Rumor: Mac OS X 10.7 Lion near to going live

[Elliott]

If it's close to DP3, it's not ready and I'm not happy with it.

It needs more new features, overhauls of basic apps like their Text Edit and their Font Book a fixed Launch Pad ... Whew. Now with the new malware it probably needs rethought security in certain areas.

I can't wait to see how it is at WWDC. It better be a completely different trunk than DP3.

Why exactly does TextEdit need revamping? Honestly, it's just a technical demo of the built-in document-oriented app and text editing APIs. You're not really supposed to be using it seriously, and I don't know a single person that does.

As for Font Book, I'd love to see more done to it to make a fully-fledged font gallery and previewing tool, but auto-enabling of fonts (coming in Lion) was really all it needed to make it powerful enough. Anybody looking for more professional features will probably already own FontExplorer X or a similar product.

Launchpad definitely needs work though. I just don't see the point of it right now, and I'll probably never use it. Seems targeted towards people who buy a vast majority of their apps from the App Store (which might be me in the future, but definitely isn't me now). Also seems targeted towards people who don't use Spotlight or a launcher app to launch their applications.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

...

Im just saying, Microsoft publicly demoed Instant Search on the Start Menu, before Apple publicly demoed Spotlight search. But because Tiger released before Vista, they accused Microsoft of copying them.

...

To be fair, both Apple and Microsoft demoed that type of searching as far back as the 90s, and other OSs have been doing it about as long.

[PyX]

Why exactly does TextEdit need revamping? Honestly, it's just a technical demo of the built-in document-oriented app and text editing APIs. You're not really supposed to be using it seriously, and I don't know a single person that does.

Well, out of the box, a Mac has a crappy text editor. This is why no one uses it. You don?t need to look further.

At least Windows 7 got that right with the new Word Pad and their Ribbon interface. Hell, they even made Paint a somewhat useful app by revamping it.

Apple could revamp Disk Utility completely, revamp Keychain?s GUI, revamp the MIDI Config utility, revamp the calculator by allowing us to draw a whole equation in the screen, they could give the resulting functions of derivates and integrals in Grapher, they could replace their System Profiler completely with their new "About this Mac" interface, add a couple more effects in Photo Booth, revamp Chess? 3D engine and graphics, add a lyrics widget in Dashboard by default (since they?re so much into music, that does it I guess), merge DVD player and QuickTime together, add other languages in Dictionary, invent an Equation API that can be embedded in any app, etc.

Right now, this is a pretty good list of the most annoying things in Lion for me.

Apple isn?t as bad as Microsoft when it comes to keeping old icons, windows and GUI elements, but there?s room for better. You put one person for 2 months on an app and the new interface is over. It never takes really long to redesign something usually.

[instant.human]

Who cares who had instant search first? Now everyone has it: Good for the user. Who gives a dirty crap about marketing BS from both Apple and MS anyways?

I must say that while I really like the looks of the new features, I did not have access to a DP, and think Mission Control could be pretty awesome, but as I said, didn't use it.

I for one am really looking forward to AirDrop (I do use Dropbox, yes, but I like the concept), Versions and Resume. Might not be the biggest and greatest features ever released but still, nice additions that might help in everyday use. Plus I really like the new looks.

[DeadEndAccount]

Well, out of the box, a Mac has a crappy text editor. This is why no one uses it. You don?t need to look further.

At least Windows 7 got that right with the new Word Pad and their Ribbon interface. Hell, they even made Paint a somewhat useful app by revamping it.

Apple could revamp Disk Utility completely, revamp Keychain?s GUI, revamp the MIDI Config utility, revamp the calculator by allowing us to draw a whole equation in the screen, they could give the resulting functions of derivates and integrals in Grapher, they could replace their System Profiler completely with their new "About this Mac" interface, add a couple more effects in Photo Booth, revamp Chess? 3D engine and graphics, add a lyrics widget in Dashboard by default (since they?re so much into music, that does it I guess), merge DVD player and QuickTime together, add other languages in Dictionary, invent an Equation API that can be embedded in any app, etc.

Right now, this is a pretty good list of the most annoying things in Lion for me.

Apple isn?t as bad as Microsoft when it comes to keeping old icons, windows and GUI elements, but there?s room for better. You put one person for 2 months on an app and the new interface is over. It never takes really long to redesign something usually.

What I'd love to see is iTunes split into a player, a synchroniser and cd ripper. Take 'Windows Phone 7 Connector' for Mac OS X - it does a few things very well and that is it - you can sync your music, update the software on the device etc. If you want to rip - you use another app, want to buy applications you use the application on the phone itself.

The problem is that iTunes has turned into the EMACS of the media player world - does 100,000s of things but all of them half assed, half baked and buggy to say the least. It is a sad indictment on Apple when Microsoft can produce something better for a platform they don't even primarily focus on supporting.

[Buzz99]

I just don't see utility of iOS mimics in OS X Lion. some features are great though. Resizing windows from any corner is a long awaited change, full screen apps doesn't work on every apps. And the app launch tool is pretty useless, since iMacs doesn't get touch screen, and like I wrote before, touching the screen on a desktop environement is not really what I can call user friendly , as the scrolling thing (inversing mouse gesture) is still good on smartphones but again not very intuitive for desktop. iOS concepts might be great on iPhones/iPods but useless on iMacs/MacBooks. Hope Apple will come out with something stronger for OS X Lion than just inserting iOS concepts on a desktop OS.

[.Neo]

I just don't see utility of iOS mimics in OS X Lion. some features are great though. Resizing windows from any corner is a long awaited change, full screen apps doesn't work on every apps. And the app launch tool is pretty useless, since iMacs doesn't get touch screen, and like I wrote before, touching the screen on a desktop environement is not really what I can call user friendly , as the scrolling thing (inversing mouse gesture) is still good on smartphones but again not very intuitive for desktop. iOS concepts might be great on iPhones/iPods but useless on iMacs/MacBooks. Hope Apple will come out with something stronger for OS X Lion than just inserting iOS concepts on a desktop OS.

Can't say I agree: Much of the multi-touch stuff works very well in Mac OS X Lion in combination with the Magic Trackpad. You don't need need an actual touch screen. I do agree though that Mac OS X Lion's new feature set is extremely lacking at this point: Everything is superficial. But hardly any actual new "hard" features have been added. :/

[Rudy]

I just don't see utility of iOS mimics in OS X Lion. some features are great though. Resizing windows from any corner is a long awaited change, full screen apps doesn't work on every apps. And the app launch tool is pretty useless, since iMacs doesn't get touch screen, and like I wrote before, touching the screen on a desktop environement is not really what I can call user friendly , as the scrolling thing (inversing mouse gesture) is still good on smartphones but again not very intuitive for desktop. iOS concepts might be great on iPhones/iPods but useless on iMacs/MacBooks. Hope Apple will come out with something stronger for OS X Lion than just inserting iOS concepts on a desktop OS.

I'm going to go on a whim here and say you did try Lion yet? The inverse scrolling by default is on only if you're using a Magic trackpad, Magic Mouse or a macbook's trackpad. If you have a Logitech mouse hooked up it will by default scroll as it always did.

I did say by default a lot because everything is customizable

[Buzz99]

I'm going to go on a whim here and say you did try Lion yet? The inverse scrolling by default is on only if you're using a Magic trackpad, Magic Mouse or a macbook's trackpad. If you have a Logitech mouse hooked up it will by default scroll as it always did.

I did say by default a lot because everything is customizable

Yes, I tried it and using it regularly. Inverse scrolling is by default with every mice I used. I know that there's an option to disable this feature, but my point is that this not a feature that makes me desperatly want to use Lion.

[iuerg87yerg879e0rg9erugjer]

inverse scrolling is turned on by default in Mac OS X Lion

as said above, this is a feature that kinda wish apple did not implement into Lion, it just does not feel natural at all for me personally, if you want you can turn it off via

[.Neo]

as said above, this is a feature that kinda wish apple did not implement into Lion, it just does not feel natural at all for me personally, if you want you can turn it off via

Why do you see it as a problem (apparently you do if you wish that Apple didn't implement it) if it can be turned off by ticking a single checkbox?

[Buzz99]

Why do you see it as a problem (apparently you do if you wish that Apple didn't implement it) if it can be turned off by ticking a single checkbox?

Apple should concentrate on more important features like native NTFS read and write, better AD integration. After all Lion is aimed at desktop computing, not smartphones....

[.Neo]

Apple should concentrate on more important features like native NTFS read and write, better AD integration. After all Lion is aimed at desktop computing, not smartphones....

Right, because the reversing of scroll directions and adding an extra checkbox would have taken up countless man hours coding it...

Personally I don't see NTFS support as being very important, especially not now Mac OS X supports exFAT. Not to mention that Microsoft isn't exactly forthcoming when it comes to NTFS support on other platforms.

[DeadEndAccount]

Apple should concentrate on more important features like native NTFS read and write, better AD integration. After all Lion is aimed at desktop computing, not smartphones....

There is a reason why SAMBA has been ripped out and replaced with a ground up implementation of SMB2, AD integration etc. - it has been addressed so many times I can't work out why people like you need to keep perpetuating falsehoods.

Regarding NTFS - Apple focus on what the majority of customers need and what the majority needed was exFAT - a format perfect for portability between Mac OS X and Windows if you want a file system that is supported by both and can support very large volume and file sizes.

As for a person on the prior page whining about the lack of 'new features' - if you're so damn certain there are no features then of course you're not going to do anything to disprove that opinion. The simple fact of the matter Apple has added a boat load of changes to Mac OS X and not every single one of them is going to stand out and be obvious - the best features are those features that work behind the scenes and allow me to get my work done quicker, easier and more reliably.

[.Neo]

As for a person on the prior page whining about the lack of 'new features' - if you're so damn certain there are no features then of course you're not going to do anything to disprove that opinion. The simple fact of the matter Apple has added a boat load of changes to Mac OS X and not every single one of them is going to stand out and be obvious - the best features are those features that work behind the scenes and allow me to get my work done quicker, easier and more reliably.

Excuse me? I'm automatically whining just because I think Mac OS X Lion doesn't exactly carry a strong new feature set compared to Mac OS X Snow Leopard at this point? Get over yourself. I've been running Mac OS X Lion since the very first Developer Preview and yes while there are a lot of subtile changes there isn't really a major change in functionality. I find this disappointing considering the fact Mac OS X Snow Leopard was basically Mac OS X Leopard v2. Apple marginally retrofitted Mac OS X Snow Leopard, slapped on a fresh coat of paint and that's it. Major new features on the level of Time Machine, Expos?, Dashboard, Spotlight, Front Row, Spaces etc. are nowhere to be found really with the exception of maybe Versions and Resume. Not to mention the fact they destroyed Expos? replacing it with the carnival attraction that is "Mission Control". Launchpad is nothing more than a gimmick, full screen pointless on a 27-inch iMac. Some build-in applications received a new fresh look so it appears as if a lot of work has been done, but if you look deeper hardly any new functionality has been added. We're also stuck with the exact same Dashboard widgets from 2005.

I'm really hoping the final version of Mac OS X Lion will be a bit more exciting than what we see today.

[Rudy]

There's no need for write support for NTFS in OSX. It would make no sense for Apple to license it from MS

[Buzz99]

So I can use extFAT formatting to install XP or Seven on Bootcamp partition ? and access it natively in OS X ?

[MrFuji]

Write support for NTFS was added in Snow Leopard and it even was activated by default in the betas. For the GM they deactivated the functionality for whatever reason - but it can still be activated somehow (editing fstab comes to mind)...

[.Neo]

So I can use extFAT formatting to install XP or Seven on Bootcamp partition ? and access it natively in OS X ?

Create a data partition and format it as exFAT. Beyond that why exactly is it Apple's responsibility to provide full NTFS support? Microsoft hasn't opened up the filesystem as far as I'm aware, making it pretty hard for others to implement proper NTFS support free of bugs and whatnot. That's probably what's holding Apple back.

If it's that important to you you can always manually enable NTFS read/write support in Mac OS X or use something like MacFUSE.

[Buzz99]

... Beyond that why exactly is it Apple's responsibility to provide full NTFS support? ...

If it's that important to you you can always manually enable NTFS read/write support in Mac OS X or use something like MacFUSE.

NTFS is the preffered format for BootCamp that belongs to Apple...

Even with Macfuse installed, some say that you still need NTFS-3G soft to achieve full use of the bootcamp partition under OS X. 2 third-party software to achieve simple tasks. But don't get me wrong : HFS full support should be also integrated in Windows OS to be able to read/write to Mac volumes.

[.Neo]

NTFS is the preffered format for BootCamp that belongs to Apple...

Like I said two times before now, Microsoft hasn't opened up NTFS to other companies making it very hard for them to implement proper NTFS support. So if you have complaints address them to Microsoft. Next to that I don't think Apple has a responsibility to provide more Windows support in Mac OS X beyond what they've already done. I've rather have them invest that time in improving Mac OS X itself, instead of worrying about NTFS. If you have to exchange files between Mac OS X and Windows set up an exFAT partition or drive.

It's unlikely you'll ever end up with perfect and reliable NTFS support on Mac OS X without Microsoft's cooperation.

[kalel83]

I find it interesting u are arguing on how they should include NTFS write support in OS X when Windows doesn't even recognize drives that are formatted as HFS/+, let amount mount their file system as read only.

[.Neo]

I find it interesting u are arguing on how they should include NTFS write support in OS X when Windows doesn't even recognize drives that are formatted as HFS/+, let amount mount their file system as read only.

That's exactly why I feel that Apple doesn't have a responsibility to make Mac OS X even more Windows-friendly than it already is.

[what]

I find it interesting u are arguing on how they should include NTFS write support in OS X when Windows doesn't even recognize drives that are formatted as HFS/+, let amount mount their file system as read only.

Well, this is an OS X thread, not a Windows one.

[PyX]

Like I said two times before now, Microsoft hasn't opened up NTFS to other companies making it very hard for them to implement proper NTFS support.

This. A minimally serious company simply cannot provide NTFS support, because it cannot be 100% like what Microsoft does. Microsoft has all the necessary documentation, because they invented it. Apple doesn?t. All Apple has is a few engineers that can reverse-engineer this file system, and when it comes to complex algorithms, there?s no chance you can reverse-engineer it perfectly.

Third-parties don?t care if it?s buggy or not, they do their best possible and it will usually work 99% of the time. But users will know 3rd-party devs have other things to do in their lives than giving support to this. If Apple made something buggy, all their support staff would be busy with that, and there would be no way in hell for them to fix that just by reverse-engineering stuff. You come to a limit someday.

The only way Apple could provide adequate NTFS support would be by some kind of partnership between Microsoft and Apple.

Plus, with Dropbox and all this iCloud thing, if you really want to share files and folders, put them there. This is now the way I share my files and folders and it?s pretty much flawless so far.