fact, I feel so strongly about this one, that I've actually done a Photoshop mock-up:
Okay, so my mock-up is, well, crap... but Apple could pull it off nicely. I know they could. The current character palette is such an unbelievable pain in the arse.
Faster Spotlight
I love using Spotlight to find documents, applications and such like. For me it's just more productive. I hit ⌘Space and up pops my faithful detective, ready to hunt down exactly what I need. In Leopard Spotlight needs to be faster and more intuitive, although to be fair I am currently using a G4 1⅓Ghz. I would like to see Spotlight having a short delay before it begins its search. Currently it wastes resources searching for the initial letters of a search command. And, once I actually select a hit I would prefer Spotlight to pause searching, as again, this is wasting resources while an app or document is trying to load.
Better Finder
Finder is awful. Dare I say I prefer Windows' Explorer? It needs to be entirely rethought. Tabs, split views etc. Finder right now is not what you expect from a built in Apple 'app', and can often be awkward to use. Integrated FTP would be sexy too, for the once-in-a-year occasion when I'd need to use it, and would usually end up downloading an FTP client.
Loose the brushed metal
Brushed metal is so 2004. I want to see Leopard sporting the gorgeous unified-iTunesish look which we are now becoming so accustomed to. Currently Tiger is a bit of a mess in terms of stylisation, Apple need to pull it all together and settle on one style throughout.
MSN support in iChat
That would be heaven, assuming Apple supported it well. Microsoft Messenger is too Windowsish. aMSN is too Linuxish. Adium is a little behind and buggy as regards MSN. iChat is the app I can only dream of using.
Exposé for tabs
I ♥ Exposé. Quite often I find myself in Exposé looking for a particular website, only to realise that it's in a separate tab within Safari. I want the tabs in Safari to all be shown as separate Exposé items so I can move between websites and other apps more fluidly. I also want tabs to be saved when I close a Safari window.
Better SMS support
I love the way Apple's Address Book can handle incoming and outgoing text messages via a bluetooth phone. However, I want Spotlightable messages stored in a small mail-like app and the ability to properly send and receive mulitipage SMSs. Think BluePhoneElite, but nicer.
Better security
Firewall on by default, it's just plain silly otherwise. FileVault not limited to just the home folder, I want my whole Mac encrypted, so long as the system maintains its speed and reliability.
And that's everything really.
posted by Jon Carr at 4:20 pm
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