OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion Wish list

[PyX]

So OS X Mountain Lion has been announced last week, due for late summer 2012.

There?s a Developer Preview in the wild, but it?s safe to assume that they have not revealed everything about it and they?re far from being done on the work. They can still surprise us.

I?m being curious as to what you guys would like to see in this upcoming version ? What features would you like Apple to include ?

[Motoko.]

I want it on PC

[PyX]

As for me...

Bigger, more important features for me :

- Tabbed Finder

- Overhaul for Dashboard - it could be redesigning the current widgets or adding a few more that could be interesting

- Some kind of Aero Snap functionality, to be able to manage window sizes at a glance

- Resolution Independence

- Possibility to manage multiple icons at a time in Launchpad

- Do a major overhaul on Color Picker (this includes adding hexadecimal colors like #003366)

- Do a major overhaul of the Font window

- Bundle a few basic games for free by default and update the graphics for Chess

- Rewrite iTunes from scratch using all the latest technology built into Mountain Lion

- Split iTunes : one app for the Store, including the Mac App Store, and one app for everything else

- Siri : I want to be able to write whole documents with it

- Bring back left out features from Expos? into Mission Control

- Include video functionality in Messages for Facebook/Skype (is this even possible without a partnership ?)

- A proper Cut feature in the Finder

Smaller, less important features :

- Including lyrics in iTunes? music when you buy it, and looking on iTunes servers for the lyrics if you don?t have them and you didn?t get it from iTunes

- Support for WiFi 802.11ac (will be done)

- Remove the inverted scrolling for people with mice on a default installation

- Enlarge the scrollbars a little

[Brian Miller]

• Native file Cut/Copy/Paste support.
  
• Window clipping feature, similar to that offered by Cinch.
  
• Better built-in text editor with Tab support (Windows Notepad seems superior to Apple Textedit).
  
• Ability to customize the mouse cursor.
  
• Correct "Maximize" button function, not full screen or a res0zed window to fill current content, but MAXIMIZE!
  
• Native Siri as full system voice commander and dictation.
  
• Make window GUI elements such as window buttons bigger for us disabled people with dexterity issues.
  

[Elliott]

1. Siri
   

That's it. :p

[Quillz]

Brian, what exactly do you consider "maximized?" Isn't fullscreen exactly the same thing? The green button in Mac OS X has always been sort of a "fit window to content" button, although it admittedly does not always have predictable behavior from app to app.

I would agree that I'd like some more advanced window management, such as Aero Snap. In Windows 7, you can grab a window and shake it to minimize all the other windows. Something like this is just screaming for Mac OS X gestures.

[Brian Miller]

Maximize != Fullscreen

Consider how Google Chrome, on Windows has Full screen and a Maximised view.

FULL SCREEN VIEW

• Window GUI elements (Menu, Status bar, tool bar etc) is hidden, accessible only when you move your mouse on to the screen edge; useful but not always practical.
  
• No control to to reshape view.
  
• Cannot have Always-on-top windows sitting on top of Primary full screen app.
  
• Dock not available.
  
• Cannot minimize, only restore to normal mode.
  

MAXIMIZED VIEW

• Window GUI (Menu, Status bar, tool bar etc) is visibly available to you.
  
• Able to drag a window edge to reshape it should I need to.
  
• Can have Always-on-top windows (such as Quicktime ++ Afloat) sitting on top of Maximised window, so I can work my Excel sheet and watch a movie.
  
• Dock not available.
  
• Apple to minimize.
  

Both seem similar but offer different functionality. Both are very useful and as we are becoming more sophisticated users, we shouldn't have to compromise between which one we want.

[PyX]

I see a lot of people who want Siri in the next OS X on different forums.

Did Apple really create a need with Siri ? I mean, vocal commands existed before, I remember using them on Windows XP back then. The performance was mediocre, but most importantly for me, the implementation was rather bad. So what we needed for all these years to create a need is better speech recognition, and a better implementation ? Seems like the first one couldn?t have been done, but the latter definitely could.

[AlexMagik]

A full working Exchange support, else MAC OS X still a bit of a joke in a mix environment enterprise.

Mail is slower because it fatch emails instead of using push like outlook

Notes is not syncing for now (i think it's a bug)

No support to share folders (we use them for calendars)

[threetonesun]

I see a lot of people who want Siri in the next OS X on different forums.

Did Apple really create a need with Siri ? I mean, vocal commands existed before, I remember using them on Windows XP back then. The performance was mediocre, but most importantly for me, the implementation was rather bad. So what we needed for all these years to create a need is better speech recognition, and a better implementation ? Seems like the first one couldn?t have been done, but the latter definitely could.

I dunno, I use Kinect voice recognition on my Xbox and it works great... but my Xbox has no keyboard and mouse. So, yes we've made the improvements, and I think for novice users it would be a boon, but it is a bit silly if you've already got two well developed and fast input in front of you.

[Rudy]

Full screen support should work better with multiple monitors

[Travelar]

A full working Exchange support, else MAC OS X still a bit of a joke in a mix environment enterprise.

Unfortunately, Apple has stated that they really don't care about the Enterprise environment on numerous occasions. I don't expect that to change anytime soon.

[Slacker]

Fix launchpad. It's awful right now. It could be so great if we more options to manage the icons in there. Even if we could sort alphabetically and exclude certain apps it would be better.

[ZakO]

Proper support for multiple monitors.

[satukoro]

I want it on PC

Essentially, we need automatic driver creation and a wider range of network adapters supported as introduced in Windows 7. If this happened, it would probably end up as my primary or secondary OS.

[threetonesun]

I want it on PC

It is on PC. I take it you mean you want it to run on non-Apple made hardware, which is never going to happen.

Also, as for multi-monitor support, I don't think Apple cares. It works, sort of, and it's clunky, and that's the best you're going to get, because they want to push 27'' monitors, not multiple ones.

[nyolc8]

I want it on PC

Use your PC as a hackintosh if it's compatible, like I do

[Motoko.]

I would like Apple to develop more support on OS X for OEM Motherboard manufacturers (supporting additional network interfaces, audio codecs, and graphics cards)

[Draken]

I want it on PC

It's called a hackintosh and is dead brain easy to do ;)

[Rudy]

I would like Apple to develop more support on OS X for OEM Motherboard manufacturers (supporting additional network interfaces, audio codecs, and graphics cards)

Sorry to break it to you but it's never going to happen and it would make no sense at all for Apple

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

I would like Apple to develop more support on OS X for OEM Motherboard manufacturers (supporting additional network interfaces, audio codecs, and graphics cards)

Apple will never officially support Macintosh clones again. They did in the mid-90s, and it contributed to nearly killing the company.

[Tech085]

I would like Apple to develop more support on OS X for OEM Motherboard manufacturers (supporting additional network interfaces, audio codecs, and graphics cards)

Never going to happen it will hurt the Apple Business

[Brian Miller]

What about Bootcamp support with touch controls for Win8?

[.Neo]

Sorry to break it to you but it's never going to happen and it would make no sense at all for Apple

In all fairness people said the same about iTunes running on Windows and OS X running on Intel. If anything I've learned to never say "never". I wouldn't hold my breath on it happening anytime soon though.

[Brian Miller]

What about iTunes being built in to the Menu Bar?